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Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors

by Ty Shughart - May 14, 2007, 9:15 pm EDT
Total comments: 10

Coming soon to shatter a TV or window near you!

I spent like four valuable hours of cosplayer-ogling time in line to play a

game with magic and stats so I hope you guys appreciate what I'm doing for

you. Seriously though, I kid, because Dragon Quest Swords was pretty fun.

The Dragon Quest Swords demo at the Square-Enix party was a single level

with a boss at the end. (I have a hunch that it was around the third area in

the game or so, or maybe I saw that somewhere.) The playable level was a

forest environment with a handful of different enemies to fight. Moving

from fight to fight is on a set path on rails (which split into two

different directions sometimes) with a few secret rocks and chests to look

in/under along the way.

The control is a bit niftier than just waving the Wii-mote at the screen in

a retarded fury. You can target a point with the 'A' button and swing at it

from any direction. Targeting a point is important for lining up hits such

as a horizontal slash across the top of the screen (rather than through the

middle) to take out a line of flying enemies. Aside from slashing, the

player can also make a forward-stab motion, which is handy if an enemy tends

to block swings. As a lazy person, I found that flicking the controller from

the wrist worked a bit better than full arm swings.

The 'B' trigger raises your shield to block, which you can position on

screen to absorb or reflect attacks. Depending on how much you use it, it

can gradually become chipped away, or it can be replaced or buffed with a

potion to make blocking easier. By pointing the controller, the player can

move the shield around the screen and block attacks at different points.

Also, the player gradually builds up a meter for a super sword technique. By

selecting a technique when the meter is full, the player is prompted to

follow a certain dramatic motion with the Wii controller, which will melt

the faces off of all the enemies onscreen if done correctly.

There are menus for items and stats, too, and you get to pick an assistant to

cast heals and yell things at you all the time. There was more than enough

pre-provided for the demo, just to make sure nobody died part way while

sampling the game, probably. Hopefully the final version won't be so easy!

There were about a half-dozen different types of enemies in the demo level.

Slimes and little mushroom men hop onto screen to get one-shotted, and a

couple of different little flying demons fly and circle up close in patterns

for you to try to cleave in a couple shots. Boar men attack and block with

spears; if they block your slashes, a forward-stab works well. There was

another enemy that shot arrows from a distance, and the arrows could be

simply blocked, or batted back at the enemy with a good sword swing. Zombies

show up suddenly and spit poison. My favorite enemies, the adorable little

knight guys, mount up on slimes, run up to you, and dodge and block your

hits.

And finally, the boss of the demo level was the Golem; this is where the potential

boatload of fun can be seen. The Golem winds up and throws a series of

punches, and blocking the attacks will put him in a stun, ready for a counter-attack.

The player needs to read the Golem's movements and utilize both defense and

offense, but especially defense. It's really a lot like Punch-Out, and as

such, is really fun. If the rest of the game is like the Golem fight, it'll

be great.

That's my overall impression of Dragon Quest Swords. It's not so much an RPG

or on-rails shooter (a sword only has so much range!), but more like a

clever action game along the lines of Punch-Out. How good it will actually

be comes down to how the rest of the enemies and areas are designed, but

there's a definitely a solid game idea here.

Talkback

BloodworthDaniel Bloodworth, Staff AlumnusMay 14, 2007

Sounds sweet Ty. Wish we didn't have to wait until 2008, but maybe it will be simple enough to play the import.

CalibanMay 14, 2007

Both, your impression and the recent trailer, give a sense of fun out of the gameplay mechanics.

The Wii is lacking in rpgs at the moment, so the quicker it comes to North-America the better.

ShyGuyMay 14, 2007

Good impressions SUPER, you should write more face-icon-small-wink.gif I donno about the shield, it sounds a bit disconnected from the action.

S-U-P-E-RTy Shughart, Staff AlumnusMay 14, 2007

The shield is really what makes it. There's no time at all between switching the sword and shield. It makes you play smart instead of just waving the sword everywhere.

couchmonkeyMay 15, 2007

DQ Swords is putting the fun back in "RPfunG".

What?!?! Why is this getting positive vibes? This is going to be the next Sonic, isn't it?

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

NinGurl69 *hugglesMay 15, 2007

Cuz it's not Sega.

S-U-P-E-RTy Shughart, Staff AlumnusMay 15, 2007

Quote

Originally posted by: Kairon
What?!?! Why is this getting positive vibes? This is going to be the next Sonic, isn't it?

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com
YUO

This game could backfire if the rest of the battles aren't awesome, or if it's too easy, or something like that. It didn't seem like there was any chance of anybody losing at all at the show, even the people who had no idea what they were doing.

Karl Castaneda #2May 15, 2007

Hey, pretty cool, Ty. Maybe you could talk about this game on the podcast for next week, eh? EH?!

face-icon-small-wink.gif

vuduMay 16, 2007

snap

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Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors Box Art

Genre Action
Developer Square Enix
Players1

Worldwide Releases

na: Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
Release Feb 26, 2008
PublisherSquare Enix
RatingTeen
jpn: Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
Release Jul 12, 2007
PublisherSquare Enix
RatingAll Ages
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