Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition

 Xbox One
User Score
8.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 178 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 150 out of 178
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 178
  3. Negative: 15 out of 178
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  1. Egopez
    Sep 7, 2023
    8
    the game is great, the progress system with the menus and activities is very good too, the graphics are also colorful and spectacular, and as a negative point I would say that there is a lot to farm to level up, which does not make you progress as fast that one would like
  2. aaronnmp96
    Aug 17, 2023
    4
    It's dragon ball but bad, the protagonist is link but bad, it doesn't matter what level you have, if the enemy has to take x amount of life from you, it doesn't have any difficulty until the end, Repetitive music, recycled enemies, characters without charisma, wasted mechanics, repetitive missions, everything that can go wrong in an RPG. The only remarkable thing is the landscapes.
  3. GregoryDQ
    Jun 27, 2023
    9
    Great classic JRPG.
    One of the best Dragon Quest.More than 200 hours of gameplay
  4. Abrahamsireno12
    Jun 26, 2023
    10
    Esta que te muy bueno la historia el diseño de personajes y sobre todo la banda sonora que descanse en paz koichi sugiyama
  5. bloodlines
    Jun 12, 2023
    9
    ИМХО, лучшая игра в жанре. Никогда не играл в JRPG, но как-то увидел вскользь трейлер то ли зельды то ли еще чего, и в друг захотелось поиграть в что-то милое и сказочное. Загуглил ТОП похожих игр на ПК, в которых то и дело мелькала эта игра.

    Решил попробовать и о боже, я просто провалился в нее. Настолько интересно играть в игру мне давно не было. Прошел полностью, с эндгеймом, сделав    ИМХО, лучшая игра в жанре. Никогда не играл в JRPG, но как-то увидел вскользь трейлер то ли зельды то ли еще чего, и в друг захотелось поиграть в что-то милое и сказочное. Загуглил ТОП похожих игр на ПК, в которых то и дело мелькала эта игра.

    Решил попробовать и о боже, я просто провалился в нее. Настолько интересно играть в игру мне давно не было. Прошел полностью, с эндгеймом, сделав все сайд квесты.

    Именно после этой игры я по сути теперь только в одни JRPG и играю: Tales of Arise, FF7 Remake, Octipath Traveler, Persona 5, DQ 4/5 (на 3ds) и т.д. это те игры, в которые я с огромным удовольствием нырнул и те, которые от меня бы ускользнули, не поиграй я в эту игру.

    Красивейшая графика, увлекательный гемплей, крутые персонажи, очень разнообразный гемплей и неплохой сюжет, лучшая игра для входа в жанр.

    Жаль, что столь невероятный жанр все эти годы от меня ускользал.    … Expand
  6. Geralt123
    Mar 13, 2023
    9
    A very good adventure, I almost had the feeling the other party members are my friends!

    Combat system is excellent, countless sorceries and skills to choose from.

    Graphics are very good.

    Writing is very good, I was really curious how the story would continue!

