Quick Look: Dragon Quest Builders

Brad "The Builder" Shoemaker

Woo, this is up just in time for coffee. :)

He steps out of the town and the music starts up. Nostalgia bomb.

Dragon Quest came out in '86 for the NES in Japan and '89 as Dragon Warrior in the US. Final Fantasy was '87 and '90 respectively. Brad was pretty spot on with his history lesson.

Now if I'd only read up on this game's backstory and realized it's actually a what-if sequel to the alternate ending from the original Dragon Quest/Warrior (which I clearly never finished)...

This game looks really great! I've never been interested in Minecraft or its ilk but this Dragon Quest twist (and it looks a tad lighter than the other games in terms of building mechanics) seems right up my alley to give it a shot. I love the structured, plot driven focus instead of "Go anywhere, do anything!" that tends to just leave me disinterested in, well, doing anything.

The setting of the game is after DQ1 if the hero accepted the big bad's offer to join him (which famously erased your savegame in the original game).

Brad Bootbuilder and Dan Wreckert.

I hope they put this on Steam like they did with Heroes

I wish I liked the art style more because the gameplay seems interesting. It looks a lot like Little King's Story in style which I didn't like the look of either.

You can hold the look up/look down buttons, separately or in combination, so that you can lock your character's body position and placement position to place things more easily, @brad

Oh man. I haven't watched the video yet but I really hoped Jeff was involved in this quick look. Even the premise of the game brought him so much joy. Maybe he's afraid that the gameplay won't live up to it!

What the fuck?! No Jeff on THIS Quick Look? This is a crime!

This looks great

Can't believe Dan didn't know what Dragon Warrior was.

The video description leads me to think that Dragon Quest Builders is essentially this song:

I've got to say, I bought this game right when it released on the PSN, and I played it for about 5 hours straight. As a person who liked Minecraft a lot, but also craved some semblance of a path through the game, this strikes the perfect balance (for me). The only history I have with DQ is that I'm currently playing DQ7 for 3DS, so I'm not blinded by nostalgia or anything. If nothing else, try out the demo and see if it resonates with you the same way!

I was looking forward to seeing more of this one.

I like how the villagers of your town will go to shops and actually build things then place them into nearby chests. Just the town feeling alive and them actually doing things is super cool.

A minute in, and several hours of the demo later, and I'm stunned that you don't have to build roofs for all the rooms you created. Though, really, if we're talking original Dragon Quest/Warrior, none of those rooms had ceilings either. They would just get in the way of the top-down view more often than not.

This seems neat, but I don't know if it's $60 neat...

Oh wow, someone finally managed to make minecraft into a real game!

I just wish they hadn't copied the brain dead combat as well though...

@mr_creeper: vita version is less

Do a thing.

Got thsi on the Vita, still very early. It's neat.

Thou hast done well in recording this Quick Look.

Thy Experience increases by 15

Thy GOLD increases by 50.

Will thou tell me now of thy deeds so they won't be forgotten?

Sure is a LOT of Dan&Brad quick-looks of late. Do I get to complain about this without coming off as an asshole? It's just a bit of an overdose.

I don't know whether to get this for Vita or PS4. I can't find the PS Vita version in the UK anyway.

I think you get the ability to build roofs later on in the game. In trailers I've seen there's been much more elaborate buildings with much higher walls, roofs, stairs and even transportation systems.

@benderunit22: Ditto. I don't own a PS4 or Vita, and this game looks alright.

@brad3000: There are roof tiles you find in later parts of the first chapter. You "can" build flat roofs immediately, but the camera makes it tricky. To build rooms with a roof the rooms have to be 3+ high so the camera won't freak out. If you build at 2 high, it goes into a "faux" 1st person by either being inside your head or if you swivel the camera beside you.

Oh man, when that overworld theme kicked in...

I don't have two shits to give for Minecraft, but I love Dragon Quest with all my heart.

This seems really cool.

I am really surprised how much I want to play this, considering how slight my experience with builders or Dragon Quest is. Been really liking the modern DQ look (this and Heroes).

That said, full priced games are completely out of the question for me, so, not happening any time soon. $80 bucks ain't nothing to sneeze at these days.. stupid poor life...

Mask makes him look like a "They Live" Alien.

This looks rad. Super weird that it's an alternate sequel to the first Dragon Quest/Warrior.

Brad's town looks like garbage though. Get rid of that dirt, Brad! Pretty that shit up!

I love that map.

So after playing this I found that you can build a 2nd floor and remove all the support and it will just float in the sky. After that I just built floating walkways to avoid enemies, which is something I also did in Fallout 4.

Is this is a thing in all builders? Never played Minecraft so I'm curious if people all build crazy sky castle filing cabinets.

It is actually pretty rare to have a crafting/building type game like this where actual laws of gravity work like intended. I'm actually have a hard time thinking of even one. Floating stuff is pretty common in Minecraft.

@gaftra: Pretty much why Minecraft and its clones are fundamentally flawed in that way.

I was driving when listening to yesterday's Bombcast, so I wasn't paying full attention, but is this the game Twitter's second most famous Will Smith was talking about playing? If so, this looks pretty awesome, and I also hope that it eventually hits PC/Steam.

dirt wall ass having garbage city

Hunh, okay. I did think this was fun but just seemed a bit weird. It really broke the illusion for me in Fallout. I just had floating turrets all over the sky surrounding a borg cube generator that was pretty much impregnable.

This game is a little lighter/sillier so probably will give it a whirl. Does seem like that lack of physics breaks some gameplay though. I killed the dragon by digging a hole underneath him and jump slashing ;p

The music is so grating. Ugh.

I don't really go for Minecrafties, and I think I only ever played DQ 8, but something about this kind of appeals to me.

This references the original Dragon Quest so much because it's a sequel. The premise is based on one of the two choices you can make at the end of that game.

I'd buy it if it were on the PC.

Mr. Shoemaker BUILD UP THAT WALL! (of your town, seriously you just walked past it with the dirt out to fix it).