What's with me and all the apologies tonight? Geez, maybe I'm losing my edge. Either way, it's late, I'm tired, and I've been meaning to write this piece for the last couple of days. Also, I have nothing else to write about at the moment. So deal with it, because you ain't getting anything until tomorrow evening or possibly Monday!
If you'll be so kind as to turn your minds back a month you may recall that I wrote a seemingly negative review of Dragon Quest 9. To play the complete wuss I completely bailed out at the end by saying that in spite of my cynicism, I actually enjoyed the game. At the time I didn't really understand why I wrote that, to be blunt the game bored me to tears. However, that tiny blurb managed to pass the second draft of my review for good reason; deep down somewhere in the unholy darkest part of my being, I actually did like Dragon Quest 9.
What rubbed me raw when I first played the game was that similar to many contemporary games, it has a very slow start. Sure its not the 25+ hour tutorial problem that FF 13 had, but in FF 13's defense at least the battle system naturally progressed as the game went along and the developers made sure to gingerly coat each passing hour with more and more battle mechanics. FF 13 managed to look good while doing so too.
For the sake of analogy, Final Fantasy 13 was the gaming equivalent to dating the prudish cheerleader captain. She's pretty to look at but won't put out for at least 10 dates, in the mean time you must resist the urge to forcefully put yourself in a coma as she regales you with tales of shoe buying and the latest episode of "The Hills". The only thing that keeps you involved is the desperate delusion that you'll be interested in her long enough to hold out for the goods.
Dragon Quest has a similar problem but it only takes 10 hours before the ball begins a rollin'. Sadly when you have no eye candy to pass the time, those 10 hours can feel like an eternity in comparison.
For the brave adventurous souls who brave this feat of endurance, there lies a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Once the game decides to dispenses with all the unnecessary baggage you are left with a pretty satisfying fusion of classic RPG game design in a modern packaging.
So yeah, there you have it. Yes, the game is good but next time can we try and speed it up a little please?
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