Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai Preview – Action to Dai For

While Dragon Quest is one of the most beloved JRPG series ever, I always had a soft spot for its spin-offs. Ever since Torneko: The Last Hope, I’ve always made time for these side adventures told across various genres. However, in recent years, the development team has been focused on getting Western fans acquainted with the character Dai. While he first appeared in media during the late 80s, we’ve seen much more of him lately in the West, thanks to a mobile game, anime adaptation, and manga.

However, Dai fever won’t end there. After the reveal of Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai, it seems fans of this series will be seeing a lot more of this young warrior. I was able to play an early build of the game to understand what kind of experience awaits fans. Thankfully, I’m here to report that there’s an interesting action experience to discover here, complete with narrative-heavy story segments and challenging boss fights.

Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai follows the events of the anime rather closely and immediately acts as an introduction to all things Dai. Campaign events are mission-based, where players can progress the story by selecting a mission from a map. This is then accompanied by a story scene that fills you in on why you’re fighting in the first place.

However, before heading into a mission, you can customize the loadout of each party member available. Aside from base equipment, one of the more interesting aspects of gameplay revolves around Bond Memories, which are moments of the story depicted as equipable emblems that boost your base stats. This allows you to equip memories that fit your playstyle to add additional abilities or even boost loot gained after a fight. There are plenty to choose from, and they are acquired throughout the main campaign and the Temple of Recollection, which will get into shortly.

I should point out that there’s an abundance of voice-acted cutscenes. These scenes take place before and after the selected mission and provide context to the situation, but I would say that you won’t be too surprised if you already know this story. I can see these scenes acting to bring new fans to the greatness of this character, which I feel wasn’t fully capitalized on in the mobile game, A Heroe’s Bonds. Don’t worry; these are two completely different games.

When on a mission, you’ll face off against waves of enemies or a boss in an arena-like battlefield. I was able to play as Dai, Popp, and Maam, who each have a completely different fighting style. I was surprised by how varied each character is, and you can switch to them at any point in the fight. The AI actions are decent, but I hope to find ways to customize their attacks and healing frequency. One of the more difficult fights allowed me to only play as Dai, which was fairly challenging.

The action system is pretty straightforward. The basic combo and ability gauges are commonplace for these types of games, which makes me feel like this game is geared toward anime fans who might not also be fans of action games. However, that said, I found the opponents to be pretty challenging as you must avoid their attacks and plan when to follow up with a counter. Strangely, although there is a slow-down effect and invisible frame added when getting a perfect dodge, there was no follow-up counter that I could execute. Perfect dodging just felt so satisfying that a counter feature would have only made it more enjoyable.

The action extends into the Temple of Recollection, a roguelike dungeon where players begin at Level 1 and must clear rooms of enemies, choose the next room, and then fight a boss at the end of a series of rooms. Rewards depend on the rooms you choose, but the best ones dish out treasure or needed healing items. Sadly, if you die, you can potentially lose a lot, and although you can leave after certain milestones, you’re encouraged to continue.

Interestingly, this is connected in some ways to the main campaign, as the equipment collected will help you with some of the tougher story battles. Further, the Bond Memories found within the Temple of Recollection are definitely more powerful than the ones you’d find in the campaign. However, levels and experience are not carried over, so this isn’t the place to level grind.

Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai is a promising action game where players can look forward to experiencing some pretty epic fights. Non-gaming fans can enjoy this heroic narrative through some low-barrier action encounters, while genre enthusiasts can look forward to their new favorite Dragon Quest spin-off experience. I hope to see more available actions during combat, but from what I have played, this may be Dai’s biggest adventure yet.

Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai is coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam on September 28, 2023.