Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - PlayStation 5 Review

Today, three years after its first release, we have again entered the wonderful world of Erdrea with a definitive version that closes the deeds of the protagonist of the eleventh chapter of the Dragon Quest series.

Title originally released in 2018 on PC and PlayStation 4 in a not entirely "perfect" version, it arrived a year later in its S version on Nintendo Switch showing the true power of the small Nintendo console and proposing really not bad additions, capable of perfect even the gameplay that was already perfect in its original version.

After a year of exclusive Square Enix has decided to bring his complete work on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC by introducing all the improvements that until now were peculiarities of the Nintendo Switch version.

The title arrived on home consoles and on PC in the meantime has gone to completely replace the now no longer available (digitally) Dragon Quest XI, in addition to this Microsoft has made it available immediately in the Game Pass catalog, making it more and more attractive. 'subscription offer dedicated to Xbox and PC.

Needless to ask ourselves whether or not it is worth replaying Dragon Quest XI since the plot has remained unchanged, but are the new improvements made to the title worth the price of this new edition? Thanks to a code provided by Koch Media we are here to answer this question.

History does not change

As anticipated at the beginning of the review, the epic of our hero is not in the least touched, apart from a small addition between the first and second act.

The protagonist of this chapter will have to take charge of the fate of the world, also thanks to the direct connection with the "Lucente" a legendary hero who has really reincarnated in your character, just in time to stop again a dark force that intends to subvert the whole world thanks also to its hordes of demons.

But there is not always a happy ending, in fact we will immediately discover that shortly after the rebirth of the legendary hero, he becomes orphaned precisely because of the evil entity that has conquered the kingdom in which the hero resided with his parents.

The orphan will be found by a young old fisherman (scene very similar to the one seen in Dragon Ball) with whom he will grow up and who will have to work his way through suffering, revelations and much more.

Many innovations designed to refine an already perfect product

The gameplay basically remains unchanged except for some new additions, like the possibility of being able to speed up the entire fight, thus reducing the time "lost" in the grinding phase of your party by maximizing the time and experience accumulated.

Furthermore, during the various battles it will be possible to assign one or more characters to the artificial intelligence, so that you will no longer have to worry about it, especially as regards the recovery of HP that previously had to be done manually.

In addition to this several quick commands are introduced useful for recalling specific functions such as the Portable Forge or the Hero's Horse, which in this new S edition boasts two new rideable creatures, the Koguar and the Iron Maiden, which will imprison you in its cage to transport you.

Furthermore a feature similar to the one seen in Persona 5 Royal is introduced, or if you have a higher party level than the enemy one and this will be invested by your trusty steed you will immediately receive experience points, which was not possible in the 2018 version as doing this automatically ended in a clash.

3D o 2D?

The S version also introduces on fixed consoles the possibility of being able to play the entire title in 2D version allowing the player to enjoy the title with beautiful 16bit graphics, modes in which there are extra challenges limited to this mode.

The only negative is that if you do not pay attention to the transition from 3D to 2D, which you can do by talking to any priest, you risk overwriting the 3D mode save as the two modes do not share the same save. So be careful every time you save and switch modes, remembering to use another slot.

Finally, the possibility of being able to use the excellent Japanese dubbing is introduced, which in our opinion is well done and apt compared to the English one and the possibility to choose between the soundtrack in midi or orchestrated, both options were not available in the original version of the title.

A simple port

Technically speaking, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of a Lost Era - Final Edition is losing graphics quality compared to the original chapter released on PC and PlayStation 4, surely you are wondering how this is possible since this should be an edition. definitive.

Simply this third re-release is a direct port of the second release on Nintendo Switch, where sacrifices were made in graphic terms in order to shoot worthily. Nothing serious or that would compromise the whole experience neither on Nintendo Switch, nor on PlayStation 4, Xbox and PC.

The game has less clear and detailed graphics in general, also due to a lighting system not able to better manage the light sources, but it is not the fault of your consoles, as mentioned above it is linked to the fact that this is a direct porting.

A real shame to review the beautiful environments that accompanied us in 2018 in our adventure with duller and less detailed colors. Above all, the vegetation and the interiors of the buildings affect the most.

On the other side of the coin we have the support for 4K resolution, the granite 60 FPS and loading times reset to the new flagships from Sony and Microsoft. We tested it on PlayStation 5 and were generally satisfied with how the title turns out.

In conclusion

Answering the initial question, yes, this Ultimate Edition is worth getting, especially if you are the lucky owner of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. This edition manages to keep the spirit of Dragon Quest XI intact by refining it where its version sinned. original. All this, however, to the detriment of a slightly subdued graphic sector compared to the original, due to the direct porting of a version designed for a less performing console than PlayStation 4 and PC.

Thanks to all the improvements proposed in the S edition, this third version reaches its maximum form, with an excellent dubbing in Japanese and with a fully orchestrated soundtrack. We recommend it to all lovers of old-fashioned JRPGs and especially to those who have an Xbox Game Pass subscription as they will be able to download it "for free".