Review - Dragon Quest Builders 2 : Bigger , Better and Bolder

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Hello dear readers, welcome to another Chronicles Review

A good starting point for adventure/building games

I played the Xbox and switch versions of the game, I know the performance issues on switch and I will talk about it in the conclusions.

The game starts in a more "contextual" tutorial that the first one, you create your avatar and awake on a boat captured by the enemy group.

We learn the controls and do some basic chores, next we land on the "sand box " island, and the adventure starts here after another set of tutorials (This game has a serious problems with having more hand holding than necessary).

Prepare yourself to meet your best bro on an treacherous adventure

When you do the first couple of missions that Lulu gives you and unlock the way of sailing to another islands the real game begins.

Your first island reminds a lot of the DQB1 first island too, we have to rebuild a farm that has seen better days, we explore a little and we meet the first new Npc of the island that gives you a tour to the buildable section of the map.

A block shaped point in the map where you must build a new farm, rooms, commodities and a lot of things since the story advances.

This is where the game hand-holds you a lot, with some missions that are unnecessary, easy and with a lot of no sense tutorials and some others that feels more like a chore to do than real utility, it's a mix of  diverse works to help you to acquaint the system of a lot of constructions.

The good part is that the game is completely free on when you want to do your objectives

You control a "builder apprentice" and you're always followed around by your best pal Malroth, he is on the same island that you end in the beginning of the game, you can run, jump and gather things lying around.

More ahead on the adventure you can smash blocks, grab blocks and some other movements that you will unlock, all to an end, becoming a builder, with the mastery of all the tools on your reach, your partner is always controlled by the game but has a behavior that depends on your actions.

For example if you start building something and the pal is around he will do nothing or stand around covering you, if you start destroying things our bro will come around and smash things with you, the same if you start fighting, he will come running to help.

Every "story island" has a safe area where you build, when you're inside these limits Malroth will stick around like any other villager but the moment you step a foot outside he will come running to accompany you whenever you go.

He's your party and helps around and at the same time can take care of himself

The World Structure :

This time I won't make a story section because the story is so disperse between long times of game play that are 100% the players decision.

If you want to build the greatest farm in the first chapter and forget about the story for 100 hours then nobody will stop you.

The way I see this game is like mini stories on every island that are intertwined with a main story that advances every time we end a chapter or principal island.

Every time that you finish all the missions on a story island, you will get a couple of Npcs for your principal "sandbox" area and a bunch of building materials, also you unlock some mini islands with some little objectives.

When you finish these objectives, you will have an infinite amount of certain materials, this helps to make your principal island buildings easier and doable without worrying about gathering taking a lot of time.

This area is a giant zone where you can build whatever you like but its divided by sections or "ecosystems" that you help to create on the main story, but stay with this mind, you play the island as normal as you can.

Build something that you like and move on to the next chapter, don't worry , when you finish a chapter you can get back to visit your old friends.

You will explore very diverse locations and do very different constructions, plus for diversity

The "Ritual" for ending a chapter are the mega constructions, a strong and at the same time a weak point of the game, these are giant projects internally relationed with the base that you're creating, for example :

"Spoiler alert of the first chapter" 

You build a gigantic tree, this preludes an epic conclusion because once you finish, a final boss fight will knock your base door.

The problem is more a personal thing for every player, the mega constructions are really big for only the player to build it and gather the necessary resources, so the game (with a story reason behind) makes the Npcs help you building it.

The thing is that works almost automatic and the player have to put very small parts of the building, for some it's alright and for others no, for my personal opinion I would have liked smaller constructions all by my hand, for all that matters it works so it's a point to take on account.

You also have first person view

The Exploration:

Across the gimmicks between gathering resources and doing missions, you will find a lot of resources on these sections, find caves, abandoned buildings, treasure chests, classics.

The most unique things that you can find are some little "puzzles" that gives you special coins that more later in the journey can be traded for specialized tools to make your building chores easier.

The progression a lot of times won't stop you of doing whatever you want or build, always having a purpose like leveling up your base to have more villagers or unlocking new recipes.

By the time you finish the first island you will be in complete domination of the system and progression.

You will always have things to do and discover

Conclusions:

Just as the tradition says, the sequel is overall a better all round game, there aren't limits that the first one had.

Our constructions don't disappear after you finish a chapter like the first one and the fact that Malroth is always your partner makes richer interactions all the way along

The mechanics and the gameplay is more polished, the general design and different islands are more unique and have more complex things to work with, so in my opinion is a great game with some obvious flaws.

A possible Builders 3 can make a perfect game with all the steps on the right direction, some more ahead than others but undeniably a upgrade to the first.

Thanks for the read!

Square crafting a new Builders (Hopefully)

Performance opinion : 

The Xbox version works well and I didn't feel any trouble playing the game but on switch it has some problems such as longer loading times and some fps drops, nothing that breaks the deal but something to have in mind before deciding on what console try the game.

As a little spoiler and tip :

The third chapter of this game has a tone and atmosphere good implemented with a couple of very bad ideas that make some people straight up hate the chapter or the game as a full, a tip for me is to speed run this chapter and keep walking ahead.

I know of some people that quit the game because of this chapter, trust me the posterior chapters are better and the story step up on intensity.

Just something to have in mind, the story takes an important step for the plot but makes you feel like a powerless character with no personality that follows orders blindly , a strange decision but is what we have.

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