No boss fight for hours on end: I honestly cannot remember the last time I faced a boss. Grinding is all well and nice, but it somewhat loses its edge when the game doesn't offer you mighty bosses to use as touchstones. I know bosses are bound to come back before the end of the game (like, literally), but that long boss-less stretch is a bit disturbing nonetheless.
The kids aren't alright: So, the game ultimately dumped my kids on me so that we could all roam&grind together. That certainly fits my hero's role as a father; but pray tell, what am I supposed to do with those wimps as a player? They are painfully underlevelled, which means that I have to waste tons of time grinding if I want to use them in battle. Why would I do that, when I have my already levelled-up feline team at hand? For now, the kiddies stay in the wagon and reap XP from battles; we'll see if they join the party once they reach decent levels.
Where do I go next?: Yup, that dreaded old-school RPG trope is alive and well in DQV. While early quests always explicitely told me where to go, current quests are much more elusive, giving me only the faintest of clues and letting me figure out by myself where I'm supposed to be headed. Mind you, this wouldn't be so bad if the world map hadn't fully opened at the same time, giving me countless opportunities to get desperately lost. And yes, I did check walkthroughs once or twice — because hey, I have metric tons of other games waiting to be played and I cannot decently waste precious hours scouring every pixel of a game world.
In a nutshell, I mourn the loss of the game's initial simplicity. DQV feels a bit less magical since its map opened up, and the concurrent ramp-up of the narrative stakes doesn't help its case. I loved being a kid busy with discovering the world and saving his own hide; but now, it seems that we're headed towards yet another case of Saving the Bloody World. Mind you, I like DQV's story, and I really enjoy the way it's told — special mention to the stone statue episode, which made me feel genuinely desperate as a spectator and as a player worried for the future of their party. It's just that I had this crazy hope that maybe, just maybe, the game was going to keep things domestic and treat me to a family epopee while giving the world a break. Oh, well. We'll see how the whole thing plays out, I guess. I'll see you soon for more DQV tidings, dear fellow gamers; and as usual, thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
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