Dragon Quest Builders for the PS4 is reminiscent of
Minecraft, and why shouldn’t it be? It
is clearly inspired by Minecraft in many aspects of its gameplay while
maintaining the charm of the Dragon Quest franchise. Personally, I am not a fan of Minecraft,
though I do find the creativity allowed to be the most enjoyable aspect of
games like it. I actually enjoyed this
game enough that, despite its flaws, I was jumping with joy when I found out
that Dragon Quest Builders 2 in currently in development. Full disclosure - I am, however, a huge fan of
the Dragon Quest franchise and have been playing them since the original (then
called Dragon Warrior in the US) came out on the NES. In fact, when Square and Enix merged, I was
extremely excited because my two favorite franchises would now be under the
same roof.
When it comes the graphical standards of today, Dragon Quest
Builders can seem to be a bit underwhelming to some but I personally found them
to be perfect for this game. The character
and enemy models are a bit on the cutesy side of things but that actually fits
the art style that the series is known for.
Visually, all the enemies in the game keep true to the designs they have
had over the many years that this franchise has been active and that is a wonderful
thing. The world itself is designed in a
blocky style which fits the style of game that they are going for but luckily
the developers managed to maintain Dragon Quest’s artistic flair despite the
blocky feel.
Performance wise, the game excelled, running smoothly for me
the entire time without any framerate issues at all. This lack of issues, when it comes to performance,
tends to be getting rarer and rarer these days as more and more game companies
push their unfinished products out the door for the general public to have
while hoping they can fix all the issues at a later time with patches.
Musically, this game is beautiful, with up dated scores from
previous games in the franchise. All the
tracks bring back memories of the other games as it hits all the nostalgic
switches in my brain. There is even an
option, later in the game, to convert the music back to the original 8bit soundtrack
of the first game in the franchise.
Gameplay in Dragon Quest Builders is, at times, incredibly
repetitive as you build your towns up from ruins, fortifying them for the inevitable
boss battles at the end of the stage.
That said, all the controls are tight and responsive. The combat itself is simple but fun and it
helps to break up the monotony of the gathering parts of the game. The amount of creativity allowed in the
building portions is simply amazing as well and, if you desire, in the free
build portion of your game, you can share your creations as well as view the marvelous
creations of others
The story of Dragon Quest builders is a bit lacking as it
feels more like a vehicle to get you to new areas and newer materials for
building as opposed to a real story. Each
chapter has its own story that plays into the overarching story of the world
and each chapter has its own unique cast of characters that are both equally
parts charming and goofy, which helps to create a truly special atmosphere over
all.
Graphics – 8
Performance – 10
Sound – 10
Gameplay – 8
Story – 6
Replayability – 10
Total – 8.7
out of 10
- Arylin Michelle
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