Imagine being in a fight where the other person doesn't throw a punch. On the one hand, you would feel like a bully. No one who fancies themselves a hero would beat up someone who refuses to fight back, but there might be a small part of your brain that would enjoy exerting such uninhibited strength. Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below stands at that crossroads. As I cut down unceasing swarms of cute, pacifistic enemies, I wondered who's the real villain in this exercise. Of course, none of that mattered once I began to enjoy the spectacle.
Lambs to The Slaughter
That dark premise is antithetical to the unbridled cheeriness that populates this world. Characters come bearing odd ticks that border on comical, and the farcical tone fits in wonderfully with the cheery visual design. King Doric is a boastful man who would rather fight than govern, Kiryl constantly lectures Alena using outdated vernacular, and Luceus designs elaborate battle plans that are ignored by Aurora, who sports a devil-may-care attitude. All of these traits are funny, at least initially. After the dozenth identical joke, though, the charm fades, and you're stuck with a predictable light-versus-dark story that fails to engender much excitement.
Finally, A Fight
Tension is the most important of these tools. Landing hits slowly builds a meter that, when full, gives you momentary invincibility and a powerful attack. Because each character has their own tension meter, you can chain a few mighty strikes together to bring a boss to its knees. Filling this meter finally gives a purpose to those mindless grunts. Beating them up is an easy way to gain tension, so there’s a reason for your slaying beyond the spectacle of conquest. There are also portals that endlessly spew out enemies until you exterminate the gatekeeper. Called mawkeepers, these baddies fall between bosses and grunts on the difficulty scale, forcing you to put a little more thought in your actions.
The Verdict
Dragon Quest Heroes occupies a similar place as games like Hyrule Warriors and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. The combat that makes up the majority of gameplay is fun but forgettable, and there's little else to keep you engaged unless you're sufficiently attached to the license. In that regard, Dragon Quest Heroes looks delightful and is bursting with characters and creatures from the history of the franchise, so anyone who has been glued to each new release since the heyday of Enix will find enough familiar sights to stay invested. However, if you're still puzzling over the differences between Dragon Quest and Dragon Warrior, there are much better fights to seek out.