    And this is a very long game if you also play act 3. You will need over 100 hours, but it is fun!
  7. Paradov
    Feb 5, 2023
    10
    This is the game that made me love jrpg.
    The combat is fast, the story is very enjoyable, the side quests are good.
  8. Uncl3s4mbr
    Feb 5, 2023
    10
    Classic RPG with new look. Awesome experience, characters and history. This game surprised me , how I did not play this series before.
  9. D4vidz
    Jan 29, 2023
    10
    Phenomenal JRPG and the best Dragon Quest game to date. Incredible cast of characters, amazing story that kept me on the tip of my toes always surprised by what happened next. Plenty of quality of life improvements over previous entries as well. This version of the game is just essentially perfect
  10. JugadorRandom15
    Jan 26, 2023
    10
    No puedo ser objetivo aqui, el maldit0 mejor JRPG de la historia, vaya pedazo de juego si no lo juegas aún pues no se que haces con tu vida, anda juegalo nada mas puedas, creanme cuando les digo que es de las mejores experiencias que he tenido con un juego casi 100 horas y me quedaron cosas sin hacer aún asi, es simplemente una locura
  11. thanhqtran
    Jan 5, 2023
    3
    The game is very dull. The combat is okay but extremely slow, and too simplistic.
    Other than that, there are a lot of moments where they tried to tell you the story with cutscenes, so long as you press A a thousand times. This is a dumb decision, they should have made proper cutscenes. I think the game is highly overrated. I did not enjoy it at all.
  12. AyraBlade
    Dec 21, 2022
    9
    Nowdays, one of the few JRPG that keep the old-style formula which i personally pref and generally i ask to get when i think about a JRPG. Plot is kinda linear but funny to play through with some twist in between, don't expect nothing so elaborate or so stunning to deal with. What makes this game rated so high it's the fantastic artstyle and that feeling of a true JRPG. A really goodNowdays, one of the few JRPG that keep the old-style formula which i personally pref and generally i ask to get when i think about a JRPG. Plot is kinda linear but funny to play through with some twist in between, don't expect nothing so elaborate or so stunning to deal with. What makes this game rated so high it's the fantastic artstyle and that feeling of a true JRPG. A really good growing system, with a talent tree that work pretty well, combat system it's everything you tought when you think about a classic JRPG. A Dragon Quest title that keep his identity even through all the years. What this game makes you do is to enjoy a chill and a funny experience accompanied with the Art of Toriyama sensei… Expand
  13. Usmart
    Nov 27, 2022
    10
    Es uno de los juegos más increíbles que he jugado en mi existencia. La música, la historia, el gameplay, todo es perfecto. Un diez completamente merecido
  14. thehbrwhammer
    Dec 11, 2021
    9
    Music alone makes this game memorable. Action is fun and exciting. Characters are excellent too.
  15. Smiley256
    Jul 31, 2022
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Dragon quest 11 is everything that the series is meant to be. It is not a perfect game, but it comes extremely close in a lot of ways. Starting with the story, dragon quest 11 weaves an epic medieval tale that surprised me multiple times. It took me 80 hours to beat the game, and I was never bored throughout the experience. This is due to the expressive characters who’s personality traits grew on me as the game went on. They’re all unique, and have their own motivations for helping to save the world from Mordegon. Mordegon is an acceptable antagonist, though he doesn’t have much of a story. His achievements in the game are what make him threatening. Watching him creep into erdrea from the inside (through flashbacks) to see where it all went wrong was very entertaining. His triumph in the finale of act 1 solidified him as a real threat, and watching smaller and larger characters react to his victory made the world feel alive. When you see all he has done, it makes beating him feel much more significant.

    Moving on from the story, let’s talk about the gameplay. Dragon quest 11 features many scenic landscapes as you travel the world in your adventure. The game is not open world in the same sense as breath of the wild, but there are elements of exploration and discovery to keep things interesting. Random encounters, as expected given the DQ8 remaster, are gone. Instead, who you fight is completely up to you, and since enemies respawn, you can fight as much or as little as you want. Well that last sentence comes with a big fat asterisk, since if you want to progress, there will be some times where you need to find high level enemies, and grind for hours to reach a high enough level. This was fine with me, but it will be a major turnoff for a lot of people who want more excitement from their games. Turn based combat sticks around, and it’s as you would expect. If you’ve played any rpg from the SNES era you know what to except here. It’s not as action oriented as other rpgs like final fantasy, but it provides a sizable amount of weapons armor and moves (thanks to the skill tree) that you can approach every battle from a lot of ways, which is only amplified by the eight party members you’ll have over the course of the game. But with the combat comes my biggest issue with this game. The difficulty. I died a resounding 2 times over the course of 80 hours. This simply isn’t acceptable in the normal mode of a game. There is a harder mode called draconian quest, but one shouldn’t have to play the hardest difficulty available to experience an inkling of challenge. Even during the final boss, I was completely relaxed as I knew I stood zero chance of losing.

    One of this games other problems that feels outdated and more like a product of rush is the music. Luckily in the definitive edition the soundtrack is orchestrated. And what’s in the soundtrack is really beautiful. I still hum some of the themes from it, even a week after beating the game. But the problem is that it feels like there are only 5 tracks, over and over again for 80 hours. The lack of music variety really hurts immersion and makes towns and landmarks feel forgettable, since there are only 2 town themes for day and night applied to every single town. Presentation wise, this is the best dragon quest has ever looked, though there are some issues with it. Playing on the switch version, whenever characters were behind a rock in a cutscene, the textures were laughably bad and looked like they jumped out of the ps2. There’s also this recurring issue where when characters are doing something that isn’t walking or running, the screen will go black and play some sound effects of what they are doing. This doesn’t sound like an issue, but in a very cutscene heavy game like this one, it starts to drag down the experience.

