The introduction of the demo heavily references the first Dragon Quest, from the remixed Dragon Lord theme to the explanation that this takes place after Erdrick’s descendant chose the bad ending. Will there be references to other games in the series or any specific characters making an appearance, such as Alena from IV or Yangus from VIII?

Each path differs in gameplay as Magnus’s path is a lot more action-oriented with the introduction of Boom Town and ‘griefers.’ Of course, we all know ‘griefers’ from the original game as annoying players who would blow stuff up. Because of this, QTEs (Quick Time Events) are utilized that were so popular in the previous episode to dodge TNT. Ellegaard’s path isn’t as action oriented and focuses more on puzzles and the character focus from the very first episode. There is a lot more dialogue in this path and a lot of it makes up the funnier aspects of this episode. This episode capitalizes on the voice actors that Telltale has gotten together like Corey Feldman (Magnus), who played Mouth in The Goonies, and Grey Griffin (Ellegaard), famous for playing Daphne Blake in the Scooby-Doo cartoon movies that bring the characters to life.

The story also deserves notice. Minecraft itself might not have as intense of a story, but Telltale was able to grab some of the more important factors of Minecraft missions and create a lore to follow and better understand what the characters with. Previously, your goal was to mine for enough materials and minerals to make a portal to the End to slay the Ender Dragon. Now, that story doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone, because the ones who slayed the Ender Dragon were the members of the Order of the Stone. The members are essentially the people that you would have normally gone to the End with to help you fight the dragon, so it almost makes it seem like you were some kind of legendary hero for being able to do that if you were able to do so in the past. Everyone else in the episode doesn’t have that same goal and, funny enough, don’t look at all like the villagers that you sometimes wander upon in the original game. The storytelling and characters leave you with enough of an impression that leaves you waiting in anticipation for the next episode. You begin to make connections with your friends and build a relationship with them in the span of one single episode so it leaves you wanting to know what will come next for this party of builders.

While you don’t get to explore the world, you are given the chance to look around in order to find clues that lead to the next event. The episode doesn’t stray at all from the original and even gives you the opportunity to fight zombies and craft items to make you feel more at home, feeling a little bit like a tribute. As stated before, you don’t have to have prior knowledge of the game in order to enjoy this but some you should have some prior knowledge to understand the terminology and some of the jokes. ‘Ender Dragon’ and ‘Wither’ are not really words that everyone has in their everyday vocabulary but knowing about them will give you better understanding of why they’re bad and why the situation that Jesse and his friends are in is bad.

The Wither is a unique creature in Minecraft . It never naturally occurs anywhere in the game and is immediately hostile upon being created. This skeletal monstrosity is a hybrid of three Wither Skeleton skulls and four blocks of Soul S

Zombies are one of the most basic yet alarming mobs in Minecraft . They endlessly stalk the player at night, standing at doorways and groaning in a low and unnerving tone until the light of the Sun fills the sky and burns them to a crisp. Husks are just like their undead counterparts but have a unique “superpower” that allows them to stand up to the sun, and they won’t catch on fire and disappear like their breth

At this point I thank them for the interview and ask if they can send me some of the screenshots they showed me so I can put them in the write up which based on the above screenshot they obviously agreed to. I have played Minecraft, and while I can appreciate what it does and see why it has the popularity it has, I was never able to get into it. Dragon Quest Builders, on the other hand, was much more enjoyable, at least in my opinion. Perhaps it is because I am a long time Dragon Quest fan and enjoy the story component but regardless of the reason I did enjoy the time I spent with the demo. From the limited exposure I did get it seems like this really is an adventure/RPG that uses the building block mechanic and not a simple Minecraft clone dressed up like Dragon Quest. As a result of my time playing the demo and this discussion, I am looking forward to getting my hands on the final version and testing out my bonfire prison idea. Dragon Quest games have always had the same game designer, character designer, and composer, who are respectively Yuji Horii, Akira Toriyama, and Koichi Sugiyaman. These three have worked on the franchise for its thirty year existence and are all on board with Dragon Quest Builders.