Infinity Strash feels more like an anime slideshow than a Dragon Quest game

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SHOULD I PLAY INFINITY STRASH: DRAGON QUEST THE ADVENTURE OF DAI?

If you’re not a big fan of anime recap episodes, you should probably skip this one. There’s a lot going for Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: It’s got stunning visuals, loveable characters, and some incredible music. Unfortunately, the overall package is pretty boring. Infinity Strash is based on the manga and anime The Adventure of Dai, and the game primarily consists of recaps of the series. The gameplay segments are fine, but they’re few and far between. You’re better off watching the anime and playing something else.

TIME PLAYED

Technically, I played around five hours of Infinity Strash, but I spent most of that time staring at my screen. At the start of the game, the main character, Dai, loses his memories, and the only way to get them back was to watch recaps of each episode of the anime series. There are some combat missions between these story sequences, but they’re few and far between.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT INFINITY STRASH: DRAGON QUEST THE ADVENTURE OF DAI?

• Spectacular visuals. For all its faults, Infinity Strash is gorgeous. The 3D visuals perfectly capture the look and feel of the anime. While there are plenty of animated cutscenes to enjoy, the character models also look fantastic in combat segments, especially when they’re pulling off a flashy special move. Some environments are a little lackluster, but when a game’s characters look this good, it can get away with boring backgrounds.

• Great source material. Infinity Strash might be a glorified anime recap, but at least the series it’s recapping is pretty awesome. The Adventures of Dai is a fun adventure series filled with great action scenes and charming character interactions. The recaps are extremely accurate to the original series, which means the story it’s telling is pretty enjoyable, even if it’s not being told in the best way.

WHAT  SUCKS ABOUT INFINITY STRASH: DRAGON QUEST THE ADVENTURE OF DAI?

• Excruciatingly long cutscenes. I play a lot of visual novels, and I generally enjoy story-focused games, but the cutscenes in Infinity Strash were a chore to sit through. They’re long, repetitive,  and they present an engaging story in the blandest way possible. There are animated cutscenes that feel a little more entertaining, but a lot of these segments felt like someone was reading anime episode recaps on Wikipedia while a slideshow of screenshots displayed across my screen. Even though I enjoy the anime, these in-game sequences were a bore. 

• Barebones gameplay. The combat segments in Infinity Strash aren’t bad by any means, but they’re brief and extremely basic. I would have been fine with the simplistic gameplay if there was more of it; this could have been a pretty fun little hack-and-slash game. Unfortunately, the gameplay segments are too short to feel satisfying. After enduring ten or more minutes of cutscenes, I wanted to do more than whack on monsters for a minute or two.

• Wasted potential. What really sucks about Infinity Strash is that it had the potential to be a great little game. The anime is about a warrior boy who can cast spells and summon monsters, which is a solid premise for an action adventure game. It has a terrific cast of characters and an excellent story it can draw upon. I don’t know how the developers took such a fun property and turned it into such a dull mess.   

Infinity Strash isn’t some cheap mobile cash-in; it’s a $60 game with paid DLC. It’s grossly unfair to charge people for a full-price game and give them something that barely feels like a game at all. It’s essentially a bunch of slideshows with brief gameplay segments, and that really sucks. Infinity Strash has brief moments of brilliance, but for the most part, it’s a big disappointment.

💬 Have you seen The Adventures of Dai? What’s your favorite anime? Let me know in the comments!