Dragon Quest X – another Japanese RPG. Is it worth the try? The world of Japanese role-playing games tends to be dominated by Final Fantasy in the West but many gamers might be surprised to learn that it is not the only show in town. Back on the home island of Japan, a little competitor to Square (now a part of the company) called Enix launched a series of JRPGs called Dragon Quest that not only captured the hearts of millions of Japanese people when it was released in 1986 but also went on to establish a series that is now 11 games strong with multiple spin-offs.
How to Download Dragon Quest X
It’s quite hard to download Dragon Quest X because the official site is in Japanese. It’s much better to purchase a non-digital copy from an online shop such as Amazon. To visit the official site click on the Download button below the review.
The Game Review
Released in the West on the Nintendo Entertainment System as Dragon Warrior, the series enjoyed moderate success outside of its home country but never came close to touching the heights that the Final Fantasy series would achieve from the sixth installment forward. That doesn’t mean that Dragon Quest wasn’t a powerhouse back in Japan – it was.
Among the ten games in the mainline series that have followed since the original’s release in 1986, Dragon Quest X stands out as a unique entry from Square Enix as it represents the first time the series made its way to the realm of massively multiplayer online role-playing games.
And if you know a little something about the Dragon Quest series’ tradition of hewing as closely as possible to the original Famicom iterations, then you will realize this is a huge leap forward for the series indeed.
Steeped in tradition, some would even say that the Dragon Quest series is held back by it to some degree. From sound effects to orchestration to general combat layout and feel very little changes from one Dragon Quest game to the next. Reprising his role as the series art director, Akira Toriyama’s artwork lends a familiar and comforting feel to the whole game.
How does a company like Square Enix take a classic JRPG template like Dragon Quest and launch it into the world of online role-playing games?
By largely sticking to the script and delivering an online game that is still a Dragon Quest title in every expected way. From sound to art design to quests, all of the charm of the other games is present and accounted for in Dragon Quest X. Released for multiple platforms in Japan – from the PlayStation 4 to the Nintendo 3DS – Dragon Quest X presents a challenge for localization due to its heavy use of text.
A commercial success in the land of the rising sun, Dragon Quest X still has only posted sales of one million units since its release in 2012.
Though the game marries everything that Dragon Quest fans love about the games with online functionality, Dragon Quest X is not an MMORPG in the vein of World of Warcraft or even the company sibling Final Fantasy XIV.
It is very much a contained experience that relies heavily on some kind of familiarity with the Dragon Quest canon to enjoy it fully. Though promises of a release outside of Japan were teased in the past, it seems that the logistical difficulty of bringing such a text-heavy, online game to the West is a more difficult commercial proposition than Square Enix would like to admit.
