First-Impression: Dragon Quest: Swords

Dragon Quest: Swords is a game I was excited about as I still feel like I'm an RPG lover, even if I never have the time to play such long games anymore. On that note, it seemed like it might be a perfect game as it was sure to be shorter than any other RPG game.

The game starts out very slowly, as is common with RPG games, and I found myself wanting to skip all the dialogue, which in the early going is entirely voiced and of decent quality.

I've never played a fighter on rails before, the closest thing I could compare the game to is Ghost Squad or Time Crisis. That comparison is also where my misgivings of the title came into play. The Wiimote is used for swinging your sword. You can swing in many angles or jab the screen. The imprecision in doing so, however, was disappointing. It was pretty common, especially in the early going, to swing and miss the enemy because you swung sideways and you needed to swing down.

I got the feel for it after awhile, but what I didn't get was a strong sensation of satisfaction with my swings. The occasional swing felt 'good' like hitting a homerun ball, but for the most part I didn't feel all that connected.

The other issue I had with the game was the pacing, which I would thus far call dreadfully slow. My least favorite enemy type is the projectile type. You use your shield to block, and being able to move it all around the screen is somewhat cool, but the time it takes to block all the shots fired at you is painful. Most turn-based battle systems would be an upgrade. That same sense of pacing is found throughout the game, where getting to the action seems to require a long walk through tedium.

So far I'm about an hour in and I'm not sure I'll be playing much more. Playing the game does make me want to get my copy of Tales of Symphonia back out, but it didn't really make me itch for the next level of Dragon Quest.