Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

 PlayStation 4
User Score
8.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 971 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 822 out of 971
  2. Mixed: 70 out of 971
  3. Negative: 79 out of 971
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  1. FaithMonax
    Jan 8, 2019
    4
    I'm an old JRPG fan.
    I loved all the old FF, Suikoden, and I also love some modern RPGs, such as Skyrim, and Mass Effect.
    I thought I'd love DQ11. It got a lot of love from critics and users alike. But 10 hours in, I'd have enough. Here is an overview of why: Pros: -Colorful -Interesting enough forge mechanics -There are skill trees (albeit very simple ones) Cons:    I'm an old JRPG fan.
    I loved all the old FF, Suikoden, and I also love some modern RPGs, such as Skyrim, and Mass Effect.
    I thought I'd love DQ11. It got a lot of love from critics and users alike.
    But 10 hours in, I'd have enough. Here is an overview of why:

    Pros:

    -Colorful

    -Interesting enough forge mechanics

    -There are skill trees (albeit very simple ones)

    Cons:

    -User-friendliness: it seems every time you try to do something in DQ11, you need to acknowledge 13 times. Would you like to rest? Are you SURE? Do you confirm that you are SURE? Another example: why in the WORLD does a game still give characters separate bags? You need to have items equipped on different characters, and it's mostly manual. It seems half the game is navigating menus to TRY to do what you want to do.

    -Difficulty: very easy without draconian settings... with "monsters are very strong", you can get wiped out by chance without getting a turn when monsters get first strike (if you don't grind like your life depends on it.. because it does!)

    -Exploration: the world feels... empty and flat. It doesn't feel lived in, and doesn't feel like is has much of a personally. Apart from running around getting treasure chests that seem way out of place (why are they chilling in the middle of the plains in plain view??)

    -Character and monster design looks terrible (ymmv)

    All in all, I hadn't played Dragon Quest since the first one on NES, and I thought it might be time to revisit this serie. I was wrong. If you ARE a fan of the series, perhaps there is something for you there. If not, stay away, there are better JRPGs out there that deserve your time before this one.    … Expand
  2. Nasum
    Apr 5, 2019
    1
    Unfortunately on the Ps4 Pro there is insane motion blur which causes nausea within a few minutes. They don't seem to intend to do anything about it, my complaint was answered with "sit further away from your television and use the smallest screen possible. I'll never be able to finish, a colossal waste of money.
  3. ScreamingToad
    Jan 30, 2020
    4
    Huge waste of time for everyone who have played previous Dragon Quest games. Empty world, boring side quests, faceless characters and boring combat if you play on normal difficulty. And guess what? Hours of pointless grind if you play with draconian settings. This game suffers from lack of new ideas and it seems like critics who give this game 10 ratings didn't play more than a couple of hours.
  4. thedstrat
    Feb 5, 2019
    2
    I wanted to like this game, but the graphics were not very interesting to me, the battle system was boring (note that I only made it 5 hours in), the side quests that I saw were inconsequential, and I did not see any cool spells, choices matter mechanics, or anything of interest. Though it appears polished, I was pretty disappointed.
  5. AlfonsoCR
    Sep 27, 2019
    0
    Cuidado!!! Si adquieres está versión altamente recortada, sin un montón de contenido restringido que está reservado en NS y además de comerte más de 100 horas sentado en el mismo lugar eres un completo tarado e insulto a la inteligencia humana.
  6. Cerimus
    Jul 6, 2020
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Dragon Quest 11Review
    The Story: Really good, up to a point. Enter Sylvando, the flamboyant token character! Then the propaganda starts. Fruit Suits & Pride Parades. All kinds of innuendo. This cringe-worthy plot development will offend normal people. It's over-the top. It's agenda driven. WOKE themes are becoming the point of these games, it seems. LAME!!!

    Game Play: All-in-all, it's far too easy!! Players can see & avoid foes altogether! You can preemptively strike before battle which seems unnecessary and superfluous. Dual wield is really awesome, especially with falcon swords. But monsters are easier to defeat, in general, and rare metal monsters are now a joke. The monster catalogue gives item drop info before drops occur. And the crossbow target game was just time consuming and a real nuisance. Often, the crossbow targeted monsters off-screen while attempting other actions. And invisible walls were everywhere. I've never seen it this bad. Why couldn't they just modify the environment to bar passage? Furthermore, the map was too small!! Man, you'd think for a PS 4 game it would be at least as large as DQ8 on PS2, but it isn't. The Casino has improved, but you are still only allowed a choice of slots or poker. Could've added more. The Forge is nice. It makes items & upgrades, but game play is easy anyway. So you can skip bothering with it. The graphics are traditionally DQ design and looks great. And finally the music scores. Classic DQ, but does not change with location. It's the same music from place-to-place, over and over again. It get s very old...Anyway, given the very small map and easy difficulty setting, I would say this game was suitable for novices with low standards and no expectations. this is definitely not DQ8.

