Games Revisted: Dragon Quest Swords

[Sk8teland85]

Now the Dragon Quest series is one of the most well know RPG series out there and is rather popular. Like many other big name RPG series there also are a fair number of spin-off games to the Dragon Quest series. Dragon Quest Swords is one of those spin-offs. I decided to revisit this one recently and here are my thoughts.

First off let me state that this unlike other games in the series is far more focused on gameplay than on story. The characters while passable just don't much if any depth to them and overall the story is just a big cliche of plot ideas used before in other Dragon Quest games. That is not to say the story is terrible, it just is not as good as would be expected from a game in this series.

The main focus of this game is the gameplay and for the most part during my revisit I will admit that game play well and is a lot of fun. The game is a lot like an arcade game in that you just are playing through missions for a high score to gain experience and such for your character. All the missions are on rails meaning you just go where the game wants you to go. This works nice and makes the game easy to pick up and play.

Now there is one thing that makes this a tad bit on the annoying side and I really noticed this at first when I did this revisit. That annoyance being the controls. Now movement in the missions is fine since the missions are on rails and there is not much movement needed and the D-pad handles it well. The problem comes when you are in town. To put it simple the way the D-Pad is setup just does not work well for the towns where you are free to go anywhere. It is kinda like playing a FPS that uses 2 analog sticks but you are forced to only use one. The game would controlled a lot better if they used the pointer like an extra analog control.

Another little problem comes in the sword combat in the missions. While it works okay it just does not seem to read everything just right. You can do a vertical slash when you wanted to do a horizontal one and trust me some enemies in this game need to be hit with the right type of attack to kill them and it can be annoying when it does not read it right. I think this game would have benefited from having WiiMotion Plus. But it is not all bad, for one defending with the shield is very easy and fun at times as you can block even the most powerful attacks with ease if you do it right.

Aside from the minor control problems my only other complaint is the length of the game. You see this game is too long to be an arcade game and too short to be a RPG so really it is not good for either genre of game. But that is not too big a problem overall.

Looking back I will say Dragon Quest Swords is a nice fun little niche game. There is a lot of fun to be had with this one and while it is not perfect it still is far better than some of the other games out there for the Wii. I would honestly rent this one first and if you like it then maybe pick it up.

[Macawmoses]

Judging by what you said, I think I'd love it. When I get a title as such on Wii, I'm typically not after an amazing story. It'd be a perk, yes, but I'm after gameplay.

You mentioned some nuisances, but most sets are a nuisance in general.

Anyways, can you delve into the basic premise a bit more....it does seem like something I'd rent.

[Sk8teland85]

Well basically you are a hero who as is the case with all Dragon Quest games you name. You are venturing out on a quest that is a right of passage and after that a mystery develops around the kingdoms queen whihc you in turn try to solve and you get the idea. Pretty much a basic RPG premise.

The overall gameplay I guess would best to just show since it is hard to describe in words

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/22335.html