Dragon Quest XI Act 3

Personal opinions on why I hate it

"To lose time is to lose much" is a quote that has really stuck with me ever since I transitioned into Act 3 of Dragon Quest XI. It's repeated multiple times as you make the decision to go back in time to save Veronica, a character who sacrificed herself to save the rest of the party as Yggdrasil fell. It really encompasses the reality of the situation at hand. You're sacrificing all the progress you made--your time--to save Veronica. From a gameplay perspective, it seems like you're losing all the levels you grinded for (likely around 20 levels if you're like me), and from a story perspective, you're sacrificing quite a bit of character development, especially Serena's, to save Veronica. In game, it's described as you literally destorying part of the timeline to go back and save her. It's a major turning point for the game, you're losing time and everything you got throughout act 2 (story wise. your items get perserved but the character developmentisn't), and you're told that it might not even work.

It's an insanely selfish move, but I feel that it gives the Luminary more character, in an odd way. I like how it's made out to be extremely selfish and that none of the other party members want him to go through with it. It gives character to him, and it gives a major, almost fatal, flaw. By going back in time and defeating Mordegon before Yggdrasil can fall, thereby saving Veronica and countless lives, it also gives the conditions for Calasomos' revival and a new disaster to potentially befall Erdrea. It creates quite the interesting catalyst for a story about what I feel could be the Luminary's regrets about going back in time and not being able to go back, or about the farther reaching implacations of the consequences of killing Moredgon, and because Erdwin's Star doesn't get destroyed, as it did in act 2, Clalasmos' revival and how that affects the entire world.

Instead though, the game ends up becoming extremely grindy and barely has any story left. You just face a bunch of trials, and if you're not strong enough to beat them, you gotta get back to grinding levels until you can beat them. It becomes really fucking boring, is what I'm trying to say. The story could go an interesting route with the change in timeline, and it could have a story about the Luminary trying to fix his mistakes that stem from his time travel. His greed and grief could become major points in the story, instead of his greed being religated to a reskinned bossfight that you have to beat in a certain amount of turns to win. It could be about how the world changes with Calasmos being alive again, and how it differs from Mordegon's rule in act 2. You could watch as the Luminary slowly descends into madness (which could stem from Veronica having to sacrifice herself in every timeline, as I find that to be an interesting concept), or some other interpretation that could go well with the time travel plot.

What I'm trying to say is, is that act 3 let me down by a lot. It had a load of potential for storytelling, and a million different routes to go. It just happened to be some grind-fest with all the story concentrated at the starting 10% or so. The rest is just you facing some trials, fighting reskinned Spectral Sentinals, all in preperation to fight Calasmos.

I feel as if Calasmos themself barely even holds weight to the story. While the same could be said for Mordegon in act 1 and to an extent, act 2, he still feels like a proper villian. He doesn't directly get involved in the story. Instead, he waits and lets his underlings (ex: Jasper) do all of his dirty work until the party makes it up to Yggdrasil, where Jasper takes everyone down, and Mordegon swoops in and takes the Sword of Light, corrupting it and causing the fall of Yggdrasil. In act 2, he's still letting his minions do all of his work until he's cornered in the end, but he also destroys Erdwin's Star near the end of act 2, not for the people it is endangering upon it's descent, but to keep the world for himself. He's that ominous shadow looming over the story, with quite a bit of weight for his sparatic appearences within the actual game. We see his power, how he corrupted the Sword of Light, how he caused the fall of Yggdrasil, how he destroyed Erdwin's star, how he possesed King Carnelian and guided Jasper down the path of darkness. He's a villian and he proves it, not with sheer brute force alone, but with strategy on what he does to take down the Luminary.

Calasmos, on the other hand, barely holds any weight. They're barely mentioned during the bulk of the story, only time being near the end of act 2 when a black tockle that has so far made only an appearence during the opening cutscene of the game (which is Calasmos themself) attempts to regain their orginal form by seemingly merging with Erdwin's Star, where the rest of him likely is. After that happens, you do all the time travel shenanagins to bring back Veronica, and low and behold, when you defeat Mordegon before everything in act 2 happens, Calasmos comes in and returns to their true form.n

Honestly, as I have mentioned throughout all this, Calasmos had genuine potential to be an interesting villian. The thing is... well, there's actually a multitude of reasons that me and most of the Dragon Quest community believe this act sucks, most of which I've already mentioned.

I feel like the story could've used far less level grinding, and the trials I feel could've had unique representations of the Luminary's dark side besides reskinned versions of the Spectral Sentinals. Maybe it could've been a Dark Link situation, where each of the representations looked like the Luminary, but shadowy and mysterious. It could've also been unique enemies, each one looking mutated and odd to represent each of these embodiments, along with having a unique moveset that could represent all of that. That's just my opinion on that part though, and you are free to have your own interpritation of how else these bosses could've represented the dark side.

I feel also that Calasmos could've had more weight on the story, besides being the big evil that you have to defeat. The story maybe could've taken the turn of kind of being like the original story of Erdwin, but with the fact that the Luminary actually defeats Calasmos in a permanant way. It could've also taken a dark turn, with one of the party members betraying the Luminary (either while under Calasmos' control, or for their own gain), and killing them, maybe dooming the world to a cycle where the Luminary always ends up getting betrayed.

In the end, I feel like act 3 had a lot of story potential, but it got wasted and became tedious and boring. I still love Dragon Quest XI with all my heart, I really do. It's just that act 3 feels to me like it had a lot of potential, and I really mean that; it ended up as a tiring and grindy mess. I don't want to hate it, I really don't, but all I see in this entire act is wasted potential, and I just can't ignore that.