First Impressions of Dragon Quest Walk

It's not often that a mobile game grabs my attention but the release of Dragon Quest Walk was one I was very excited for, especially coming off the back of Dragon Quest 11.  Before I go any further I have to warn you that as far as I know, this game is Japan only so if you don't live in Japan and don't care about how cool my new toys are then you may as well stop reading now

For those that do care however, Dragon Quest Walk is probably one of the best mobile games I've played ever.  It's got a decent amount of content considering it just launched, it's running special events already and if you're looking for a way to sort of "gamify" your power walks, this is a great way to do it with.

The way you play is very simple.  You start a quest and the game will ask you where on the google map you want to place your goal.  You then have to physically walk to the place you set the goal, fighting monsters along the way and when you arrive you'll be given a story tidbit or you'll fight a monster or something.  Rinse and repeat until your lean as fuck from all that walking.  If it sounds a bit repetitive that's because it is but DQ Walk strikes me as a game that is a fitness app first and an RPG second.  Unlike Pokémon Go, where you can sit in one place with a lure and catch monsters all day, DQ Walk DEMANDS that you be constantly moving.  Sitting in one place waiting for monsters to spawn means that you'll be quickly running out of HP and MP and eventually things to fight.  Keeping moving however and you can tap "heal pots" on the map to recover and get items and enemies will spawn at an increased rate.  The game also has a "milage" systems where every week you are tasked to break a certain number of pots, fight a certain number of encounters and walk a certain number of steps to acquire points which can then be traded for goodies.

There's other systems as well such as raids which I can't comment on because I've yet to do one.  There's a house system where you put an icon on your map that is your home and you can decorate it with furniture and whatnot and players are incentivized to visit your house because each house will have an item on the floor for you to get.  There's also a gatcha system which might make some people groan but at time of writing the gems and tickets for the gatcha are plentiful and getting a 5 star piece of equipment seems to be a fairly common occurrence.  There's some other things I haven't mentioned but if I tried to mention every little feature I'd be here all night

If you live in Japan and you're looking for an excuse to get out of the house and burn some calories, then DQ Walk is a good place to go.  If you don't live in Japan then I'm sorry for you and I really hope that the game gets an overseas release because for a free little mobile game about hitting slimes with swords, it's REALLY good.

Dragon Quest Rivals First Impressions

Japan loves its card games.  Very close to my house there are about 4 stores dedicated to the buying, selling and playing of trading cards of which there seem to be hundreds of different games but you can also just hit up a used book store to buy individual cards for games like Yu-gi-oh and whatnot.  As well as that there are a bunch of digital trading card games some of which are exclusive to the arcade.  But the arcades not only have digital based card games but also games that actually spit out physical cards for use in the game, it's crazy.  Japan LOVES card games.

Japan also loves a bit of Dragon Quest which is basically one of the big boss boys of the RPG genre.  So of course Dragon Quest, like Warcraft, The Witcher and DotA have come out with their own card based video game for mobile platforms.  I usually avoid all the other card games on the IOS since I'm balls deep into Shadowverse and the idea of playing two different card games at the same time seems a bit pointless but the gameplay in DQ Rivals seemed different enough from something like Hearth or 'Verse to at least give it a go.

It's not completely unique, there are a number of similarities to Hearth.  The way the cards looks is pretty much identical and the idea that the character that you pick have their own special ability and cards sets seems ripped straight from that model.  Also the ranking system is basically the same as Hearthstone and of course it has that thing where you can earn "dust" in order to create individual cards if you're trying to make a specific kind of deck.  Basically out of the actual card combat they are fucking identical.

