Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Dragon Quest XI is video game comfort food

Video games are, almost universally, about repetition. Think about the number of times you’ve jumped on a goomba in Super Mario or hid inside a bush in Fortnite. With a few variations, playing a game means doing the same thing over and over. This isn’t a bad thing; at their best, games manage to turn this repetition into a loop, one that can either fill you with excitement when something unexpected happens or create a warm sense of comfort as you master it.

Perhaps no genre exemplifies the latter like Japanese role-playing games — the Dragon Quest series, in particular. Over three decades, the core of the experience has remained largely unchanged. You venture out into the world, battle some monsters, visit a town, and watch the story...

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