I never really cared for the Dragon Quest games until under a year ago. In fact by summer 2019, I had absolutely zero experience with any of the games and I just didn't want to play any of them. Around the start of 2020 I tried getting into the games for the first time because I was able to get one of the Dragon Quest Heroes games for PS4 for really cheap.

But I just didn't like it at all. I played for like an hour and it didn't speak to me so literally just a couple days after I got the game, I traded it in. But about a month later I tried getting into the series again because of my friend. He told me about the demo for Dragon Quest 11 and how the demo is really long and how your save data transfers to the full game once you buy it.

I would have never known about that feature if it wasn't for that friend and I thought it was a pretty good idea so I downloaded the demo. I played for maybe like 30 minutes and then stopped and went to buy the full game. I didn't even get too far into the demo but right at the start the experience spoke to me a lot better than what happened when I was trying to play Heroes.

Not only did I like the game, but my experience with 11 made my mood with the overall series a lot better and I started getting into the other games in the series as well. In fact in the last month alone I picked up the original Dragon Quest as well as Dragon Quest Builders 2. I'm even excited to try Heroes again if it ever comes to the Switch in America.

GRAPHICS: 9/10

The look of Dragon Quest 11 is really nice. The only thing that I wasn’t fully a fan of was the character designs, and those weren’t bad. There’s so much color and life to the world and while some of the textures, especially on walls and rocks might not be the best, the environment is just beautiful when you take a step back and look at everything.

Combat and movement is also pretty good looking and everything can be really vivid at times. There’s also just a ton of really good looking cut scenes and animations, some of which can be really beautiful and charming at times. There’s also the option to play the game in the old retro 8 bit style which is a very nice touch. I think it looks great and my grade for graphics will be a 9 out of 10.

SOUND: 10/10

One of the things that spoke to me the most about Dragon Quest 11 was the music. I heard about how bad the music was in the original Dragon Quest 11 for PS4 and how many changes there were to the music for the Switch version. Two of the biggest changes were enhancing the music and using an actual orchestra. Before I made the commitment to buy the game, one of the things that I did was I looked up many of the enhanced songs on YouTube to see what they sounded like and I was pretty pleased with the results.

I must have listened to like 5 songs and I thought 3 of them were really good, especially the main theme, which I thought was pretty iconic even. Not only is the soundtrack really good, it’s also so much better than the soundtrack used in the original game. One example that I have is the boss theme. I went and listened to some of the old songs, and in the case of this one, there were just a bunch of points throughout the song that just made me feel anxious.

Parts of the song felt obnoxious and forced. But the new version of the song felt so much better, the instruments felt much clearer, and there were so many times when the song just felt softer and more calm. This version of the song felt way less like a headache. All the songs sounded much better and way more epic in this version of the game.

Next up in sound, you also have a ton of epic voice acting. Many of the characters have really good voiced and amazing roles. If I’m not mistaken, there’s more than like a hundred characters that are voiced and it gets pretty epic so my grade for sound is going to be a perfect 10 out of 10.

ADDICTIVENESS: 9/10

I wouldn’t quite say that the game has too many reasons to play over and over, but there is something that I would like ti point out. First of all, even if you have no reason to start over and do everything again, the game defiantly gives you some good reasons to keep playing, especially in areas that you’ve already been.

When I was playing, I don’t think I even got too far after my first five or so hours because I was just having so much fun. I remember during my first trip from Cobblestone to Heliodor I didn’t actually get far because I kept going back and forth waiting for monsters to respawn so that I could keep battling. I don’t know why but that kept me entertained for hours, I just loved putting in the time to grind and level up and I lost track of the time.

I really liked the way that combat works and I thought that the ability to move around in battle was fun, even if it didn’t really do anything. But overall, just the combat alone really kept me addicted and for a grade, I’ll give this section a 9 out of 10.

STORY: 9/10

The story of Dragon Quest 11 is absolutely massive. No, I didn’t finish it myself. I put in more than 150 hours into the game already and I don’t think I’m even close to the end. The story itself is about a kingdom that’s destroyed by monsters. You play as someone who survived the attack as a baby but you were raised far away and after you become an adult and you start to learn about who you really are and you set off on an adventure.

You’re quickly accused of being evil, you make some new friends, and you travel around the big world of Erdrea as you try to save everyone. It’s a pretty epic story and boy is it long. It’s for sure one of the games with the most effort put into their story that I’ve seen in a while and this section gets another 9 out of 10 from me.

DEPTH: 10/10

Dragon Quest 11 has just so much to offer you. The world is huge with so many places to explore. There’s more than a dozen regions, some of which are massive, and more than a dozen cities and towns to visit. The aspect of the game that offers the most to depth is the collection of weapons.

You have access to swords, greatswords, knives, boomerangs, wands, heavy wands, spears, whips, claws, and axes. You would think that splitting wands and heavy wands into two sections is a dumb idea because there probably wouldn’t be that many if you separate them, right? Wrong! Apparently there are 22 wands and 31 heavy wands to choose from, though a couple of them are set to specific characters.

Apparently there’s around 250 different weapons that can be equipped and they have different attributes and special effects. Different attributes such as attack, critical chance, Max MP, Charm, agility, and more can also be improved as you enhance the quality of each weapon. Many of the special effects are pretty good too.

Beyond the weapons, you have a ton of gear, armor, and clothing options, more than 300 in total plus more than 100 pieces of material and usable items. There’s just a ton. You’ll never run out of things to find, buy, sell, use, and enhance and because of that, depth gets a perfect 10 out of 10.

DIFFICULTY: 3

As long as you’re good at following the story and you don’t get lost, you will be just fine. The only thing that might be difficult would be some of the later battles but as long as you get better weapons and gear and enhance them, or you go back and grind, you won’t have anything to worry about. The game will be easy as long as you put in the effort.

OVERALL: 9.4/10

Dragon Quest 11, specifically the definitive edition for the Nintendo Switch is an epic game, just short of being a perfect masterpiece. The only downside that I have about the game would be the price since it never drops. But of course, since you can easily get 100 to 200 hours of the game, or even more, then $60 is easy to cough up. But I still think that would be a barrier for those who are still on the fence. If you’re already a fan of Dragon Quest, then this will be an easy choice for you.

If you never played a Dragon Quest game before but you love really good JRPG’s, you will love it too. I think it’s awesome and my final grade for Dragon Quest 11 will be a 9.4 out of 10.