Fixing What Isn't Broken - Dragon Quest Builders

Dragon Quest Builders is a good game. It's not perfect, but it's an incredibly fun and well made experience. I poured tons of hours into it personally. In doing so I have discovered, not exactly flaws, but ways in which the game could be improved. Things that could make a sequel even better than the first.  You could say I'm hoping to build on the already great formula of Builders. And with that terrible pun, let's get started.

1 - More Freedom

If I had one major gripe with Builders, it would be that the game restricts the area you can build a bit too much. It makes sense in the context of the game (you're re-building the towns from the first game), but the area you're given to build on can be a bit small. This does require you to build only what's necessary, no extra frills. I get why they did this, but at the same time, it annoyed me. I wanted a bit more freedom to build what I wanted, not just what I was supposed to. This could be fixed by allowing the building area to be expanded. Like how you can increase your health meter, you should be able to increase your town size. That way the player can be more creative with how they play the game. After all, part of the fun of these crafting type games is being able to be creative.

2 - More Monsters

This one will probably be resolved with a sequel no matter what, but still I'll add this one. The first game has a decent variety of monsters to fight. However, it could have more. The Dragon Quest series has a lot of iconic monsters, and it would be great to see more of them in a Builders sequel. Having a bigger variety of enemies is almost always a good thing. For example, one of the reasons I like the game Terraria is because of the variety of enemies. Even if I'm just gathering materials or exploring, the wide array of enemies keep the game from getting too stale. On the other hand, take Minecraft. The small variety of enemies makes the game get boring fast (at least in my opinion). I get sick of seeing the same few monsters over and over ad nauseum. With the vast amount of monsters the Dragon Quest franchise has, this should never be an issue.

3 - Recruiting Monsters

Speaking of monsters, in Dragon Quest Builders, you can bring some friendly monsters into your towns in the story mode, and in free mode you can have some monster party members. I really liked this as one of my favorite Gameboy games is Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Tara's Adventure. I'd love it if in the next game you could have monsters in your party in the story mode. I could see this working two ways. One would be like how it works in Dragon Quest Monsters. On a rare occasion, when you beat a monster it would ask to join you. This would be an okay way to do it, but I think I have a better idea. When you beat monsters in Builders you get materials from them. Perhaps the monsters could have a rare chance to drop an item that would allow you to combine said hypothetical item with the items the monster normally drops to create a friendly monster companion. This would not only make gaining monsters pals a bit more rare, but would keep in line with the "building" aspect of the Builders franchise.

4 - Building Quests

Builders' Terra Incognita mode (free mode), allows you to "build to your heart's content". As fun as it is, it got me thinking. What if you could build your own Dragon Quest game? Games like Super Mario Maker, Littlebigplanet, and RPG Maker have all demonstrated that being able to make your own games/stages for games is something people want. Personally, I'd love the chance to build my own world map and design my own quest. I imagine the map building working kind of like Modnation Racers, letting you use brushes to build terrain like mountains, lakes, and such. Or you could also have a randomizer that builds it for you. Then you could go in and edit things in more detail by moving around and using your tools and materials like how you normally play the game. And with the ability to share your worlds and quests online, the game never has to end.

So those are the main ways I think Dragon Quest Builders, an already great game, can be improved. There are some smaller things (like allowing the hot water crystals to work above sea level), but those are things that a negligible in the broad scheme of things. Overall, I really feel like these additions could make a future Builders game an even more fun and memorable experience. Even so, the game is great and I look forward to the potential sequel, even if it doesn't adopt these ideas.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think of these ideas in the comments. And remember, just because it isn't broken, doesn't mean you can't fix it.

- Thank You For Reading, And Remember: Hot Dogs are Sandwiches. #TeamSandwich

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