[KaioShin]

I just finished the first world in Dragon Quest Builders and I'm really impressed with the game.
If you are like me and loved the idea of Minecraft but thought the aimless execution as a game was abysmal you should definitely give it a try.

In case you haven't heard of the game yet, what is it? It is like Minecraft but as a very focused single player game. The basic mechanics are the same, the whole world is made up of various blocks of the same size which you can gather by smashing them with tools and then place somewhere else or combine them into new things. What sets it apart is that there is a story and a clear progression. You are building a small village and the buildings you create attract townsfolk who'll help you by creating stuff themselves and defending the city. More importantly they give you quests and lead you to better and more complex objects. There is always something to do that'll lead to you improving your village or new equipment.

You can still build the houses however you want, what turns them into specific buildings is the stuff you place in it. For example a crafting table, a chest and a light source surrounded by walls and a door will make a workshop and it can be upgraded by adding a shop sign, better lighting and some decorative items. In that fashion the whole village keeps evolving which is very motivating. Materials aren't just available in the world but also from slaying monsters which were recruited from the classic DQ range. There are regularily attacks on your village by the monsters which defenses you can build and your villagers equipped from armories can fend off.

Of course if you love Minecraft as it is you'll probably hate this since it's too focused and not 'free' enough. But I personally always found that complete aimlessness to be super boring. In DQB everything I build has a purpose, even purely decorative items upgrade the level of your city and lead to it attracting more people. It's very addicting. When I heard about this I thought "Oh really, now they are cloning Minecraft?" But the execution makes it so radically different. It really shows what a seasoned pro developer can make out of a concept that an indie dev can only realize into a basic prototype (I thought the "updates" Minecraft got after the development was outsourced to an external studio were a bad joke considering how much budget they could have had).

Has anyone else tried it? It's available on PS4/Vita and there is a demo.

[BlackDog61]

Has anyone else tried it? It's available on PS4/Vita and there is a demo.

I've just tried the demo and I love it! Indeed, I didn't like the idea of minecrafting with the goal to minecraft... Err...
(I should have said "I've just played the hell out of the demo, doing everything I could except killing "IT", 'cause if I'm going to spend hours doing 1 damage to that, I'd rather spend that time grinding in SD Gundam G-Generation Overworld.)
Not sure I'd shelf the 60 bucks they want, but once it goes down a bit in price... I'm game for the game!

Thanks for the pointer, KaioShin! 

[KaioShin]

The Vita version is only 40 bucks 

[BlackDog61]

The Vita version is only 40 bucks 

The price goes up when you have to add a Vita to your cart, though. 

[flame]

The price goes up when you have to add a Vita to your cart, though. 

Add a Vita TV to your cart instead, and a PS4 controller if you need one.
Your cart just got a whole lot lighter 

[BlackDog61]

Add a Vita TV to your cart instead, and a PS4 controller if you need one.
Your cart just got a whole lot lighter 

I think I'd still go for the portable version - it's good for commuting times. And this game sounds like one that can definitely make you miss your stop. 

[KaioShin]

I played games on my Vita at least 10 times as much than on my 3DS the last two years.

Anyway, the second world is apparently centered around restoring health to citizens in a disease and poison riddled world. No metals anywhere in sight so far so there is more focus on makeshift stuff and wooden constructions. And of course on making antidotes and healing items. If worlds 3 and 4 add new stuff as well the options for free building will be staggering.

[snarfblam]

I haven't played Minecraft. Some people I know kept going on about it a lot; it didn't sound very appealing to me.

Never sounded appealing to me either. Finally tried it one day, and now it's eaten up more hours of my life than I care to admit.

I love the idea of a game that builds on minecraft instead of just cloning it. Too bad I don't have a PS4 or vita. 

[KaioShin]

World 3 is shaping up to be very much combat based. Instead of fighting alone you take a small party of townsfolk with you on excursions into enemy territory. One thing I don't like about the combat is that your weapon range is super small while the enemies have quite the large hitboxes. That means you often take more damage from actually bumping into the enemy trying to get into range than from actual enemy attacks Still, the combat is at least much better than in Minecraft. Still enjoying this a lot, though I'll probably take a break from it after this world. Trails of Cold Steel 2 is out next week or the one after. 