    Dragon quest 11 is a resounding achievement for JRPGs, and one of the best that the genre can offer. If you’re willing to push past some annoying issues and balancing problems, you are in for a captivating tale of perseverance and friendship. Its characters are goofy, its world is expansive and full of quests, and it’s villains are threatening and sometimes genuinely interesting (jasper especially). It is almost perfect and if dragon quest 12 can deliver even half of what this game does, then this series has a very bright future.    … Expand
  16. ertotoba
    Jul 16, 2022
    5
    Decent designs in general, impressive dubbing (Sylvando, a main character, might be one of the best dubbings I have ever seen in a videogame). Storyline too childish, barely any difficulty. Good if you want a game for your 6yo kid.
  17. NunezGTX
    May 11, 2022
    10
    My first RPG experience and I have to say, it made fall in love with the genre. I strongly recommend it!
  18. DinoBeam
    Mar 27, 2022
    5
    WARNING! This game is too easy, and the only other option is Very Hard mode, and you can't change difficulty after starting. This is a huge core flaw that really sucks, and is hard to understand the existence of. I don't know why this isn't talked about more, though it is talked about. I'm over half way through the game and I have to stop. While at first the characters were charming andWARNING! This game is too easy, and the only other option is Very Hard mode, and you can't change difficulty after starting. This is a huge core flaw that really sucks, and is hard to understand the existence of. I don't know why this isn't talked about more, though it is talked about. I'm over half way through the game and I have to stop. While at first the characters were charming and the quest fairly interesting, the story is just meandering from reason for it to keep going to reason for it to keep going using anime power up tricks and such. In addition, Akira Toriyama's art design of monsters is extremely hit or miss here, with half or more of the monsters looking like off-brand toys for very young children.

    The game also feels very cheap in a number of other ways, for instance you get to a cool new area only to hear the same exact music for every other area, then you go in a cave and hear the exact same music for every other cave and dungeon. This game is doing as little as it can to make a profit, making sure to extend the playtime so people don't complain. This game is very disappointing, and I am appalled at the praise it has received by players and critics alike.

    If you are looking for a good JRPG experience, I recommend these;

    Dragon Quest IV for the Nintendo DS
    Pokemon Blue or the updated Leaf Green version
    Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest 1
    Radiata Stories    … Expand
  19. dukey03
    Mar 17, 2022
    10
    This is my favorite game of all time! We’ve been waiting for a modern game that has that PS1/Golden Age era JRPG feel and this is it x10! I love the characters, story, world, combat, and exploration! Highly recommend it for JRPG fans old and new!
  20. NoLameGames
    Feb 28, 2022
    9
    What a grand adventure this game was! A total gem, I'd never played a Dragon Quest game before, I'd heard it was good, but was always skeptical about that. I was in for a wonderful surprise this game was a breath of fresh air in the JRPG scene. It's very tried and true, but it had just enough QOL features to show what a JRPG should be striving for in this day and age.
  21. Arturos
    Jul 30, 2021
    10
    If you like JRPG it's a must have! Perfect character design and a nice story, the soundtrack and the gameplay they are very good.
  22. Pietrovish
    Feb 23, 2022
    8
    Una aventura bastante buena, muchas horas de juego y mucho contenido. La manera episódica es muy satisfactoria.
  23. SolarSamurai
    Jan 27, 2022
    10
    This game is a masterpiece, play it now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  24. titoim
    Jan 18, 2022
    10
    The best traditional JRPG of all time. Incredible music, gameplay, graphics, art style and combat mechanics. Interesting story and lots of replayability.
  25. judgementblade
    Jan 4, 2022
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is mostly a short, very subjective experience report, so take from it what you want or not.

    So, I played the original PS4 version in it's release year and I really loved it. There are also some spoilers in this so prepare yourself when continuing reading.

    Visually it was great and had a neat style. The world was vibrant and had great characters and story.
    Multiple times I was just standing around using the Ego-Perspective to appreciate the place I'm at. So I find it a bit sad they took it out for the "S" version. But I am also glad there are no more crossbow targets to shoot.
    I got actually emotionally involved and the Veronica thing hit my hard.
    Then came the Act 3 twist and I cannot talk about DQ XI without mentioning how positively surprised I was that the post-game is also a good continuation of the story teased in Act 2. That said, I still think the graphic, due it's unique style, holds up rather well but you do notice that it was ported to the Switch and then ported back to PS4.
    I also still think this is a great game to play but the new content is not really worth paying full price again, maybe a third of it, unless you REALLY like Dragon Quest. However, by this point you most likely will be able to get a new copy for about half the initial selling price so you can decide yourself.

    With all that said, there are still things I would wish they had implemented. So from here on a bit of what they NEED to add in a re-make if they would do one (even if they do in 10-15 years the won't add this but let me dream) so you don't need to read more in terms of what the game offers.

    1: Allow me to rebuild Dundrasil, I mean, the assets to do that seem to be already there with the opening movie and the short story part where you travel back in time to Dundrasil at your day of birth (which was also the end of the Kingdom). Reviving Zwaardsrust additionally to that would be icing on the cake.
    2: Have a bit of a better narrative lead through Act 3 since you really have not much of a reason to walk through the world again. Maybe have the by then useless Orbs be part of Dundrasil restoration and Cetaceas upgrade and give some narrative reason to restore them as you travel the world one last time.
    3: Additional playable characters, namely Krystalinda and Pang and also make them marriageable with Drustan's wish.
    4: To add to point 3, give wedding cloths as costumes and a bit more of a scene for that instead of a few dialogues and a picture in your house in Cobblestone.
    5: Allow me to have Veronica look like her actual age permanently sorta like what was done with Serenas haircut for example.