But the card combat itself is where things get interesting.  Each player has 6 blocks on their side of the field where they can play monsters and the positioning of your monsters is pretty important when it comes to battle strategy.  So for example, in Hearthverse you can attack the enemy directly pretty much anytime unless they play a monster with a defender ability.  In DQ rivals, you have monsters with that kind of skill but you can also put all your monsters in a row which will create a wall in order to defend your character.  Then on top of that, if you have a monster with a cool ability you don't want getting murdered you can play another creature in front of them in order to defend.  It's a cool mechanic that means that you not only have to worry about what monsters you have but also where you put them on the board in any given situation.  Your hero also has an ability that they have to charge but I wont go into detail about that because it's pretty much the same as Hearthstone.

Right now I'm pretty sure its exclusive to Japan but it seems like there has been a decent amount of effort made to make a game that's familiar enough to fans of this mobile card  game genre so they don't have  to relearn a fuckton of new systems but different enough to make it worth playing past the tutorial.  If you can get hold of it, give it a go.  Shit is free so you have nothing to lose

Dragon Quest 1 and Fairune iOS Double Bill

So recently I've been getting some use out of my iPhone of all damn things.  Usually games on the iPhone are complete and total garbage.  They are either stupid shit game coded by some beginner trying to get some experience (which is fair enough I guess) or some kind of monster collecting bullshit fest with micro transactions out the arse.

Well I said fuck all that and I'm going to look for some fucking mobile games that have some kind of ending.  None of this endless fucking bullshit with daily dungeons and seasonal things to collect, just a straight up normal game with a start and a finish.

So I started by playing it safe and going for a game with a bit of a legacy behind it and that was Dragon Quest.  If you've somehow not heard of Dragon Quest it's the big motherfuckin' granddad of JRPGs.  You thought FF1 was basic? HO BOY YOU AIN'T SEEN SHIT.  We're talking a time when the games entire combat system was focused on one on one battles and the plot was basically "find and kill the bad thing"

Obviously there's more to it than that, the game focuses a lot on exploration and it's up to you, the player, to seek out hints and uncover  the secrets of the world in order to gain access to a big castle and shove your legendary blade in some assholes face.  It's pure, simple, somewhat challenging and a hell of a lot of fun.  Usually I play mobile games when I'm out and about and too busy to bust out the Vita or 3DS but I found myself logging in time on Dragon Quest while sitting around my fucking house.

It's a fucking classic and the iOS version comes with fancy graphics and a nice easy to use interface.  So if you don't want to deal with all that archaic crap then this is a good place for you to find out what all the fuss was about back in '86.  While it's not free it costs so little money on the app store that it may as well be so I highly recommend checking it out.

The other game that got to eat my phones battery life like candy was Fairune, a strange little action RPG type thing that is free to download and play.

Whoever made this game must of been a big fan of the Ys series because the game involves a read headed protagonist running around a world killing enemies by running into them like a Beyblade that's been on fire.  Like Dragon Quest the game has a simple plot of go and kill the bad thing and it also involves a lot of exploration and puzzle solving in order to reach the big bads lair so you can shove a sword into his face.

The game is short and easy but when you're dealing with mobile games this is pretty much exactly what you want.  There are a couple of moments that will stump you for more bullshit reasons rather than good design but you won't need a guide to find out what's going on and when you do make progress you'll want to slap yourself for not trying that method earlier.  There are even leader boards for completion time so if you're the speed running type then maybe you'll get a kick out of that but I found the controls to be a bit shitty so I didn't want to bother.

I've heard that it's had a release on 3DS but why pay for it when you can just get it for free off the app store.  Maybe the 3DS has some extra features, I'd be surprised if it didn't but I'd just stick to the free version for your phone. 

I did have a weird issue where the game would crash constantly on launch unless I launched it from the app store which is weird but you'll finish it in a few sessions so it's not too big a deal.  Go give it a download, you have nothing to lose and it's probably better than that shitty monster collecting game you've had collecting dust for a long long time.

So yeah, iPhone is still mostly complete and utter trash when it comes to games but there are a few titles hidden on the store that are worth playing.  Check these two out and I'm also down to try some others if anyone has any suggestions.