Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition

A premier turn-based rpg that plays like a retro JRPG with modern graphics and animation. The story and artwork is wonderful and the soundtrack ties the whole experience together so that the full game feels like a whimsical ride through each region. The build variance for each character is extremely robust and the game continues to add more and more upgrades to abilities and gear throughout so the progression never feels stagnated. The bonus content with the old pixel graphics where you travel to situations throughout old Dragon Quest games is a really nice touch that provides an outlet to go on a quick little journey to unlock some gear apart from the main game. The large city areas are exceptionally well done (for the most part, I don’t like the Booga zone) with each major place having its own unique architecture, visual style, music, story missions, and characters. The side quests also manage to incorporate very well into each part of the world, so that revisiting old places is still exciting even 50 hours after first arriving there. The casino gambling is genuinely addictive, and it feels rewarding to finally figure the system out to cash out on those sweet rewards they offer at the casino desks. The late game content is mostly good with some mixed feelings involved. I absolutely loved the final 15 hours of the story where it feels like every character in the party is evolving in both gameplay and story development. The party is given so many moments throughout the game where they grow and play a role, so no one ever feels left out for the full 100 hours. The late game culminates in this incredible evolution of your team where everyone’s character has changed in some way (and NEW party members appear, even) and the party dynamic during combat reaches its pinnacle in optimization. It feels like everything from the moment you started has actually led you to the end with how satisfying the plot is. This final stretch is what really makes the game a 10/10 because it just continues to change and stay new and bring intrigue again and again until you’re being carried into the post-game to do whatever you didn’t finish in the main game or bust open the mega-scaled bosses in the final dungeon. Overall, this game is filled to the brim with everything you could ask from an rpg that starts and doesn’t stop for over 100 hours. The soundtrack needed to be bigger though. Much bigger