Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below Reviews
Confusingly good fun at first, Dragon Quest Heroes soon falls into a familiar, inane rhythm. Dynasty Warriors' audience will at least get something out of it.
Dragon Quest Heroes adds the large-scale hack and slash battles of Dynasty Warriors to the RPG world of Dragon Quest to give new and old fans of the fantasy series endless hordes or adorable monsters to slay.
Dragon Quest Heroes looks delightful and is bursting with characters and creatures from the history of the franchise, so anyone who has been glued to each new release since the heyday of Enix will find enough familiar sights to stay invested. However, if you're still puzzling over the differences between Dragon Quest and Dragon Warrior, there are much better fights to seek out.
Dragon Quest gets the Dynasty Warriors treatment, but there are more fundamental changes than a mere asset swap; this is Musou re-imagined.
Fantastic at capturing the charming spirit of the Dragon Quest series, but the repetition in its arena design cramps on its personality. Best played in short bursts.
With an attractive cartoon charm and some well-integrated RPG and tactical mechanics, Dragon Quest Heroes offers more entertainment than the average musou-style game
The slime army awaits, wide-eyed and smiling as worlds collide in this inspired Dragon Quest spin-off.
The balance that Dragon Quest Heroes walks between trivial fun and deeper strategizing is precarious. At any point in the 30-plus hours I played, I felt like it could have tipped over, leaving a boring, button-mashing shell of a game. Amazingly, it never did.
Dragon Quest Heroes is a perfectly-balanced marriage of Dragon Quest sensibilities with Dynasty Warriors dynamics. That sounds exactly like what it should be, but easier said than done, and Omega Force has done it.
Dragon Quest Heroes is like watching TV shows on Dave. It's great at the time, but repeats itself all too often.
Dragon Quest Heroes almost feels like a fully-fledged action RPG, but there are a few things holding it back from greatness. In the end though it still has its charms, alongside of a beautiful art style and a buttery smooth framerate. If you really dig Warriors games and can go at it solo, you'll likely enjoy it.
Koei Tecmo has done an incredible job of bringing the world of Dragon Quest to current gen. The game's visuals are very impressive, the action is fast-paced, and the sights and sounds of the Dragon Quest series are all there. I was instantly able to recognize the fanfare that would play when a battle would end or when a hero would level up.
Above all, Dragon Quest Heroes perfectly captures one of the most essential parts of the series: that it prides itself on joy. It's a quality that overshadows its shortcomings. Too many JRPGs are overly serious and shove the same tropes down your throat again and again. The levity and unabashed enthusiasm of Dragon Quest creates a childlike wonder that's still enchanting more than 25 years after the original game.
If you're looking for a classic Dragon Quest game with a twist, then this more than fits the bill, so long as you don't mind playing alone the whole through way through. As unexpected as it might be, Omega Force has proven that it can adapt popular franchises with surprising consistency.
Dragon Quest is arguably the most successful partner so for Dynasty Warriors, but the potential of the franchise, and this particular crossover, is still only barely hinted at.
There's no escaping the game's hack and slash origins, yet Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below certainly offers an interesting spin on the traditional Warriors template. By focusing on a smaller concentration of characters on-screen, it has a slightly more tactile, RPG feel. Combined with some inventive gameplay features and that charming Dragon Quest aesthetic, Heroes succeeds in creating its own identity. It may fall short of greatness yet serves as an ideal solution for those eagerly awaiting the series' next mainline instalment.
Dragon Quest Heroes is probably the best the series has ever looked with its great-looking monsters and interesting environments. That being said the Musou game formula is a bit of a turnoff. It bogs you down by making side quests grind fests and levelling a chore, but that's what makes a Musou game a Musou game.
Dragon Quest Heroes ... is a beautiful game that does more with the Warriors franchise than the main Warriors games have done in a long time. Despite putting hours and hours into the thing, I've got plenty yet to do, and I've enjoyed every second of it so far. Aside from some poor pacing decisions and a rather limp narrative, Tecmo Koei has made lightning strike twice by merging two franchises together in yet another surprisingly brilliant way.
One might call October the "Month of the JRPG" on PlayStation 4. Hot on the heels of Disgaea 5, Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below is the next must-have title for fans of the genre on Sony's newest console. Unlike other crossover incarnations in the Warriors series, Heroes incorporates enough of the legendary RPG franchise's traditional elements to create a giddy nostalgia trip. Even if you aren't a longtime fan, though, you'll have a chance to get caught up in a whirlwind of solid action-RPG goodness.
While musou style games aren't for everybody, Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below is a shining example of a partnership done just right that may just attract some new fans to both franchises.