DRAGON QUEST HEROES™ Slime Edition

Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree’s Woe and the Blight Below is an excellent musou game and a blast to play. It retains its Dragon Quest heritage beautifully, while still creating an experience fun for any fan of musou gameplay.

68%Game Brain Score

story, gameplay

grinding, stability

64% User Score Based on 556 reviews

Critic Score 73%Based on 10 reviews

Platforms

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About

In Dragon Quest Heroes, the protagonists must rise up against insurmountable odds, challenging swarms of enemies and conquering gigantic monsters in an exhilarating action game. Filled with characters and monsters designed by world-renowned artist Akira Toriyama.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

DRAGON QUEST HEROES™ Slime Edition screenshot

64%

Audience ScoreBased on 566 reviews

story105 positive mentions

grinding38 negative mentions

The game combines the beloved Dragon Quest characters and art style with engaging hack-and-slash gameplay, making it enjoyable for fans of both franchises.
The graphics are vibrant and colorful, capturing the charm of the Dragon Quest series, and the soundtrack features remixed classic tunes that enhance the nostalgic experience.
The combat system allows for a variety of characters with unique abilities, providing depth and strategy to battles despite some repetitiveness.

The game suffers from technical issues, particularly for users with NVIDIA graphics cards, leading to crashes and performance problems, especially in fullscreen mode.
The story and character development are considered shallow and clichéd, lacking the depth and engagement found in traditional Dragon Quest RPGs.
Many players find the gameplay repetitive, with missions often revolving around defending objectives or defeating waves of enemies without much variation.

