Games you have a love-hate relationship with

[PAOerfulone]

After recently beating the game, I'll go ahead and add Dragon Quest XI to my list. I played the Switch version, and I'll say what I said on Twitter.

The game is absolutely fantastic... until you get to Act 3, that was when my enjoyment and tolerance with the game just dropped like a bad habit.
I'll start with what I loved about it. The gameplay is very solid, one of the smoothest and easiest turn-based systems I've ever gotten into. It didn't take me long at all to figure it out, I instantly got it and it was very enjoyable and easy to jump into. Erdrea is a great overworld and I love exploring it. The graphics are really great, Dragon Quest XI is a gorgeous looking game. There was plenty of pop-up here and a few frame rate drops there, but when you're taking a PS4 game,and porting it to the Switch while also adding extra content that's exclusive to the Switch, those kind of things are inevitable. But thankfully, those types of things are kept to a minimum and never got to a point where it was distracting. The soundtrack is outstanding. Ever since Super Mario Galaxy, I've been a sucker for orchestral soundtracks in video games and Dragon Quest XI S is another solid addition to a long list of outstanding orchestral video game soundtracks. Finally, I absolutely love the party members. This is one of my favorite casts of protagonists I've ever played in an RPG. I love how diverse the cast is in personality, back story, and their relationships with the protagonist; Erik, Veronica, Serena, Sylvando, Rab, Jade, and...

Spoiler!

Hendrick.

I love this cast of characters and the journey I have with them. And that journey is amazing... for the first two acts.

Then we get to Act 3, and it all goes downhill very fast. Firstly, I felt that Act 3 was completely unnecessary, I already had my fill and had a strong, outstanding adventure that had a beginning, middle, and end, with the first 2 acts. We even got the End Credits after Act 2, so I actually did think I was done. But then I get the game telling me to go back and explore the world I just saved. And at first, I thought "Oh, I get to help rebuild the world after I saved it? SWEET!" An a post-game campaign that's centered around rebuilding Erdrea and helping it get back on its feet, deepening my bonds with my friends in the process? Sign me up! ...Nope. That's not what I got...

Spoiler!

Instead, we get a time travel sequence where we go back in time and basically undo all of that progress and hard work I put in just to bring back a fallen party member. Putting the world at risk AGAIN, after we just saved it. And this time, we put it at even BIGGER risk because not only did we bring back Mordegon, we brought with him an even bigger threat, the real bad guy of the game who hijacks the game at the last portion like Ganondorf did to Zant in Twilight Princess, Calasmos; Who Mordegon already took care of in Act 2, so we really did put the world in jeopardy... Again! So all that shit we did in Act 2, we gotta do it AGAIN! Going to the Havens, talking to the Watchers, finding the Temple, waking up the flying whale, going through Mordegon's Tower (FUCK THAT PLACE!), all of it. And the minor stuff like finding Erik's sister, Sylvando reconciling with his father, revisiting Gallopolis and seeing the Prince grow, are either abridged or completely ignored. And if you don't explore those places where you find them in Act 2, they're completely erased or undone, so all that character development and building for the associated party members gets completely shot in the ass!  One of many reasons why I HATE Time Travel!

Act 3 legitimately pissed me off at points and the best parts about it weren't enough to offset the negatives and it just brought the whole game down for me. It was padding. Pure padding. Not as bad as Bravely Default, but still pretty bad. It was unnecessary and around midway through it I was thinking "Will this game fucking end already?!?"

What should've been an absolutely fantastic 55-60 hour adventure that I would be calling one of my favorite RPGs ever ended up becoming a 75-80 hour slog-fest that's about as long as Xenoblade Chronicles... with half the content as Xenoblade Chronicles, and is now a game that I will not be picking up again for a very, very long time. This game had no business being as long as it was and did not need a third act. I would have much rather preferred the post-game campaign like I mentioned where we rebuild Erdrea and get the world back on its feet after it's been saved or just not bother with it and end it after Act 2.

It's a damn shame because I REALLY want to love Dragon Quest XI, it has all of these things that I love that I mentioned at the beginning and does so many things right... But FUCK Act 3, man. Fuck Act 3. Don't get me wrong. Dragon Quest XI is still a great game, but it could've been so much better if the developers knew when to quit while they were ahead or at least took the post-game in a different direction. Sometimes, less is more. And that's what this is, for me.

Last edited by PAOerfulone - on 10 October 2019