Recent reviews by Feathers McGraw

The gameplay itself is pretty enjoyable when you actually get to do it, but I sure do get tired of jumping into a race that routes me up to a corner of the map where there is absolutely nothing going on so I get to spend 5 minutes driving back to another event on the part of the map that's actually populated. Couple that with the fact that I customize the controls and they just continue to do the original function as if I changed nothing, EA launcher booting every time I launch the game, and the game taking control of my webcam without my permission, no HUD customization, and a super clunky menu, and I would kind of just rather play something else. If anyone but EA had published this it'd honestly probably be really fun.

Honestly not even sure what the point of reviewing a delisted game is but I had fun with it. It looks surprisingly good for its age and it feels good to control.

In general I think the earlier events and cars are more fun than some of the later ones, because a lot of these gimmicky race formats that you have to run don't do it for me. It's also a little weird on the collision physics, which is most noticeable when you are behind someone slower than you; you don't push them forward at all, they just slow you down and stick rigidly to their line. Which also explains why it's so disproportionately easy for the AI to wreck you compared to how hard it is to wreck them. There's also an issue of flashbacks just not working sometimes? There's no pattern to it, it'll work in one turn and not work the next, you'll lose it in race 2/5 of a final and get it back on race 3, you can sit still for a second after getting put in the wall and it might finally work just long enough so you can rewind and watch yourself getting dommed by Bruno Silva again and again.

Looks, sounds, and controls like absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Generally at its best when the always-online server authentication fails and you don't get to play it.

I've seen enough

Someone really said "What if you could kill the Dragonlord by running into him with a motorcycle and then blowing him up with a cannon" and they deserve a raise

DQ1: Didn't like it. Felt unpolished. Cutscenes were animated awkwardly, the only truly compelling character is Gwaelin (they did her a lot of favors with this one), and the extra story padding feels recycled at best and hard to follow at worst. This is an incredibly tedious experience, even compared to the original. You're either at the mercy of RNG or you're grinding far more than you would in most of these games. You essentially need to use every tool in your kit, even for random encounters, setting up your defensive buffs and slowly whittling down enemy health when you're up enough to take a hit. Fine for bosses, but when I have to do this again and again every three steps, I'm just not going to have a good time. Again, not really a problem if you're overleveled, but I've always considered intentionally underleveling to be a much more engaging way to play Dragon Quest since it forces you to strategize more. I don't see myself playing this one again, I'll probably stick to the GBC version.

DQ2: Most Improved award by a country mile. I love these characters and this world. Actually allows you to underlevel (though you really have to work at it, this game is pretty easy so it's honestly challenging to be too weak for most fights). Postgame feels more well-tuned than DQ3 HD, since these late fights actually allow you to use the damage setups you came up with (they don't just wipe your buffs every other turn and force you to lean on the same one or two abilities). Feels like a proper end to a trilogy and captures the same going for an adventure with your buds vibe that DQ11 does. Excited to come back to this game again in a year or two.

Completely devoid of meaningful choices. Deviation is all about how you roll when you click the Attack button. I could have lost just from having worse luck. I could have won without anyone dying just from having better luck. It was otherwise entirely out of my control. There are no alternative strategies. The entire dungeon funnels you down a linear path where you fight scripted enemies at scripted locations.

There's also AI art in this thing, and the dev insists there isn't. So the dev is either knowingly lying to people about that, or they are being lied to by their artist and not scrutinizing their own creation enough to realize that they obviously are. Even if you're perfectly fine with AI art in the game (you know, because you're a braindead slop consumer), which of these two options tells you that you should expect a good product?

Learned a lot from this software back in middle school. Now I use it for tabletop RPG map design and Ruby scripting. Such a fun tool.

Unfortunately can't handle too many events or high resolution displays very well, so I wouldn't feel good about using it for a "serious" game, but there's definitely some good stuff out there that's come from RMXP (Master of the Wind always comes to mind) and it's such a good tool for building knowledge.

She Biggify my thang and I Oblitero that ♥♥♥♥♥

Pretty fun throwback to the old Harry Potter Unreal games. Very promising but VERY janky in its current state. No chance Dopelo makes it to full release in its current state.