REVIEW

Dragon Quest Builders Review

by Rob Pritchard, November 17th, 2016

From its humble beginnings as an experimental project back in 2009, the sandbox phenomenon known as Minecraft has inspired a great number of projects. Whether it is a 2D exploration adventure such as Terraria, or a narrative driven episodic series Minecraft Story Mode, it is clear that everyone wants to build on the game mechanics established by the team at Mojang. The latest project to be inspired by the voxel based construction game is Dragon Quest Builders, a role playing game that is a spin off from the best selling Dragon Quest franchise developed by Square Enix. While it is an entertaining diversion from the world savings epics we have come to adore, it is definitely a game that will be more for the fans of the series, and like Little Big Planet, it will suit anyone who has a creative mind and the patience to match.

Long standing fans of the series will be pleased to discover that Dragon Quest Builders takes place in the realm of Alefgard, which was the world in which the very first game took place when it was released in 1986. In a twist to the establishing storyline, the hero decides to take up the offer of the evil Dragonlord to rule alongside the tyrant. Predictably, the final boss goes back on his word, and the hero is vanquished after relinquishing his will to fight. The entire world is brought to ruin as a result of this action, and after many years pass, a new hero is summoned to Alefgard in order to rebuild all that has been destroyed.

This kind of origin story has been used in several RPG’s before, and to its credit, Dragon Quest Builders makes several jokes at its own expense. One of these takes place right at the beginning whilst the bodiless divine force takes offence to the fact that the protagonist falls asleep during their conversation. These light hearted jokes, alongside the sharply written dialogue from the side characters that appear every so often keep things entertaining, whilst at the same time never forgetting to enforce the serious plight that has befallen the game world.

While it is clear that Dragon Quest Builders is heavily inspired by Minecraft, to call it a clone would not be a fair assessment. Although the forging, material gathering and hunger systems function in the same manner, there are several differences to the structure of the game which keep it from being a mere re-skin. First and foremost, Dragon Quest Builders is in a third person perspective instead of the first person mode which is standard procedure in nearly every Minecraft successor. When fighting enemies, you will be battling them in real time using an Action RPG system that has been used several times in The Legend of Zelda series. For the most part, this works very well, but on the odd occasion, you may find that your weapons miss their target in a way that has nothing to do with a hit ratio. As you might expect, there is not a creeper to be found once the sun goes down, and all the enemy characters that you need to defeat are based on monsters from the Dragon Quest series, such as the Slimes, the Chimera and the Green Dragon.

The final major difference is that there is a chapter based narrative which forms as the framing device for the missions which are vital to you rebuilding the world in your own image. From creating a workshop where you build your various creations, to rescuing a wastrel who has somehow managed to survive the apocalypse, every step you take to rebuilding society is celebrated with some experience points and some rare crafting materials. The main missions are spread out well, and switch up their themes often enough to prevent boredom. The same cannot be said for the side quests however, as they fall into the all too common trap of fetch, deliver and repeat. These overly abundant fetch quests feel very similar to the side missions you would encounter in games such as World of Warcraft, so their appearance in a traditional role playing game feels as if they are trying to artificially extend the gameplay. Outside of the tutorial, there are too many of these diversions, as they often don’t offer a meaningful excursion for the player.

If you get bored of playing by yourself, then unfortunately you are out of luck as Dragon Quest Builders does not allow other players to join your game world via a set of multiplayer modes. Considering that the game it is based on does have interaction with other players as one of its key features, the lack of this feature is somewhat of a disappointment. It was confirmed in an interview that online connectivity could be an option in a potential sequel, but for the time being, you will need to put the world back together all on your own.

Overall, Dragon Quest Builders is a brave experiment which does do a lot of things right, such as a well built storyline, engaging gameplay and an almost limitless amount of items to build. The over abundance of fetch quests and lack of online multiplayer aside, this is a fun RPG which has a lot to offer for both Dragon Quest fans and anyone who has the urge to take gigantic blocks and piece them together to make something new.