So, while you can move behind an enemy before selecting “Attack”, this doesn’t deal any bonus damage or add any status effects. While there are no random encounters (hooray), combat is turn-based, again lending to the familiarity of the genre, but with a bizarre, entirely superfluous twist - players can move freely within the battle arena, although this confers no benefits to combat itself. Composer Koichi Sugiyama may be a controversial figure (to say the least), but his work here is excellent - offering up a sumptuous soundscape that peaks in the right places.Įxpect to hear that battle theme plenty, too. This has been overhauled in the Switch release, with players able to toggle between the MIDI and orchestral soundtracks for both exploration and battle. Previously, the soundtrack had comprised of sweeping orchestral moments in the game’s cutscenes (which remain beautifully animated), while field and battle themes were MIDI-driven, leading to a disconnect between the epic story moments and the minute to minute exploration and battles. One bone of contention with the original release of Dragon Quest XI was with its soundtrack, and thankfully this “S” edition has rectified the issue. It’s not as stylised as something like Breath of the Wild, but it also offers the similar kind of lush greenery and idyllic dotted towns that you might find in Hyrule.

Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama’s character designs offer a timeless template for your band of adventurers, and excellent localization and voice-acting (at least for main characters) helps bring each to life.ĭragon Quest XI’s use of colour also helps keep the world vibrant, whether playing on the Switch’s screen or an external display.

This is backed up by some truly sumptuous visuals. it just feels like stepping back in time. That isn’t to say it’s predictable though - Dragon Quest XI offers plenty of narrative twists, it just does it all without feeling like it’s attempting to be more cerebral than it should be.

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