Jump to content
NEurope
Sarka

Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors

Recommended Posts

any chance of a summary of the impressions? 1up.com has a habit of acting completely incompatible with me in general as it has an amazing record of not wanting to open ever on the last 2 PC's I've had.

 

From the videos anyway the game looks quite good visually...but the gameplay seems incredibly shallow and like it'd get boring in no time....it reminds me of that dungeon crawler DS game thing a bit, a first person RPG with a heavy emphasis on combat that's only fun for a short amount of time...it doesn't sound like a winning idea at the moment.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

DQS is essentially an on-rails first-person slasher. You move forward by pressing the A or B buttons and you interact with objects by shaking the Wii Remote at them (for example, pointing at a bush and shaking it might result in an item popping out). No turning or strafing -- if you come to a fork in the road, arrows pop up showing you the available paths you can take, which you then choose by pointing and pressing A. It's a bit disappointing that DQS doesn't allow for more freedom of movement, but the beautiful graphics and charming atmosphere definitely help to lessen the pain.

 

As you travel along your linear path, enemies jump out to attack and the screen switches into battle mode. Here, you have several options; you can slash the sword in any direction by simply swinging the Remote; you can do a slower, more powerful forward thrust attack by lunging the Remote towards the screen; you can cast projectile spells by pressing the B button (useful for attacking enemies in the background or hiding behind objects); and you can defend against attacks by pressing A to hold up your shield.

Shield movement isn't restrained to just one spot, either; if an enemy attacks near your feet, for example, you need to move the shield low in order to block it. There's also a special attack you can perform when your attack gauge fills up. If you press 1 when the gauge is full, a special meter appears on the right side of the screen that represents the strength of your upcoming attack. At this point, you're supposed to waggle the Wii Remote in the air in a circular motion as fast as possible to try and build up the meter before unleashing a devastating series of supercharged blows on your unsuspecting foes.

 

At the end of each stage, you take on a boss (in the demo version, anyway), and once you defeat them, the stage is completed and you receive a ranking and points. (We ranked A and B, respectively, in the two available stages at the event.)

 

DQS is due for release in Spring 2007 in Japan, with a U.S. release hopefully to follow shortly thereafter. It may not be a full-on RPG like the other DQ games, but the short bit we played was definitely more enjoyable than we expected, given the obvious shortcomings in its design (linear movement, stage-based progression, etc.).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

yeah i dont know about this one yet...as james said it looks like it would get old fast..I like the way u cast spells in the game tho looked fun...but it being on rails exploring is out..that sucks

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
yeah i dont know about this one yet...as james said it looks like it would get old fast..I like the way u cast spells in the game tho looked fun...but it being on rails exploring is out..that sucks

 

if this wasn't on the rails I think it would be awesome, but seems to hold it back abit, this isn't really dragon quest lets me honest.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This game looks awful......its not even proper Dragon Quest!!!! Its an on the rails slasher up.....how lame.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

After seeing the gameplay videos for this I'm actually more interested. I'm all for slashing and defending, as long as it stays fun over the whole game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think this looks pretty fun.I don't know why people are complaining because we all know it's not a proper DQ.This shoud be pretty fun and maybe we'll see DQ 9 if it sells well.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The problem is not enough people give these sorts of games a chance and the reactions with some of the forum members here has shown this with them automatically dismissing the game. These are experimentation games from the developers. Why are they making spin off franchises of games on Wii? Its a test, they would in reality like to put their premier franchises on Wii if it were a platform with a large established userbase that buys a lot of games and generates revenue which currently despite the higher development costs, a lot of developers are taking the safe road and resorting to developing for the Playstation brand with the perceived belief that the established userbase will buy larger quantities of their games than on any other system. But skepticism about Wiis possibility of success is due to recent lacklustre GC performance and is still prevalent especially seeing that Wii becoming a significant consumer magnet $$$ is currently unproven nor guaranteed. Us getting PROPER fully fledged premier franchise games is dependent on sufficient quantities of these spin off games selling [ENOUGH DEMAND] to justify developers creating expensive PREMIER franchise games on Wii. The restoration of Nintendos former glory claiming the video game market throne again is very much dependant on consumer choice with the games we buy.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This is a perfect example of what the Wii is all about.

 

The combat system has been largely untouched through 4 generations of consoles (NES, SNES, PS1, PS2) and now it has been given a much-needed kick in the pants by the Wii remote.

 

It also helps that the game looks beautiful, fluid, and accurate.

 

Im SO buying this

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Im SO buying this
Me too, I buy games for what they are, not for what they aren't.

 

So what if it isn't a "real" Dragon Quest RPG? it's not supposed to. and IGN and others who played the game praised it. Said this... we didn't play the game, why putting it into a narrow category already?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think this looks great because it's unique and different (and maybe cause I love RPGs :heh:)

I like the look of the cel shading aswell.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

looking good! Leave it to Square-Enix to squeeze out the best graphics on any system

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
This game looks awful......its not even proper Dragon Quest!!!! Its an on the rails slasher up.....how lame.

 

Agreed, it looks like a childish spin off of a classic series. What a let down.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
looking good! Leave it to Square-Enix to squeeze out the best graphics on any system
But isn't this one done by the Nintendo second party Genius Sonority? (the ones doing Pokémon Battle Revolution)... So technically... not square-enix; expect to be left in awe with FF: CC though.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Even though I would love to buy this game because of the interesting spin on the series, I'm really turned off by the graphics.

I'm not even sure why, because I loved the cel-shading in games such as the Wind-Waker or vietful joe, it must just be the style :s

 

Lance

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
But isn't this one done by the Nintendo second party Genius Sonority? (the ones doing Pokémon Battle Revolution)... So technically... not square-enix; expect to be left in awe with FF: CC though.

 

I werent aware of that but thanks for the correction. Is it just me or wouldnt it be better if Nintendo handled Nintendo games and S-E handled S-E games? When they flip-flop, we get bastard games like Star Fox Adventures and Mario Hoops.

 

I do see the beauty of this arrangement though. Just having the Dragon Quest name associated with the console can only bring good fortune in Japan

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I werent aware of that but thanks for the correction. Is it just me or wouldnt it be better if Nintendo handled Nintendo games and S-E handled S-E games? When they flip-flop, we get bastard games like Star Fox Adventures and Mario Hoops.

 

I do see the beauty of this arrangement though. Just having the Dragon Quest name associated with the console can only bring good fortune in Japan

Well... we might have more than that coming, like, DQ IX for Wii is supposedly being considered.

 

Also bare in mind that Genius Sonority has a direct link with Dragon Quest series, it's founder and president is no other than Manabu Yamana... Best known as the director of Dragon Quest V and VI, often considered to be best games in the series.

 

I don't see any harm in swapping franchises with Square-Enix though... They're doing some pokémon games for mobile phones for example, and it would be good if Nintendo got some Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger characters in Super Smash Bros Brawl... also bare in mind that it was squaresoft that did Super Mario RPG, awesome game... I still want a sequel to that rather than a Paper Mario 3 (although I love Paper Mario).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It does look lovely though, I'm more interested in the new Crystal Chronicles, I hope they use the same beautiful style, just add more story telling and flesh it out into a real RPG game, even if it keeps the real time combat

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think if it comes over here I'll rent it out first just to try it out, not %100 sure if this game is going to be good.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

×