DQXIS Act 2: The Fall of Yggdrasil

There's one word that can be used to describe Act 2 of Dragon Quest XI: Sombre. All over Erdrea, there are people in mourning, people in fear, all because of the far-reaching consequences of Mordegon stealing the Heart of Yggdrasil and sending the rest of the tree to the ground. Monsters roamed the lands and terrorised the locals to newfound extents, and the various plights of Act 1 seem like child's play in comparison. What is the Slayer of the Sands compared to the falling Erdwin's Lantern?

Seeing each area again in Act 2, we can spend less time introducing new characters, although they don't exactly slouch on that front. Don Rodrigo, Miko, Grand Master Pang, Da and Son, Mia, many characters were added to the story here- the game doesn't want the same few characters to hog all the spotlight, and where those new characters cannot, or possibly should not, take centre stage for the second go around, some alternative angle is played and new characters use the same settings, with those old favourites still there acting as support- think Frysabel or Whambelina. Just because we're exploring the same world all over doesn't mean we're seeing the same plot all over.

The six Spectral Sentinels follow a proud Dragon Quest tradition of a group of extravagantly named generals of the Demon Lord's army that don't live up to the name, and while the group is the most firmly established of any bunch yet, they still face the problems the series has struggled with thus far. On one hand, Jasper and Alizarin do a fantastic job of actively standing in the Luminary's path, creating genuine obstacles. On the other, Booga and Gyldygga, while formidable opponents, are not strongly associated with the idea of the "Six Sentinels", moreso feeling at home as Town Story bosses. And then there's Tyriant and Indignus, who don't even get that. The Dread Fiends, Triumgorate, and Order of Zugzwang have similar uneven competencies- there's one guy you're really scared of, a few guys that are glorified Town Story bosses, and at least one guy that feels more like the organisation filling out the numbers than anything.

So what's it like playing Act 2? Well, while the game has done an excellent job making all the towns feel new, the game still clearly isn't new. They've added new overworld stuff here and there, new NPC text, and the occasional new dungeon crawl, but that's not a real substitute for brand new areas. Act 2 will probably go by much faster than Act 1 purely because of the familiarity factor. This isn't really something the game could fix- revisiting the same areas is just going to do this sort of thing. And to an extent, the fact that actually running around the world is so much easier now is part of the point- we've grown since the days when overworld travel was a risky endeavour, but the world has grown back and we've got to throw some bite back at their bark. Besides, at this point, we're not so much developing our characters as making sure we understand how they work and when to throw them out into our problems.