Hey !
Oh no, I have to do it again! I have to delay my regularly scheduled video game rant because there is Very Important News. I mean, it may not be as exciting as a Frosthaven announcement, but maybe it is. I'll let you be the judge.
And now you might be confused because Return to Dark Tower is being published by Restoration Games, not Cephalofair Games, and that is a fair point, but I am one of the designers, so it is still super-important to me. This is not only the first game I've designed that will be published by someone else, it is also the first game I have designed with other people (also one of
those other people is Rob Daviau, which is really cool).
So it's a big deal for me, and I want to tell you about it. Let me just get this out of the way first, though:
This game is legit bonkers.
It's the best word I can come up with to describe it. Like, if you think Gloomhaven is bonkers, Return to Dark Tower is super-bonkers. I mean, I could never in my wildest dreams create a game with such insane ambition, and I say that as the person who made Gloomhaven.
So there's a tower, right? And it is this massive plastic thing with gears and motors and doors and lights and bluetooth communication and infrared sensors. And it is going to menace you, rumbling around, spitting skulls at you, and generally ruining your day. So much care and thought went into crafting it and making it affordable, and sure, it doesn't do all the crazy
things we wanted it to, but it more than lives up to its namesake, while at the same time elevating the game play.
But then there's also an app that's doing its thing, controlling the inner workings of the tower, tracking way more information than could reasonably be requested of a human, and providing a beautiful interface for players to interact with the tower and all that information. There's just so many stories and quests we can pack into this thing, and they can change dynamically based on
player actions.
At the end of the day, though, all that would mean nothing to me if the game play wasn't solid, but it absolutely is. I mean, I would hope so - I helped design it after all - but it has just gone through so many iterations, sometimes it felt as though we'd never crack the nut and refine the system to where it needed to be.
But we did. It's fun and entertaining and challenging and full of interesting decisions, and I really couldn't be happier seeing all these elements shine and come together into a product that really is something special and extraordinary.
Right, so now let's talk about the Dragon Quest franchise.
The very first Dragon Quest (or Dragon Warrior, as it used to be called in the US) was my very first exposure to RPGs. It's not a great game, what with its single playable character attacking over and over. But still, it was a start, and it entertained me and got me into the genre. It was also all I knew for a while, and so the second RPG I
played was Dragon Warrior III. I played that one a lot. It was significantly better, but still tedious.
I guess what I am saying is that Dragon Quest is my Pokemon. It's what I grew up on and have nostalgia for, and every once in a while, I have the hankering to go revisit that style of game. I've enjoy my playthroughs of Dragon Quest VIII and IX, however, a little over a year ago, I tried to play
XI, the latest in the series, and only made it about halfway through. The combat is just...super traditional, and since being exposed to games like Darkest Dungeon, I guess I just don't have the patience for that sort of stuff like I used to.
Maybe I'll go back to it at some point the next time I get that itch, but maybe not, because I found a way more enjoyable game to play. I picked up Dragon Quest Builders 2 on the recommendation of some year-end best-of lists, and then it took over my life during the holidays. Seriously, if we don't get Jaws of the Lion out in
time, this game is to blame.
Dragon Quest Builders is basically Minecraft, but with a directed story that teaches you how to build everything, far more options on what to build, different lands to explore, and a variety of NPCs to populate and interact with the towns that you do build. Plus it's got that nice Dragon Quest nostalgia and a story that may
not be mind-blowing, but is certainly more interesting and creative than anything else in the Dragon Quest series. There's also a lot of hack-and-slash combat that just involves hitting attack over and over, but, well, you can't everything you want, I guess.
Anyway, the game is great, and I'm happy I've finally found a Dragon Quest game that I can properly enjoy. Plus I am absolutely going to just embrace the Minecraft aspects of it and start building giant, crazy things.
When I'm not working on Jaws of the Lion, of course. So speaking of, I should probably get back to that. And not play Dragon Quest. Nope.
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