Genre: RPG Developer: Bird Studio System: 3DS



0000000 One of the difficulties of reviewing this game is there isn't a lot of games to compare this to. The original Dragon Warrior had better gameplay and even music; it had better dungeons, as the dungeons weren't linear. One problem with 3D RPGs like this one is level design is severely neglected in the hopes that we won't notice because we're just so happy the game is 3D. Bullshit. The level design for each dungeon is very short and 100% linear. Barftastic.
0000000 The story tried, but because the director was a complete moron and was also lazy, he decided to market this game to young kids. Which meant no compelling story, and only superficial at best scripting and scenes. The deepest scenes were with a character named Marcello, who was an orphan, the game hinted was a pervert, and of course power-hungry. The most interesting scene was between Marcello and the High Priest, in which the high priest only very softly touches on Marcello's perverted desires by alluding to his "corruption". Boring.
0000000 The difficulty was balanced and more challenging than I had suspected, since I knew it was designed for kids. Still, there was a desire for this game to be "more" for an adult player like myself, and an additional "Hard" difficulty would have been a nice addition. Not much here in terms of innovation, although the game did introduce item crafting into the series, which was a welcome addition. The crafting system needs more depth and work, though, since near the end of the game it was frustrating for me to want to tweak my characters by crafting some items but having no clue where to find a "cowpat" for one of the recipes.
0000000 Overall, a solid RPG experience, definitely not as bad as something like Secret of Evermore or Beyond the Beyond, but due to the terrible dungeon design was leaving me wanting. Hoping that when I do get around to playing Dragon Quest 11 for the Switch, things will be much better.

~ Adam Henderson


Game Difficulty Rating:
7/10 DIFFICULT


40% Sub-par.
30% Blehh.
30% Only thing new was item crafting.
50% Standard RPG fare.
60% 100 hours (including postgame content).
60% Meh.

OVERALL SCORE = 45%



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