DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition

It was perfect. PERFECT. Everything down to the last minute details. I loved every party member, immaculate vibes all throughout. The casino is also GOATED.

TLDR: a super long, Ultra (for better and worse) traditional RPG that has made me question just how many games in my life I want to beat in my backlog like this It took me a while to play this because I knew it was long. To start off, the first 85% portion of the game was very hard for me to push through and to continue coming back to. Progressing the plot was a display of discipline instead of enjoyment. The reason is because if you've played any rpg ever before you've seen all of this before 1000s of times. The game rewards exploration, theres many towns many deadends with treasure chests, many hidden items. The dialog with NPCs is very up-the-middle "save us Hero!" the dialog with your party members is bland in the way a 90s cartoon has a way of filling up the 30 min saturday morning timeslot with back-and-forth semi-useless or redundant exposition. It's not BAD, just imagine a Inspector Gadget episode or the TMNT arguing over pizza for a bit too long and that takes up a bit too much time. The disappointing feeling can be summarized as how when we were kids playing these games we felt like children playing something restricted for adults, but now we are adults it feels like we are playing games for little kids, the franchise has moved backwards in targeted demographics age despite being 40 years old (DQ1 released in 1986) at this point. The game gets interesting right near the end where the end is not the end, and the post-game twist hits. it's super extensive(and grindy) to get the true ending, it may actually be the most significant post-game I have ever seen and that includes RDR 1+2. There is actually a Secret post-post game and a secret world where you only play in 2d like the 1980s games, I skipped those or it could have easily added 20 to 30 hours more on my already 100 hour playthrough, which by the way I was skipping all dialogue at the end, so in other words this game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ massive. I can appreciate the traditional formula, alot of my positive feelings comes from what is NOT in this game. DQ11 may be my biggest recommendation to a 10 year old as his first legitimate RPG. However, man was this a slog for an old veteran like me, there was nothing through the vast majority of the game that was not expected. Think "princess needs saving etc" the gameplay functionality was fine, party members abilities felt different, smithing mini game was decent, nothing is bad but sinking 100 hours into a "you've seen this all before for 40~ years" is not for me, it borders on adult disney fanatic freaks. I'm not locked in a underground bunker or trapped in a situation where I need constant distraction in the form of nostalgia bait made for the 12 year old demographic, the equivalent of binging games like this would be to download and watch the entire Power Rangers series from episode 1 to xxxx. If you're trapped or in some crisis, maybe to get your mind off of things? Otherwise theres only so many of the same type of food you can eat without feeling nausous, even if its your favorite food Play if it you're 10 years old or never played a trad RPG before, if you're a jaded battle scarred grandpa like me, put your dwindling life-hours into something else

genuinely one of the most colorful and fun loving rpgs ive ever played