    Now, that's for that from me. Enjoy the game yourself (even if you got spoilert now it's still a good game) is all left to say.    … Expand
  26. flattyfour
    Oct 25, 2021
    9
    Solid DQ. Better than 8? Better than 5? Tough question for me personally. Thank you Enix team within Square to keep the traditions alive and well.
  27. Andrewblank610
    Sep 28, 2021
    9
    2nd best Dragon Quest game by far after 8. Every character is fun and has a great story both alone and combined with the other. Just wish theyde add DQ8 monster capturing to the newer games.
  28. IamChris8
    Aug 17, 2021
    9
    Was soll ich noch zu DQ11 sagen? Für mich war das Game ein absoluter MUST-PLAY Titel. Zusätzlich war es aber auch mein erstes DQ-Game, obwohl ich jahrelang auf der Playstation unterwegs war, ist die Reihe an mir vorbeigegangen. Dank des genialen Game Pass´ konnte ich endlich mal eines der Titel "antesten" und habe mich sofort in das Game verliebt.
    Das Game ist wirklich mit LIEBE    Was soll ich noch zu DQ11 sagen? Für mich war das Game ein absoluter MUST-PLAY Titel. Zusätzlich war es aber auch mein erstes DQ-Game, obwohl ich jahrelang auf der Playstation unterwegs war, ist die Reihe an mir vorbeigegangen. Dank des genialen Game Pass´ konnte ich endlich mal eines der Titel "antesten" und habe mich sofort in das Game verliebt.
    Das Game ist wirklich mit LIEBE programmiert wurden.
    Klar, gibt es einige Fehler, aber es ist immer noch Kritik auf einem hohen Niveau.

    Gameplay: 9/10
    Story: 10/10
    Welt: 10/10
    Atmosphäre: 9/10
    Umfang: 9/10
    Grafik: - (Anime/Zeitlos)

    Negative Punkte:
    - Hero spricht nicht
    - für meinen Geschmack etwas in die Länge gezogen.

    Wer den Game Pass hat, muss es UNBEDINGT spielen.    … Expand
  29. Berty4ever
    Aug 2, 2021
    10
    This is not only my favorite RPG, but also the greatest game of all time in my opinion. It has great gameplay, memorable characters, beautiful overworld, amazing music, this game has it all. I literally can't explain how amazing this game is. It literally changed what I thought video games were capable of in terms of storytelling and overall fun. You definitely need to play it toThis is not only my favorite RPG, but also the greatest game of all time in my opinion. It has great gameplay, memorable characters, beautiful overworld, amazing music, this game has it all. I literally can't explain how amazing this game is. It literally changed what I thought video games were capable of in terms of storytelling and overall fun. You definitely need to play it to understand what I mean. Overall absolutely the greatest game of all time and I doubt that I will ever play a game that is greater.… Expand
  30. DoctorZack
    Jun 18, 2021
    9
    Other than some really grindy late-game and annoying side-quests (though series fans or JRPG fans knew these were coming before playing) the game is gorgeous, cinematic, and easily a recommend to Dragon Quest newcomers or JRPG fans.
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Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best Xbox One Game of 2020
20
#20 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
92

Universal acclaim - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. XboxAddict
    Jan 4, 2021
    93
    Regardless if you’re new to the series or a longtime fan, Dragon Quest XI is the perfect game to experience what Dragon Quest is all about. Not only is Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition one of the best JRPG’s you’ll find on Xbox, but it’s actually in my top 5 of all time. Easy enough for new fans to get into but enough optional challenge for those that crave it, this Definitive Edition really does live up to its name and is the version I wish I originally played two years ago.
    Read full review
  2. TheXboxHub
    Dec 18, 2020
    100
    This is the best RPG I've played this year, bar none, and as such I recommend it to anyone and everyone. The story sucks you in, the game looks beautiful and sounds amazing, and with hours and hours of content to go at, there isn't a mark against it. It’s a rare thing, but this is as close to a perfect game as you’re going to get.
    Read full review
  3. Gaming Age
    Dec 16, 2020
    100
    If you’ve managed to miss out on Dragon Quest XI so far, then this is surely the version of the game you should get. It’s a great RPG, packs a lot of content in to keep you busy throughout the holiday season, and the nifty 2D mode makes for a fun nostalgia trip to boot.
    Read full review
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