The two features I mentioned in my previous post are really the only "quality-of-life" additions that stand out to me enough to mention. I suppose the addition of the option to use the original Japanese VA could be a third, but hardly necessary since the localization is outstanding. The other stuff they did in this area is honestly so insignificant or arbitrary it's barely even worth discussing. Some examples:
- Now you can craft from your menu instead of at a camp which makes less sense but maybe saves a few seconds here and there and probably appeases a couple of reviewers who cited it as a loose example of how Dragon Quest XI is "too traditional."
- They removed a completely optional exploration activity where you could seek out hidden targets in nearly all of the game's outdoor locations. I suppose it wasn't anyone's favorite thing, but okay?
- You can see your party members running around with you on the field sometimes (they sort of phase in and out) which is sort of neat but I really would have preferred to be able to just switch which party member I was controlling on the field if anything...but also it really doesn't make much difference.
- Photo Mode...cool?
- The option to marry an 8-year-old or your grandfather.
Notice a theme? Most of this stuff you'd barely notice, or it's a trade off from whatever the original decision was which one player might argue is slightly better and another player might argue is slightly worse.
Now, you might be wondering why I didn't mention the addition of the 2D, or "classic" mode. After all, they went through the trouble to make the
entire game, fully playable in 2D! Seems cool, right? I sure thought so. It isn't cool. It sucks. The only thing more shocking than the fact that they went to such great lengths to make an entire extra version of this humongous game is the fact that they didn't bother to actually make it any good. It does not feel like playing classic Dragon Quest; it feels like shit. Okay, but it's optional, right? Not exactly.
And herein lies the biggest problem with DQXI-S: that extra side content is not all side content--much of it has been stuffed into the experience haphazardly, seemingly by an entirely different team of individuals, with little care or concern for how it might alter the overall experience. The quality of this content is a massive cut below the original content--my wife & I kept calling it "straight-to-DVD sequel content." It's
bad, and it tends to somehow show up most often when it is least welcome (major story moments that were carefully paced and structured). It's hard for me to discuss in more detail without spoiling a lot of what makes the game so great, but here's an analogy: Imagine I re-cut the original Star Wars trilogy to include bits and pieces of the Star Wars content that has come since to make an
ultimate 10 hour version of it that would answer all of the questions you never had to begin with. When Han Solo first shows up, we can cut to a 15 minute re-cap of Solo: A Star Wars Story so that you can learn where he got the name Solo.
Our first 100% playthrough of Dragon Quest XI on the original PS4 release clocked in at around 160 hours. Now, I'm sure many players got there quite a bit faster than that, but the point here is that the one thing Dragon Quest XI absolutely
did not need was more content. And the graphics are worse for some reason.