Dragon Quest Tact analysis: the tactical strategy suits the King of the JRPGs wonderfully

The Dragon Quest saga needs fewer and fewer presentations in the West, but the arrival of its main titles and its no less celebrated spin-offs to these shores continue to be a pleasant surprise. Especially when it comes to your gaming experience. And, unsurprisingly, Dragon Quest Tact, Square Enix’s new mobile tactics , knows how to maintain that upward trend. Retaining the best of the saga under an approach as different for its own foundations as it is addictive for the player.

After all, the king of JRPGs adapts to any genre of wonder. Dragon Quest Builders 2 conquered us on its own merits, being much more than an alternative to Minecraft, and that Omega Force took the saga to its territory with the two installments of Dragon Quest Heroes was also a winning combination.

The case of Dragon Quest Tact , released on Android and iOS, is also unique. Square Enix aims to measure up and eat the toast to hits of mobile territory like a Fire Emblem Heroes that have brought great benefits to Nintendo. The same idea with other characters? Well, although the essence is the same, everything is said, the new Dragon Quest knows how to take advantage of its own weapons.

Because Dragon Quest Tact is a manual gacha . A free-to-play whose monetization system is based, preferably, on obtaining random characters. In the illusion that sooner or later we will release an article of great rarity. A successful formula that has given outstanding results in games like Genshin Impact, Mario Kart Tour or, without going any further, the aforementioned Fire Emblem Heroes.

However, the greatest strength of this Tactical RPG inspired by the Japanese cult saga is how it knows how to be aptly faithful to the Dragon Quest experience . To the games that we discovered three decades ago on desktop systems and to each of their alternative titles. Which is not to say that, on the other hand, it also has its own licenses and weaknesses that make it a different experience.

Because its very successful light-hearted tone, which comes from extracting a particularly deep gaming experience without sacrificing comedy and humor, continues to be a warm welcome for fans of the series and new players. Something that the designs of Akira Toriyama , creator of Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump , accentuate with great success.

And despite the fact that, as with any Tactical RPG, a priori it might seem that Dragon Quest Tact is focused on a very, very specific audience, the reality, as we shall see, is that Square Enix knows how to circumvent that barrier with some ingenuity to adapt the experience, as a whole, for both the casual player and the most demanding players.

A 100% tactics and 100% Dragon Quest experience

Monsters, those colorful enemies of various shapes and sizes that jump at us in the middle of the game, have a very special role in the Dragon Quest universe. They come in all shapes, colors and natures and, sooner or later, their participation in each installment and their coexistence with the rest of the races ends up having a weight that even goes beyond the plots.

As an example, the simplest and weakest, the slimes, have become the ambassadors and standard bearers of the Dragon Quest saga. A saga, by the way, with more than 82 million copies sold behind it.

The protagonism of the monsters in Dragon Quest is a peculiarity distinctive enough that Dragon Quest Tact does not revolve around collecting the well-known heroes, which – as can be seen in Dragon Quest Heroes or Super Smash Bros. – there are already handfuls Instead, we are invited to recruit these fascinating creatures of a thousand shapes and colors for the purpose of making them fight each other.

Of course, the new Square Enix mobile experience does not look like Pokemon. There is turn-based fighting, leveling up and we can even improve and evolve monsters through their own ways. But, it is not an RPG that follows the trend of the main saga nor is it the umpteenth substitute for the Pokémon Company smash hit.

Because Dragon Quest Tact is a very well thought out tactics and, in fact, its experience ends up being much more addictive than most Game Freak titles.

The premise, all said, is excessively simple : after successfully breaking the seal of a legendary hero, a dark lord returns to the world of Orchesterra.

Of course, the hero who managed to win was not alone: evil could be defeated thanks to the help of a group of loyal and brave monsters . An unusual alliance that, some time later, will be necessary again on the eve of an even greater threat.

With that ahead of us, Dragon Quest Tact challenges us to solve, through turn-based combat. Challenges that take place in a wide variety of closed scenarios whose difficulty escalation gradually progresses, from the really simple to the great challenge.

On the one hand, through an Adventure mode in which we will gradually break down a campaign with a light plot in which Toriyama’s designs and the characteristic all-casual manage to radiate identity and character of their own to the whole.
On the other hand, through tons of daily, weekly and seasonal events and challenges that we will look with greedy eyes once all the chapters of the main plot have been closed. Because if something does Dragon Quest Tact is to get the player to want to chain one game with the next.

In both cases, although ingenuity is essential when it comes to solving the confrontations, the true engine of the game manifests itself from the second Chapter of its Story mode: the priority of Dragon Quest Tact goes from cleaning each stage of enemies to improving constantly our team based on enhancing the attributes of the monsters that we already have and, of course, adding new creatures of greater power and rank.

Square Enix reinvents Dragon Quest with a very well planned and really addictive tactic

It is at this point where the elements that add depth to the game come into play: Dragon Quest Tact offers the player different families of monsters and each monster has its own ability, attack range, preferences, weaknesses and, of course, rarity. So not only does the collecting factor count , but it also invites us – with increasing frequency – to improve our team’s statistics and attacks and be more selective with our monsters.

And, ultimately, that we choose well what type of strategy we want to use in certain circumstances. Play the best game with the cards we have in hand. Making each combat, in its own way, a kind of simplified chess game in which you do not need to strictly know the rules or the movements of each piece -or monster, in this case- but to play many games to have a really differentiating advantage .

