Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree’s Woe and the Blight Below^[1] (ドラゴンクエストヒーローズ 闇竜と世界樹の城 Doragon Kuesto Hīrōzu Yamiryuu to Sekaiju no Shiro^?, literally translated as Dragon Quest Heroes: The Dark Dragon and the World Tree Castle) is a 2015 hack-and-slash RPG exclusively for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. Released in Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in February 2015, and North America and Europe for the PS4 in October 2015. Developed by Omega Force better known for Dynasty Warriors and published by Square Enix. This game marks the return of world-famous Dragon Ball artist Akira Toriyama to the Dragon Quest franchise.

Our story is set in Arba, a world where humans and monsters live together in peace. During a festival celebrating this peacefully relationship the main protagonists find themselves in the center of a termination of that peace.  As the world plunges into darkness, the heroes embark on a race to save the world. Veteran players of the Dragon Quest franchise will recognize characters from previous Dragon Quest games. The game focuses on comedy, so at times it suffers from making light at situations that could be serious.

Dragon Quest Heroes is relatively short; an average player could easily complete the game within in 30 hours.

Although, the voice actors are clearly trying to make the story engaging and interesting, nothing can save the story from the truth; it is a poorly written game.

All game play focuses on combat, and exploration is limited to picking points on the map to engage in combat. Using Omega Force large-scale combat system, the player battles against massive forces of monsters. Attacks include a heavy attack, regular attacks and spells to push enemies back. Players can use a special move called tension to clear the field. Combat can be incredibly overwhelming with the sheer amount of enemies on the field. It attempts to balance this out by providing you with monster tokens, used to call friendly monsters to aid you. The AI is absurd and downright useless. At times the AI will stand there and do nothing while you struggle to take down monsters. On the flip side enemy AI is as bad unless it is a boss. Bosses can effectively wipe your entire party in a few hits, thus making them smarter and strong than your party AI and enemy AI. Controls are easy to use although button mash is bound to happen due to the lack of moves. In a community where multiplayer is commonplace, this game is lacking. Dragon Quest could potentially have been a bigger and better game in the west if they include at least local co-op. Leveling is all custom, so forget learning any new moves and armor is as basic as it gets only changing your weapons and orbs.

Thankfully combat is tolerable, since the story is lacking of any substance. The story is lackluster and unimaginative. Although, the voice actors are clearly trying to make the story engaging and interesting, nothing can save the story from the truth; it is a poorly written game.   I find myself not caring about what happens to any of the characters in the game. This does not have anything to do with the small part of the game using voice-overs. It is everything to do with how boring the story is and it’s over used plot.

Dragon Quest Heroes, tried to become something bigger than it is, it should have gone to a handheld console. Although, it pitches huge battles, devastating combos and brain candy for a story; it falls short of greatness. Games such as Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors did it better. However, Dragon Quest is so popular in Japan, Square is developing a sequel. Hopefully, they make improvements upon the battle system and add local co-op.

Overall if you are looking for a game with a dynamic story, fun battles, fluid combat you should look elsewhere. This game is just a simple game that can be completed quickly and leaves everything to be desired.