story
561 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
75%
6%
The story in "Dragon Quest Heroes" is generally viewed as simplistic and formulaic, often described as a standard good vs. evil narrative with little depth or originality. Many players noted that the missions tend to be repetitive, primarily revolving around escort and defense tasks, which detracts from the overall engagement with the plot. While fans of the Dragon Quest series may appreciate the nostalgic character cameos and familiar settings, the story itself is often considered a backdrop to the hack-and-slash gameplay rather than a compelling narrative experience.
- “The story is fun and the characters are as well.”
- “I always like that Dragon Quest can be unapologetically grandiose in its storytelling and this is no exception.”
- “The story for this game is much more than I was expecting.”
- “The story is completely ignorable.”
- “The game is deeply flawed, chock full of defense-style missions, and a lot of uninspired questlines with no satisfying pay-off.”
- “The story plods along at a snail's pace.”
gameplay
136 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
65%
12%
The gameplay of Dragon Quest Heroes is a blend of classic musou mechanics and RPG elements, offering a straightforward hack-and-slash experience that can become repetitive over time. While some players appreciate the unique character abilities and the addition of tower defense elements, many criticize the overall simplicity and lack of depth, leading to a mixed reception. Despite its charm and engaging combat, the game may not satisfy those seeking a more complex or varied gameplay experience.
- “It's the perfect blend of hack and slash with Dragon Quest mechanics.”
- “The gameplay is engaging and the framerate is rock solid.”
- “A perfect mesh of Dragon Quest's RPG elements and Dynasty Warriors' famous hack and slash gameplay.”
- “You mostly fight hordes of super weak enemies and it's just not satisfying gameplay.”
- “I absolutely can't recommend it no matter how good it might look because the core gameplay is extremely boring.”
- “Like pretty much every musou game, it has weak gameplay; the game is easy no matter what, and it gets repetitive after only a few hours of gameplay.”
graphics
99 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45%
51%
4%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising the vibrant, colorful art style reminiscent of Akira Toriyama's work, which aligns well with the Dragon Quest franchise. However, players have reported significant issues with compatibility, particularly on systems with NVIDIA graphics cards, leading to crashes and subpar performance. Overall, while the visuals are generally considered appealing, technical problems and limitations in graphical options detract from the experience for some users.
- “It's far too rare to find games that both have an actual production budget and go for stylized visuals anymore, so if you're a weirdo like me who likes modern graphic muscle but misses the colorful cartoony art direction of old games, this game is a rare treat that I thoroughly recommend.”
- “The graphics are colorfully animated and hold that Dragon Quest artwork that we also love in Dragon Ball and Chrono Trigger!”
- “The production values are very high, the game feels very polished, particularly as this genre goes, and despite never really getting into the main series Dragon Quest games, I've loved the aesthetic and presentation of this game so far.”
- “Unlikable characters, cringey dialogue, boring repetitive combat, and graphics from the 1800's.”
- “The game's graphics look so blurred compared to what is shown in the screenshots.”
- “There is also an issue with Nvidia video cards and systems on Windows 8.1 or 10 where it forces you to run Windows 7 compatibility mode, which downscales the already poor graphics even further.”
music
57 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
65%
5%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with many praising its nostalgic ties to the Dragon Quest series and the quality of remixed tracks, while others find it repetitive and irritating, particularly due to the frequent looping of certain themes. Fans of the franchise appreciate the charming and atmospheric compositions, but some players express frustration over the limited variety and the use of MIDI soundtracks. Overall, the music is seen as a highlight for long-time fans, though it may not appeal to everyone due to its repetitiveness.
- “Music and audio, A+ as always for Dragon Quest.”
- “This game is *fabulous*—Akira Toriyama's art, Koichi Sugiyama's music, Yuji Horii's carefree, creative vision... it's all there, just as charming now as it was decades ago.”
- “If you enjoy the music of the Dragon Warrior/Quest series, get this game.”
- “The music is repetitive.”
- “It really doesn't help that a lot of the music just irritates me: after a while I had to completely mute the game music as hearing that lobby theme every single time I cleared a level and returned was driving me insane.”
- “However (and I know it's a recurrent issue in this series) the MIDI soundtrack is abominable.”
grinding
38 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The reviews indicate that grinding is a significant aspect of the game, often described as tedious and repetitive, particularly in the context of leveling up and completing quests. While some players appreciate the extensive content and the ability to farm experience, many find the grinding to be excessive and detracting from the overall enjoyment, especially as enemies become more resilient rather than challenging. Overall, the grinding experience varies, with some players enjoying it while others feel it hampers the game's potential.
- “There are some good elements to it, but overall it's stuck between grinding and weak plots.”
- “However, the grinding is tedious in this game due to the repetitive nature of the game.”
- “You'll have to play forever to actually build your team strong enough to take on the waves of bad guys, and the strong enemies they throw in will knock out your team fast if you don't use a trainer to buff them up early or spend an incredible amount of time grinding through the same maps over and over.”
optimization
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35%
40%
25%
The optimization of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players experiencing significant performance issues, such as long loading times and framerate drops, particularly on lower-end PCs. However, others report smooth gameplay and good visuals when settings are adjusted, indicating that performance may vary widely depending on individual hardware configurations. Overall, while some users praise the optimization, many express frustration with the game's performance on PC, suggesting it may not be well-optimized for all systems.
