Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below Review (PS4)
Story
This game takes place in a fantasy world where monsters and humans are befriending each other. One day, the monsters turn evil and began attacking the humans. The captains of Arba's army, Luceus and Aurora, fought their way to the throne room and began finding the king, Doric. Not only their city is in chaos, but other cities as well. During their journey, both Luceus and Aurora find new friends from different worlds, who were brought to this world unknowingly.
The story premise is simple, yet it is rather entertaining thanks to the clever cast of characters as well as great dialogue. Luceus is a warriors who prefers to strategise on every move, whereas his friend Aurora prefer to jump into action immediately. Other characters have interesting personalities as well, such as Doric, Yangus, Bianca, Alena, Kiryl, and many other characters.
Gameplay
This game plays similarly like other Warriors games by Omega Force, but with moderate emphasis on RPG elements such as leveling and stats importance. Each character in the game has different skills as well as stats, so choosing a good and balanced party members during your battles are highly recommended.
The game progression is simple. Complete Story battles to proceed the story. Most of the battles often involve you fighting against hordes of enemies and clear them out from an area. Some of the battles may require you to defend certain NPCs or fight against bosses. Outside of Story battles, you can fight free-roaming battles against enemies to gain experience points, gold, or even ingredients for your side Quests.
The leveling system is pretty simple. You gain experience points when defeating monsters and bosses. Upon leveling up, you will gain stats increase as well as Skill Points. Skill Points are used to learn new Skills, such as learning new spells and attacks, gain increased stats, learn exclusive abilities and other passive abilities. Each character has their own unique moves and skills to be learned, and some of the skills may power up certain attack moves of the character. It is important to prioritise learning new skills, abilities, or increase your stats before fighting the Story battles.
Outside of battles, you will return to your airship and may choose to talk to other people, buy new weapons and defensive orbs, or craft new accessories. As you progress in the game, the shops will gain new equipment to be sold for your purpose. You need gold to purchase them, and it is important as later in the game features many tougher battles against hordes of enemies. Accessories can be only crafted once you have the appropriate recipes. An accessory may have three different recipes, and they may require different materials and amount of money to craft it, so choose wisely. Recipes can be only obtained by defeating enemies rarely, or exchanging mini medals with another vendor in your airship. You may also choose to accept and complete Quests in the game for rewards.
The combat controls are simple. You can move around your controlled character, switch to another one, and use simple physical attacks. with combo moves You may also use your skills at the cost of MP. Some magic skills can be charged up for even greater damage in a wider area at the cost of more MP. You can also block, jump or dodge incoming attacks, which is useful when fighting against tough bosses or enemies. You can form up to a party with four members, so it allows you to control up to four characters in battles. You may choose to go solo if you want to, but it is not recommended as there are higher risks of doing so.
There are two major combat features that will help you in combat. First, is the usage of Monster Minions. Whenever you defeat a monster, sometimes it may drop a medal that allows you to summon the monster as your Minion. This is especially useful when fighting lots of enemies or when defending a strategic position. Some Monster Minions can act as sentries upon being summoned, whereas others may only be used once for a single attack or granting positive bonuses to your party members. Certain monster medals consume one slot only, and others may consume more than one. Powerful Monster Minions typically use more than one slot, whereas weaker monsters use only one slot.
Another major combat feature is the Tension Mode. By filling up your Tension Gauge, you will be able to activate this mode, which grants you invincibility, infinite usage of your Skills and Spells, and increased attack power for a short period of time. Once your gauge runs out, your controlled character will unleash a powerful attack that can damage multiple enemies with huge damage, and this is called coup de grace. You may also activate it manually in case you are in hurry to defeat your enemies.
Monsters come in different types, such as skeleton monsters, slimes, and many more. Most of these enemies are easy to beat, but many of the game battles may feature stronger enemies to halt your progress, such as the powerful golems and machine monsters. Typically, they act as mini-bosses in both story battles and free-roaming battles in the game. Some of the early game bosses may act as mini-bosses in later battles. Status effects are present in the game, so you have to watch out for them in case you get inflicted by them. Equipping accessories may reduce the duration of these ailments, as some of them are quite dangerous if left alone.
