I have not done a review for a game since I wrote for Lensoftruth, but I feel I should post this as it is a good game for PS4 gamers to kill some time with.

Presentation:  The game runs very solidly and the viduals and effects are appealing to the eye.  On a technical aspect it looks good, though it is nothing ground breaking for the PS4.  That said, it should be no suprise that such a large  amount of enemies can be on screen at once with no hit  to performance.  What makes it look so good however is the fantastic art style that has the world enriched with flare and beauty.  Those of you who are familiar with Dragon Quest will quickly recognize the works of Akira Toryiama.  The characters and monsters look very similar to that which would be found in Dragonball and have a more light hearted vibe to them.

Now you have a wide cast of characters to play as and they all have their own distinct sets of abilities and combos.  From Maya's flame whirling dances to the earth shattering smash of Yangus' axe, each character brings their own unique flare to the visual presentation in battle.

The voice acting is very well done overall and fit the characters perfectly.  They can be cheesy at times, but most of the time it is good.  From the witty banter of fan favorites to the amusing interactions with newer characters, there is little to complain about here.

Story:  This is probably the weakest part of the game, but it is far from horrid so that is ok.  The story is very basic.  Essentially set in a world where monsters and humans get along, one of the last remnants of the Children of Night disrupt the balance if light and dark and the monsters in the world fall under his control and return to their natural instincts.  As monsters rip between worlds to cause havok on the land, you must discover the origins of the Children of Light and find a way to counter this mysterious man and restore order to the world.

Among your travels you will find that monsters are not the only ones that have been ripped through these portals.  You will find and recruit the aid of several adventures from previous Dragon Quest games to aid you in your fight against the darkness.  Most do not know why they have been pulled through, some actually are aware of the situation prior to you finding them and were sent to investigate.  In either case, each hero remains true to their personalities and goals in their own respective games.  And with that I will say this, while the story is able to give you reason to move forward, what I really enjoy is seeing these characters from other worlds interact with each other.  That said, they do a good job of picking up the slack left by a rather simplistic storyline.

Gameplay:  Those of you who have played Dynasty Warriors will quickly recognize the style found in DQH.  Hoards of enemies will attack you at once, and while the attack rate of each enemy is slow, the danger is the skills they use to compliment each other and the sheer number of foes attacking you at once.  You will cut your way through these hoards of enemies to complete your objective in what I find to be a fun and fast paced spectical all while performing various skills and combos. The combat itself feels like a step up from my experience with dynasty Warriors and is complimented by the RPG nature of Dragon Quest through character leveling and character specific abilities. Not only will you have combos that can be performed by various button combination, but you will also have a you skill/spell wheel at your disposal that offer a character specific array of four techniques, each with a unique application. The spells on the skill wheel will consume MP similar to the nature of the classic Dragon Quest franchise. The spells and techniques used through different attack combinations will not require any and MP, so their effect is a little less than those found on the skill wheel. Furthermore there are two different types of control schemes. I played using the slick controls, where every little button press you make goes go store to eight different combo. In this mode you are in complete control of everything you do down to the button press. It is basically the advanced setting. Now there is also a simpler streamlined mode where everything should be easier to control, but I would still advise switching to slick controls as they are already done well enough to be easily executed and fun to perform. Also keep in mind that each character will play differently. Some will rely on combinations to be fully effective, some will rely on tactical charging of skills and attacks, some will have supported abilities such as raise defense buffs or healing, and some are just magical power houses.

Each mission is primarily set up one of three ways. Some will simply be to eliminate all enemies, some will be to defend a specific spot your character, and some will be epic boss fights. Another new element to this style of game is the use of monster minions. Sometimes when you defeat certain enemies you will receive a monster medal.  This will enable you to summon the specific monster you just killed to defend a specific spot in your stead. This is crucial for many types of Defense missions as monsters will be coming from several routes. The only way to stop these monsters from coming is to get to the location of the porta that they are spawning from and take out the Mawkeeper The thing is many portals will open at once and with multiple routes to get to the spot you are defending or the person you are escorting, you will need to be able the person you are escorting, you will need to be able to attack and defend at the same time. This is where the minions come into play.

The boss battles are not overly complicated, but they do require certain strategies to overcome. Whether it be exploiting a specific weak spot for trying to push an invincible boss boss a cliff at just the right moment, there is usually a unique way to get past these foes. Aside from the main story there are also side missions and free roam area as well. Now the side missions can take a multitude of forms. Some will resemble the main missions where you wipe enemies from an area or defend a specific objective but there are also missions that will have you do more grinding type tasks. These usually consist of collectin certain materials for killing X amount of monsters to complete. The good news is the grinding quests do not tak near as long as you would expect. That said there is one issue that bothered me however. While the quest log does tell you what monsters carry what items, there is no way to look up which maps the monsters like to roam nor the difficulty to find them under. Now one might think that you would just go to an area where you encountered then in the main story, however this is not the case. It would seem that some monsters in the Free Roam mode are not necessarily the same as when you first passed through an area. This leads to occasional annoyances when you cannot find the monster you are looking for.  Now as a completionist I find myself doing all of the side quest, and while they are simple in nature, I have a joy playing them due to the fun gameplay mechanics. However these side missions are just that, and provided you have a specific team of 4 leveled up through most of your missions in the main story, you should be able to avoid unnecessary grinding for the most part.

