[This review is based on the Japanese PS4 version.]
I picked up DQXI at a used game shop in Japan for about $25 USD in May 2018, a few months before its US release. I mostly bought the game out of curiosity and a desire to continue improving my Japanese. I was not prepared for this game to surpass God of War and Monster Hunter World to become my favorite of 2018. But here we are.
First impressions are a bit lopsided. Immediately you get the visuals, which are gorgeous. Characters have a soft, organic look that is a mostly pleasing evolution of the cartoony design established in DQVIII. I say "mostly" pleasing because at times the characters look...too good? The cartoon renditions are so detailed that their sculpted features can turn the corner from cartoony to creepy when combined with extremely realistic motion capture. It's hard to explain without seeing it in motion, and maybe other players won't notice. But that's just a nitpick, and overall the game looks amazing, constantly.
The other first impression is the sound, and news isn't as positive here. The music evokes Dragon Quest with every note, but it's rendered in a throw-back synth MIDI style instead of being performed by an orchestra. Worse still, musical tracks are short and there aren't many of them. For much of the game, you get three songs which I'll call Town Music, Overworld Music, and Battle Music, looped endlessly in those three situations.
Sound is also notable for what is missing. The Japanese version of the game features no voice acting at all. The entire story plays out in text. This actually isn't so bad. My Japanese isn't perfect, but I know enough to hear the characters' "voices" in their dialogue, which is charming and funny enough that I've laughed out loud a few times.
JRPGs live or die by their characters, and the main character is a slate so blank that he never even speaks. The game implies that he speaks, but you never see it happen. Other characters, by contrast, have large, colorful personalities, even if they do come straight out of the JRPG playbook. I won't spoil them, but once you see their images on the game cover, you'll probably have a good idea of how they behave in the story. As an aside, having spent dozens of hours with these characters' voices being portrayed in text-only, I can't even imagine how much their portrayals will change with the addition of voice actors and English dialogue. A lot of the jokes are Japanese language puns or honorifics or other ways of speaking that have no easy English equivalent. An unenviable job for the localization team, to be sure.
Gameplay, then. As the title of this review suggests, the developers were obviously, gleefully, aiming to build an old-school JRPG with all the production values that Square Enix could throw at it. The gameplay loop is simple: watch a story cutscene; head out into the world for as much level grinding as you can stand; go to the next town on the map to watch the next story cutscene (and buy some new armor/weapons); head out into the world for as much level grinding as you can stand; repeat for 70 hours.
Battles are fun and quick. There are basically no load screens between the field map and battle screen, and enemies, spells, and attack animations never become dull. One change that might raise some eyebrows is that by default you only control the main character during battle. You can select tactics for the other characters, like a much MUCH simpler version of Final Fantasy XII's Gambit system. And you can also micromanage battles if you really want to. But your allies do just fine on their own. Like any good RPG, you can affect the game's difficulty by over- or under-leveling, depending on your preference.
Sidequests exist too, of course. Mainly in the form of townspeople with purple QUEST bubbles over their heads. You can complete these or not. They can be cute and mildly distracting, but in my experience they're mostly avoidable fetch quests. On the other hand, this game also makes some very smart and cool choices around the concept of New Game+, so there's definitely good optional content if you put in the time.
Put together, it's a formula that has worked for decades, and Dragon Quest XI does it as well as any of the old favorites. Better, in fact, because it addresses many quality of life issues that earlier games did not. Not sure which characters you want to level up? Don't worry! They all level up with every battle! Don't want to grind at all? No problem! All enemies appear on the map and you can avoid all regular battles. Did you put the game down for a few days and now you can't remember where to go? Press the quest guide on the map screen! Simple changes, sure, but this is, at it's heart, a simple game.
If I sound like I'm complaining, I'm not. Before I started this game, I didn't realize just how much I wanted to play an old RPG that looks like a new one. Dragon Quest XI is a big, slow, lovely thing. It takes its time while still delivering on the level- and gear-based carrots on sticks that RPG fans crave. It's meandering, colorful, and knows completely what it wants to be. If you want the same thing, it will sweep you up and keep you happy for the long, long ride.