Recent reviews by Falzarr

Only a few hours in, but very impressed. Better writing than just about any other VN I've seen, doesn't rely on the typical personality tropes, and almost every character feels entirely unique rather than "Hm... I can tell they were inspired by X from Y". The way they handle the disabilities and the characters coming to terms with them (or already having done so) is extremely well done. In particular, the way the MC comes to terms with his own disability and his gradual perspective shift on how he views others is just about perfect. When the MC has a revelation that helps change his way of thinking, it never feels like it was forced for the sake of plot and feels like it was a culmination of him actually growing over time as a person. He's by far one of the most "human" characters I've ever come across.

This level of writing is really what people should be aspiring to when it comes to handling sensitive subjects. It's uncomfortable at times, but only when it needs to be. It strikes a perfect balance of reminding you that these are delicate subjects without being too insensitive or so politically correct that the meaning is dulled and lost.

A must buy

The game is surprisingly fun, has a big boobed protaganist with a cool armored arm, and only costs a few dollars. Going in, I expected to give up after a few hours, but the game is actually pretty good. The story is basic but not awful, has New Game + and multiple difficulties, and a good number of items/gear to find, and a few secrets.

Solid 8/10 game.

I don't write reviews often, and in fact, without checking, this might be my only steam review (that or one of like 2 or 3) but here goes nothing.

Overall, I did somewhat enjoy Dragon Quest Heroes. It's an amusing way to kill an hour by well... killing hundreds of cartoony monsters. However, that's about all it seems to be good for. After playing for a while, I started to get bored faster and faster. My first play session lasted 4 or 5 hours, the 2nd one only around 2-3 hours, and every play session after that has gotten shorter and shorter. I feel like the game is just too shallow, even for a musou style game. Each level is small (even the biggest level I've done yet is still smaller than the average musou game level) and usually has either no strategic objectives other than the monster summoning portals (named Nightmaws) that you need to close or one or two people/objects you need to protect while you close the Nightmaws. The closest thing to "depth" that the strategy for defending objectives is would be the fact that as you kill monsters, they can drop monster medals which let you summon copies of that monster to defend a small area for you. Generally these monsters do a good job of defending, but can be overwhelemed quickly if you don't keep an eye on them. The number of enemies in each level also feels small compared to other musou style games but to keep the spirit of the Dragon Quest series, you have a party of 4 characters that you bring to each level. Granted, you don't need to bring 4 people once you have finished the first few levels and unlock the ability to edit your party, but it just feels pointless to bring 4 people when 1 is more than enough. So with that out of the way, time for the pros and cons list.

Pros:

• Level design is good despite the small level size
  
• Good Music
  
• Good visual effects
  
• Decent enemy variety
  
• Decent Party variety (skill type/playstyle variation)
  
• Fun character personalities/dialogue
  
• Balanced gameplay (as far as musou style games go)

Cons
(I will go over the two with asterisks in detail at the end of the review)

• Small levels
  
• Too much copy/paste for hero abilities. Some are literally the same ability with a different visual effects.
  
• Some of the worst english voice acting I have ever heard.
  
• Crafting system feels worthless/forced*
  
• Inability to skip frequently repeating mini cutscenes/jingles*
  
• Extremely unoriginal story
  
• Terrible anti-aliasing
  
• Lack of variety in level objectives

Now onto the last two things I want to discuss. The crafting system and the mini cutscenes and jingles.

The crafting system is fine in terms of functionality and UI, but the accessories you can craft are pretty much all completely worthless until much later in the game. The base effects of most of the lower level ones (based on what level you are before the materials for them start to drop) are not going to effect you in any way. For example, one gives you 40% resistance to sleep. That's all fine and dandy... but at the point in the game I got to before giving up, I only encountered 1 enemy type that can put you to sleep and had only actually been put to sleep twice. Ever. The only good thing about the crafting system in early game is that when you combine multiple of the same accessory to upgrade them, a new random stat is added to that accessory. If you are lucky and get one of the few stats that matter it's great, but more often than not you will end up with another worthless stat.

The last thing to mention is the unskippable mini cutscenes and jingles. An example of the mini cutscenes would be every time you load your game, you have to watch the camera fly down and zoom into the priestess at the cathedral. Not a big deal, but it takes a few seconds each time you load your game, and that adds up. Another example is every time you return to the Stonecloud after you finish a level. You beat a level, go to a loading screen, and then AFTER the loading screen, you have to sit around and wait for another few seconds while the camera cinematically shows you what the central room of the Stonecloud looks like (a room you spend 95% of your time in while not on missions). It adds up. An example of the jingles would be every time you turn in a sidequest. When you finish a sidequest, you have to report it to the questmistress. When you do, she congradulates you by putting a stamp over the quest description window for that quest and then clapping for a few seconds. You can skip her dialogue to a degree, but you can't skip the stamping or the clapping. Say it with me now: It adds up. Things like this also occur for various other events throughout the game such as when a new character joins your party or when you craft an item. To really drive this point home, let's say you complete 35 side quests. have recruited every character (6 mini cutscenes since some are recruited in groups), have loaded your save game 50 times, have completed 100 levels, and crafted 100 items. Now let's assume that each of those events has 3 seconds of unskippable cutscenes/jingles (3 seconds is about the average). That adds up to 14.5 MINUTES of unskippable, repeated events that you will have seen dozens of times each by the end of the game.

So there you have it. The game is fun in short bursts and has great looking levels and spell/ability effects, but lacks any kind of depth in level objectives, has a mediocre at best crafting system, wastes your time with unskippable repeating mini cutscenes, has poor english voice acting, small levels, limited enemy numbers and variety, and a story we've all heard a thousand times. The only way I could recommend this game is if you have never played a musou style game before and want to get a taste of a dumbed down version that will require very little effort to learn and beat or if you are a parent who for some reason wants to introduce their kid to a colorful and cartoony musou style game (I won't judge). Aside from that, I cannot recommend this game.