Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
Stage 3 : Evaluation and Grade
by Shawn White (2008-03-10)
Are you a newcomer to the RPG genre? Perhaps curious about these titles, such as Dragon Quest, that garner immense popularity across the pond? If your answer to these questions is yes, consider
Dragon Quest Swords as an entry way into the basic conventions of role-playing games and the general themes of Square-Enix's popular franchise. Expecting much more, however, may lead to disappointment.
One wonders if the developers made the game purposefully
cliched to say something about the state of RPGs...From controls to presentation to story,
Dragon Quest Swords is simple and straightforward throughout. There are few stats to manage, no complex combos to learn, and of the four party members, players only have to worry about equipping Hero appropriately. Players need to pay attention to the equipped items, partner tactics and enemy patterns, but the game makes all of this as clear as possible. Although combat never becomes a truly difficult affair, it holds one's interest well enough. Just be mindful of wrist strain if you choose to play for a few hours.
The characters have a simplistic charm about them, although they verge on cliched and sometimes take too fondly to cheesy alliteration. The broader story isn't much more sophisticated than a typical episode of Dragon Ball Z (with Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball Z, being a key contributor to the Dragon Quest series, this isn't too surprising). The solid pacing holds all of these elements together for about 15-20 hours of decent entertainment.
The environments are well suited to multiple play-throughs.Once players vanquish the final boss (who may be the most cliched villain ever), the truly challenging battles become available. This is the extra content added for the North American release: essentially a cave full of optional boss fights. Four of the five are modified versions of bosses from earlier parts of the game, while the final one is a new, three-headed dragon. Beating all five opens up even harder versions of the bosses, who will make quick work of players without sufficient experience, items and reflexes. Some rare items for sword tempering can be won from these fights, not to mention nice amounts of gold and experience points.
Of course, all of those prizes are only worthwhile for people looking to gain the best weapons and scores. Previously conquered areas don't increase in challenge level as players become stronger, however, so the amount of places to find satisfaction in using new skills is limited. Having the extra content available sooner in the game rather than at the very end would have been a more balanced approach.
The fun of tag-team Master Strokes might justify the stay.
Die-hard Dragon Quest fans will probably be split on this game. Certainly, most of the series' trademark aspects can be found here. However, a sense of antiquation to the whole design reverberates throughout, which some people will enjoy out of nostalgia or for the simplicity compared to modern RPGs; others will be disgusted by what they find to be a regression for the genre. If nothing else,
Dragon Quest Swords gives players a glimpse at how far RPGs have (or have not) progressed in over 20 years.
| Evaluation Scores |
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26 / 30  Presentation
 Undeniably Dragon Quest Clean visual style, interface Characters are pretty charming  Story is quite cliched |
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20 / 30 Gameplay
Combat is engaging, well-paced Town controls are a bit awkward at first Outside areas could use more variety Master Strokes need better balancing |
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23 / 30 Value
15-20 hour adventure Extra boss fights are decent addition A few mini-games for 1-4 players Kind of shallow for solo gamers |
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+2 /±10 Tilt
Good for RPG newcomers Carries old-school design well enough But that design is the biggest issue | |
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Final Grade |
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