Boss fights are certainly the highlight of battles in hack and slash games. Bosses are usually tougher than regular enemies, and some bosses may have weakpoints for you to exploit. Damaging these weakpoints will cause higher damage than usual. Most of the boss fights are usually require you to beat them endlessly, but quite a few of them are tricky and require strategy to beat them effectively.
There are few issues with this game. First off, many of the enemies are mere palette swaps with weaker versions, and there are not many unique variations for players to beat. Secondly, three of the sword-wielding characters share almost the same movesets, which lack of variety. Attack animations of many of the game characters are somewhat similar, such as all Spells in the game are frontal area attack, and neither of the Spells used by all characters are varied enough, such as throwing a fireball projectile and such instead. Element weaknesses are not utlilised enough in this game, with only one type of enemy has an elemental weakness. Most of the game's Quests are also generic, with either beating certain number of monsters or getting certain amount of ingredients. Fortunately, the later Quests are more enjoyable as many of it are related to the party members' subplots. Story battle objectives are not varied enough, as many of them involve you clearing out enemies from an area to complete it.
Personally, these are the main issues with the RPG elements in the game, but overall gameplay package is somewhat fun and satisfying to play despite some issues. Overall gameplay is easy, fun, and accessible. The combat is purely fun, and the boss fights are intense and creative. I like many of the game's battles, especially when defending a strategic point against enemies or when escorting NPCs. The equipment system is rather simple, yet effective as well. Other RPG features such as leveling and stats systems are well-implemented as well. Each character is also very fun to play, with my favourites being Terry, Alena, Kyril, Yangus and Psaro for having very unique type of moves and abilities.
Graphics
The graphics look pretty, with all characters designed by Akira Toriyama look really life-like and well-designed. The environments and monsters designs are also well-done. The graphical performance is solid in this game as well, with no bugs or glitches encountered while playing in the game.
Sound
The English voice acting is pretty great, with a variety of accents spoken by the English voice actors which somewhat fit with the characters portrayed in the game. Luceus and Aurora have recognisable British accents, Alena and Kiryl have Russian accents, and so on. Not only that, the dialogue in the game is also well-supported by the great voice acting. This game also has Japanese voices option also, so it is fulfilling to players who prefer original Japanese voice acting.
The soundtrack is somewhat listenable, with some good themes playing while fighting bosses. However, not all themes are to my liking, but I really like the opening theme of the game itself. Bold, adventurous and pleasant to listen.
Replay Value
This game has moderate replay value. You may choose to fight rematches against bosses and their powered up versions, complete all Quests, collect every items, fought every bosses, as well as fight some of the optional superbosses.
Conclusion
This is a solid action RPG game, but this game still has issues with certain RPG elements, mild repetitiveness of Story battles, many generic Quests and others. Other issues are present such as lack of variety of Spells used in the game in terms of projectile type, explosion type, or etc. However, this game's combat is certainly fun to play, lots of fun characters to play as, intense and creative boss fights, as well as well-liked characters. This is my first Warriors-styled game, and I personally like this game. Highly recommend it towards action RPG fans, both new or old fans.
Score
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Final Score: 8.5/10 or 34/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Adventurous storyline.
- Many likable characters.
- Fun combat.
- Easy to learn gameplay.
- Many cool-looking attacks and magic spells.
- Intense and creative boss fights.
- Monster Minions are cool to utilise.
- Pretty graphics.
- Smooth graphical performance.
- Great English voice acting.
Cons
- Lack of objectives variety in Story battles.
- Lack of animation variety of Spells. (e.g. projectile type, explosion type, beam type)
- Learning new skills is somewhat too straightforward.
- Lack of elemental weaknesses on many monsters or bosses.
- Many generic Quests.
**Images source: Gematsu
Find the cause of the plight that made the monsters turn against the humans with newfound friends from different worlds.
