Twelve and a half hours later the credits have rolled on Dragon Quest
Swords. I had initially described it as Pokémon Snap meets Dragon Quest and
that's essentially what it is. You'll play as the hero in a first person view
with only the Wii Remote. You'll move about town with the D-pad. Forward,
backwards, left and right. Holding B can also move you forward. And Up and B
will make you run. You walk around the simple town and castle getting bits of
story and shopping for and upgrading items by talking to the non-player
characters. Once you're ready for combat you'll leave town and come to an area
select map. Selecting your destination loads up the action level. In the levels
you'll again move forward on rails and every so often you'll come to a set of
creatures and combat will begin. Within combat you're able to swing the Wii
Remote in left and right swipes as well as up and down and diagonal strokes.
You're also able to stab by thrusting the Wii Remote forward. In combat you can
set what's called a focal point by pressing the A button. The focal point will
last for a few seconds and expire. You can set another focal point without
having to wait for the first to expire. The focal point allows you to shift
where you're strikes are centered. Say three Magidrakes come on to the screen
and align themselves vertically on the left side of the screen. You can quickly
move the cursor over one of them and set a focal point and then strike up or
down and you'll hit all three in one swipe. You'll face wave after wave of
enemies in each battle. And you're able to use a shield by holding the B button.
You'll have to defend yourself properly to earn a higher rank in each level. As
you make your way through the levels you're able to search for items in tall
grass and under rocks and the like. There is a decent materials collection
system in the game where you're able to use them to upgrade your weapons. The on
rails aspect comes off as Pokémon Snap, but the actual combat feels closer to
Link's Crossbow Training. Graphically the game isn't all that impressive. The
graphics get the job done and retain the charming Dragon Quest trappings but
they are clearly not pushing the Wii. The PlayStation 2 Dragon Quest VIII looks
infinitely better. The music is great and most of it comes from other Dragon
Quest titles. The story is actually pretty good and very Dragon Quest like.
Which means everything is very straightforward and there isn't anyone asking
the existential why of everything. It's just a classic adventure with good
characters and good writing. Like most later Dragon Quest titles the game offers
up a rather substantial amount of things to do after the completion of the main
quest. The main quest is a decent length, but you'll definitely get your money's
worth should you stick around to complete everything the game has to offer.
Dragon Quest Swords is a charming little title, just don't come in expecting the
epic nature of the Dragon Quest series proper. It's worth the $30 or less entry
fee. I'm giving Dragon Quest Swords a fun 7.5.
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