Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Switch/Xbox)

[ChrisBardon]

Anyone else checked out DQ Builders 2?  I tried the demo for the first one on the switch, but when 2 showed up on game pass last week, I downloaded it and played for most of the weekend.  I've never actually played any Minecraft, so I don't know how similar it is there, but DQ builders has this weird appeal that's a little like a more directed Animal Crossing combined with making things out of Lego, but with all the DQ monsters, and music.  The game doesn't take itself too seriously, and the writing is surprisingly good in a lot of places, although there are still a lot of characters written with accents/tics that can get old quickly.  I'm still on the first "new" island where you need to build up a farm, and that's already been several hours of gameplay.  I get the feeling that this could be a really long game...  It's definitely a good "play while you're listening to a podcast" game.

[foogledricks]

I spent quite a bit of time with the first one and enjoyed it a lot. Almost downloaded this for the same reason you did but then I saw Wasteland 3 and now this will have to wait. But I will get to this  eventually.

[xPieter]

Are either of the DQ games couch co-op-able?

[foogledricks]

4 hours ago, xPieter said:

Are either of the DQ games couch co-op-able?

https://www.vg247.com/2019/07/15/dragon-quest-builders-2-multiplayer-split-screen-play-online/
 

sounds like no

[xPieter]

Dang. I want something like Minecraft to play with the boy, but I can't stand Minecraft. Tried Minecraft Dungeons and it was only good for a few weeks. LEGO Worlds is even worse. Maybe my son will grow up to be a game developer and make a game for us to play together.

[ChrisBardon]

So I finished this off yesterday, at least partially out of spite.  It's definitely a neat game, and if you're interested in just going nuts and building stuff, there's a lot there, but there are some definite issues with the game:

-It's very, very, talky.  Par for the course with a DQ game I suppose, but this is a bit of a condensed experience where the usual combat grind is replaced with the building loop.  This takes up less time though, and is also usually punctuated with dialog.  In most case it's fine, but by the end I was definitely wanting some of the NPCs to just get to the point. 

-For the majority of the game, resources don't seem to be a huge problem, so the times when there is a crunch are all the more notable.  For example, I needed cotton for something near the end, and there's no in-game system for locating specific materials, so I had to look up where to find it, go to a different island, and find the 15 or so I needed to proceed.  This is also going to be an issue if you want to free build-you're going to run out of certain things.  There are a few materials that you can get "unlimited" for that can solve some basic needs, but other stuff is more of a resource grind. 

-I was going to say that there are too many things to build, but it's more a problem that there's no way to search them.  There's some basic filters, but if you need a specific block/item type, by the end you're going through a very long list.  This is mitigated on the main story islands by virtue of you only having access to a subset of recipes, but on the "main" island it's a free for all, so there were a couple of times where I had a hard time finding the thing I needed to make. 

 

It's worth a look for sure, and perhaps I'd be a little more up for some of the stuff in here if I hadn't just played DQ11 earlier this year.  It's got all the staples of a DQ game in a different package, and the main story islands really are well done.  There's a progress to each, the mechanics change up a little each time to keep things fresh, and in a way they're all their own self-contained stories that would have made this a neat episodic game.  Given that it's on game pass, the barrier to entry is also really low. 

[Dimness]

I'm just sad that DQB3 wasn't announced during the Dragon Quest anniversary. It doesn't look likely either as the main force behind the two games has moved on to other things.