Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai has fun ideas strewn throughout, but its repetitive nature makes it only really appeal to fans of the series. If you’re a fan of anime arena fighters with light musou action, though, then Dai may be worth your time.
Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai
Developer: Square Enix
Price: $60
Platforms: PS5 (reviewed), PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC
MonsterVine was provided with a PS5 code for review
I’m a huge Dragon Quest fan and quite fond of The Adventure of Dai. Combining one of the best game series with the shonen manga genre is a surefire way to get me interested, so I was even more excited to see how the game adaptation turned out. There are certain aspects of the game that are exciting, but a lot of it wears thin by the midway point.
The stages of the game’s Story Mode – which is the primary way you’ll be spending your time with it – are split up into a few categories. Some missions are just slideshows of screenshots from the anime with voiceover, while others are battles against groups of smaller enemies using any characters you want. For the most part, though, you’ll be taking on singular boss-like enemies or bosses alongside some smaller enemies as you play out conflicts from the anime.
A lot of these battles become very similar to one another, as you alternate between the same few attacks and dodging until your enemy is down. You eventually earn new special attacks and increase your stats through leveling up, but fights at the end of the story felt nearly identical to those at the end in terms of how they’re played. They can be fun in short bursts, but fights get old pretty quickly.
You’re able to equip “memories” that boost your stats, which are moments from the manga represented by manga panels from the series. There are different classifications of memory, with the strongest being in full color. It’s a fun little twist on the idea of equipment that pays homage to the most memorable moments of the series, plus, collecting them and filling out a book full of the panels is very satisfying.
“One of the best aspects of Infinity Strash is the visuals, which almost perfectly emulate the art style of Koji Inada.”
The best part of Infinity Strash is the Temple of Recollection mode, which is a bit similar to a roguelike game. You and whichever party members you choose to work with charge in and go down room by room and floor by floor as you battle a variety of monsters and bosses from the Story Mode. Each room grants you stat buffs and bonuses as well as experience, as you start at Level 1 with every new run.
It’s exciting and tense to gamble between losing all your rewards by continuing as the floors get more challenging and withdrawing early to reap your rewards. There’s a bottom to the Temple, which means you can push your way to the end by making smart choices on stat buffs. It provides the perfect amount of incentive to continue, but there are some balancing issues throughout the mode.
Certain enemies can explode and cause massive damage in a certain radius, while others can poison you with streams of bubbles. It’s all easy to avoid, but your AI companions don’t seem too compelled to dodge these attacks or attempt to get out of their radius. This can leave you fighting further rooms of enemies alone, potentially ruining your run – no matter how good your luck and choices were. It can be frustrating, as running into certain enemies means you’ll likely lose a party member or two no matter what.
One of the best aspects of Infinity Strash is the visuals, which almost perfectly emulate the art style of Koji Inada. The monsters certainly reflect the iconic Akira Toriyama style that Dragon Quest is so well-known for. The two styles work well together and the animated action scenes between the slideshow story events are exciting to watch.
The Final Word
Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai could appeal to diehard fans of the anime, but its repetitive nature keeps it from being great. The game looks remarkably like the anime and the Temple of Recollection can be quite fun, but anyone who doesn’t love The Adventure of Dai can pass on this one.
MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average
