Dragon Quest Builders Reviews

Dragon Quest Builders is ranked in the 91st percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
IGN
Top Critic
8.9 / 10.0
Oct 8, 2016

Dragon Quest Builders is totally, thoroughly engaging. Its gameplay is accessible to kids while its dialogue offers enough sly references to keep Dad or Mom amused. Collecting, crafting, and building all sounds familiar, but this package encapsulates so much of the best parts of this creative process and wraps it in light roleplaying progression and storytelling. It doesn’t matter that there isn’t a multiplayer component, because it wouldn’t have contributed to the world. So that means this is a gold-standard RPG for the non-connected gamer to flex all their cerebral muscles wherever they want it to go.

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Recommended
Oct 10, 2016

Offering freedom within structure, Dragon Quest Builders manages to formalise a riveting story within Minecraft's expansive template.

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Nov 11, 2016
Dragon Quest Builders - Easy Allies Review video thumbnail
Oct 4, 2016

Combat could be better, but Dragon Quest Builders combines RPG structure and freeform creativity to great effect. It's Minecraft for people who hate Minecraft.

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Metro GameCentral
Top Critic
8 / 10
Oct 14, 2016

A surprisingly successful mash-up between two completely different franchises, whose quiet charms offer a welcome alternative to incessant action and overbearing storytelling.

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8 / 10.0
Oct 4, 2016

Dragon Quest Builders is a great alternative for people who want more structure from a Minecraft-style experience – and plenty of structures to build

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8.5 / 10.0
Oct 17, 2016

This Dragon Quest experiment gives players a great reason to build

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8 / 10
Feb 7, 2018

Whether you want to focus on completing assignments or build with no specific purpose, the game is feature-rich enough to suck up untold hours, even if this happens to be your first Dragon Quest experience.

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Unscored
Feb 9, 2018

The game's Minecraft trappings are somewhat misleading. Dragon Quest Builders is less about creativity and more about strategy. It's a hand-crafted, charming video game that starts off slowly but never stops feeling delightful.

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Oct 4, 2016

Striking an almost perfect balance between RPG and construction game, Dragon Quest: Builders manages to hold fast to the best parts of the series whose name it bears while creating a guided, structured format for the Minecraft concept. The end result works brilliantly, with top-notch visuals, music, and writing that help drive home the appeal. There's room for improvement here... but not much.

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9 / 10.0
Oct 7, 2016

As long as that's not solely what you're looking for though, you can breathe easy knowing that Builders is more Dragon Quest than Minecraft. There's a clear campaign and a sense of progression that doesn't let up for hours on end. This is no clone.

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8.5 / 10.0
Feb 7, 2018

This port has been created in order to get some players to try this better version of the original game before its sequel arrives. However, Dragon Quest Builders is still very entertaining and a perfect choice for Minecraft and Dragon Quest lovers.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

87 / 100
Feb 7, 2018

The game finds the perfect balance between RPG elements, construction games (mainly inspired by Minecraft) and the classic characters from Dragon Quest Series (designed by Dragon Ball author Akira Toriyama). It´s incredibly fun and deep either in story or free mode.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

7 / 10
Oct 11, 2016

Obviously the appeal of Dragon Quest Builders is the universe it’s set in, but there’s also the appeal for younger audiences who will find the guided nature of this sandbox JRPG an inviting and accessible proposition. It’s far from perfect, but it’s a good effort and another potentially successful spin-off.

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Ollie Barder
Top Critic
8 / 10.0
Feb 13, 2024

Overall, this is a good PC port of the first Dragon Quest Builders but has some weird design changes taken from the second game that take away from what originally made this game so special. If you have no other option than to pick up the PC version, you will definitely enjoy yourself, but it’s sadly not as good as the PlayStation 4 and Switch versions.

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Ollie Barder
Top Critic
9 / 10.0
Feb 11, 2018

Overall, this is still the fantastic game I remember playing back at the start of 2016

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8 / 10
Feb 19, 2018

It's hard not to be charmed by Dragon Quest Builders. The team at Square Enix have managed to improve upon the concept of a crafting-focused sandbox game simply by adding in a touch of direction and personality. Players are still able to tear down and rebuild the world as they see fit, but the addition of townspeople and objectives makes Builders feel like a much more robust experience than similar games that came before it, even if it does at times feel a little clumsy.

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VG247
Top Critic
Oct 7, 2016

Striking an almost perfect balance between RPG and construction game, Dragon Quest: Builders manages to hold fast to the best parts of the series whose name it bears while creating a guided, structured format for the Minecraft concept. The end result works brilliantly, with top-notch visuals, music, and writing that help drive home the appeal. There's room for improvement here... but not much.

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Unscored
Oct 10, 2016

If either Dragon Quest or base-building games appeal to you, try it with an open mind and a willingness to buck convention.

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8.8 / 10.0
Oct 18, 2016

Dragon Quest Builders succeeds in being both a beautiful RPG and a great sandbox game, delivering one of the most engaging gaming experience of its genre.

Review in Italian | Read full review