Dragon Quest Builders review: Building a break with RPG tradition

In a year when much slower and much more traditional Dragon Quest games are hitting the market, Dragon Quest Builders comes along to inject some zip into the series. While it won't break any records for speedy pacing, Builders is still a major departure for the definitive JRPG series, replacing the series-standard, turn-based grinding with real-time, open-world exploration and Minecraft-style block-based base building.

Somehow, this isn't that surprising. The survival/crafting genre has exploded into public consciousness since Minecraft quickly became the most popular game on Earth. Knock-offs, clones, and would-be successors to that throne have been mostly quarantined to low-priced Steam releases thus far. It was only a matter of time before major, established brands began swerving into that territory, too.

Even so, it seems like a particularly odd fit for Dragon Quest, a series that has rarely strayed from tradition. Even last year's Dragon Quest Heroes—itself a major diversion from the classic turn-based grind, simplistic story, and self-contained world—simply followed the custom of another Musou game based on a popular Japanese franchise.

Dragon Quest Builders is different in that it's actually a very traditional Dragon Quest game in most of the ways that count: an evil overlord has taken out most of the world, and the world needs a hero to take him out.

Except you're not a hero. The game is very clear about that from the start. Instead, you’re the "Builder." The antagonist Dragonlord (making a return as the big bad from the very first DQ game) didn't wipe out humanity but instead took away its innate ability to build. This means you, the custom-created main character, are the only one capable of putting together sticks, rocks, ropes, metal, and all the other raw materials you'd expect from a game like this and making new things.

Since the Builder isn’t a hero, he doesn't get any stronger from fighting the monsters that the Dragonlord has sent to swarm the world. Instead, your power is derived from building new arms, armor, and a central township from scratch in each of the game’s four chapters.

Breaking up those towns and forcing you to leave everything you've made every time you change chapters is an odd choice. In a way, it defeats the purpose of a block-based crafting game like Minecraft or Terraria. If you can't admire or continue to improve your creations once they're gone, what’s the point?

Renewed purpose

Yet Dragon Quest Builders makes it work by eschewing the underlying "purpose" of crafting games altogether. Building is just a means to an end, and that end is playing a Dragon Quest game. As somebody who'd take Dragon Quest 8 over Ark: Survival Evolved any day, that’s perfectly fine by me.

At the end of each chapter, there's a boss fight. Rather than spend an extra six hours killing Slimes, Bodkin Bowyers, and Hammerhoods to reach the level needed to beat them—as you might in other Dragon Quest games—Builders clearly directs you to some final invention necessary for killing the creature. In one chapter it might be ballistae, while in another it's a cockamamie crash-mobile meant to ram the boss' body.

Each chapter directs you to this creation through a string of mandatory quests, offered to you by colorful characters that reach your settlement over time. There's not much in the way of side content in Dragon Quest Builders—at least not until you complete each chapter for the first time. At that point, challenges open up to give you cause to come back for more in your favorite swamp, desert, or plains.

In the meantime, these quests give Builders a sense of direction not found in most other games of this type. The focus isn't nearly so much on exploration or player-defined achievement as it is reaching a goal. That goal? Complete the story; topple the Dragonlord.

That change may turn some free-spirited survival-crafting game fans away, but personally I'm thrilled with it. Part of what's kept me away from this genre of games since the early days of Minecraft is not knowing what to do. Builders took that decision out of my hands and exchanged it for the light, charming characters and plot that Dragon Quest games always hand out at the door.

And while the setup is dead simple, the story is fairly engaging. That comes through in the way Builders codifies JRPG mechanics as part of the plot, just scratching at the fourth wall while taking the source material relatively seriously.

You can't be a "hero," because you don't level up. It's a cute, almost throwaway line at the start of the game, but it becomes a major point by the end. As does the fact that Dragon Quest Builders takes place in the same world as the first three games in the series. Developer Square Enix stretches the fundamental basics of Dragon Quest lore and pacing in fascinating ways right up to the final boss.

