Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

‘Minecraft’-inspired RPG ‘Dragon Quest Builders’ hits US shores in October

By
Dragon Quest Builders Announcement Trailer
Publisher Square Enix announced that its
Recommended Videos
Minecraft-inspired sandbox construction game
Related
Dragon Quest Builders is headed to the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita in North America and Europe later this year.

Today’s announcement arrives on the 30th anniversary of the original Dragon Quest‘s launch in Japan, bolstering the long-running series’ latest push for stateside recognition.

Dragon Quest Builders offers an alternate-universe take on the original Dragon Quest‘s storyline, envisioning a dark future in which the game’s hero forms an alliance with the evil Dragonlord. The hero is subsequently betrayed and left for dead as the kingdom of Alefgard descends into darkness.

In the aftermath of the catastrophe, once-thriving villages are reduced to rubble, and according to Square Enix, “the few survivors scattered around the world no longer understand the concept of creativity and live through scavenging what remains among ruins.” Players must then restore the world to its former glory by rebuilding villages, brick by brick, in an RPG-styled quest.

Taking cues from Mojang’s indie hit Minecraft, Dragon Quest Builders features a block-dropping construction mechanic at its core. In addition to building structures by placing bricks in specific formations, players can craft items and weapons in order to fulfill requests from nearby villagers.

Though its main questline focuses on construction, Dragon Quest Builders also offers real-time combat and character-leveling mechanics, essentially transforming the Minecraft formula into an action-RPG. In order to gather necessary building materials, players must explore a vast wilderness in search of monsters and hidden treasure, adding an element of danger to an otherwise laid-back premise.

The PlayStation 4 version of Dragon Quest Builders will launch digitally and at retail in North America and Europe in October. The PlayStation Vita edition will skip a boxed release for its upcoming PlayStation Network-exclusive debut.

Square Enix is also readying a pair of Dragon Quest series remakes for North American release “later this year,” including upgraded Nintendo 3DS versions of 2000’s Dragon Quest VII and 2004’s Dragon Quest VIII.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Danny Cowan
Danny Cowan
Contributor
Danny’s passion for video games was ignited upon his first encounter with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, and years later, he still…
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: release date window, trailers, gameplay, and more
Indiana Jones standing in the jungle.

Grab your fedora, whip, and pistol because Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is plotting a course to consoles soon. After being announced via a small teaser in 2021, we're now finally starting to put the pieces together on the mystery that is this new title from MachineGames. While many very popular and successful games have been inspired by the Indiana Jones film franchise, including Uncharted and Tomb Raider, Indy himself has yet to star in a true action-adventure game worthy of his legacy. Will this game be the one to remind audiences who the true pioneer of set-piece action and globe-trotting puzzle-solving is? Only time will tell, but we can at least guess based on all the clues we've unearthed.
Release date window
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be released is scheduled for release sometime in 2024. Considering the slate of titles currently announced from first-party publishers, and how little we've seen of this game in comparison, we'd expect it to arrive in the last few months of the year. Of course, it could always slip into next year as well.
Platforms

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, coming from Xbox-owned MachineGames, will be an Xbox console exclusive, but also be available on PC.
Trailers
Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Read more
How to get to Monkey Island in Sea of Thieves
An election poster for guybrush in Sea of Thieves.

Over the course of its many years of updates and expansions, Sea of Thieves has had a few notable crossovers with other pirate franchises. The Pirates of the Caribbean crossover let you team up with the legendary Jack Sparrow, but the Monkey Island content felt like it came out of nowhere. For those unaware, Monkey Island is a series of pirate point-and-click games that were as funny as the puzzles were obscure. Thankfully, you don't have to intuit that you need to combine a cat whisker with a mason jar to bypass a skeleton guard to get to this new content, but it is more challenging than you might think.

Read more
3 Xbox Game Pass games you need to play this weekend (May 3-5)
Senua in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.

Another weekend is upon us, and you're probably looking for some games to kill time with over the course of it. We're in a bit of a lull right now ahead of a flurry of releases starting next week, so it's a great time to dip back into the Xbox Game Pass catalog and check out some games that you may have missed. There are three games in particular that I think you should check out this weekend if you're looking for something to play.

One is an unsettling adventure that's getting an Xbox-exclusive sequel later this month. The next is a finely animated roguelike indie that recently made its way to Microsoft's gaming subscription service. Finally, there's a relaxing adventure that gives players a lot of freedom, yet is short enough to beat in a weekend. If you're having trouble deciding what to play this weekend, give one of these games a shot.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Read more