Kinda disappointed they changed the name from Realms of Reverie (just because it's so fun to say).
Anyhow, it's probably the last of the Dragon Quests to get the DS treatment and has taken an age to get a Western release. If you've played the other games, this will be incredibly similar to you. Same graphics, same music, same battle system.
The unique aspect of this one is that you can move between a dream world and the real world. Your actions in the dream world affect the real world (although this aspect seems to be ignored for large portions of the game).
The game is less character focused than the previous game and the plot is much more lightweight. About 5-6 hours in the plot is simply abandoned and it becomes "explore the world".
The world seems much bigger than the previous games and the dual realm stuff means it takes much more exploring to get to the next location. When coupled with the old school lack of direction, you're often left wandering around a bit aimlessly or wondering if the place you've just found is somewhere you *should* be.
There's a job system but... I've discovered I've missed it and played about 3-4 hours without using it (I wondered why my characters stopped learning abilities) which is frustrating. Overall the game seems a whole lot more frustrating than the previous ones. A massive difficulty spike 6 hours in, dungeons which are designed for lots of backtracking and have lots of sub bosses (with no ways of restoring MP before the big boss other than using evac), all compounded by the insanely high encounter rate.
I'm enjoying it but not as much as V (and definately not as much as IX which especially shows this up).
Anyhow, it's probably the last of the Dragon Quests to get the DS treatment and has taken an age to get a Western release. If you've played the other games, this will be incredibly similar to you. Same graphics, same music, same battle system.
The unique aspect of this one is that you can move between a dream world and the real world. Your actions in the dream world affect the real world (although this aspect seems to be ignored for large portions of the game).
The game is less character focused than the previous game and the plot is much more lightweight. About 5-6 hours in the plot is simply abandoned and it becomes "explore the world".
The world seems much bigger than the previous games and the dual realm stuff means it takes much more exploring to get to the next location. When coupled with the old school lack of direction, you're often left wandering around a bit aimlessly or wondering if the place you've just found is somewhere you *should* be.
There's a job system but... I've discovered I've missed it and played about 3-4 hours without using it (I wondered why my characters stopped learning abilities) which is frustrating. Overall the game seems a whole lot more frustrating than the previous ones. A massive difficulty spike 6 hours in, dungeons which are designed for lots of backtracking and have lots of sub bosses (with no ways of restoring MP before the big boss other than using evac), all compounded by the insanely high encounter rate.
I'm enjoying it but not as much as V (and definately not as much as IX which especially shows this up).
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