Limitations breed creativity, or so the old saying goes, but is that really true? Are limitation and direction really what we need to make our artistic work shine? Or is there more to it than that?…

Let’s take a look at Dragon Quest Builders 2 and the way that it uses direction and guidance to help the player develop and enhance their creativity, whilst also still offering enough freedom for the player to make whatever they build still something uniquely their own.

Whilst the article is focused upon the gameplay rather than the story, there may be one or two minor spoilers, yet nothing that should ruin the experience for you. Still, please keep that in mind if you have not played this game.

  • yermaw@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    20 hours ago

    You need to build the BRONZE ROOM. We need the BRONZE ROOM to progress. To build the BRONZE ROOM we need to mine BRONZE. You know where to mine BRONZE? Its in the bronze cave to the north. Go to the bronze cave and mine 5 pieces of BRONZE to build the BRONZE ROOM.

    Finish dialogue. Dialogue from your party member immediately starts up.

    Guess we better go mine some BRONZE if we want to build the BRONZE ROOM. Where did he say it was again? The bronze cave! To the north! Theres no time to waste - lets get that BRONZE!

    Finish dialogue. Walk towards the bronze cave. Party member drags you back into dialogue. No option.

    we’ve finally made it to the bronze cave! This is where we will find the BRONZE that we need to make the BRONZE ROOM. Lets go mine some quick so we can build the BRONZE ROOM.

    Walk into the bronze cave. See the veins of bronze. Walk near them.

    Hey look! See that rock? Thats filled with BRONZE. Didnt the quest giver say we needed some BRONZE? Lets mine some now!

    Hit the rock with your pickaxe a few times until it disappears.

    wow we just mined some BRONZE. It will come in useful for lots of things, plus we can build the BRONZE ROOM using it! How many did he say we needed? Oh yeah! We need 5 bits of BRONZE! Lets hurry and mine the rest so we can build the BRONZE ROOM.

    Mine 4 more bronze

    Well done! We finally have enough BRONZE to make the BRONZE ROOM! Lets get back and build the BRONZE ROOM right away!

    Go back to base. See the mayor/questgiver

    Ah youre back, and you’ve finally gathered enough BRONZE to build the BRONZE ROOM! Lets quickly build the BRONZE ROOM.

    Put the blocks down in the required order.

    Hooray! We finally have a BRONZE ROOM. Unfortunately this level isnt finished yet. Not until you go back to the beginning of this loop and replace BRONZE with SILVER and go through the whole rigmarole again. Then do it again with GOLD. You might think by the time you get to gold we’ll trust that you have the learning capacity of a chimp and will be able to figure it out on your own, but no, we’re going to force you to read dialogue and hold your hand every step of the way.

    Its a fantastic game, honestly, but then they decided you should be spending about 80% of your playtime mashing the button to skip the dialogue.