Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen & the Tower of Mirrors (Wii) Preview

There have been eight Dragon Quest games in the main series so far, six on Nintendo formats and the latest three spanning the PSone and PlayStation 2. Each one has been led by the master behind the franchise, Yuji Horii. The man himself has so far managed to avoid touching any of the plentiful supply of spin-offs that have poured forth from Enix (and now Square Enix). However, this time round, for Dragon Quest Swords, he is firmly on-board and ready to bring a whole new experience to Nintendo's new generation Wii console. But exactly what are we to expect from the game

There is a TV-based infra-red game that was released by Square Enix a few years back by the name of Kenshin Dragon Quest: Yomigaerishi Densetsu no Ken. It was a plug-and-play device that allowed gamers to swing the plastic sword it was bundled with around and the movement of the infra-red beam was picked up and mimicked in all its on-screen glory. Watching old You Tube videos of the game in action, it certainly looks very much like an early Wii prototype, so it is certainly no surprise that Dragon Quest Swords looks to be a spiritual successor to Kenshin DQ. The main difference is, of course, that Hori-san was not involved with the TV game at all...oh, and it looks to have come on in leaps and bounds in terms of graphics!

Official lines have stated that DQS is set to be a 'relaxing RPG' that only supports one player, but after seeing the Wii game in motion, and some of the gestures required to pull off different moves, it looks anything but relaxing. But perhaps the overall story, gameplay and even soundtrack will help add to make a relaxed atmosphere all round. Incidentally, the composers listed for the game are Kouchi Sugiyama, who is the veteran musician of the Dragon Quest world, and Manami Matsumae, who mainly worked on compositions for arcade and action games developed by Capcom and Sunsoft.

Rather than rush the completion of the game to squeeze it out in time for the Japanese Wii launch in early December, Square Enix sagely delayed it until Spring 2007 to firstly miss the launch stampede, and secondly spruce the whole thing up a little more. And from people's hands-on impressions late last year, it seems to have paid off. The game itself is a self-contained, on-rails adventure. The main character cannot deviate from the path set ahead, other than to head backwards from whence you came, alternating directions by use of the 'A' and 'B' buttons on the Wii controller (which, by the way, was the control option in the demo version shown, although whether the nunchuk has now been implemented is unknown at this time). Thankfully there is a little more interaction to the game than that, as you can search for hidden items as you move around, simply by pointing the Wii controller at surrounding foliage and giving it a quick flick with your wrist, plus there are plenty of characters to talk to along the way.

Once you have travelled so far in one direction and end up reaching a diverting route, a killer7-like choice appears on-screen, leaving you to choose which way you wish to go in next. Just point and click the desired path and away you go once more. As you trundle along, as expected in an RPG you are faced with numerous enemy battle encounters (thankfully not of the random variety). The various creatures jump out from all sides and the screen turns into 'battle-mode' and as they begin to take pot-shots at you it is your opportunity to literally go head-to-head with them as you must physically swing the Wii controller to act like your in-game sword. Swinging from side-to-side results in horizontal slashes, vertical movements are mimicked by the appropriate actions and even thrusting the Wii controller forward does the same with the character's sword. It certainly does take a short while to get used to, but it quickly becomes more natural in its feel than Zelda's sword fighting.

And it really does help that this game is damn gorgeous as well. Square Enix has, as usual, created a sumptuous affair, this time on its first time out on Wii. But anyway, other attack moves include spells that can be launched at enemies by holding down the B button, as well as being able to defend yourself suitably by pressing A. Spells are extremely handy since your sword can only reach so far, whilst defending is actually great fun, as you must actively move around the see-through shield that appears in order to block attacks and gain the upper hand in different situations. And, of course, you are aided all the while by a pointer on the screen that indicates just where you are aiming, which will be very useful in preventing 'blind swinging'.

The demo version that was on show had two levels, one in an open field area and the other in an enclosed, dark cave. At the end of each there were bosses to despatch using different techniques, and once a stage was fully completed a grade was handed out to show how well you did (perhaps this will be linked with levelling up?). Whilst in battle mode, you can access a special attack move, but this can only be done once you have filled up the on-screen gauge (repeat hits help fill it quickly). Pressing '1' then brought up another meter, which you needed to fill up by swiftly rotating the Wii controller above your head like a lasso and then stopping at the right time to unleash one of the special moves (in this case a powerful swipe of the sword). Thankfully from just the small demo shown there seems to be variety in the way you must despatch bosses, blocking then attacking, mixing magic with sword attacks and working out different combination moves. With a menu screen also already being in place (via the minus button) that gives access to items and statistics, it bodes well for a more developed game appearing later this year.