Next up on the Pax East whirlwind tour was a stop at the Square Enix Japan booth/meeting room to hear their presentation/gameplay demo for Dragon Quest 11: Echoes Of An Elusive Age. It’s going to launch on September 4th on PlayStation 4 in both physical and digital and for the first time, a mainline game will be released on PC as well.
It was mentioned that this will be the first mainline game console release in 13 years so it has been quite some time for the Dragon Quest series and what better time to “rebrand” the franchise. One of the best parts of Dragon Quest 11 is that you didn’t need to play any of the other games to know what’s going on in DQ11 to understand and play. There will be things going on that you would understand better if you played other games in the series but you don’t have to be a series veteran to enjoy DQ11.
During the presentation it was revealed that the story for DQ11 is vast and deep and the world is massive. The developers said that the main story in DQ11 has about 90+hrs and that doesn’t include side quests, that’s just the main game. If you want to add side quests to that, the playtime for the game could be well over 100 hrs. Since the game has so much initial content, there are no plans for post launch DLC but that could always change between now and launch.
One of the interesting things regarding DQ11 is that it’s already out in Japan. Square Enix decided to make US changes to the game such as adding a full voice over cast, added a camera mode, made the Japanese Draconian Hard mode even harder and made minor character/camera control modifications. The theme of Dragon Quest 11 is the “Legend Reborn” and the story goes that your character is the reincarnated version of the Luminary. It could also be seen as the franchise being reborn! The luminary is the legendary hero that saved the world from darkness and your character is the reborn modern version!
There will be open world paths on the map but it depends on the point of the adventure because during the demo, the hero couldn’t go off the main path of the map. There is a day/night cycle in the game and things change depending on the time of day, like what people say to you and what enemies you encounter. There aren’t random encounters as you’ll see all the enemies on the screen and if you want to fight them, fight them. The battle screen is a typical RPG screen where you can attack and use items. However there is a new feature called Freeform Fighting Camera mode where you can move the camera and your fighter during battle. Win the battle and hear the classic victory theme from Dragon Quest!
There are campsites where you can settle down for the night and buy things from a gentleman who happens to be at the campsite. One of the new features is that you can equip right after you buy something. Another new feature is the Hero/character builder system, which is a skill branch/skill system where you can gain new skills and abilities for your party. You might want your sword fighter to have fire attributes and this is the way to do it. The game does have some platforming elements but that might be jumping off a roof t get to another roof or something quick and doesn’t last that long.
You’ll also be able to ride a horse and travel the world on horseback. At the end of the demo, it appeared the King locked the hero( your character) in the dungeon for being the Luminary and that’s where the demo ended, talk about a cliffhanger ending! Dragon Quest 11 is a new direction for the franchise and like I said, one that you didn’t need to play the previous games to understand!