It is a fun experience that begins to buckle under its own weight, pacing and general lack of ambition. Thus, I can declare that Dragon Quest Builders 2 is probably the best podcast game of 2019. It is just place-setting and a narrative excuse for the going ons of the game to, well, go on. The story in Dragon Quest Builders 2 is as surface-level as a story can be. Seeing it progress into something spectacular as the game-time runs on and on is staggeringly rewarding. The island hopping is fun at first, but the most fun when it comes to crafting comes when the player is tasked with building up their home island. It is some of the most fun I’ve had with a videogame this year, but that fun begins to wear down after 40-or-so hours. The building and crafting is hyper-streamlined and endlessly rewarding. It is a one-button “slash until a thing dies” bore, and thankfully combat is not the core mechanic of this game. Build this, repair that, harvest this, plant this, fight this, etc., ad infinitum.īut the pacing and length of Dragon Quest Builders 2 is not its only problem. Though each island varies visually, they sort of all blend together both mechanically and in the tasks asked of the player. Some of the most fun abilities (like riding animals) are not introduced into the game until way too far in, and each island is paced worse than the one before it. Hell, cooperative play is not unlocked until, like, 20-or-so hours in. There is rarely any min-maxing and each new mechanic is introduced and paced out deliberately-too deliberately.
![dragon quest builders 3 dragon quest builders 3](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vDjiOBfxnrQ/maxresdefault.jpg)
Nothing is obfuscated, everything is as easy to understand as it can be, and once players fall into its task-focused rhythm, everything becomes smooth sailing. So what is the builder to do in such trying times? Collect resources and build those walls just a little sturdier and higher, of course! Dragon Quest Builders 2 is deliberately straightforward in both its narrative and core gameplay loop. Each attempt at rebuilding society in some way is met with violence. The story of Dragon Quest Builders 2 is roughly based off of 1987’s Dragon Quest 2 and sees you, the titular builder (male or female), tasked with rebuilding society after the Children of Hargon (I don’t know) decide to make the world slowly die.
![dragon quest builders 3 dragon quest builders 3](https://www.novacrystallis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Dragonquestbuilders.png)
For example, I’ve never played a Dragon Quest title (who has the time for such endeavors anymore?) but I instantly fell in love with the music, overall tone and Akira Toriyama’s art-Slimes absolutely rule and I felt bad every time I beat one to death so that I could harvest its good jelly and juices for my own selfish betterment. There is a central narrative, objectives, waypoints and streamlined mechanics that make the title welcoming to almost any curious person, whether they are into Dragon Quest or not. I’m tired.ĭragon Quest Builders 2 is set in the building genre that Minecraft pioneered but, in a lot of ways, Dragon Quest Builders 2 does Minecraft better than Minecraft. But that does not mean it is a bad game, not by any means.
#Dragon quest builders 3 series
It is long just for the sake of being long and staying true to the JRPG series it spun itself off from. Dragon Quest Builders 2 is one such videogame.
![dragon quest builders 3 dragon quest builders 3](https://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/field/image/2021/06/dragon-quest-builders-2_0.jpg)
From The Witcher 3 to the Yakuza series, some videogames make their length feel necessary. A lot of videogames are very long these days.