Coming soon to shatter a TV or window near you! http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=13457 I spent like four valuable hours of cosplayer-ogling time in line to play a game with magic and stats so I hope you guys appreciate what I'm doing for you. Seriously though, I kid, because Dragon Quest Swords was pretty fun.
The Dragon Quest Swords demo at the Square-Enix party was a single level with a boss at the end. (I have a hunch that it was around the third area in the game or so, or maybe I saw that somewhere.) The playable level was a forest environment with a handful of different enemies to fight. Moving from fight to fight is on a set path on rails (which split into two different directions sometimes) with a few secret rocks and chests to look in/under along the way.
The control is a bit niftier than just waving the Wii-mote at the screen in a retarded fury. You can target a point with the 'A' button and swing at it from any direction. Targeting a point is important for lining up hits such as a horizontal slash across the top of the screen (rather than through the middle) to take out a line of flying enemies. Aside from slashing, the player can also make a forward-stab motion, which is handy if an enemy tends to block swings. As a lazy person, I found that flicking the controller from the wrist worked a bit better than full arm swings.
The 'B' trigger raises your shield to block, which you can position on screen to absorb or reflect attacks. Depending on how much you use it, it can gradually become chipped away, or it can be replaced or buffed with a potion to make blocking easier. By pointing the controller, the player can move the shield around the screen and block attacks at different points.
Also, the player gradually builds up a meter for a super sword technique. By selecting a technique when the meter is full, the player is prompted to follow a certain dramatic motion with the Wii controller, which will melt the faces off of all the enemies onscreen if done correctly.
There are menus for items and stats, too, and you get to pick an assistant to cast heals and yell things at you all the time. There was more than enough pre-provided for the demo, just to make sure nobody died part way while sampling the game, probably. Hopefully the final version won't be so easy!
There were about a half-dozen different types of enemies in the demo level. Slimes and little mushroom men hop onto screen to get one-shotted, and a couple of different little flying demons fly and circle up close in patterns for you to try to cleave in a couple shots. Boar men attack and block with spears; if they block your slashes, a forward-stab works well. There was another enemy that shot arrows from a distance, and the arrows could be simply blocked, or batted back at the enemy with a good sword swing. Zombies show up suddenly and spit poison. My favorite enemies, the adorable little knight guys, mount up on slimes, run up to you, and dodge and block your hits.
And finally, the boss of the demo level was the Golem; this is where the potential boatload of fun can be seen. The Golem winds up and throws a series of punches, and blocking the attacks will put him in a stun, ready for a counter-attack. The player needs to read the Golem's movements and utilize both defense and offense, but especially defense. It's really a lot like Punch-Out, and as such, is really fun. If the rest of the game is like the Golem fight, it'll be great.
That's my overall impression of Dragon Quest Swords. It's not so much an RPG or on-rails shooter (a sword only has so much range!), but more like a clever action game along the lines of Punch-Out. How good it will actually be comes down to how the rest of the enemies and areas are designed, but there's a definitely a solid game idea here.
Topic: IMPRESSIONS: Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors (Read 3625 times)
