So I've decided to build my new blog Empire on a game that got a lot of hate when announced: Dragon Quest X: Mezameshi Itsutsu no Shuzoku Online or as the land of the west would call it, Dragon Quest 10: Rise of the Five Tribes Online. Now as a semi-hardcore Dragon Quest fan I, of coursed, raged like a spoil 16-year-old American girl at her birthday party: "Blue ribbons? The ribbons aren't supposed to blue they're supposed to be baby blue! I don't care if everyone enjoyed the Ipods from the gift bags and Justin Bieber is dancing on the stage with his shirt off! My party is RUINED!"
So after fuming from the mouth for a year I decided to give this game a chance. And rejoice my fellow fanboys this game delivers almost everything that you would want from a Dragon Quest game and more. Now for anyone who doesn't know about Dragon Quest, here's a very brief history about Dragon Quest: First released in 1986 in Japan as Doragon Kuesuto, or Dragon Quest in English, the game was a financial success and has had ten main games and dozens of spin-offs. The Dragon Quest series has such a commercial success in Japan that the game and it's creator, , are a house hold name and everyone and thier mother knows about. The game didn't reach the shores of America until which it did pretty well, but not the way that it did in Japan. But nonetheless the game is still a success and has gained quite a following world wide.
For the most part RPG gamers will tell you that the Dragon Quest series is the best series ever made. And they, including me, are right....to a certain degree that is. The first six games were created for the NES and SNES so that should tell you that this series has survived for a reason. There's just something so entertaining about it's simplicity. The simple turn based system which at it's most complex is reading the spells, it's rich and simple story plots that even a five year could understand, the interactions between the characters that don't turn into emo whinefests when something goes wrong. And it's with this simplicity it stands to reason why this series has endeared for so long. Unlike it's sibling/rival series, Final Fantasy, the Dragon Quest series has stayed the same up until DQV and which it kinda mixes it up a little, but not enough to throw off the veterans and hardcore gamers of the series. Outside of the first game they all pretty much all have the same premise and setup. Your person A who has to team up with person B, C, D, etc to defeat the Evil Lord/Emperor/God who is out to destroy the world. That's the series in a nutshell. But it is this nutshell that keeps us coming back for more and more until the day that we die or the earth stops spinning. Which ever happens first.
But alas the formula that a generation of gamers grew up on has changed. But not for the worst, but for a better and brighter future.
So like I said earlier, Dragon Quest is a simple game. And one of the first questions to ask is "How do you turn a simple game into a MMO that will be friendly to new comers and yet not offend the veterans of old?" Well there is no simple answer to that question. There are various thing that are mainly same. But there are also many things that are different. But really the only thing that is different is that you can play with other people. And sure this can be annoying when you have immature twelve year olds running around, but for the most part the community has been very nice (I think). Which brings me to my next point: So far the game is Japan exclusive. There is talk about bringing it to the US, but you can never trust what the internets says. So for the time being the only way to play the game is to buy the Japanese game (which is going to cost you about 60 US bucks + shipping and handling), a Japanese Wii (about 200 bucks new +shipping and handling), a 16GB USB drive for the Wii (A decent one will cost at least 30-40 bucks), and the subscription (yes there is a subscription, about 12 bucks a month). So unless your rich and can afford a $400+ shipping bill the US is going to have to wait. Luckily for me a friend of mines has a Japanese Wii so I can bring my experience to you, the readers.
So to start the game we need to create our Heroes for the Offline and Online portions. That's right if you get tired of dealing with actual human beings you can take a break from the online portion and take part of the story starring your sibling that you create. I love being anti-social. Fortunately being a MMO we will be able to create the looks for our heroes. Unfortunately seeing as we're working with the looks of Akira Toryama we only have so much to work with. Don't get me wrong I love Akira Toryama! This guy's work introduced me to anime and I base my drawing style off of his, but it just seems to me that when I play a game that has customization I should have more then the same six hair styles, and facial expressions. Once you create your characters for Online and Offline we can begin the story.
