If you’re here reading reviews because you’re still debating whether you should try Dragon Quest XI S or not, then let my review make it simple for you:
Go for it.
And I’m genuinely not saying that because I’m blindly biased toward Dragon Quest. If you’re craving a rich fantasy world, something colorful, vibrant and beautiful, with a proper story, side quests, towns, exploration, a lot of content and many, many hours of a real JRPG journey… this game is for you. I played it on the PS back then and here I am again.
Please don’t miss out on it. Especially now, when games like this are rare.
Dragon Quest XI S feels like someone sat down and said: “We’re going to make a classic fantasy JRPG. We’re not going to strip away everything people loved about the genre just to modernize it. We’re going to make it properly and release it proudly.”
And they did.
They really did.
Sometimes playing this genuinely gives me the feeling of playing a beautiful RPG from the PS2 era again, and I mean that as the biggest compliment possible. It has that sense of adventure. That feeling of leaving one place and wondering what the next town will look like. New people, new monsters, new areas, new stories. The world is colorful, rich and full of personality.
Is the main story going to completely reinvent storytelling and blow your mind with some never-seen-before concept? No. And honestly? I don’t care.
This is Dragon Quest.
It has that classic hero, destiny, darkness, save-the-world kind of story, and somehow Dragon Quest is one of the only franchises I feel can keep doing this for decades and still get away with it. Because it feels authentic. It never feels like it’s embarrassed of what it is.
The same art direction. The familiar monsters. The towns. The NPCs. The hero. The fantasy world. The humor, little things that immediately make you think, “Yes, this is Dragon Quest.”
And anyone who knows how huge Dragon Quest is in Japan will understand what I mean. It doesn’t even feel like “just another game franchise” there. You see Dragon Quest everywhere. It has become such a huge part of Japanese gaming culture that it almost feels like its own established world.
I can’t sit here and pretend I’ve played every Dragon Quest game because I haven’t. My personal love for the series really started with Dragon Quest VIII on PS2, and that game made me feel like I had genuinely stepped inside a fairytale. At the time, I was completely in love with its world. It had so many of the JRPG elements I adored.
Now, I always want my reviews to be honest, even when I love a game. I don’t believe in pretending everything is perfect just because I’m recommending something.
There were absolutely characters I disliked.
Veronica… I’m sorry, I just couldn’t. I really couldn’t handle her comments and personality.
And Sylvando is also personally just not my type of character to have in a main party. I know many people absolutely love him, so this is completely personal, but he just didn’t click with me.
On the other hand… Jade.
I loved Jade.
She is exactly the kind of character I enjoy. Elegant, strong, beautiful, wonderful fighting style. I enjoyed basically everything about her. Easily one of my favorites.
So when I look at the full experience, the world, the journey, the amount of content, the atmosphere, the classic JRPG feeling…
I can only highly, highly recommend it.
Honestly, I find it hard to imagine someone who genuinely loves classic fantasy JRPGs completely hating this game.
So if you’re still sitting there wondering whether to buy it:
Go for it.
Don’t miss out.
