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

Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors (2008)
Developer: Eighting Co., Ltd./Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Purchase Date: 06/09/2008

Gotta love the Akira Toriyama hair.

This game is a great example of what would happen to a hardcore series when it is slated for a release on Nintendo's casual-focused console. Gone are the labored, old school turn-based battles and huge exploration elements in exchange for a fast-paced first person hack and slash action and a straightforward level-based gameplay progression. The good news is, this game is still fun to play and it does retain most of the look and the basic feel of a Dragon Quest adventure.

Why is it that we can't just turn into an adult man naturally?

In the beginning of the game, there is a hint that the Queen of Avalonia is in some sort of trouble but then the game quickly switches its focus to the player-controlled 16 years old hero who is preparing to complete his right of passage into manhood. For this early part of the game, the hero doesn't have any companions yet and I am curious to see how the other characters would jump in to help in the real time battle. There is no explanation on how that works in the instruction manual.

Dragon Quest fans know that the slimes are cute... and dangerous!

The real time battle control is fun and easy to pull off. The Wii-mote has to be held upright when doing the swiping motions for the sword attacks. It was tricky at first but it didn't take long for my hand to get used to it. Holding the B button brings out the hero's shield that can be used to block enemy attacks. What's awkward though is using the control pad and some of the face buttons on the Wii-mote because of its vertical positioning. Unfortunately, only the Wii-mote dictates everything on this game as if the developer has completely forgotten about the nunchuck. The game is a bit on the easy side: I was able to get to the first boss and beat it into submission without much of a problem - I can sill remember slamming my head against the wall when I was repeatedly killed by the first boss of Dragon Quest VIII. The player's performance is evaluated after the completion of a level and this seems to encourage repeat play, a promising gameplay propect. So far, the game is more fun that I anticipated it to be.

FIRST IMPRESSION: 4 out of 5