I’ve always thought that a strategy RPG set within the Dragon Quest universe would be perfect. The mystery dungeon games are okay but don’t scratch the itch. The franchise has so much content to use relating to story, characters, scenarios and monsters that this seems obvious. After all, Final Fantasy got one and so why shouldn’t Dragon Quest? Well someone at Square-Enix was apparently listening to my request and in 2009 they finally answered the call. Unfortunately they opted against a full blown release and instead it premiered as a DSi download title from the eShop. There are inherent limitations with this format. For one thing Nintendo allowed only small bite sized games on the shop. That’s why when Dragon Quest Wars released I was wary of it, but with the price tag I couldn’t resist. Was the game able to overcome the limits of Dsiware? Let’s check it out.
The stort answer is no. The game still feels like a miniature release and is extremely low on content. When it debuted it cost only five dollars so it’s tough to fault it too much, but this is not the Dragon Quest Tactics I had been hoping for. I would have much preferred a full priced, full video game using the concept. With all that out of the way let’s get to the gameplay. Dragon Quest Wars is a 3D grid based strategy game wherein you take turns moving monsters across a battlefield and performing various actions. The entirety of Dragon Quest Wars is controlled with the touch screen and stylus. At first I didn’t think I would like this, but it’s handled in a really cute manner. Moving monsters around feels like you’re picking them up, and it looks like they’re dangling from your stylus.
Combat is strictly turn based. There’s no menu system which feels very basic, and you can select and move any of your monsters in any order you choose. When you’re done moving them you can select from one of three cards. These can be dragged on to the field and dropped on to a the grid where you would like the action to be performed. Each of these commands have different effects as well as varying ranges. The standard attacks can only be used on adjacent squares, but some can strike multiple monsters. Spells are a little different because they each have different ranges. Some can only hit diagonally, others strike in a line, and one even effects all monsters on the battlefield. What’s interesting is the fact that these effect all monsters in the target zone. Even friendly ones. You must use strategy or you might hurt yourself.
Dragon Quest Wars uses a skewed camera perspective which I wasn’t the biggest fan of initially. An overhead view would have worked better, but once I got used to it there were no major issues. The camera is also zoomed in pretty close to the action. This can be the kiss of death in any strategy game of this sort, but in this case it works. That’s because the battlefields are all pretty darn small. In most cases you can travel across them in just a few turns even with monsters that move even one space at a time. The standard stages are five grids wide and five long. The biggest increase this by just one additional space both ways. This means battles are very small scale which lowers the potential for strategy. Fortunately this isn’t a huge issue and actually makes the battles feel more intimate.
This also means that battles will be very short. I never had one that went on more than a few minutes. You won’t find huge sweeping battles here, but it’s just right for short play sessions. Considering this is a portable game that’s an advantage in my book. Unfortunately the package is really light on content. For single player you have the tutorial (which actually serves as the main adventure oddly enough) and battle modes. In the former you compete in a handful of battles which teach you the basics, but there’s a progression system wherein you select the stage you’d like to play. In the beginning it’s very easy but the difficulty does ramp up, and Dragon Quest Wars doesn’t hold your hand outside of giving you hints and putting you in situations that demand use of various mechanics. For a tutorial it’s surprisingly fun.
Battle Mode is the real meat and potatoes here though. You begin by selecting from one of six stages. These are very similar to one another and differ only in map size, graphics, and a few obstacles thrown in here and there. You don’t have a lot of variety. You can however customize your team of monsters and choose from all available. The same goes for the enemy army. From here it’s just the same basic gameplay from the tutorial mode, but trying out different combinations is mildly entertaining. With the lack of options you’ll likely to get bored if you play more than a few matches however. Aside from that there’s a multiplayer option which I haven’t been able to try out yet. I imagine it’s more of the same from the main game, but with a friend instead of AI opponent.
The main problem with Dragon Quest Wars is its lack of content. You can’t really blame the developers considering the small download size and budget priced release. Regardless, it’s still a problem. For one thing you only have six different monsters to choose from. It’s also only the basic recognizable set including the slime, wyvern, golem, drakkie, healslime, and mallet user. Each has three different commands but two of these are taken up by attack and defend for most. Enemies have the same pool of monsters, and they’re all functionally identical. Truth be told you can see and do everything in Dragon Quest Wars in under an hour. For a five dollar game that’s acceptable, but as the first strategy RPG not based on the Mystery Dungeon mechanics I’m pretty let down.
As far as graphics go Dragon Quest Wars looks really nice. The characters and battlefields are fully 3D and are very polished. The polygonal monsters in particular look great and are accurate representations of the series mainstays. Even the animations are well done, and it’s easy to tell what’s happening at all times. The simplistic interface had me a little confused at first. There’s no cancel or back button for example. If you want to take back an action you’ve chosen you can simply pick up and move your monster again or select a new command. Doing so cancels the last action you did and replaces it with the new one. The music is okay but nothing special to be honest. Of course the classic title theme is here and it sounds as glorious as ever. During combat you’ll hear some original compositions that match the classic style.
