Nintendo Wii’s “Dragon Quest Swords” Offers Up Cheap Thrills for the Unskilled

Right from the get-go, Dragon Quest Swords reminded me of Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest on the SNES, an often forgotten chapter in the FF series that was intended as a “gateway game,” one that would entice casual gamers towards the micromanaging world of RPGs.

(Or, it’s a dumbed down Nintendo Wii port of a superior game on PS2. Your call.)

Dragon Quest Swords is an ok game, and that’s where the problem lies: it had all cards stacked in its favor, from the creative minds at Square Enix to the marketing prowess at Nintendo. While it’s not a total failure, the thought of what could’ve been is sobering and frustrating.

Players assume the role of a garden-variety hero that must discover why the Queen has been acting strange (it probably has something to do with that mysterious mask she wears…). Through dungeon crawling, talking to local townfolk (only one town!) and leveling up, the game follows the same path forged by most RPGs since Dragon Quest Swords‘ ancestor, Dragon Warrior.

It’s a fun, but trivial experience.

The game’s one major selling-point (outside of being an RPG by the people that mastered and popularized the genre on the Wii) is the control scheme.

Usually, turn-based battles get tedious due to the lack of variety, but since this is the Wii we’re talking about, all swordplay and defense is hands-on. Slashing the Wiimote to destroy your enemies and utilizing real-time defense (holding ‘B’ while pinpointing the area monsters’ plan to attack) is a novel idea, and I can picture it being polished just in time for the inevitable sequel.

Even with the original control layout, Dragon Quest Swords is a ho-hum, predictable RPG that holds little replay value, since most other aspects of the game are secondary to the Wiimotes’ charms.

I understand a companies’ need to maximize revenue, but it’s too bad that a unique system like Wii is only being used for cheap thrills, like Wiimote swatting. Is the system that incapable of handing quality graphics? And why must its handicaps hamper down things irrelevant to tech, like worthwhile storylines and – let’s be honest here – original and exclusive games from 3rd party companies?