- “In fact, I'd say this is the one Tecmo Koei game that is incredibly well optimized on PC.”
- “Loading times are short and you won't have any performance issues because of that.”
- “+ great consistent visuals/art and good PC optimization.”
- “The loading screens seem excessively long (even on SSD, tried it on both, I didn't notice a difference, so it's either badly optimized or artificially slowed down, like many dialogues where you have to wait, i.e. accepting or returning a quest plays a short melody, only after that has been played, can you continue), especially since sometimes you're only for a minute or so in a zone.”
- “I seriously regret this purchase and I don't think Koei Tecmo nor Square Enix will ever learn how to make games properly, crappy optimization, crappy quality, low content, etc...”
- “Don't buy this game; even with a GTX 680, you can't even stay on medium settings because of the poor optimization of the developers, and they don't care about the game. Many people will have issues, plus developers don't want to fix a thing, so save yourself $60 and buy something better. If I knew of the issues, I wouldn't even pay $20 for this game; just don't buy it, typical Koei games.”
stability
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is widely criticized, with users reporting frequent crashes, buggy controls, and audio sync issues. Many players experience freezing during combat and problems with full-screen mode on Windows, leading to an overall impression of a lack of polish. While some have managed to run the game smoothly after upgrading their hardware, the persistent bugs and glitches detract significantly from the experience.
- “It's buggy and unpolished.”
- “The game freezes quite often, and there is a problem playing full-screen on Windows.”
- “It's really buggy though for PC; there's an NPC you can talk to on your ship, and my game usually crashes.”
humor
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is a mixed bag, with some players finding it genuinely funny due to absurd character interactions and campy dialogue, while others feel that the attempts at humor often fall flat or come off as unintentionally hilarious. The combination of silly AI behavior, out-of-sync cutscenes, and exaggerated accents contributes to a light-hearted, if not always successful, comedic experience. Overall, players appreciate the humor's unpredictability, even if it sometimes veers into the realm of the absurd.
- “It's just so funny when the game tries to sell you an emotional moment with those grating midi trumpets in the background.”
- “FMV cutscenes were very out of sync and it was hilarious watching it.”
- “This game is crazy funny.”
character development
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
20%
30%
Character development in the game is criticized for favoring male characters, leaving female players feeling underrepresented and less developed. While the character designs, particularly those influenced by Akira Toriyama, are praised for their charm and visual appeal, the overall depth of character development is noted to be lacking. The game's vibrant aesthetics and engaging cutscenes are appreciated, but they do not compensate for the uneven character growth.
- “Compared to something like Hyrule Warriors, which thematically feels like a pale imitation of the real thing due to Koei's technical and artistic deficiencies, Dragon Quest Heroes has all the essences of the DQ universe oozing from its every fiber: from the rich and vibrant visuals, charming character designs, wonderfully atmospheric music, and delightfully cheesy dialogues.”
- “Lastly, you don't see a lot of games on PC with this sort of whimsical charm with respect to character design and general presentation (even the menus), so the art style has been a breath of fresh air with respect to gaming on my PC.”
- “Character interactions favor the male, character development favors the male, cutscenes favor the male... honestly, if you want to play female, you're going to get shafted.”
- “- less character development”
- “Get it, especially if you're okay with this style of gameplay, and especially if you like Akira Toriyama's character design style - I totally love it just for that reason alone (I'm always looking forward to the next cutscene, they're great).”
emotional
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
83%
50%
Reviews highlight a mixed emotional experience in the game, with some praising the well-done voice acting and impactful intro music that evokes a sense of heroism. However, many criticize the overall emotional depth, describing the story as long, boring, and lacking in engaging moments, often undermined by poor audio choices.
- “The voice acting is well done and very emotional.”
- “The intro music made me feel like a hero.”
- “This is exactly how it made me feel.”
- “The game tries to evoke emotions but ends up feeling forced and insincere.”
- “I found the emotional moments to be cliché and predictable, lacking any real depth.”
- “The story was so dull that it failed to connect with me on any emotional level.”
atmosphere
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere of Dragon Quest Heroes is praised for its rich and vibrant visuals, charming character designs, and wonderfully atmospheric music, which collectively capture the essence of the Dragon Quest universe. In contrast to other titles like Hyrule Warriors, it is noted for its technical and artistic strengths that enhance the overall experience.
- “Compared to something like Hyrule Warriors, which thematically feels like a pale imitation of the real thing due to Koei's technical and artistic deficiencies, Dragon Quest Heroes has all the essence of the DQ universe oozing from its every fiber: from the rich and vibrant visuals, charming character designs, wonderfully atmospheric music, and delightfully cheesy dialogues.”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The game offers a mindless, time-killing experience, but many users feel it lacks significant replay value, suggesting that it may not hold players' interest for extended periods.
- “It's a good game if you want to kill some time mindlessly pushing buttons, but for the life of me, I cannot say there is much replay value here.”
- “Once you've completed the game, there's little incentive to go back and play it again.”
- “The lack of varied outcomes or different paths makes replaying the game feel redundant.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Reviewers commend the advertising team for their effective monetization strategies, indicating a positive reception of the game's promotional efforts.