There is also a crafting system in place that many Dragon Quest veterans will recognize. You will take the ingredients in the field and apply them to recipes to create certain accessories to equip your characters with. In addition you can meld 2 similar items together and either combine their additive effects into one item or add a random effect to the base material. It is nothing to deep, but it is nothing too shallow either.

Unfortunately there are a few flaws I feel I need to address. For one some of the maps feel extremely small and don't really offer that much, particularly in the beginning of the game. Even the bigger maps pale in comparison to the maps found in the dynasty Warriors games. Not to say they don't get the job done as they complement the main mission objectives perfectly and they are big enough to offer several ways to go about each battle after the starting missions, but I was left wanting a bit more to explore. Even the free roam maps fail to expand on the mission maps to any degree. There are treasure chests scattered about that contain ingredients for crafting, but there is a complete lack of any real exploration. In fact let it be said that the free maps are nothing more then endless waves of enemies for farming and grinding purposes. Another problem with the game is the lack of any type of multiplayer when the game play just screams for it. There is a ton of fun to be had with this title by yourself, but there is a lot of wasted potential with no cooperative gameplay at all.

Fun Factor:  The game is fun, plain and simple. It is action packed with several characters providing a difference in play style While none of them are so different that they are more effective than the other, they are different enough to offer a mix of several styles into this action packed experience. Also it is worth mentioning that on certain weekends there are online events that provide double experience, increased rare item drop, and other benefits. This game is by no means game of the year, but it is a game that can keep you occupied for a while. If you get nothing else from this review, get that it is well worth the money and that you will have a fun time playing it.  I recommend this game to everyone, but if you are a Dragon Quest fan in particular then this is a must buy.

Overall: 8/10

I am a pretty big DQ fan but I feel the game is seriously lacking compared to HyWa. I'm missing the variety quite a bit. I always dread when looking into the skill trees of the characters which couldn't be more bland. It's sucking out my motivation as nothing will ever change much with the characters. As much as I like skill trees, they should've just used the DQ progression, meaning fixed upgrades at each level up.

The skill sets are laughably small and the monster summon mechanic isn't doing anything for me other than annoy me that there are so many unused coins hanging around the battlefield. The missing ability to speed up your running doesn't help either. I appreciate all the little details and the faithfulness to the franchise but they should've put more effort into making the gameplay more fun.

I will give you that the skill trees are kind of small, but this game is not meant to be played through as a single character as you can change between 4 different characters in the midst of battle. The fact that each character plays differently is where the variety comes into play. For example my main party consist of the main character, Bianca, Yangus, and Jessica. 1 offers a long-range type play style, the next offers hi defense and incredible strength with charge attacks, Jessica is mainly there for support with her hustle dance, and of course the main character is just rounded being average at most things. Change out any of those characters with the others offered and you get a completely different style that plays completely different.  With that in mind, while they could certainly be bigger, this skill trees do adequately get the job done for what the game is trying to do.

As for the monster minions, they are crucial for defense missions. Fail to use them properly and you will have a hard time completing them. Also the reason you find yourself with extra minions is so that you can either easily replace them when they fall, send 1 minion away to replace him with a stronger one, or send some away so you can place new ones in a different spot as needed. Furthermore there ar save your minions as well that perform one special upon summoning them and leave, so what use properly you will usually have adequate space and your minion bag.

And I have to ask, how many hours do you have in the game at what map have you gotten to?  While you do not get a  running skill, there a skill called zoom that allows you to teleport to different parts of bigger maps introduced rather early on.  Also are you using slick controls or the default streamlined version. If you are using the later, that could be why you feel a lack of variety. I switched straight to slick controls from the start so I cannot speak for the other setting.

I don't know, I find it a step behind Hyrule Warriors in the "how to make a musou game more entertaining" department and the roster...

I have to agree, its pretty freaking sweet, I'm loving the game

Got it for Christmas and been loving it thus far. Would say I am half way through the story and enjoying the missions and characters. My only complaint is become spoiled on roster size in other "Warriors" games, but the core is great so happy with it.

Is there a way to get tension to go up faster? Item or ability to help as often I end up switching characters a lot and rarely get to use it or the Giga Slash move.

I use my specials quite often.  There are perks in the skill tree that increase the rate at which your tension rises, there are items in pots and such on the battlefield that will increase your tension instantly, and I believe there are accessories that will increase your charge rate as well.  What I like to do is focus on one or two characters to get tension maxed, then unleash them back to back on large hoards or powerful enemies.  I also find that regular attack combos seem to raise it more than spamming spells from the spell wheel.  It is actually pretty easy to raise once you get the hang of it.

Also if you hold down the O button, you will go into a charging stance and build up tension as long as you have it pressed (DBZ style).  This is mainly for topping off your gaudge when you need to though as it charges pretty slow.

Hope this helps!