Anime,  Film

Review: DRAGON QUEST: YOUR STORY is a Car Crashing at Mach-5 Speed

Dragon Quest: Your Story is loosely based on the fifth game, Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavily Bride. Here we follow Luca, as he tries to live up to his father’s (the mighty Pankraz) reputation.

A couple of months ago, I reviewed Dragon Quest XI S for Revenge of the Fans. Because of this, I could not help myself, and had to check out the animated movie on Netflix. Fast-forward two hours later, and I wasn’t sure what I just witnessed.

Dragon Quest: Your Story is a prime example that some games work better as a television series than a movie. While the general tone and essence of Dragon Quest is there, they covered the game in a breakneck speed. It reminded me of the fan-made movie Hero of Time, but with a bigger budget. As someone that prefers 2D animation, I want to give the animators credit for their 3D animation. It that works with the world they want us to visit.

Dragon Quest: Your Story never had a chance to breathe within its 1 hour and 43-minute run-time. Both the characters and story suffer from the mach-5 speed. It has no time to breathe, nor does any of the cast have a chance to obtain any form of a character arc. All of this is a shame since I could have seen these characters being a blast to follow in the long run. It gets even more disappointing when it contains actors who bring their A-game.

Then there’s the elephant that made me flabbergasted of what I saw, a that elephant is the ending of the movie. This film could’ve been an 80’s style cheesy film, from beginning to end. Instead, it tries to become something else entirely. Imagine Pirates of the Caribbean starting as the swashbuckling adventure, only then to try and become a philosophical drama about the meaning of life. It killed the movie for me, or many apparently considering it was a financial failure in Japan. Think about that, it was a financial failure within a demographic that plays the franchise religiously.

Even though I’m not a massive fan of Dragon Quest, the movie missed a huge opportunity. The film could have been something great if they actually gave it a serious try. Instead, it ends up being a beautiful NASCAR car that crashes and burns at the end of things.

Latest posts by Isak Wolff (see all)

Co-host of the Amateur Otaku Podcast. A writer of many things. Loves everything nerdy from anime/manga to comics and video games. Fire Emblem is the greatest of all time.