Inspired by the gargantuan success of Minecraft, Square Enix have brought building and crafting to the world of Alefgard in this unique sandbox RPG. Having launched in 2016, Dragon Quest Builders has already been showered with positive reviews, so it’s no wonder it feels right at home on the Nintendo Switch.
Dragon Quest is no stranger to spin-offs, with the popular RPG series appearing in a variety of genres. It was therefore no surprise when Square Enix announced that the franchise would be trying its hand at sandbox gameplay, following the success of games such as Minecraft and Terraria. When it originally launched on PlayStation 4 and Vita back in 2016, Dragon Quest Builders was met with rave reviews from fans and critics alike. It’s then no surprise that Square Enix decided to port the game to Nintendo Switch, the console’s portability perfect for a 40+ hour sandbox RPG.
With the land of Alefgard in ruin, it’s your job as the fabled builder to reconstruct the fallen kingdom. The people of Alefgard have literally forgotten the concept of building, the various NPCs shocked by your ability to craft, and only a handful of derelict structures survive. It’s great that Square Enix took the time to incorporate a storyline into the game, albeit a simplistic one, as this is something sorely missing from other sandbox adventures like Minecraft. It admittedly doesn’t take itself too seriously, the generically evil villain far from intimidating, but this is part of its cartoony charm. There’s even a host of NPCs with reams of witty dialogue to spout as you interact with them. While it takes many gameplay cues from Minecraft, Builders still feels like an RPG at heart.
After designing your character, you’re instantly dropped into the world of Alefgard and tasked with building a town to call home. The bigger your town grows, the more NPCs will become residents. The various NPCs will provide endless side-quests to complete in the overworld and these can range from simple resource collection to full on enemy encounters. While you’re given rather limited materials to work with initially, you’ll quickly discover that the world around you is full of resources to collect and craft with. In traditional sandbox fashion, you’ll spend the majority of your playtime harvesting items and crafting them together. However, it isn’t just about building an aesthetically pleasing settlement. After establishing the foundations of your town, you’ll quickly realise that fortifications are a necessity. Hordes of enemies will often appear to ransack the town and without solid defences, your town would be toast. These can be left to play out like a tower-defence game, the NPCs willing to leap to the town’s defence, but the player can also go into battle and fight enemies.
As you progress through the game, you’ll gain the ability to build different coloured teleportals within your town. These allow you to travel to normally inaccessible islands scattered across the map. They all feature different enemy types, resources and side quests. This is definitely when the game begins to branch further away from other sandbox adventures, as it is far more common to explore one largescale map over a series of smaller ones. While this might disappoint some players, it is this sense of progression that helps Dragon Quest Builders feel so unique.
Visually, Dragon Quest Builders tries to combine the series’ cartoonish look with the blocky appearance of Minecraft. Although it obviously isn’t pushing the graphical capabilities of the Nintendo Switch, it maintains the charming visuals of the latest Dragon Quest RPGs without overcomplicating the game’s fully destructible terrain. The overworld is packed with classic Dragon Quest enemies such as Slimes and Skeletons and they all look fabulous against their new polygonal backdrop. The music in Builders is similarly reminiscent of recent Dragon Quest RPGs and, while it can get repetitive at times, it’s largely ambient and neutral.
Dragon Quest Builders is both a great Dragon Quest spin-off and an interesting take on the somewhat overplayed sandbox genre that’s only made better on Nintendo Switch. It’s a game that can be played for hours or in shorts bursts, so it’s perfect on a portable console. While the PlayStation Vita version certainly allowed portability too, the option to effortlessly swap between a TV and a handheld is perfect for this game. It admittedly doesn’t use many other features exclusive to the Switch, but the portability is benefit enough alone. Whether or not you’ve tackled Builders elsewhere, it’s found a perfect home on Switch.
8/10
It looks several generations better than Minecraft. With graphics that actually doesn’t hurt my eyes.
Graphics aren’t everything you know gameplay is.I’ve played plenty of visually impressive games on the ps4 but I quickly lost interest in them because the gameplay was so boring.
What’s sad is so many people would continue to play said game because of it’s “awesome graphics” or whatever. Graphics aren’t and never will be what games are about to me.
But there’s a difference between graphics that aren’t quite current (or next) generation (but is still a fun game), to graphics that are so bad that I can’t stand to look at it. And I can’t tell what most things even are. THAT’s Minecraft in a nutshell. That whole BLOCK look is Minecraft’s style. But it’s a style I stay away from. That’s why I never bought the Super Mario edition of Minecraft on Wii U. I was intrigued, but still hated the look.
there are also many games with great gameplay and great graphics and if someone doesn’t have 24/7 time to play videogames, he or she might pick something that delivers both over something that only goes for one direction.
I dunno if this is the same case for you or not, but Minecraft also gives me a headache; but only when using the low resolution default textures. The texture packs that make things smooth solve the issue for me. So if you’re actually interested in playing it, I’d recommend the PC release and snag the Sphax BD texture pack. It’s a high rez, comic book style look. I’ve also got it on Switch, and the Mario texture pack also solves the headache issue for me, although you have to mute the music using that because it plays random Mario music the entire time and is really distracting…
Amd I shall be picking up the physical version on Friday.
Same here
It looks absolutely beautiful, I could actually see myself sinking some serious time into this beast.
This, Bayonetta, and maybe Payday.
I love the idea of games where I can build stuff… but I don’t care for Minecraft because of it’s pixel art or boxed bodies. This is a turn off, too, because I don’t much care for the chibi art. Still, this is good news for those that don’t mind the chibi bodies and want a Minecraft like game with non-pixel art.
(Ugh! I miss Battlezone 64: Rise of the Black Dogs and it’s feature of allowing you to build your own bases! I’d so buy a remake of that Battlezone!)
Played it yesterday. :D
It looks to actually have a story and some diverse action and add ons in addition to the “sandbox” element, so this will be good for different audiences. Can’t wait to try it
Pingback: Here’s Two Minutes Of Dragon Quest Builders 2 Gameplay – My Nintendo News