Thoughts on Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

 

I had grown up playing Dragon Warrior I, II, III, and IV on Nintendo.  The Dragon Warrior games really shaped how I would view other role-playing games, and set a high standard for a long time in my life.

I even played Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of a Forgotten Past on Nintendo 3DS a few years ago.  Dragon Quest has a strong lore, from the upbeat music to the identifiable slime in every game.

I was eager to see how Dragon Quest would update it's brand and launch it's latest title, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age.  I was impressed when I started playing.  The graphics were smooth and the playability, the old turn based system, felt comfortable, like I was visiting my childhood house.  The series has slowly grown a little more cartoony over the years, and the landscape, including enemies and towns really had that feel.  The world is beautiful though, and really enjoyable.

As the Luminary, you take on evil forces sent by a being of evil, Mordegon.  Along the way, you meet several unique and interesting companions.  I like the twin sisters, and the knight that eventully joins. Jade was pretty awesome.  Sylvando was...something, but I enjoyed him in the party too.

I thought the game was pretty long, and after awhile, it seemed like you were visiting places twice (due to a cataclysmic event).  A lot of people complained about the music, and I could definitely see an improvement in future Dragon Quest games.

Overall, I thought it was a success in delivering the next phase of the Dragon Quest series. I didn't feel like it was an old series that had run it's course.  It was Dragon Quest evolving and keeping their brand and their slimes alive!  It's a beautiful world with today's graphics, but with a vintage old school RPG feel.  It's definitely worth playing!  Rumor has it Dragon Quest 12 is in the works.

-- Spaghetti Mage

My Experience: Breaking the Skyrim Curse -- Spaghetti Mage

For years I held off on buying a PS4.  I was busy working, and comfortably fine playing Skyrim forever.   Until I was laid off from my job in late 2017.  

I said screw it, and bought a PS4 (thanks Discover), and immediately fell into my stupid trap I had been in for awhile with RPGs.  I was completely unaware how bad Skyrim and twisted and distorted my mind! I never beat the game.  But I did make (probably) 100s of characters, and usually played them till about level 25 where I would get bored and start a different character, this time a Khajit mage, or a High Elf thief, or any number of different permutations to the different races out there.  I must have visited the face shaper in Riften 1000 times when I wanted my character to have a different look.

 And with the new PS4 version, you could add all sorts of different mods, new items and new quests.  I became more fascinated with the different possible types of players to make instead of the actual quests (I'll get to this later).  It was insane madness, and an endless cycle of doing the same quests over and over and over...till I reached level 25 and got bored.

Until one day, I played another game, and it broke the Skyrim curse.  That game was Dark Souls 3.  DS3 was brutal.  It was unexpected, bizarre, and an entirely different landscape from Skyrim.  I became enthralled with Dark Souls 3, and played it for a full year, beating the Red Knight, and trying different types of builds.  

And from there, I never looked back at Solitude, Windhelm, or Markarth.  I didn't care about the grey beards, or the stupid stormcloak civil war.  It was on.  It, my new direction and reawakening to good Role Playing Games.

After Dark Souls 3, I played DS2, Bloodborne, and Sekiro, and explored the Souls universe.

I bought this game I'd never heard of, but had seen good reviews about: Persona 5.  It was incredible.

I moved on to playing the Dragon Age games I'd never gotten around to playing, starting with Dragon Age: Inquisition.  

I realized one very important thing.  Skyrim sucks.  The world itself is huge, and amazing and absolutely beautiful.  The rest of the game is awful.  The quests are dull and boring, and often predictable.

Anyways, that's my quick story of the last 10 years of Role Playing Games.

--Spaghetti Mage