    My Review: Save yourself some money and skip this one if you don't drink soy milk or loiter around public restrooms late night in Central Park. If you already own it, do as I did. Lament your purchase at GameStop while taking a pair of scissors to it. Wokeness ruined the story and game play is for amateurs with no skills.    … Expand
  7. night4
    Sep 21, 2018
    4
    The music is horrible. It sounds like it's from 1990 and there's not much of it.

    It really clashes with the other aspects of the game, too. It's like playing Mario Odyssey while listening to the music from NES Mario Bros.

    The game is very slow and repetitive otherwise. Skip it.
  8. SirSoil
    Feb 28, 2020
    0
    Dragon Quest 11 is the worst RPG ever made, with its Grindy gameplay horrible battles boring story and characters. The game does look beautiful so are the enemy’s, but that’s pretty much it for good things. The game is boring they made exploring worlds so meaningless, also the actual battles are super lame. And let’s not forget the main problem of the game, the damn grind. The grind justDragon Quest 11 is the worst RPG ever made, with its Grindy gameplay horrible battles boring story and characters. The game does look beautiful so are the enemy’s, but that’s pretty much it for good things. The game is boring they made exploring worlds so meaningless, also the actual battles are super lame. And let’s not forget the main problem of the game, the damn grind. The grind just destroys this game the most, leveling up is so hard that the only enemy in the game that gives you a lot of experience points is a random metal **** The rest of the enemy’s give u around 1-10 experience points, while the metal slime gives you 1000-3000 experience points wtf. Also all the characters are easily hatable not to forget the terrible boring ass story. Dragon Quest 11 is an embarrassment to the RPG series of games, this game seriously needs to be removed from any site so people can actually play good RPGs. (Terrible 0/5) Belongs In The Trash!… Expand
  9. AndreaM84
    Sep 22, 2018
    3
    Meh. I did expect so much more out of this title. It has got part of its old charm but honestly there are so many ways it could have been improved compared to its predecessors (other than the graphics). It still does a terrible job at explaining how things work (I often found myself googling stuff) and so far the story and character development have not been so interesting as to push meMeh. I did expect so much more out of this title. It has got part of its old charm but honestly there are so many ways it could have been improved compared to its predecessors (other than the graphics). It still does a terrible job at explaining how things work (I often found myself googling stuff) and so far the story and character development have not been so interesting as to push me forward into the game. Unfortunately it's too late to get a refund so I'll keep playing it but if I could switch it with some other title I would.… Expand
  10. Algoros
    Sep 28, 2018
    0
    WoW, this game is not more then the worse game I ever played.
    random combat systen
    really bad balanced boss fights
    much to easy in the normal fights
    backtracking
    boring grinding
    horrible story (after 40 h)
  11. Gette
    Oct 28, 2018
    2
    Game is slow.
    You don't get to attribute points to unlock skill every level because each cap requires several points, which make the gameplay feels linear.
    The combat gets boring, music repetitive, no character creation like old DQ, no monster capturing like old DQ either from first 20 hours so I guess it's not in the game as well.
    Just a banal game, would be a seven if it costs $5.
  12. Landry_rams
    Jun 19, 2019
    0
    Супер унылое рандомное казино, очень быстро надоедающая рандомная боевка, очень долгие бессмысленные повторяющиеся анимации (типа там прыгает что-то или тому подобное), которые нельзя пропустить, много репетатитва и сюжет поначалу достаточно интересный сливается просто в ж.Супер унылое рандомное казино, очень быстро надоедающая рандомная боевка, очень долгие бессмысленные повторяющиеся анимации (типа там прыгает что-то или тому подобное), которые нельзя пропустить, много репетатитва и сюжет поначалу достаточно интересный сливается просто в ж.
  13. Steignov
    Sep 10, 2020
    3
    Beautiful, but a slog.

    + Really pretty graphics + decent story + interesting characters - that MIDI music holy f*ck! (you, can mod it in the steam version, but I rate the vanilla stuff here) - extremly slow game. Everything is slow. The story, the combat, even fights against low level monsters take forever, due to long a*s animations - dumb menus, almost everthing is hidden under    Beautiful, but a slog.

