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I've been playing Dragon Quest XI S lately and having a blast. It's as much of a classic RPG as ever! You play as the hero meeting the king and setting out to save the world from evil! I've already met a thief in the castle dungeon, fought a huge a dragon (or more like was chased by it), learned to forge my own weapons, participated in a horse race for knights, and was joined by a cleric, a jester and a very small mage.

It has a classic class system and each character gets skills and spells that matches their class using a nice skill point system without unecessary experimenting.

I'm very pleased to see that NPC interaction hasn't really changed at all since the earlier games in the series. NPCs usually only have one thing to say and repeat that if you talk to them multiple times. This may change between day and night (although mostly not in this game) and (more often) after events happens. There are quite a few cut scenes (fully voiced in the S version) that makes the story proceed, but still most of the story details simply comes from speaking to NPCs, just like how about all DQ games and earlier FF games works.

Something that has changed though is the battle view. I can't see the first-person perspective anywhere. There are two camera modes, one where the character to give orders to is able to "move freely" (although just cosmetic as it has no practical influence on the battle system) and one with fixed camera. Both modes feels very Final Fantasy though. This is not a big problem, but I think it's a bit of a pity that this part of its classic RPG roots finally had to go. At least 2D mode still has the traditional view though.

Another thing that has changed and which is worse, is the world map. There is no real world map, instead there are quite large areas that limits the player by a number of exits which connects to other large areas, dungeons or towns. These large areas is the closest thing to a world map, and it seems like it's scaled down or else the distance between towns would be very short, but they are much more limiting than real world maps are. I prefer real world maps that limits the player's movement in a more clever way. Instead they just block off the paths to areas you are not supposed to go to yet, usually a guard requiring a travel passport or something, and after you have saved some town or something and advanced the story you got the passport and can proceed. This makes it feel much more linear than earlier games. At least there are no hand holding though, just an NPC (marked by a special icon) that cleverly hints the player where to go to next in case the player haven't played for a while and needs a refresher. It never feels like a repeating tutorial or hand-holding fairy.

The other poorly done thing is encounters. Random encounters is gone (which I don't miss too much though) but instead you see monsters roaming around the map and get in battle with them if you touch them. Would be fine by me if it wasn't for the fact that monsters are almost blind! If you get close enough for them to see you they might chase you but they are too slow to catch you and chances are they run instead (in which case they are quite fast) if you are strong enough. This means that you are never forced to battle if you don't want to. 2D mode is more like a totally different game since random encounters are back.

A third thing that I dislike is the difficulty which is just waaay to low (even if we ignore the fact that you almost never have to fight). Now I created my hero using a password from DQ1 where I'd beaten the game which means I started out at level 9 in DQ11 and the beginning was very easy. But I've played for a while now so this shouldn't matter anymore and the game is still lacking any kind of challenge. I hope it gets better later in the game.
There are new "Shibari Play" (Draconian Quests in English) options that raises difficulty, but I don't think they seem to be very fun except maybe the one where NPCs are lying, stronger monsters or the one that makes party members suddenly remember awkward moments in battle. Things like disabling shopping seems just like the wrong way to raise difficulty in an RPG. I'm not going to touch any Shibari Play options on my first play-through though.

Despite these disappointments, I think that overall the game feels like a worthy game of the Dragon Quest main series, and I'm happy that the series haven't lost its charm at all!

I got the Gorgeous version (which is really just the standard cartridge but with a special slide case, label and comes with an expansion pass code for the DLC) so I got the voice drama and those DLC trinkets that are free in the English version (Champion's Pack).

While the series continues to be orthodox, the modern English translations continues to be controversial (from what I've heard, I'm not playing it in English). The hero is now a "luminary" which is a term they previously used for a jester prestige class (supterstar). It's a freaking hero (yuusha) you idiots! Like in every previous DQ game (and parody) in history!

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