Dragon Quest Builders

 PlayStation 4
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 226 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 178 out of 226
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 226
  3. Negative: 27 out of 226
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  1. CanadianYeti
    Jul 17, 2017
    3
    Dragon Quest Builders takes an interesting idea and squanders it under endless amounts of boring gameplay and bad presentation. The exploration was slow and tedious, the graphics were lackluster, the music just plain awful, and while I enjoyed building and crafting, there wasn’t enough of it to keep me invested.
  2. heymoney
    Jan 25, 2017
    1
    So, I literally made an account to review this game.

    In what world did they make these simplistic childish design choices? Clunky controls. Insultingly basic combat. Your telling me they couldn't come up with ways to impliment all those awesome skills and magics from the dragon quest games? Nope. All your favorite dragon armors, and awesome weapons, monster teams/taming. Not here. Do    So, I literally made an account to review this game.

    In what world did they make these simplistic childish design choices?

    Clunky controls. Insultingly basic combat. Your telling me they couldn't come up with ways to impliment all those awesome skills and magics from the dragon quest games? Nope. All your favorite dragon armors, and awesome weapons, monster teams/taming. Not here. Do you gain levels in any way shape or form? Nope - oh so you just gather and build **** running essentially fetch quests with plot devices? Yup. **** This. Game. If your a child, and don't mind insultingly boring fetchy grindy nearly pointless gameplay with blueprints and handholding please. Buy this game. Its a joke. The drastic different between what COULD have been done, and the basic "accessible" pile of **** this game is - is staggering.

    Characters are bland and boring.

    They decided that the game and AI npcs would only look in a what... 30X30 block radius ( didn't bother to measure ) and that would be your "town"?

    Blueprints? Your telling me that you couldn't place a keyblock, say the cauldron for the apothecary that would search in X radius for the various required blocks? The fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-

    Multiplayer would have been to hard on this simplistic pile of **** What? Why is there no multiplayer.

    This entire game is an accessible pleb feast, cashing in on nostalgia.

    **** this game.    … Expand
  3. xiaolinstyle
    Oct 13, 2016
    2
    First let me say that I really wanted to like this game. Seriously. Somehow SquareEnix has taken what should be a slam dunk and messed it up, badly.

    This game is a voxel style game set in the Dragonquest universe and has very cute art style, music, and sound. If you are at all familiar with the series you will immediately recognize many of the game's elements. The first misnomer is how    First let me say that I really wanted to like this game. Seriously. Somehow SquareEnix has taken what should be a slam dunk and messed it up, badly.

    This game is a voxel style game set in the Dragonquest universe and has very cute art style, music, and sound. If you are at all familiar with the series you will immediately recognize many of the game's elements. The first misnomer is how this is being compared to minecraft. It. Is. Not. Minecraft. I will explain: Minecraft allowed players to combine to create something unique or recreate something from somewhere else. DQB tasks you with recreating a very specific set of structures, BY YOURSELF. This is a SINGLE PLAYER game. No multiplayer. No co-op. Nothing. You will never be able to show your creations to anyone that you dont force to sit on your couch and look at your tv.

    SquareEnix has also allowed the very Japanese design choice of not letting you customize the controls. This would potentially not be a problem, if the default layout wasn't so absolutely bizarre. If you read the above and thought, "well I actually like the idea of a single player only voxel game!", and have spent any time playing Minecraft or a myriad of clones then be prepared to want to break your controller. The control scheme has the menu button on 'x', jump on 'o', and those are just the major issues I had with it. Every part of the ONLY control layout is the most jumbled mess one could possibly hope to never have to deal with.

    Why SE decided to so sorely handicap a possible breakout star with such ridiculous design choices in the lack of multiplayer or co-op, and a default control scheme that infuriates anyone who has ever played a video game in their life baffles me, but definitely makes the game far far more frustrating than it would be otherwise.    … Expand
  4. special_effect
    Apr 11, 2018
    3
    so many frustrations at so many levels. each time you finish a level, your town disappears, it's gone, then you restart a new town...fight are clunky even though they represent an important part of the game...many required action are simply not explained and required about 10th time into the whole game to check online...the last level is purely done to make players stay a bit longer,so many frustrations at so many levels. each time you finish a level, your town disappears, it's gone, then you restart a new town...fight are clunky even though they represent an important part of the game...many required action are simply not explained and required about 10th time into the whole game to check online...the last level is purely done to make players stay a bit longer, that's obvious and very uncalled for...what else can I say ... I did it all and feel like I wasted my time in a game not thought to be funny or entertaining actually and certainly not in a spir of building a town but following meaningless quest. A real garbage game IMO.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

41
#41 Best PS4 Game of 2016
77
#77 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2016
46
#46 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 76 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 72 out of 76
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 76
  3. Negative: 0 out of 76
  1. RPGamer
    Feb 28, 2017
    80
    Dragon Quest Builders manages to strike a great balance, combining a streamlined Minecraft-inspired building system with a goal-directed minimalist RPG series. The simple nature of each can lack depth when compared to standalone games in the corresponding genre, but as a combination it works, enabling players to delve into each system without overloading them. The game's somewhat repetitive nature, outdated graphics, and limited combat do somewhat detract, but with the added dash of nostalgia and a hefty dose of humorous charm, Square Enix has the beginnings of a successful formula on its hands with Dragon Quest Builders.
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  2. Gamers' Temple
    Feb 2, 2017
    79
    Builders is a very solid title with the perfect mix of genre-bending to make it unique.
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  3. Video Chums
    Jan 17, 2017
    90
    Masterpiece.
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