Dragon Quest and Nintendo have a pretty long history together. It is the franchise that not only skyrocketed Enix to becoming one of Japan's top game series for the Famicom and Super Famicom, but is also now calling the Nintendo DS and Wii home. Originally announced as a launch title, Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors had to wait a little while before being ready in Japan, and even longer for a North American release. However, it is finally here and ready for the dedicated Dragon Quest audience to carve up.
Graphics have always been a huge staple for Square, but not until after the merger did this become true as well for Enix and the Dragon Quest series. Even part 7, which came out on the PlayStation years into its life cycle, looked much rougher than the Square offerings at the time. Thankfully with their newfound union on pretty visuals, Dragon Quest Swords actually looks rather good. One of the developers, Genius Sorority, worked on the Wii title Pokémon Battle Revolution. One good thing to be said about that game is that raised the bar for Wii graphics. The same quality has been passed down here with smooth and fluid character models.
To be honest, the game cheats a little bit by using an “on-the-rails” system outside of town. However, the graphics remain attractive just the same. As much as graphics, presentation and story have remained important to Square Enix, Dragon Quest games have usually had a cast of charming characters; and that holds true for this game as well. Once again, you are a silent protagonist with your own selected name, though Flourette will call you "Blade" anyway.
Your party consists of a lively bunch: including your father, Claymore, a would be nun, Flourette, and the prince of the country, Analace. These characters are all likable and each have their own unique personality quirks. About 60% of the game is voice acted and done very well, usually with strong accents. Translation is again top notch and very humorous at times as well. The series veteran composer returns and most of the game's music is very pleasant, though mostly MIDI work. The Dragon Quest Overture is still great to hear at the opening and ending.
Where the game really falls apart is the gameplay. As everyone knows, this is an on rails first person RPG. While this may turn some off at the thought, the linear paths and views really aren’t that bad. What absolutely kills the game is the heavy use of IR slashing and blocking. If a group of enemies is aligned vertically on the left or right side of the screen, you have to point your cursor over them and then click the A button to lock on to that side of the screen. Then, upon taking a vertical swing, the chop will descend on the side the cursor is locked onto. Thankfully, to block all you have to do is point at an incoming target and hold the B trigger to bring up your shield. For most of the game, this is not really a problem, as it tends to be rather easy. When you get the last couple of stages though, it can become increasingly frustrating to constantly point and lock on to various areas of the screen and then try to swipe in time to block or repel an incoming attack.
The act of combining IR pointing and motion swiping just is not fast enough in certain cases, and requires more precision then is really necessary. Another problem can be some of the enemies in the later stages. They aren't particularly hard, but if they are blocking your swipes you have to wait for them to go into their attack animations and block and counter attack to deal any damage at all. This quickly becomes boring as it is neither challenging nor rewarding. It is the equivalent of sitting at a loading screen waiting for the opportunity to finally play again.
Two other glaring flaws with this game come in the item management department. First, you can not buy MP restoring items or resurrection items in the game's only town. There does not seem to be any good reason for this either, other then the fact that the main character does not use MP and you return to town even if your partner in battle is still alive. Second is that you are limited in the number of items you can carry. You can hold nine small healing herbs in battle, five medium, and only three large healing herbs. When you reach somewhat higher levels; small and even medium healing herbs wont do you any good. And the limit to the helpful large herbs is never raised.
The game almost punishes you the higher in level you get. This is not only arcane, it's downright asinine, especially for a game aimed at being an entry level RPG. This basically ensures that you will want to level up Flourette over the others. You can only have one party member at a time with you, and Flourette will be the one to learn higher healing spells. This is only good for so long, since you cant buy MP restoring items in town. Instead, you have to hope on finding them in the field, which is pretty rare.
Thankfully the game is generally easy. Level grinding is probably only necessary before tackling the last two levels, which again seems to defy the very nature of the game being an entry level RPG. It is also incredibly short, with eight chapters equating into eight levels. If the game was any longer the item system would really start to hamper the game down. There is a hard mode that can be unlocked by completing the game, but this really only serves to show that the harder the game gets the more its flaws stick out.