Confounding combat

Unfortunately, some of Builders' weak points are the boss fights—or at least a part of them. With one massive exception (the chapter two boss is an absolute nightmare), the closing monster in each act is usually fine. It's everything preceding them that's the problem.

The first boss, for example, is a golem that assaults your first town from all sides. To beat him, you build and place an unbreakable palisade in his path to stun him. Then you can blow him to bits with bombs while he's dizzy. Building the bombs and the barricades are the end goal of your town in the first chapter. It's an entirely enjoyable way for everything you've built to come together in one final combat puzzle.

What wasn't enjoyable were the waves upon waves of bog-standard monsters I had to fight beforehand. Every boss in Builders is preceded by these battles within which the same creatures you see in the world waltz into your town and wail on the citizens you’ve collected along the way.

If basic combat in Dragon Quest Builders was better, these fights would probably just be tedious. It's not, though. The combat is bad—bad, bad, bad.

Builders makes no bones about borrowing from 2D Legend of Zelda games. Your only attacks are a weapon swing and a charged-up spin move. But the range on these swings is atrocious. Meanwhile, just touching an enemy will not only damage you, it will cannonball you backwards. That means there's only a tiny window from which you can actually strike a monster. If you screw up and walk too close, you'll barrel backwards and need to line it up again.

When fighting more than a handful of enemies—which is very, very common, especially during those pre-scheduled waves—winning without burning through healing items is... improbable, at best. Those pre-boss base assaults happen throughout each chapter, too, so have fun with that. It's the least interesting, most irritating thing about Dragon Quest Builders, but if you want to see the worthwhile end of the game, you'll have to do it many, many times.

Slippery cubes

A few of those combat control issues slip into base building, as well. Unlike Minecraft, Builders is entirely third-person. That means there's no first-person reticle or cursor to guide you while breaking or placing blocks of construction material. When placing them, there is an outline of where the block will be, but if it's not quite where you want it to go, things can get fiddly. Meanwhile, if you go so far as to misplace a box, not knowing exactly where your swing will land means maybe breaking the surrounding structure.

It's irritating, but I did get used to it with the dozens of hours of practice Builders afforded me. The real downside is that the third-person camera means enclosed rooms are a no-no, since it's nearly impossible to navigate inside them. In turn, that means stacking structures vertically is virtually impossible.

Once you're comfortable with those limitations, though, base-building is a hell of a lot of fun (certainly more so than fighting). Since you're basically working toward the same JRPG end-goal of any Dragon Quest title, there's a sense of approved accomplishment you don't get from many other crafting games. You don't even need to decide for yourself if you're satisfied with your creation, because the game simply tells you when you've done a good job.

That's a bit weird to consider since the freedom of similar games is usually the draw. Sometimes, however, I'm just looking to accomplish a simple task that has been set out for me. That's remained the crux of Dragon Quest games since the beginning—and it's why they still hew so closely to tradition.

In Dragon Quest Builders, the tedious tradition of grinding has been replaced with something a bit more creative. Even if it does practically force you to color within the lines, you get to pick where those lines fall. For me, that's enough to make this the most interesting Dragon Quest game in years—even if it's not the best survival game.

The Good

• A simple plot that still stretches the boundaries of Dragon Quest lore in surprising ways.
• Directed base building replaces the usual DQ grind with something freer.
• Mostly impressive boss battles that put what you've created to the test, in satisfying fashion.

The Bad

• Basic combat is a mess, and it gets worse the more enemies are on-screen.
• Building can be imprecise—a problem most similar games solve by being in first person.
• Force combat sequences are tedious as all get out.

The Ugly

• The second boss battle—which surrounds you with poisoning, paralyzing, control-reversing minions—nearly made me quit playing the game. I swear I only beat it out of anger.

Verdict: If either Dragon Quest or base-building games appeal to you, try it with an open mind and a willingness to buck convention.