Review of Dragon Quest Tact: A monstrous mashup
Our Verdict
Though its monsters genuinely scare me at times, Dragon Quest Tact is a fun-filled tactics gacha with some appealing retro vibes
Do you recall the sensation you get when you see a monster in a JRPG that is sure to give you nightmares? I'm speaking like a legless serpent, a flying slug with a thousand eyes, or a four-beaked penguin. It's incomprehensible; no evolutionary setting could have produced such a beast, and yet here it is, staring straight at you as it approaches to ruin your celebration.
Imagine creating a whole game based just on that emotion; that's essentially what Dragon Quest Tact is. In this monster-based tactics gacha, you must gather monsters to aid you in battling your way through the environment. Some of the animals are really adorable, while others have rather bizarre appearances.
It's not like insane monsters is a bad thing. They even add a little of excitement to the gacha system, as you wait to see whether you're going to get a reasonably typical monster or one that looks like a crime against nature. whether anything, they make Dragon Quest Tact seem more unique.
But I'm getting off topic. The only item you have in Dragon Quest Tact is a mystery baton that grants you the ability to command monsters, employ them in combat, and enlist them in your cause. The game follows a human who has been transferred to a world filled with monsters. You make friends with Mindini, an adorable being that resembles a cross between a furby, a clefable, and a bat, and the three of you go out into the world to find out more information about the enigmatic relic.
This story is mostly told via short cutscenes with lighthearted, although corny, dialogue that are strewn with turn-based tactical combat. The fighting concept pleased me a lot; you take a group of five soldiers, and you employ unique powers, assaults, and grid-based mobility to outmaneuver your terrifying foes.
Since Dragon Quest Tact has that amusing opening scene when the people who discover you ask, "Oh you're a military strategist?," it really makes me think of Fire Emblem: Heroes. That's just what we need! Like Heroes, the game's early fights are likewise quite simple. There's also an auto-battle feature, which I utilized to easily win the easy-to-level encounters at first.
This was partially owing to the fact that Tact provided me a ton of prizes early on and that I was able to get a team of five A-tier monsters who easily defeated the majority of my opponents because to a recurring pull on its gacha mechanism, known as "scouting." However, it seems like the challenge ramps up very rapidly, so you'll need to level and rank your monsters to raise the level maximum and keep your party's CP within a fair range.
However, there are many methods to get resources in Dragon Quest Tact. You may exchange Tact Points for scrolls and other stuff, convert currency to rank-up materials, and if you're seeking for a certain resource to rank a monster, Tact will suggest you a quest to obtain it. Gems, the gacha money, are the sole item that is somewhat more difficult to get, although they may still be obtained via gifts. When leveling up monsters by grinding for rewards, the auto-battle feature is also helpful. Overall however, I discovered I had an abundance of both monsters and supplies. Occasionally, a monster from the other side may even join you after you win a fight. This monster increases the strength of any previous versions you may have, much like constellations in Genshin Impact.
Overall, I thought Tact was enjoyable, and not having played Dragon Quest before didn't stop me from playing. Tact is really rather refreshing, in my opinion, and it's good to see a retro-themed monster-collecting gacha instead of simply another one with an anime-style theme. The cinematic language in Mindini is really quite well written, which is unusual for free-to-play mobile games and even had me laugh a few times.
Though I think it could enter the same late-game grind as most gacha beyond a certain power level, Tact offers a fun, colorful cast of characters, a solid fighting system, and plenty of methods to get resources. Admittedly, some of its features are a bit confusing at first, but understanding how ranks, levels, and abilities function is easy to understand, and the fighting system is simple and well-tutorialized.If you like tactics-based gachas, Dragon Quest Tact isn't the worst option.