Dragon Quest X: Mezameshi Itsutsu no Shuzoku Online

Dragon Quest X starts with a sharp personal loss, then turns that urgency into an online journey across Astordia. You create a hero, choose from five distinct races, and set out alone or with a compact four-person party while the world’s roaming monsters keep the road from feeling entirely safe.

Its strongest hook is the meeting point between familiar Dragon Quest command battles and MMO persistence. Combat asks for patience rather than button-mashing: commands have wait times, yet you can reposition during fights, creating a more active rhythm than a purely static menu RPG. The subscription structure, including limited free online access during Kids Time, makes it a better fit for committed regular play than casual dabbling.

Platforms: Wii, Wii U

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first stretch gives you a strong reason to move forward: your village has been destroyed, and survival means taking the form of another race. That is a more immediate hook than the usual “save the world” opening, and it leads naturally into making your own character and finding a place in Astordia. With Dwarves, Ogres, Elves, Wedi, and Pukuripo to choose from, each tied to its own continent and stories, the choice has more flavor than a cosmetic checkbox.

Dragon Quest X keeps the core of its fighting proudly traditional. You collide with monsters roaming the overworld, select commands from menus, and wait for actions to resolve. If you enjoy the deliberate give-and-take of classic Dragon Quest battles, that familiar cadence is the comfort food here. The twist is that you can move around the battle area while waiting, which gives encounters a welcome sense of motion without turning them into an action game.

Playing solo is a meaningful option, but the four-person party limit is where the MMO idea becomes easiest to enjoy. A small group is manageable: you are not being swallowed by a raid-sized crowd, yet there is room for cooperation and different class choices. Frustration may set in if you want instant, uninterrupted access, since this is built around a subscription model; the daily free Kids Time window is useful, but it also makes the game feel scheduled rather than entirely on your terms.

Graphics

The view sits behind your character as you travel Astordia, meeting freely roaming enemies before battle begins. Its anime and manga styling suits the recognizable Dragon Quest fantasy tone, while the five playable peoples—especially the fish-like Wedi and petite Pukuripo—give character creation a pleasantly oddball range.

Story

There is real dramatic weight in the opening setup. Watching the destruction of your home and then having to become another race gives the hero’s journey a personal sting before the wider online adventure takes over. It is a clean, motivating premise: saving your people is not an abstract duty, but the response to a loss you have seen.

Astordia is not treated as a single undifferentiated fantasy map. The five races have their own continents and stories, so choosing a character also points you toward a particular cultural corner of the world. That structure should especially suit you if you like a large RPG world broken into smaller narrative homes rather than one endlessly generic quest trail.

The story’s trade-off is inherent to its online format. Your personal hero’s mission sits beside a world designed for many adventurers, whether you travel on your own or group up. The premise is strong enough to carry the opening, but the lasting draw is less about one tightly controlled tale and more about continuing to explore the different racial stories.

Overall Experience

Dragon Quest X is an unusual but sensible blend: a persistent online RPG that does not abandon the menu-driven, measured combat Dragon Quest fans expect. It rewards you for settling into its pace, choosing a race that interests you, and treating Astordia as somewhere to return to rather than race through.

The best audience is easy to name. Give it a chance if you enjoy traditional command RPGs, like seeing monsters out in the field before engaging them, and prefer adventuring with a few friends instead of needing a huge group. If waiting between actions sounds tedious rather than tactical, its central battle rhythm may test your patience.

The payoff is a Dragon Quest journey with more social flexibility than the usual solo quest: you can roam alone when you want, then form a four-person party when company sounds better. For another branch of the series with a more creature-focused angle, Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry no Wonderland 3D is worth a look. Dragon Quest X earns its recommendation for fans willing to trade some convenience for a persistent world and a familiar battle system given room to breathe.