47. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Illusive Age (PS4)
First Played: 2018
Time Completed: 1
Very much an incremental improvement over DQVIII, but that means it’s still a great game. In terms of visuals, however, it is a giant leap for the series and is one of the most gorgeous looking JRPGs ever. The game is vast and includes plenty to do, just the story took me 70+ hours to finish and, without any spoilers, I can say there is still a lot to do after the credits roll. In terms of gameplay, it's very similar to DQVIII but some improvements have been made to world traversal, allowing faster travel and occasional enemies that you can ride to access some areas. Battles are very similar again, but now there is an additional temporary power up system that gives a bit more depth. I only wish that the slew of extras included in the Switch release, was added to the PS4 and PC versions. It starts off slow, maybe for too long, but eventually the story starts to pick up and by the end I was convinced that this is the pinnacle of Dragon Quest.
