Dragon Quest Builders (PS4) Review

Defeat the forces of evil... one block at a time.

 I'm not a fan of building games like Minecraft nor am I that familiar with the Dragon Quest series, so at first glance Dragon Quest Builders wasn't going to be something for me. That was true in the first hours since I didn't know what the hell I was doing. A few hours in and I found myself getting accustomed to the slow-paced nature of the game. Dozens of hours later, I finished Dragon Quest Builders and I can defiantly say that it was a fun time. I've been meaning to beat the game for years but eventually it ended up being on my backburner of games I've yet to finish. Thankfully, I was free these past weeks, so I finally have gotten around to beating it. So without any further delays, let's get right into the boxy world of Dragon Quest Builders.

 In a land ruled by the powerful Dragonlord, monsters reign dominant and mankind has taken refuge to whatever shelters remain left. You take the role of a chosen young boy or girl, who has the unique ability to build anything out of nothing. How exactly, it's pretty ambiguous, but your primary goal is to save mankind by building settlements to house survivors and restore light back to the land of Aelfgard by defeating the Dragonlord. If you think the story is familiar, that's due to the fact that Builders follows the bad ending of the very first Dragon Quest game, where darkness consumed the land. I found the story in Builders to be pretty entertaining thanks to the funny writing and some of the colorful characters. Each chapter follows a new set of characters to interact with and despite the constant obsession with quest-giving, I found them to be surprisingly memorable.

As the chosen one, it's your duty to 

build a new home for mankind.

 Dragon Quest Builders has you roaming all over Aelfgard in an attempt to seal away the darkness. There are a total of four chapters, each taking place in a different part of Aelfgard that's influenced by the Dragonlord's powers. The main goal of the game is to gather scattered survivors and build a place they call home. However, it won't be easy as you'll be facing hordes of monsters.

 You explore the world searching for resources such as wood, copper, leaves, and so on to make weapons, armor, and various building materials to expand your base. Being a RPG/survival game, you'll come across a lot of monsters, some of them being a breeze such the tiny Blue Slimes while others can be challenge such as the gigantic ogres. Unlike other Dragon Quest games, you don't level up and instead, must make high-level gear to survive against the tougher monsters. I found the combat to be pretty simplistic and at times archaic, especially when dealing with multiple enemies at once. You can't block nor dodge attacks and often times you'll be standing so close to enemies to attack them, you get hurt as a result. It's frustrating sometimes and definitely feels like an afterthought compared to the building.

Cute as it may seem, the gameplay can

definitely get on the chaotic side.

 Like Minecraft and other survival games, Builders features a day/night cycle where once it approaches nighttime, enemies attack more frequently and your visibility will become obscured, forcing you to return back to shelter and rest up. Also, you have a hunger meter which will deplete over time also forcing you to cook and keep a decent amount of food with you at all times. I usually don't like these systems in games since they limit progress, but once I got the hang of the game's flow, I reluctantly became fine with it.

 And to the main attraction of the game, building! When you've acquired the necessary materials, you can actually start building your town how you see fit. While you have a pre-determined space in which you can build your base, the sky's the limit in terms of creativity. You can build bedrooms to house you and the survivors through the night, make kitchens to keep you fed at all times, or an infirmary where you can treat sick patients. If you're having trouble on your own, certain NPCs will give you blueprints to help you get the hang of building and make aesthetically pleasing works in the process. The more rooms and decorations you make to your town, the higher it's level will be. Leveling up your town doesn't really add much to the gameplay, aside from progressing the story, which kind of sucks. Yes, while it may seem like a chore to build, craft, and decorate your town, it's all the more rewarding when you see your hard work come together in the end. It's easily the most addictive and enjoyable aspect of the game. And while I'm not the most creative mind out there, I still take pride in my builds.

From adding a second floor to building rollercoasters,

it's all up to your imagination.

 Interestingly, the game features a cool mode called Terra Incognita, where you can peacefully build and plan your town without any interference. I haven't sunk much time into this mode, but from what I can gather, it offers a place where you can peacefully build your own projects without the hassles of NPCs bombarding you with requests or monsters destroying your towns. For those who played Minecraft, it's more akin to the Creative Mode. A neat feature of Terra Incognita is that you can share your works to other players online. Sadly the game doesn't feature an actual online mode where you and a buddy can play together through the story, which was a deal breaker for me initially since Builders looks like a fun game to play with friends.

 Being an RPG game, Builders features some side-quests for you to dig in. While they're mostly fetch quests, the more interesting ones have you building new rooms for your base, such as a treasure room where you can store all your belongings or bathhouse where you can kick back and relax. There are hidden quests that reward you with special items, if you take the time to thoroughly explore the world. An aspect that gets irritating over time is the inability to track side-quests when exploring.  Often times I'd forget what I'm supposed to do and have to take a trip back to the base, talk to the NPC again, and return to where I was. You'd be surprised at the time you'll waste going back and forth. 

  Dragon Quest Builders isn't the most visually striking game out there. In fact, I would say that it looks more like a last-gen game given that it also launched on the PS3. Still, one aspect of the presentation that reeled me into buying the game has to be the boxy art-style, as seen with the game's gorgeous box art. I found the character models and backgrounds to be decent, though nothing eye-catching. The soundtrack is great with some neat orchestral arrangements from the original Dragon Quest game. I feel that more music variety would have been welcomed, given that the soundtrack can feel on repetitive many hours later. That being said, the main theme and menu theme were some of my favorite tracks.

Despite packing a colorful aesthetic, some of the

models and backgrounds are average.

 Dragon Quest Builders excels at what it does best, being a fun and engaging building game. The story was interesting and the wide cast of characters were memorable as well. The gameplay is undeniably the main star of the game and I can safely say that over the course of the story it remained a lot of fun. While Builders has its share of shortcomings, I would easily recommend it for both Dragon Quest and building game fans seeing that there's a lot to content here to keep you engaged throughout the 40 hour adventure.