I’m a Dragon Quest fan but not particularly a fan of building things in games but, as you’ll read in my Dragon Quest Builders review, this game pulled me in and made engaging fun out of something I’ve never really found enjoyable – crafting. Builders got its hooks in me and I was in no rush to pull myself away!Your character awakes deep underground as the Goddess of the realm gives you a quest that only you can manage – to rid the eternal darkness from the land of Cantlin and other areas, and to rebuild the world to its former glory. Citizens have forgotten how to build and as the only person with the ability, it’s up to you to get working as the world isn’t going to rebuild itself! I’m thankful that Dragon Quest Builders provides clear goals as well as giving me the freedom to do what I want as not only do I get to experiment, but I never feel like I’m aimlessly doing something as there’s always a quest to do. Builders got its hooks in me and I was in no rush to pull myself away!I won’t go too into detail but at the start of each chapter, you have to build an entirely new city and you lose all of the items you will have collected – this is pretty time-consuming but as you learn more from your previous settlements, it’s a breath of fresh air to build a city that’s more how you want it to be. NPC’s are colourful and have plenty to say, and the general atmosphere perfectly reflects that monsters are constantly trying to destroy your homes.

Anxiety is high, there is clear tension between some characters and it does feel rather real – the story moves along at a nice pace and despite there not being heavy character development, it’s easy to care for these characters.Dragon Quest Builders is accessible, easy to understand and even easier to stay up with until the early hours of the morning, and it’s been an addicting, fun experience. The combat is very different to traditional Dragon Quest games in that it’s not turn-based but instead you switch between various weapons and equipment and hit triangle to attack an enemy or dig up items. Other than choosing weapons which are more effective against certain enemies, you’ll be able to fly by just hitting triangle – don’t worry, it isn’t boring at all and some monsters will still find themselves victorious in battle!

Thankfully you just respawn back at your base, but not without losing some items.It’s been an addicting, fun experience.You’ll have to put your exploring boots on as you’ll be searching high and low across vast islands to dig up and collect the items you need. Some items may be found underground whilst others may be dropped by specific enemies, but regardless you’ll be adventuring through in-game days and nights to fulfil quest requirements and build a town that isn’t flattered by relatively weak enemies. Managing inventory is easy and you can ‘tidy up’ with square which puts all relevant items together, and you can build chests that allow items that won’t fit in your inventory to go straight back to base. One issue I do have is that despite knowing what to do to complete a quest, you may find yourself stumped because you’ve not done something exactly as asked – I was asked to modify a workshop but because I put a forge in there, the quest wouldn’t complete. Once it was completed, the NPC then asked me to put a forge in there – he’s lucky he wasn’t put in the forge!;The visuals invoke Dragon Quest’s spirit with character design inspired by legendary artist Akira Toriyama (he designed some key art for the game) and the world, with all its colour and ever-changing scenery is worth exploring. It runs smoothly and I experienced no technical hiccups other than the camera being a bit awkward when inside of a building completely with roof and walls, but otherwise it’s a joy to see as much as it is to play. You’ll recognise plenty of familiar monsters from the series and this may be the best that they’ve ever looked!

'Dragon Quest Builders Review'. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on November 25, 2016. Retrieved December 18, 2017.

There’s close to no spoken dialogue but fans will enjoy familiar tunes and whilst I’m not as knowledgeable with the series as I’d like to be, there may very well be some new ones in there!Its colour and ever-changing scenery is worth exploring.Dragon Quest Builders is a game I was looking forward to despite being apprehensive on whether or not it would be a game for me, but I can confidently say that this is a brilliant game that’s well worth sinking the dozens of hours into that it provides – the story is already lengthy but then there’s free play mode to craft ’til your hearts content! Dragon Quest games may not tend to sell very well in the West but Dragon Quest Builders will be one of two things – it’ll either be worthy of its success or a sleeper hit that you should awaken yourself to. I’m thankful that Square Enix brought this over and hope it performs well because it really does deserve it.

I’ve been gaming since a very young age and although I can’t remember my very first game, I fondly remember enjoying Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and being giddy with joy once I beat Dr. My all-time favourite game is a tie between Persona 4 Golden and Final Fantasy IX. Realmz game. As you may have noticed, I have a love for JRPG’s although I dabble in all genres.

My favourite genres are fighters, visual novels and, of course, JRPG’s. Follow me on Twitter @mitchjaylineham, and check me out on Open Critic as Mitch Jay.

Minecraft grew tiring to me after awhile. It has all the fundamentals of a perfect sandbox game, yet overtime it became increasingly clear to me that it was severely limited by it's 16-bit operations. Playing through alpha and beta as it grew into the game it is today was a fantastic experience, but they lost me after they added 'The End'.

It felt like Minecraft was suddenly trying to do something it wasn't designed for. Trying to force direction into a game that was originally open-ended made the entire experience fall flat for me. I feared a guided sandbox game just couldn't work in practice. Boy did Square Enix prove me wrong.

Dragon Quest Builders is Square Enix's first go at the sensationalized sandbox genre. They meticulously blended a fully destructible, malleable, sandbox environment with a story-driven, action RPG experience, resulting in a compelling, ever-expanding adventure.

Before we dive into the meat of this review, I'd like to note that this is the first Dragon Quest game I've ever touched. I went into Dragon Quest Builders with no expectations and was pleasantly surprised with the charm and crass humor awaiting me. The throwbacks to the original Dragon Quest game are sure to enhance the overall experience for any longtime fans of the series.

Building and Gameplay

Dragon Quest Builders provides a smooth gameplay experience, seamlessly flowing from building up your city's defenses to fending off assaulting hordes of monsters. In my 20-odd hours of play I have yet to encounter a dull moment. Even gathering materials is a blast (sometimes quite literally).

