Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai is an action RPG based on the Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai series.

Inspired by the Dragon Quest game franchise, Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai is an anime and manga series that follows the adventures of Dai, who aims to become the hero that takes down the threat of the Dark Army.

The game is a faithful adaptation of the Dragon Quest anime, giving fans an opportunity to relive iconic moments from the series through combat based gameplay.

A Timeless Story

Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai adapts one of the existing story arcs from the series, the Sovereign Rock Castle arc, allowing fans of the series to play through all their favourite moments of the arc. The story is fairly simplistic and reuses many assets from the source material, so those who have yet to experience the original story or who are looking for some nostalgia will likely find interest in the game.

There is nothing wrong with the story itself, but we would’ve preferred if the story was presented better. On one hand, it’s nice to see visuals from the anime, but jumping between static and 3D can feel weird. Despite this, the 3D cutscenes utilised for more important moments have great animation quality and graphics.

Unfortunately, Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai does not adapt the full story of the series. Without going into too many spoilers, the ending leaves you wanting more, requiring the player to catch up through the anime or manga. The use of still images for cutscenes from the anime is also a weird decision, as you would probably have a better experience watching the anime.

The overall structure and progression system of the game is quite straightforward, where you play through a sequence of levels available in each Chapter, with two of them exclusively covering story content and combat within an area. However, this system doesn’t allow for much exploration, which is strange considering there is a mini-map which ends up being useless other than being a marker for nearby enemies.

Variety in the levels are also minimal, as each chapter takes place in one of the few maps with slight variations on the main objective. There are also additional special levels presented in the form of side quests, which also lack variety, but can be beneficial in this case as it allows for faster progression through the main story and is convenient for grinding.

Uncomplicated Combat And Progression

The controls are quite simple, with each character being equipped with a normal attack, two slots for main skills, one slot for magic, an ultimate move, and other special actions such as power ups. The controls are basic and easy to understand, but don’t allow for complicated actions such as move cancels and combos.

We also noticed a pause when performing actions such as dodging or executing skills that can make the controls feel clunky at times, being difficult to perform actions which require precision such as perfect dodges or blocks consistently.

However, we really enjoyed that each character has their own unique play-style, and the switch system between characters works quite well as it doesn’t shift the enemy’s aggro. Moreover, the boss battles have good presentation, with several phases and cool cutscenes.

At its core, Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai is an RPG, so it’s important to keep strengthening your characters as the difficulty ramps up. This fact becomes especially prevalent when playing in levels that force you to fight solo without the help of your party. There are several ways to strengthen characters, one of which being collecting Bond Memories. Bond Memories are basically an upgrade system that improves you character’s stats by using picture cards from classic manga panels in the available slots, with the rarer cards providing stronger effects.

Another effective way to strengthen your characters is through the Temple of Recollection. For this, players have to face challenging dungeons that are divided into layers. Unlike the Story Mode, there are certain special rules that apply, such as your character being returned to the starting level every time you access the dungeon, with progress also having to be repeated. Although the gameplay in this mode feels much more repetitive with very monotonous levels and short combat durations, the variety of great rewards that can be obtained such as rare Bond Memories or special resources such as Memory Motes or Memory Ambers to increase the levels of your characters makes playing it worthwhile.

The combat of Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai was likely designed with the fans of the anime and manga series in mind, as fans of the original Dragon Quest games will find the combat of this game to be too far apart from its JRPG roots.

Verdict

Despite being few and far between, the highlight of the game for us were definitely the 3D cutscenes, which are top tier in terms of quality. This game was likely designed with younger fans in mind, as the storytelling, content, and combat mechanics are simple and basic. This game could’ve been polished even further, such as removing the pauses between actions and including more variety in the gameplay and content, but an advantage that this simplicity brings is that it caters to a wider audience.

The game runs very smooth on the technical side, as no FPS drops, crashes, bugs, or glitches were present during our playthrough. It’s also important to note that we tested the game on the PlayStation 5, but you may have a different experience based on the platform you’re running.

Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure Of Dai is available now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S.

Game reviewed on PS5. Review code provided by Bandai Namco Entertainment, the game’s publisher in the SEA Region

Infinity Strash: DRAGON QUEST The Adventure of Dai

Publisher: Square Enix

Developer: Square Enix

Release Date: 2023-09-28

Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

The memories of the Hero, in your hands! Experience the story of the legendary anime series, DRAGON QUEST The Adventure of Dai, in an exhilarating action role-playing game that combines stunning visuals with art from the anime and manga.