This game takes place in a fantasy world where monsters and humans are befriending each other. One day, the monsters turn evil and began attacking the humans. The captains of Arba's army, Luceus and Aurora, fought their way to the throne room and began finding the king, Doric. Not only their city is in chaos, but other cities as well. During their journey, both Luceus and Aurora find new friends from different worlds, who were brought to this world unknowingly.
The story premise is simple, yet it is rather entertaining thanks to the clever cast of characters as well as great dialogue. Luceus is a warriors who prefers to strategise on every move, whereas his friend Aurora prefer to jump into action immediately. Other characters have interesting personalities as well, such as Doric, Yangus, Bianca, Alena, Kiryl, and many other characters.
Gameplay
Hack and slash gameplay mixed with some RPG elements.
This game plays similarly like other Warriors games by Omega Force, but with moderate emphasis on RPG elements such as leveling and stats importance. Each character in the game has different skills as well as stats, so choosing a good and balanced party members during your battles are highly recommended.
The game progression is simple. Complete Story battles to proceed the story. Most of the battles often involve you fighting against hordes of enemies and clear them out from an area. Some of the battles may require you to defend certain NPCs or fight against bosses. Outside of Story battles, you can fight free-roaming battles against enemies to gain experience points, gold, or even ingredients for your side Quests.
The leveling system is pretty simple. You gain experience points when defeating monsters and bosses. Upon leveling up, you will gain stats increase as well as Skill Points. Skill Points are used to learn new Skills, such as learning new spells and attacks, gain increased stats, learn exclusive abilities and other passive abilities. Each character has their own unique moves and skills to be learned, and some of the skills may power up certain attack moves of the character. It is important to prioritise learning new skills, abilities, or increase your stats before fighting the Story battles.
Outside of battles, you will return to your airship and may choose to talk to other people, buy new weapons and defensive orbs, or craft new accessories. As you progress in the game, the shops will gain new equipment to be sold for your purpose. You need gold to purchase them, and it is important as later in the game features many tougher battles against hordes of enemies. Accessories can be only crafted once you have the appropriate recipes. An accessory may have three different recipes, and they may require different materials and amount of money to craft it, so choose wisely. Recipes can be only obtained by defeating enemies rarely, or exchanging mini medals with another vendor in your airship. You may also choose to accept and complete Quests in the game for rewards.
Some skills and spells hurt a lot.
The combat controls are simple. You can move around your controlled character, switch to another one, and use simple physical attacks. with combo moves You may also use your skills at the cost of MP. Some magic skills can be charged up for even greater damage in a wider area at the cost of more MP. You can also block, jump or dodge incoming attacks, which is useful when fighting against tough bosses or enemies. You can form up to a party with four members, so it allows you to control up to four characters in battles. You may choose to go solo if you want to, but it is not recommended as there are higher risks of doing so.
There are two major combat features that will help you in combat. First, is the usage of Monster Minions. Whenever you defeat a monster, sometimes it may drop a medal that allows you to summon the monster as your Minion. This is especially useful when fighting lots of enemies or when defending a strategic position. Some Monster Minions can act as sentries upon being summoned, whereas others may only be used once for a single attack or granting positive bonuses to your party members. Certain monster medals consume one slot only, and others may consume more than one. Powerful Monster Minions typically use more than one slot, whereas weaker monsters use only one slot.
Another major combat feature is the Tension Mode. By filling up your Tension Gauge, you will be able to activate this mode, which grants you invincibility, infinite usage of your Skills and Spells, and increased attack power for a short period of time. Once your gauge runs out, your controlled character will unleash a powerful attack that can damage multiple enemies with huge damage, and this is called coup de grace. You may also activate it manually in case you are in hurry to defeat your enemies.
Monsters come in different types, such as skeleton monsters, slimes, and many more. Most of these enemies are easy to beat, but many of the game battles may feature stronger enemies to halt your progress, such as the powerful golems and machine monsters. Typically, they act as mini-bosses in both story battles and free-roaming battles in the game. Some of the early game bosses may act as mini-bosses in later battles. Status effects are present in the game, so you have to watch out for them in case you get inflicted by them. Equipping accessories may reduce the duration of these ailments, as some of them are quite dangerous if left alone.
