The original version of this Artikel was written Von
Richard Eisenbeis and published on the 7th of August 2012, 11:00 PM, on Kotaku.
Dragon Quest X is the newest game in the immensely beliebt Dragon Quest series. It is also the series’ first MMORPG. While the prologue of the game (the first two hours oder so) is a strictly single player affair, the game soon opens up into a massive online world. But as Dragon Quest X is a MMO marketed to an audience largely unfamiliar with MMOs, there is one Frage that must be answered: what exactly did they add to make Dragon Quest X into an MMORPG?
Once Du get online, the starting quests are all designed to acquaint Du with the skills you’ll need in an MMO — though mainly just the social ones. First Du learn how to access the quick chat menu and choose a preprogrammed response like “thank you,” “good job,” oder “I’ve got to go.”
Weiter Du learn how to input a custom message — and if Du don’t have a keyboard hooked up to your Wii, you’ll be using the most counter intuitive word input system ever known to man. Instead of opening a window with a virtual keyboard inside, Du get a system that cycles through the letters based on the direction Du press. The only problem is that depending on the letter, the buttons Du have to press to cycle are different. In other words, sometimes Du press left/right to cycle the letters, other times Du press up/down. It’s completely arbitrary and staggeringly frustrating.
Of course, there are other ways to communicate outside of chat and preprogrammed messages. One of the best features in the game is the ability to tag yourself with various icons. These Icons each have a meaning which announces to the rest of the players what kind of player Du are. There is an Icon for players without a keyboard and another for people who have just started playing. But perhaps the most useful is the Icon that marks a person as “looking for a group.”
This tag makes finding a group spectacularly easy. Just outside the exit to each town, dungeon, and quest hub, Du are guaranteed to find a large group of people standing around with their “looking for a group” Tags flashing. Just walk up to them, press “A” to inspect them and send them an invite if they match your level.
For the most part, groups will just go grind in a nearby area. However, outside of boss battle, Du are likely to find not only players your own level but also large amounts of high level players offering their assistance. And because Dragon Quest X allows Du to simply change who the story leader is, Du can redo story events — including boss battles — again and again as long as at least one person in the party hasn’t done it before.
While I’ve only played 10 hours so far, everyone I’ve met has been kind, civil, and helpful. But then again, the game pretty much forces them to be. With no PVP, no general chat channel, and a nearly impossible chat interface — not to mention that grouping is Von far the best way to level up — there really is no choice but to be nice and forgiving. So Von limiting the ways to be a troll and Von adding incentives to work together, Square Enix has put together a very beginner-friendly gateway MMO. Whether oder not that makes it a good game oder not, however, is another Frage entirely.
Dragon Quest X was released on August 2, 2012, for the Nintendo Wii in Japan.
Richard Eisenbeis and published on the 7th of August 2012, 11:00 PM, on Kotaku.
Dragon Quest X is the newest game in the immensely beliebt Dragon Quest series. It is also the series’ first MMORPG. While the prologue of the game (the first two hours oder so) is a strictly single player affair, the game soon opens up into a massive online world. But as Dragon Quest X is a MMO marketed to an audience largely unfamiliar with MMOs, there is one Frage that must be answered: what exactly did they add to make Dragon Quest X into an MMORPG?
Once Du get online, the starting quests are all designed to acquaint Du with the skills you’ll need in an MMO — though mainly just the social ones. First Du learn how to access the quick chat menu and choose a preprogrammed response like “thank you,” “good job,” oder “I’ve got to go.”
Weiter Du learn how to input a custom message — and if Du don’t have a keyboard hooked up to your Wii, you’ll be using the most counter intuitive word input system ever known to man. Instead of opening a window with a virtual keyboard inside, Du get a system that cycles through the letters based on the direction Du press. The only problem is that depending on the letter, the buttons Du have to press to cycle are different. In other words, sometimes Du press left/right to cycle the letters, other times Du press up/down. It’s completely arbitrary and staggeringly frustrating.
Of course, there are other ways to communicate outside of chat and preprogrammed messages. One of the best features in the game is the ability to tag yourself with various icons. These Icons each have a meaning which announces to the rest of the players what kind of player Du are. There is an Icon for players without a keyboard and another for people who have just started playing. But perhaps the most useful is the Icon that marks a person as “looking for a group.”
This tag makes finding a group spectacularly easy. Just outside the exit to each town, dungeon, and quest hub, Du are guaranteed to find a large group of people standing around with their “looking for a group” Tags flashing. Just walk up to them, press “A” to inspect them and send them an invite if they match your level.
For the most part, groups will just go grind in a nearby area. However, outside of boss battle, Du are likely to find not only players your own level but also large amounts of high level players offering their assistance. And because Dragon Quest X allows Du to simply change who the story leader is, Du can redo story events — including boss battles — again and again as long as at least one person in the party hasn’t done it before.
While I’ve only played 10 hours so far, everyone I’ve met has been kind, civil, and helpful. But then again, the game pretty much forces them to be. With no PVP, no general chat channel, and a nearly impossible chat interface — not to mention that grouping is Von far the best way to level up — there really is no choice but to be nice and forgiving. So Von limiting the ways to be a troll and Von adding incentives to work together, Square Enix has put together a very beginner-friendly gateway MMO. Whether oder not that makes it a good game oder not, however, is another Frage entirely.
Dragon Quest X was released on August 2, 2012, for the Nintendo Wii in Japan.
