I have no attachment to the Dragon Quest series whatsoever and I’m definitely not alone. Here in the West the action RPG series has more of a niche audience compared to it’s huge popularity in Japan. A certain degree of this is due to Final Fantasy’s wild success here in the US. For me I think part of the reason I never Dragon Quest a second look is because I heard from people like Tristan that the games tend to be grind heavy which typically isn’t really my thing. When Dragon Quest Builders was announced I thought the art style was neat and, if anything, I was mildly interested.
Then the demo came out and it changed everything. Most of the games I’ve been looking forward to (Horizon: Zero Dawn, South Park: Fractured But Whole) have been delayed until next year and I haven’t been feeling games like Deus Ex Mankind Divided. That’s not to say Deus Ex is a bad game, it’s just not curing the gaming itch I’ve been having. I didn’t know it at the time, but I’ve been wanting Dragon Quest Builders and it’s a discovery that caught me off guard. I’ve played, beaten, and messed around in the demo on both PS4 and PS Vita and I’m left wanting more.
I’m sure you’ve read everywhere that this game is a “Minecraft Clone” because that’s the narrow minded media jumping the gun, but I’ve found they’re anything but similar. Sure, they both have you building with voxels…. but that’s pretty much where the comparisons end. Minecraft is first person and Builders is third person, Minecraft is online and Builders is solo, and—most importantly—Minecraft generally lacks structure whereas Builders has a story with quests. I think this is what drew me in the most to this demo. The game is rather relaxed overall, tasking you with gathering resources such as earth, sticks, and goo from slimes to build walls and craft tools like clubs, torches, and storage chests. Your character doesn’t gain any XP or level up, instead your base levels up when you add rooms, use stronger materials, gain additional settlers, and so on. The higher level your base is the stronger it becomes which is important for when the monsters attack. What I find interesting is the building gameplay in Minecraft bored me and I despise the settlement system in Fallout 4 (ain’t nobody got time for that) and yet, these systems combined with questing and battling monsters is enjoyable for me.
As of writing Square Enix has not announced if the game will be cross-save between PS4 and PS Vita which is a damn shame. This is a game I want to pour time into because it looks quite lovely on PS4 but if I had to pick and choose, the handheld version makes the most sense since I can build away during my commute. Oh, and the Vita version doesn’t look bad either in case you were wondering. At one point I thought I’d be clever and download the demo to my PlayStation TV only to find that it’s “not compatible” which is bullshit because it downloads, but I digress. Even without cross-buy and cross-save support, I know this is a game I’ll play for hours and hours to come, and I can’t wait for it to arrive.
