Dragon Quest Builders Might Be The Most Underrated Game This Year

Minecraft fans might pass by Dragon Quest Builders because they think it has too much Dragon Quest, while Dragon Quest fans might pass by because they fell it has too much Minecraft. And that's exactly why Dragon Quest Builders may become the most underrated, most under-appreciated games this year. Even among Square Enix's releases at the end of 2016, given the hype of Final Fantasy XV, that might remain true. I myself was dubious at the combination of Dragon Quest and Minecraft, but after an hour and then another hour, I could tell that Dragon Quest Builders is, by no stretch of the imagination, dangerous.

At Square Enix’s private press room at PAX West, I was scheduled to play the game before heading to an updated build for Final Fantasy XV, and mind you, I had not touched any demo or any build of FFXV beforehand. Yes, I even missed Episode Duscae. Then one hour in, at the moment I was supposed to switch to FFXV, I asked the PR rep, “Um? Do you mind if I play Dragon Quest Builders for just an hour longer?” Sorry, but the four-man boy band in the damn car will just have to wait a bit. I need to build a city first.

Simply put, the reason Dragon Quest Builders is so dangerous is because it’s Minecraft with a clear objective. It’s Minecraft all rolled up in the lovable slimes, adorable characters, and classic storyline of a Dragon Quest RPG. It may not sound like something that should work, but it surprisingly does, like putting two favorite items into an alchemy pot and discovering that they combine into a powerful weapon. What kind of sorcery is this?

The Dragon Quest part of DBQ has your male or female character, who has just awoken from a deep slumber by the Goddess (and is thus extremely grumpy whenever she starts to blab about “saving the world” crap), attempt to rebuild human civilization one block at a time. The Dragonlord tricked the previous hero into joining The Dark Side and has subsequently robbed humans from their ability to create, well, anything. Not being able to build or repair weapons, armor, and general defenses, cities crumbled into dust, forcing humans to become homeless, rag-covered scavengers at the mercy of the Dragonlord’s horde of monsters. But you, as it has been prophesized, are The Builder and, though you are explicitly told by the Goddess that you aren't a hero, you can still restore the world and bring hope back to humanity. (Isn't that what a hero does, anyway?)

This doesn’t just mean rebuilding cities from scratch, though. DBQ is also an light action-based RPG where you can extend your lifebar with Seeds of Life, craft armor and weapons, and defend your cities from monsters during nightfall. Roaming around the blocky world, you can slay slimes, skeletons, and chimeras for additional materials and uncover hidden chests peppered about the landscape. Since all you have is a basic attack and maybe a shield, you’ll need to watch your spacing and take advantage of an enemy’s missed attack, much like Link does in A Link to the Past but without all the fancy spells and artifacts (well, at least from what I know of so far).

The Minecraft part of DQB is equally as important, as you need to gather resources and materials for your adventuring. Pretty much everything in the environment can be destroyed with the right tool, stored as an item on your taskbar, and then plopped back down whenever your character can reach. This means patching up a room with earth blocks, fixing a roof with straw blocks, and making sure each space has a light source and some decorations to improve the town’s overall level.

Doing so will attract more ragtag residents to the town who will provide you with quests and perhaps reward you with new blueprints and recipes. Meanwhile, you’ll want to explore the world and cut down anything that might be useful: white petals for healing cream, mushrooms and plumberries to satisfy your hunger, ivy and grass for building materials, and maybe a few slimes for some blue goo along the way. Hey, those cute, smiling faces turn into torches, so light my fire, slimes!

Dragon Quest Builders is well on its way on stealing tens, maybe hundreds, of hours away. It’s already taken one hour of mine, and I’m ready and willing for it to take many more. It releases on October 11, 2016 for PS4 and Xbox One Vita (digitally).