Quick! The slimes are massing!

I have to get this off my chest before I go on. I've never played a Dragon Quest game in my life. That feels so much better. Also, pretty sad because I love Enix and I love Dragonball, and Dragon Quest is kind of a merge of the two (artwise anyway), so I don't really understand why I've never played a game in the series.

2007/8 looks to be the time of the Dragon Quest. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker is set for a November release for the DS I believe and Dragon Quest V is also coming to DS (although I'm not sure if it'll leave Japan). But the thing that got me really excited is the release for the Wii Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors.

The first thing you notice about DQS are the gorgeous visuals. The backgrounds are lush and the characters don't look all blocky! Thank god! I've not been particularly impressed with the Wii's graphics so far, and I know I'm not the only one. They seem to have been putting in more effort getting the motion controls right (which they still haven't got perfect) than making the visuals their tip-top best. the next reason this game excites me is exactly that, they seem to have got the controls right from the hands ons I've read. It will be a nunchuckless scheme, using only the wiimote for attacking and movement (with the d-pad I believe). The game utilises a first person camera view and attacking involves targetting an enemy and slashing with your sword vertivally, horizontally , diagonally, or thrusting forward fencing style. Cool!
Movement in the game is limited, going semi on the rails on the most part of exploration, but town exploration is fully off the rails.

Check out the gameplay footage!

To date, the game is looking really hot and I'll be following it each week to bring you news and new videos.