Dragon Quest Swords: The Good, The Bad, And The Butt-Ugly
Much like my delayed Virtual Console impressions, I got Dragon Quest Swords the day after E3 but haven't had time to actually sit down and try it out until this week. After playing through the first few levels, I... think it could use some work.
The first-person sword-swingin' gameplay is as fun as it was at Square Enix Party, but actually getting it home and playing all the modes reveals quite a few flaws that weren't apparent (or were easy to gloss over) in May. Keep reading to find out what I like, what I don't, and what I think they should do about it.
What's cool:
The sword-slashing gameplay feels as good as ever. You're not moving a sword around with 1:1 control; you're just making gestures in front of the TV that get translated into sword swipes. But you can go nuts if you want, wildly swinging the sword to hit enemies as they fill the screen. They don't always appear in neat little lines, so you have to work out the math: what's the most efficient way to hit all of them in the shortest amount of time? Among other things, the game calculates your hit percentage at the end of every round when it assigns you a letter grade, so precision and accuracy are rewarded.
There's more than just slashing. You have to use your shield effectively by holding down B and putting it into position to block enemy attacks. You can send bomb enemies back towards enemies by (I think, haven't succeeded yet) doing a forward thrust instead of a sideswipe. And you can send enemy projectiles back at them with perfect timing. Often you have to juggle a lot of different enemies, so you have to prioritize your moves.
It gets difficult pretty quickly. I'm on, I think, the third major level? And I already had to go running back to the castle town, tail between my legs, because my partner character had died and I was out of healing items. If you play perfectly, blocking attacks and nailing enemies before they strike you, you of course will get through just fine. But you can't be lax: let a couple of attacks get through and you'll find yourself way, way down on health.
But it's not frustrating. Yes, in typical Dragon Quest style, you lose half your gold if you die. But if you retreat back to town before you kick it, you can keep it all. Sure, you'll have to play the level again, but you'll likely have earned enough gold to buy better armor and upgrade your weapon.
What sucks:
Genius Sonority needs some programming lessons. I'm sure it's not their fault entirely -- Square Enix likely went to them and told them to make a Wii launch game on a shoestring budget in only a few months' time. But the fact that you constantly have to deal with loading screens every 100 feet or so while walking around the castle town, because they can't just stream the different parts of town as you're wandering around, is so amazingly ridiculous. Even worse: when you enter a new area, it takes a few seconds before the characters even appear. There's enough time to run straight through where they should be standing.
What ugly graphics. The enemies and NPCs look pretty good. But the backgrounds are are some of the most boring, low-polygon, plain-textured environments I've ever laid eyes on. Considering how amazing Dragon Quest VIII looked on PS2, this is so disappointing.
Moving with the D-pad isn't ideal. Square Enix obviously wanted this to be a game that could be played using only the Wiimote. Okay. Since you only have to navigate the first-person 3D towns and levels in slow-paced, non-battle situations, it's not that bad that you have to choke up on the Wiimote to reach the D-pad. And considering that they're going for Japan's wide swath of adult, casual Dragon Quest fans, this is probably a good solution. But guess what? These people don't exist in America. Add nunchuk support for the US version.
The pointer sucks. When you move the pointer out of the confines of the TV screen -- which happens every few seconds, because this is a game about swinging the Wiimote wildly -- there's no on-screen indicator showing you where the pointer is. This is unacceptable. Again, since Square Enix isn't bringing this here until 2008, please use that time to create a pointer interface that doesn't leave you helpless every few seconds because you don't know where to point your hand.
Phew. Okay, well, the silver lining here is that, aside from the graphics, these are all things that Square Enix can fix up for the US release of the game. They do this pretty regularly, actually: release an unpolished version in Japan, fix it for the US, then re-release it in Japan with English voicework and action figures or whatever. Dragon Quest Swords is a prime candidate for this treatment. Because I am sure that the Japanese market will take this well over a million units even with the issues. But for the Western release, it needs a lot more polish.