In The Silence of the Lambs, the villain of the movie is a serial killer named Buffalo Bill who murders women in order to use their skin to create a suit for himself. After playing Dragon Quest of the Stars for a while, it feels as if it has done a similar thing with the Dragon Quest franchise, as it mimics the aesthetics of the series very well, but inside, it's a cold and calculating machine that just wants to take your money.

Dragon Quest of the Stars is a mobile RPG that tries its best to emulate the Dragon Quest series in terms of its battle system, characters, and story, but it only manages to resemble the other Dragon Quest games in superficial ways.

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A Hero Draws Near

Dragon Quest of the Stars gives the player control over three siblings who become Questocrats, which is the game's term for adventurers. They must travel the world, helping those in need and delving into dungeons, as they learn more about their family history and the dark presence that looms over all things.

To start on a positive note, Dragon Quest of the Stars is a gorgeous game that looks like a version of Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies if it were released on a more advanced system than the Nintendo DS. The artwork is the same Akira Toriyama goodness that has been part of the Dragon Quest series since the beginning and the soundtrack is equally as stirring as it is in other Dragon Quest games.

Gacha Slime

It doesn't take long for Dragon Quest of the Stars to show its true colors, as the game quickly starts vomiting colorful panels, promising limited time events, starter packs, Gem sales, and red exclamation marks that demand the player's attention. Dragon Quest of the Stars is a gacha game through and through. It's a free-to-play game, which means that its intention is to make the player spend as much money on microtransactions as possible.

The quickest way to earn high-level gear in Dragon Quest of the Stars is through the Lucky Chest draw mechanic, which randomly drops a piece of equipment. The player is given a few draws to wet their beak, along with plenty of free samples to get them hooked, but the intention is to eventually make them spend their own money, either on the premium Gems or the monthly Star Pass. It's just as scummy here as it is in other games.

The loot boxes might be forgivable if the game was fun in the slightest, but it isn't. Dragon Quest of the Stars does just enough to qualify as a video game.

The Draw

It's telling that the two premium passes offer the auto-battle function, which will allow players to not actually bother playing Dragon Quest of the Stars, as everything is done for them. This is because the battle system is laughably basic and is so tedious that the auto-battle feature is a blessed relief from the boredom.

The player has their three characters and a guest who is hired at the start of each quest. The dungeons are just a straight line with a couple of enemy encounters and the occasional boss. The characters will attack automatically unless directed to focus on a single foe by the player. The majority of battles are so pointlessly easy and automated that the player rarely needs to focus on them, especially if they got lucky with any equipment draws. The player's main contribution to battle is selecting when to use special abilities that are tied to meters that fill up over the course of the dungeon, but there is rarely a reason not to use them as soon as they are available. The player can deal extra damage by waiting to use the entire party's special abilities at the same time, which is about as close to being interesting or strategic as Dragon Quest of the Stars gets. It's also possible to play the game online with friends or strangers, but it's still the same tedious gameplay as always.

Dragon Quest Of Your Wallet

There are other systems at work within Dragon Quest of the Stars, including basic weapon crafting/upgrades, a character class system, and stat-boosting food, but these are so bare-boned that they feel more like filler than anything else. These elements, combined with the lackluster story and characters make Dragon Quest of the Stars a chore to play.

Dragon Quest of the Stars is just another Square Enix gacha game that pimps out one of its beloved properties in the name of money. It follows the bare minimum of what is required to be a video game and nothing more. It's designed to keep the player interested for brief instances of time during a commute or during a quieter moment at school/work and it does fill that role, but it's a poor entry in one of the best video game franchises of all time.

An Android version of Dragon Quest of the Stars was used for the purposes of this review. Dragon Quest of the Stars is available now for free on Android and iOS devices.

Dragon Quest Of The Stars

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