Shortly after the start of the game you earn a spin attack ability, which you can then cleverly utilize for gathering insane amounts of blocks and materials. I cannot describe how immensely satisfying it is to swing your mighty hammer a few times and collect half a stack of coal.

From early on, Dragon Quest Builders gives you the sense that anything you see can be gathered, but I've found that feeling rather misleading. Some blocks and items you break won't drop any materials. Sometimes coming back with explosives or stronger gathering tools allows you to mine out the item, but other times you just can't get anything from it. This conundrum made it confusing to discover certain materials, such as stone.

The crafting system is masterfully executed in Dragon Quest Builders. Every crafting recipe felt completely fair. Never did I feel that I invested too many or too little materials for the resulting product. Even monster drops are commonly used in recipes. The best part, though, is that you don't need to have your crafting materials in your inventory to make something. You can use your materials from any crafting station on the map so long as they are stored in some type of chest.

Combat itself is rather simplistic. Monster encounters (excluding boss fights) revolve around avoiding damage while mashing the attack button until any threats are terminated. You may choose to instead hold the button for a spin attack, though in most situations I've found it charges too slow to actually be of use in a tight spot. However, combat does have a solid tempo and flow, so there's never actually any unfair moments. Certain monsters are driven to break blocks and grief your creations, so you'll eventually need to prepare traps and barricades to protect the city against assaults.

There is a plethora of furniture and blocks to build with, allowing you to get crazy with your towns and make it as beautiful or terrifying as you wish. Of course, you could opt to build only enough to get through the villager quests, though experimenting with the Room Recipes is a great way to earn yourself passive buffs.

Building rooms that match Room Recipes will turn a quiet town into a bustling one in no time. Workshops you create will inspire villagers to craft, and when they do, they'll leave the fruit of their labor in a chest for you to benefit from. You'll never need to worry about going hungry with a kitchen in your city. Some rooms even provide passive buffs, such as the Herbalist's Workshop, which amplifies the effects of healing items.

The only spot where the gameplay actually stutters comes with the nontraditional control scheme. It's not awkward by any means, but it's not your average RPG scheme either. I quickly became accustomed to it, though, and the controls didn't remain a problem for long.

The camera, however, is a bit frustrating at times. Particularly in tight spaces. It essentially enters first-person mode without any first-person controls, which is disorienting when you're so used to looking over your character's shoulder.

Story and Pacing

Dragon Quest Builders' story is split into 4 Chapters. Each new chapter acts as new world, with another town to rebuild and more to explore and accomplish. At first, the very thought of abandoning my town was dreadful, but after exploring Chapter 2 for a time the entire system stole my heart.

For starters, each Chapter uses different save files. You may come back to your cities at any time and continue working on them and learning recipes -- even after purifying that world of its ailment.

Dragon Quest Builders' story masks an ongoing tutorial of its numerous sandbox elements, yet none of it even remotely feels like a tutorial.

But what's most impressive is that every Chapter is different. You're not repeating the same basic process four times in a row. Each world has different materials available to take advantage of, requiring you to learn new recipes to survive in the hazardous environments. The buildings you prioritize in each chapter will be vastly different from the last.

As if that wasn't enough, the story and focus is unique in each chapter, and thus the villagers will request different things -- you'll learn to do and build things that you never could have in the previous chapters. Dragon Quest Builders' story masks an ongoing tutorial of its numerous sandbox elements, yet none of it even remotely feels like a tutorial.

The story is largely expressed through the wishes and whims of your many villagers. They lost the ability to build generations ago and live off the land much like animals. On the flip side, the monsters are expert craftsmen. At times you may even need to consult them to learn new crafting recipes.

It's the builder's responsibility to resolve the villagers' issues while simultaneously building the city back up to its former glory. Along the way you'll learn a steady stream of new crafting and room recipes used to build up your cities into the envy of monsters around the world.

Replay Value

Each map is entirely hand-crafted. After you've played every chapter, you've pretty much seen it all. However, the experience of Dragon Quest Builders is far more cohesive and balanced than a procedurally generated one could ever hope to be.

Dragon Quest Builders also houses a creative mode of sorts, aptly named Terra Incognita. You're not granted unlimited blocks, and you're still required to mind your health and hunger, but you have an entirely peaceful island to build upon to your heart's content and various portals that lead off to resources and monsters found from each chapter.

All crafting and room recipes must first be learned in one of the four chapters before they can be utilized in Terra Incognita. Even if city building is all you're after in Dragon Quest Builders, you'll still need to fully complete the game to gain access to everything.

Unfortunately, this game also lacks any sense of multiplayer. While you can download and upload cities in Terra Incognita, you may not adventure with your friends.

Unless you're a creative soul, Dragon Quest Builders doesn't offer a lot of replay value. But that's okay; it is a singleplayer RPG first and foremost.

Music and Graphics

The music of Dragon Quest Builders is unforgettable. I've already found myself whistling and humming various tunes while preparing coffee or washing dishes. Square Enix covets their music in their recording guidelines, and I can't say I blame them. This is some pretty phenomenal stuff.

After watching Dragon Quest Builders' animated trailers, I was worried the blocky appearance of the landscape would clash with the cute artstyle. Seeing it in action has relieved my doubts, though. It actually blends together rather well. On the PS4, the game ran at a smooth framerate. Throughout my time playing I never encountered any noticeable stutters or slowdowns.

Verdict

Despite lacking multiplayer and having frustrating camera controls in tighter spaces, Dragon Quest Builders is a gripping sandbox RPG with charming characters, satisfying gathering and building mechanics, and a simple story that's easy to get invested in.

If you're a fan of RPGs and have trouble getting into sandbox games like Minecraft, look out for Dragon Quest Builders coming to PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita on October 11th.

Note: Review copy supplied by Square Enix.