[BlackDog61]

World 3 is shaping up to be very much combat based. Instead of fighting alone you take a small party of townsfolk with you on excursions into enemy territory. One thing I don't like about the combat is that your weapon range is super small while the enemies have quite the large hitboxes. That means you often take more damage from actually bumping into the enemy trying to get into range than from actual enemy attacks Still, the combat is at least much better than in Minecraft. Still enjoying this a lot, though I'll probably take a break from it after this world. Trails of Cold Steel 2 is out next week or the one after. 

... and I assume you've pre-ordered SD Gundam G-Generation Genesis, too?  (22nd of November is coming closer and closer.)

[KaioShin]

I'll order that one together with SRWV when that nears release. Don't want to have to deal with customs too often, so I rather make larger orders every few months instead of monthly or some such.

[BlackDog61]

I've finished world 2 and started seriously world 3. I had a very good time with world 1, a good time with world 2 except the Boss battle.
So here's a little ranting with spoilers...

Spoiler:

Boss battle against world 2 boss was freakin' boring, slow, uninteresting, and ill-designed overall.
- I got tricked by the "enters the Boss" animation, which actually removes everything outside the town perimeter. Guess what? It was very logical from my perspective to install the weapons above the city walls outside. Meh. Reset and reload...
- you're told to place your weapons "above ground", but you're not told how high. Mine weren't high enough to hit reliably, so I had to take them all down and relocate them midway through the battle.
- Monsters and the boss hit objects and blocks (on top of hitting you, that is). It's "OK" but... since you have to run around, move weapons, jump up to the higher platforms you've created to fire them, you need to recreate those "stairs" regularly. It's not really funny.
- The camera is crap when the view is blocked. Often I found myself falling into the "pit" of 2 levels below my town, where minions have piled up and waited just to maim me gently.
- The key to fire ballistas is X. That also brings up the menu if the ballista isn't selected. Selection is both quite orientation-sensitive, and time sensitive since there is a ballista reload time. Result: menu pops up regularly during boss battle. Nah, that doesn't interrupt the flow of the boss battle. At all.
- You get regular messages about rooms being destroyed. These messages are modal, and take 1-2 seconds before they can be dismissed. Way to interrupt the flow of action...
- All in all, that battle took me 45 minutes. I have 17 ballistas in place. I had 2 good swords with me. Honestly, what a bore!

And now for ranting on world 3 and why I'll likely NOT complete the game.

Spoiler:

I'm getting maimed hard trying to get to the rescue of that Barbarella-girl. Monsters re-spawn in the same room where you are (the other side of the room is far enough that they re-spawn while you're trying to finish clearing the place to explore, and you *have to* run around given the splash damage of these ballistic fire balls.) I can hit monsters OK, but they're just too numerous for me to stand any chance. I've already got full iron equipment. Honestly, I don't really have fun dying anymore.
The game was a bit too easy during the first 2 chapters.
It's too hard for me after that. And I liked Daemon Souls. But there's simply no progress here each time you got get yourself owned.

So, it started very well, but I'm done with the game now...

What's your experience, people?

[KaioShin]

I took maybe 10 minutes for World 2's boss. You could know how high he was going to be since he was hovering in the background during all the monster waves beforehand.

As for world 3, are you making use of your party? You can take 2 or 3 of the body builders with you outside. They'll do most of the fighting for you.

I'm at around the same place (rescuing Barbarella) but I'm taking a break too. It's not that I didn't like it anymore, I just played too much in too short a time. I still think the game is very well executed. Playing Pokemon atm and when I get home this weekend there is FF15 and Until Dawn waiting.

[BlackDog61]

As for world 3, are you making use of your party? You can take 2 or 3 of the body builders with you outside. They'll do most of the fighting for you.

Well...

Spoiler:

I got only 1 who accepts to join (Patrick something). Aldo doesn't want to. The last guy just keeps talking about Barbarella and that's it.
Also, Pokemon, really?  I overdosed on that one a long time back. Even if I gave it a try more recently to see what's changed. Anything new there in the gameplay?