And unsurprisingly, the way Dragon Quest Tact achieves it and the excuses it finds for us to keep playing are more than just a great hit: they are the true triumph of Square Enix.

Dragon Quest Tact is much more than a monster gacha: a well-planned tactics

With the basics in front of you, it’s time to answer the big question about Dragon Quest Tact and practically any free-to-play for mobile: how aggressive is your monetization system?

The positive part is that for those looking for a game experience that is not really associated with monster collecting, they will feel really comfortable. Even, as we will see, if they want to progress without having to delve too deep or expose themselves to the increasing curve of game difficulty.

The Dragon Quest Tact interface is sensationally intuitive , both in menu design and in combat, so we are constantly invited to experiment and improve in the game and with our characters.

However, it also offers an alternative that makes our way through the game much lighter: we can activate an automatic mode at any time that will solve the games for us. Which, logically, is not a guarantee of victory.

We will have to make teams with strong monsters , compensating the creatures of great rarity with types that work well in each combat. And improving the statistics little by little is also essential, especially if we bet on automatic battles. But, of course, despite the fact that there are different profiles of automatic play, there are specific aspects that reward our dedication. Including chests with treasures that the automatic will generally overlook.

With that in mind, victories translate into profits, new items, and eventually the recruitment of monsters that will enrich our collection. Which brings us, on the other hand, to the invocations system.

In Dragon Quest Tact we can redeem tickets and earnings for individual or group invocations. An opportunity to add monsters that are exceptionally powerful and of great rarity, but also to obtain repetitions to combine to improve the statistics of those we already have. And, logically, we are given the alternative of using real money to perform extra invocations and avoid battles or save playing time.

Square Enix also limits the games played with the game energy system that recharges automatically, giving us the option to recharge through the exchange of game or real currency. And, as is usual in mobile free-to-play tactics , if we lose we will even have the opportunity to continue the game spending our own resources.

In other words, Dragon Quest Tact offers shortcuts to whoever asks for them and its game store is always open. But on the other hand, it also rewards loyalty with daily bonuses and events.

However, there is also a not so frequent element: in addition to the purchases of objects to perform summons, improvements or continue playing, Dragon Quest Tact includes its own monthly pass , which it calls Passport . A service that adds super fast battles and adds missions to gain experience and extra resources for about five euros a month.

Dragon Quest Tact offers shortcuts to anyone who asks, but also rewards the loyalty of the most dedicated players

A amortizable service? Well, depending on how involved you are in the game it can be tempting. But definitely, paid content does not close doors to the experience, but rather complements it for the most dedicated players . And that’s always good.

So, despite the fact that after the first Chapters and tutorials we will be tempted with the option of speeding up our progress with real money, we will not have the feeling of enjoying half the game and the essence of it -the fighting and team management – does not present variations. At least when it comes to the single player experience.

And what about the competitive? In the future, the implementation of an Arena mode is planned, a PVP game alternative with which to measure our teams with those of other players and which we only know will arrive at some point after launch.

Given the nature of the game, it will be interesting to see if the battles are in real time or asynchronous, but the entry of a competitive component will cause teams with stronger monsters or higher rarity rank to prevail. However, it will be time to talk about it when it becomes available, and in the meantime, focus on getting the most powerful monster team. Being the way to achieve it, precisely, the true strength of Dragon Quest Tact.

Dragon Quest Tact isn’t the Square Enix saga’s first foray into the genre of tactics . There we have a Dragon Quest Wars made by Intelligent Systems for Nintendo DSi and released a little over a decade ago. A spin-off that, by the way, deserved more notoriety than it received.

Of course, the title that is played today on iOS and Android is not an update of those ideas of the Nintendo laptop, but a Dragon Quest experience accommodated to a larger audience and adapted to the mobile device market, in which its key elements have been carefully reorganized to stay true to the acronym of considered the King of the JRPGs.

Although invocations and improvements will become our priority once we internalize the control scheme, which will only take us a couple of games, the truth is that their way of offering an alternative of automated combat ends up being a success in the face. to the epicenter of the great experience.

Because the Dragon Quest Tact progression system, and by extension the way to encourage greater gratification without frustration, successfully simplifies leveling and upgrades and encourages us to do new invocations.

Dragon Quest Tact is the next big step in the prolific saga to conquer the West

A highly recommended experience in itself and at the same time a successful spin-off of Dragon Quest that will be enjoyed by fans of pocket tactics , those of turn-based RPGs and, especially, fans of the games of the Square Enix saga . With a monetization policy, by the way, that is not aggressive towards the casual player.

That does not mean that there are no elements to polish, of course. To start with, and unlike Dragon Quest Of The Stars, which has been on iOS and Android for almost a year, Dragon Quest Tact is not translated into Spanish.

As of this writing, the only languages available are English, French, Chinese, and Japanese. And despite the fact that its interface is intuitive, this will be a great barrier for the general public. At least in Spanish territory. However, the arrival of new content , including its Arena, as well as future events, makes us have some optimism about it.

For now, Dragon Quest Tact is the next big step in the prolific and very successful Square Enix saga to conquer, little by little, one of its pending subjects: the western market. And if the heroes of Fire Emblem Heroes were a sensational ambassador of the brand on this side of the world, the monsters of Toriyama now claim their moment from mobile.

Above all, when Dragon Quest Tact radiates from its first games the self-confidence of the saga and its characters, the superb turn-based fighting marks the house and rounds off the whole through the inspiring music of Koichi Sugiyama . Extending to the present day a formula of success that has conquered half the world and making it available to us. More specifically, in the palm of our hand.