    + Really pretty graphics
    + decent story
    + interesting characters

    - that MIDI music holy f*ck! (you, can mod it in the steam version, but I rate the vanilla stuff here)
    - extremly slow game. Everything is slow. The story, the combat, even fights against low level monsters take forever, due to long a*s animations
    - dumb menus, almost everthing is hidden under Misc. So click, click, click, click until you get to see what you want
    - You lose all your fast travel points after a certrain event. Sea and land. Biggest joke ever. And you won't regain them, You'll need to revisit them. Serioulsy f*ck that.
    - Played it through and it took about 80 hours. At least 10-20 hours taken by the weak menu and inventory system and revisting all the places I have been before.
    - No idea how this game got such high scores. Besides from a tiny amount of mountable monsters there no new features and improvement compared to the last main games. Everything is the same! Critics are m*rons, cause that means we will get another PS2 game with nice graphics. Thanks for that, I guess!    … Expand
  14. FlyingPiloswine
    May 13, 2021
    0
    This game is really well designed. Each part of the gameplay is rewarding and exciting. The only downside is that the game overstays its welcome. I am about 60 - 70 hours into the campaign and am well into "Act 2" of the game, and its starting to feel like a slog. A lot of overworld content is reused, but it fails to strike the same sense of awe and change that Ocarina of Time achieved.This game is really well designed. Each part of the gameplay is rewarding and exciting. The only downside is that the game overstays its welcome. I am about 60 - 70 hours into the campaign and am well into "Act 2" of the game, and its starting to feel like a slog. A lot of overworld content is reused, but it fails to strike the same sense of awe and change that Ocarina of Time achieved. You do revisit an area or two that changed drastically, but the vast majority of areas are exactly the same your second time around. The game kept me heartily entertained for about 70 hours, though, so Id recommend it. Unfortunately, I dont think I will see the story to its thrilling conclusion.… Expand
  15. hard897
    Nov 19, 2019
    0
    A game in 2017/07
    SE sold DQ11S, new version with voice support on Switch for 1+ month since 2019/09/27
    But still no voice update on PS4
    I bought PS4 version for a long time, but do not start to play it yet.
  16. ArthurJoelLeo
    Sep 2, 2020
    0
    Awful! Its forcing you to play longer for levels up. The game is like no ending also, mechanics are awful
  17. Kamzz
    Jul 24, 2020
    0
    No free upgrade to XI S, it feels so greedy from SQEX.
    Don't buy this game anymore and wait XI S if you really want it.
  18. DigitalCaffeine
    Dec 2, 2021
    3
    Oof, I was really looking forward to this game after seeing so many critics say it was one of the best JRPGs they've ever played, but after dozens of hours into it, I'm not sure we were playing the same thing. This is my first time playing a Dragon Quest game, and I doubt I'll return for another unless it was made by a different team. I have played other RPGs and JRPGs through the years,Oof, I was really looking forward to this game after seeing so many critics say it was one of the best JRPGs they've ever played, but after dozens of hours into it, I'm not sure we were playing the same thing. This is my first time playing a Dragon Quest game, and I doubt I'll return for another unless it was made by a different team. I have played other RPGs and JRPGs through the years, but even older ones tower over what is being offered here. The pacing is incredibly slow, mostly due to drawn-out conversations and cutscenes with the production value of something from the early 2000s. In fact, if you handed me this game and told me it was from 2005 I would have believed you.

    I didn't know exactly how many songs there are in the game, but you'll mostly hear the same 2 or 3 for the entire time you play. This includes the thousands of battles you'll get into. How did nobody see this as a problem?

    The monsters are cute, but it feels like that's where 90% of the art budget went. The towns look all have unique themes, but once you leave them it's the most generic open spaces with few interesting things to look at over and over. Seriously, it feels like there was a lack of inspiration in the overall art vision for this game. Everything is generic in the worst way possible. I finally called it quits about 30 hours in and can't in good faith recommend this for anyone to play.    … Expand
  19. Haannss
    Nov 17, 2022
    3
    Absurdly boring and long game that repeats enemies and scenearies once and again just to add hours and hours of never ending torture, just when it seems to end, when you are already thinking of choosing a better game for the next few weeks, it goes on and on. And not in an enjoyable way. The story is ridiculously childish and the game mechanics are just dumb. At some point of theAbsurdly boring and long game that repeats enemies and scenearies once and again just to add hours and hours of never ending torture, just when it seems to end, when you are already thinking of choosing a better game for the next few weeks, it goes on and on. And not in an enjoyable way. The story is ridiculously childish and the game mechanics are just dumb. At some point of the development, somebody decided that introducing NON DEFENDABLE altered status would be a good idea to artificially make the game harder, and nobody stopped him/her. The only good thing are the designs of Akira Toriyama, a gift for those longing for Dragon Ball. That alone, and nothing else. Very few games were less enjoyable to me in all the PS4 catalogue. Can't even figure out why it has a so ridiculously high score. RUN AWAY FROM IT.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

18
#18 Best PS4 Game of 2018
19
#19 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2018
29
#29 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 86 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 80 out of 86
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 86
  3. Negative: 0 out of 86
  1. PLAY! Zine
    Mar 11, 2019
    85
    Might not be the greatest game of all time, but it probably is the best game in the most quality maintaining JRPG series of all time. Is that even better? Could be! Do not miss this gorgeous yet pretty nostalgic game set in a well known universe of the Dragon Quest franchise.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Jan 9, 2019
    85
    Dragon Quest XI clings to tradition, but when you buy a DQ game, you don’t expect a revolution. You expect vibrant characters and thrilling adventures and that’s exactly what you get, amplified by the level of execution unparalleled not only in the series, but in the whole genre. [11/2018, p.66]
  3. GameGrin
    Jan 2, 2019
    100
    Dragon Quest XI: Echoes Of An Elusive Age is a perfect game, it sticks to with traditional JRPG roots while still bringing in a few new mechanics to freshen it up a bit.
    Read full review
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