DRAGON QUEST XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age PC Performance Review

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While the graphical options menu leaves a lit to be desired, the visuals offered by the game are top notch, playing to the strengths of the game’s cartoonish Toriyama art style while looking suitably impressive on high-resolution displays.  

Dragon Quest XI doesn’t push any boundaries when it comes to graphical fidelity, but it nonetheless delivers players with a satisfying level of detail, though it is a shame that the game can’t push things a little further in some areas.  

One thing that quickly becomes apparent within the game it the low resolution of many of the game’s textures, a clear sign of the title’s console origins. The PS4 only offers gamers a combined pool of DRAM for both graphics and system memory, leaving things a little limited. 

While playing the game, we found that at 1080p the game rarely used more than 2GB of VRM and 5.5GB of system memory, which increased to around 3.5GB and 6GB when the game was running at 4K. It would have been nice to have a higher resolution texture pack for PC, as some textures appear very soft at high resolutions. 

  
  

Another area that the game could improve on is draw distances, with Dragon Quest’s PC version lacking any form of draw distance setting within the game’s options menu. Players will often see grass draw in at a distance, even when using the game’s highest settings, which can be distracting when traversing the world quickly. 

Enemies can also be seen drawing in at a distance, which is again something that is a little disappointing on PC. The option to extend this distance further from the camera would have been a welcome addition to the game’s PC version, but again, this setting is not available to change within the game.