Now you have to forgive any misinterpretation about the story plots. My Japanese is anything, but fluent. The story begins with your hero cruising around the village when one of the village elders gives you a couple of favors for the village. It's at this point that you can freely run around the area to explore and do small quests for the villagers . And let me tell you about the graphics for the game: IT IS BEAUTIFUL! Akira Toryama's work really comes through in the 3D models and HD. Combine the cartoony artstyles with the Cel shading of DQVIII and the game will take your breath away. All of the characters in the game, even the player characters, are well defined and each one has their own distinct features that make them stand out. No two characters look exactly alike.
And once your done exploring the whole village, you'll be able to leave the town and actually get to the real meat of the game: The battle system. This is probably the one thing that had every fan truly scared: How were they going to take the simple turn based system and turn it into something that would be quick, easy, and not ruin the experience of battle? Well that question has been answered with the easy to understand free battle ATB system. Now if anyone who has played games like Final Fantasy XII then should know that how great that system was. With the freestyle battle system in you can freely choose when to enter battle, making traveling much easier, and when you do enter battle it's as simple as selecting Attack and making sure you don't die. It also helps that you can move around in battle and if you time it correctly then you can actually run from attacks and spells that effect a certain area in front of them making the battles even more engaging. And a nice bonus effect is if playing online and your already having a though time no douchebags will bring in a new hoard of monsters to interrupt your battle.
Back to the story one of the elders will tell that he needs a certain flower to heal a villager who has fallen ill. So you grab your sibling character and a guy whose just rocking a mercury helmet and cape and set out to find this flower. Unfortunately one of the flaws of DQX is that you cannot control any of the computer characters and the AI is a tad bit....spotty. Not that the computer characters will do anything stupid it's just that they run through MP like there's a hole in their meter. Anyway you reach the area where the plant is only to find a demon boss spraying poison all over the place (I have no idea why he's doing it. Again my Japanese is anything, but fluent.). You beat the boss and head back to the village and find it on fire and over run with monsters. Oh course this is when the Evil Villain or in most cases the-evil-villain-who-is-just-a-cover-up-for-the-real-evil-villain. So with that the sibling hero is teleported to safety while the main hero dies. Yup I'm not screwing with you, the main villain kills the hero, covers the world in darkness, and runs off like he just picked up a carton of milk. Ssssoooo that's the end.....of the offline portion!
So yup thanks to plot contrivance your soul gets whisked away to a sanctuary where you will be able to create a new character in a new race and new name. Which brings us to the new races in the game.
 | ||||
| "From left to right, Pulipo, Elves, Ogre, Weddie, Dwarves" |
There are no differences between the races outside of the stories so it's all about prevalence at this point. I won't get into detail about the story so I won't spoil it for you all. But I will get deeper into a few of the mechanics.
Let's start with the party system. The way it works is that most of the time you can solo on your own, but in some cases depending on yourself is a bad choice. From here you can do the stander MMO thing and ask people to party with you oooorrrr if you don't feel like dealing with humans then you can go to the local pub and hire a resting character. These are other people's characters who are offline and you can hire them as AI party members for 24 hours. They gain EXP and gold too and can leave little messages to further personalize the experience. You can probably go the whole game without having any actually human interactions, but what fun would that be
And there are various other stuff like Alchemy, which is more like a mini-game then in the last two games, Mini Medal hunting, and of course, various quests to do outside of the main story. The offline portion isn't bad either. The plot focuses more on alchemy, which is more like the old games, but it's still fun to do although by the looks of it's a very short experience. And the music for everything is top notch. Most of the songs are recycled from the past games, but with a few tweaks here and there. It's a grand orchestra of beautiful sounds that it's a pleasure to sit back and enjoy the fields of adventure as you travel from town to town. Plus it's fun to point out and find the different tunes from the past games especially the Starflight Express from DQIX.
So my final score:
Pros:
- Beautiful Graphics
- Fantastic Music and Sounds
- Great Battle System
- A Great Story
- Plenty Of Features To Keep You Busy
- The Offline Portion Is Very Engaging
Cons:
- You Cannot Control Computer Party Members
- The Subscription Fee
Most likely the US will get hit with a subscription fee, because Dragon Quest isn't as big over here compare to Japan. And let me tell ya': Servers take alot of money to maintain. But don't let that detour you from getting this game! Every penny is worth it for this game and I would strongly recommend it to anyone who is just looking for a good MMO or are hardcore dedicated fans of the series. If you have any questions just email me or use the comments below.
This is your one and only Uzuki signing out. Have a beautiful day folks.
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