This is only the second boss fight in the game.
Boss fights are certainly the highlight of battles in hack and slash games. Bosses are usually tougher than regular enemies, and some bosses may have weakpoints for you to exploit. Damaging these weakpoints will cause higher damage than usual. Most of the boss fights are usually require you to beat them endlessly, but quite a few of them are tricky and require strategy to beat them effectively.
There are few issues with this game. First off, many of the enemies are mere palette swaps with weaker versions, and there are not many unique variations for players to beat. Secondly, three of the sword-wielding characters share almost the same movesets, which lack of variety. Attack animations of many of the game characters are somewhat similar, such as all Spells in the game are frontal area attack, and neither of the Spells used by all characters are varied enough, such as throwing a fireball projectile and such instead. Element weaknesses are not utlilised enough in this game, with only one type of enemy has an elemental weakness. Most of the game's Quests are also generic, with either beating certain number of monsters or getting certain amount of ingredients. Fortunately, the later Quests are more enjoyable as many of it are related to the party members' subplots. Story battle objectives are not varied enough, as many of them involve you clearing out enemies from an area to complete it.
Personally, these are the main issues with the RPG elements in the game, but overall gameplay package is somewhat fun and satisfying to play despite some issues. Overall gameplay is easy, fun, and accessible. The combat is purely fun, and the boss fights are intense and creative. I like many of the game's battles, especially when defending a strategic point against enemies or when escorting NPCs. The equipment system is rather simple, yet effective as well. Other RPG features such as leveling and stats systems are well-implemented as well. Each character is also very fun to play, with my favourites being Terry, Alena, Kyril, Yangus and Psaro for having very unique type of moves and abilities.
Graphics
Pretty looking anime-styled characters, monsters, and environment.
The graphics look pretty, with all characters designed by Akira Toriyama look really life-like and well-designed. The environments and monsters designs are also well-done. The graphical performance is solid in this game as well, with no bugs or glitches encountered while playing in the game.
Sound
Great voice acting and listenable soundtrack.
The English voice acting is pretty great, with a variety of accents spoken by the English voice actors which somewhat fit with the characters portrayed in the game. Luceus and Aurora have recognisable British accents, Alena and Kiryl have Russian accents, and so on. Not only that, the dialogue in the game is also well-supported by the great voice acting. This game also has Japanese voices option also, so it is fulfilling to players who prefer original Japanese voice acting.
The soundtrack is somewhat listenable, with some good themes playing while fighting bosses. However, not all themes are to my liking, but I really like the opening theme of the game itself. Bold, adventurous and pleasant to listen.
Replay Value
Moderate replay value.
This game has moderate replay value. You may choose to fight rematches against bosses and their powered up versions, complete all Quests, collect every items, fought every bosses, as well as fight some of the optional superbosses.
Conclusion
Solid action hack and slash game mixed with RPG elements.
This is a solid action RPG game, but this game still has issues with certain RPG elements, mild repetitiveness of Story battles, many generic Quests and others. Other issues are present such as lack of variety of Spells used in the game in terms of projectile type, explosion type, or etc. However, this game's combat is certainly fun to play, lots of fun characters to play as, intense and creative boss fights, as well as well-liked characters. This is my first Warriors-styled game, and I personally like this game. Highly recommend it towards action RPG fans, both new or old fans.
Score
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Final Score: 8.5/10 or 34/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Adventurous storyline.
- Many likable characters.
- Fun combat.
- Easy to learn gameplay.
- Many cool-looking attacks and magic spells.
- Intense and creative boss fights.
- Monster Minions are cool to utilise.
- Pretty graphics.
- Smooth graphical performance.
- Great English voice acting.
Cons
- Lack of objectives variety in Story battles.
- Lack of animation variety of Spells. (e.g. projectile type, explosion type, beam type)
- Learning new skills is somewhat too straightforward.
- Lack of elemental weaknesses on many monsters or bosses.
- Many generic Quests.
**Images source: Gematsu
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