Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
Score: 88% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Square Enix Developer: Eighting Co., Ltd. Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 Genre: Action/ RPG/ Adventure
Graphics & Sound: Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors is the latest in a long list of Dragon Quest games. Like the previous games, renowned Akira Toriyama designed the characters and monsters, so if you've played any of the previous ones, you will definitely recognize the monsters. Now I will admit that graphically, the Wii just can't compete with the Xbox 360, so if you're looking for the highest resolution most technically difficult graphics that you've ever seen, you'll probably be somewhat disappointed. But even still, I found it to be a very pretty game. The characters are typical of Akira Toriyama, so you know there's going to be a spiky-haired hero with some equally interesting looking companions. Fleurette specifically looks like she stepped right out of an 80's Madonna video. One thing that I found confusing were the accents. I think there's at least one character with an accent representing every major language in the same town. Why would everyone have such varied and different accents if they all lived in the same place? But it was amusing to hear a huge Minotaur with a Scottish accent. The voicework was all well done though, especially given the large number of accents they had to pull off. I'm not sure all the translation came out right though. When the old woman running the armor store tells you "Hello my Lover" instead of "hello my love," I'm really hoping that was a mistake in translation. They also had a tendency to make up some of their own exclamatory words, such as "yonking".
Gameplay: The gameplay in Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors is very similar to the Phantasy Star games. You have a town that you can roam around, buy various items, talk to people, etc. and then you have the dungeon areas. You begin the game on your 16th birthday. Because it's your 16th, you are supposed to be sent on a quest by the Queen to prove your manhood. Unfortunately, you find out that the Queen has been a bit out of sorts lately and is unavailable to send you out. Her chancellor steps in and sends you on your way in her place. To enter the dungeons, you simply exit the town gates. Then you'll be given a list of the dungeon areas that you are able to visit. The first one you're sent to is Caliburn Cave. There, you'll encounter various monsters. The battles seem like random events at first, but if you run through the levels again, you'll notice the same monsters are always at the same spots. Also, make sure to look under rocks and in grass patches. You'll know you can look in there if you hover your pointer over it and the (A) button appears. Press (A) and a lot of times you'll find various items such as money, medicine, or even mini-medals. Mini-medals are quite useful. You can trade them in to the weird looking cat-like thing in the cave in the village for some really good items and very handy armor. After you finish each dungeon area, you'll be given a rank from F (lowest) to S (highest). If you get at least a B, you'll earn a reward. After that, you're given the chance to save and then return to the village. Once back, you'll need to talk to various people to get sent on your next journey until you finally figure out what is happening to the Queen.
Difficulty: Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors is a relatively easy game to learn to play, but it can be somewhat difficult to master. For all of the fighting, you use the Wii-mote as if it were a sword. This means that you can slash the enemies at any angle you want to, but sometimes getting just the right angle to hit them all at once can be tricky. I found that the diagonal slashes, especially, were hard to get at just the angle I wanted. Now that doesn't mean that I didn't kill the monsters. I just didn't kill them in as few strokes as possible. I also found that the thrust move was hard to get just right. It kept reading my movements as a slash unless I had the Wii-mote angled just right. At the end of each board, you're given a rank. That rank depends on how well you did fighting enemies. So the fewer strokes you have to use and the higher your percentage is of strokes that hit the enemy, the higher your rank is. For most boards, if I just ran through them intent on killing the monsters, but not really worrying about getting the highest rank, I earned an average of a C. You might find it quite difficult to get a rank of S on every single board. One other thing I noticed is that unlike games that I can sit and play for hours on end without getting tired, since I had to use the Wii-mote as a sword, I tended to play for no more than 2 hours or so straight. If I played more, my arm hurt some the next day. Basically, I didn't play it as much as I wanted to because it was physically tiring.
Game Mechanics: In Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors, you use the Wii-mote to do everything. A Nunchuk is not needed. To walk forward, you hold down the (B) button or hold up on the D-pad. If you hold both of them at the same time, you will run. To change your direction, you just press left or right on the D-pad. The movement in Dragon Quest Swords is actually very easy to get used to and has very fluid camera motions. When you want to stop and talk to someone in the towns or to examine items in town and in the dungeon areas, you press the (A) button. If you want to save your game, go to the church and talk to the nun. To save, choose Confession. I really found that to be humorous. In battle, the controls are quite easy to learn too. To set the focal point of your slash, point the Wii-mote where you want to select and press (A). This doesn't necessarily have to be a single monster. Don't forget that you can slash multiple enemies with a single hit, so aim your focal point wherever you find that it's easiest to hit the most at once. After you've focused, simply slash the Wii-mote as if it were a sword. You can do a diagonal, vertical, or any angle horizontal slash you want. For a thrust, hold the Wii-mote perfectly horizontal and stab towards the screen. You also have "master strokes" that you can perform. These are much stronger than your normal attacks. To initiate the stroke, press the (2) button and select the stroke you want to do. You'll gain more types as you level up. After you've selected the type, follow the directions on the screen to perform that move. If you do it correctly, you'll do a lot of damage to your enemies. The master stroke can only be used when your gauge is full though, so make sure to use it wisely. You do also have a shield available, which is always a good thing. To use your shield, simply hold down the (B) button and it will appear for as long as you hold it down. You can move it around to block damage from all directions by just moving the Wii-mote. Overall, I enjoyed Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors. It's not the longest RPG out there, but I really enjoyed feeling more a part of the battle, even if it did mean that I took more breaks. That's probably a good thing, because you don't end up glued to the game for hours on end without at least pausing for a while. I would recommend renting it first though, just to make sure that you enjoy the more interactive combat style.
-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl
The Experiment N+