So I picked up DQ Swords: The Masked Queen and The Tower of Mirrors after work yesterday and put a couple of hours into it last night. The story is pretty standard for an RPG (you just reached your 16th birthday, and now must go out and prove yourself a man by fighting hordes of monsters).

The game runs much like a shooter on rails, with RPG elements added in. You start out roaming around the hub town (buying items at shops, talking to people, etc.), and exit to an overworld map, that takes you to the area you want to fight in. From there you just use the B-button or the up on the D-pad to move forward until you reach a random encounter and fight a group of monsters. This is where the game really shines. The sword controls are spot on, and you can really get into various moves and combos against certain groups. You bring up your shield with B, and use the left and right on the D-pad to command the people in your party to use magic.

The biggest problem with the game is the character movement. While on a mission, you really only move forwards, so there is no issue, but in the hub town, you can do some exploring, and all movement is done with the D-pad. Why they didn't add nunchuck support is beyond me.

Breakdown:
Pros

• Great controls (like pulling a 'By the Power of Grayskull' with the remote to do a mighty strike)
• Good voice work
• Sharp graphics
• Perfect for those looking to start getting into the DQ Universe

Cons

• Movement in town is hard
• Seems like the game is not going to be very long (for RPG standards that is)
• Plot is pretty generic
• Much more of an Action-RPG compared to normal DQ games