Finally, the construction element is there. Minecraft ’s blocky aesthetic has constantly been compared to that of LEGO’s, and really that’s true. In fact, it’s likely that it was intended to be that way. As kids, many of us were fascinated with LEGO’s. Building castles and cars using fundamentally simple components was appealing. Even better, it breathed experimentation. It encouraged trying something new. It fed that feeling of individual creative freedom by allowing us to build something that we wanted. That idea is omnipresent in Minecraft ; it’s the crux of the construction element in the game. Simple cubes of dirt, rock or sand can be used to build everything from houses to skyscrapers to sculptures. With a little hard work, you can make your "castle of dreams." The Creative Mode, with its free movement and ample resources, is the pinnacle of this mentality; you can create what you want. And gamers have. There are hundreds of Minecraft videos online of people building enormous, monolithic structures with the game’s basic building pieces. Minecraft has proven that this idea can be made into something massive; gamers are guaranteed to create something when given the tools to do so.

Minecraft Dungeons is a hack & slash action-RPG in the vein of Diablo where you take a character, beat on monsters, find better gear, and use the new toys to beat on bigger and tougher monsters. The paper-thin plot is that an outcast villager was corrupted by an evil orb of power and down came the smiting, and only a hero etc etc etc. The story is "hit monsters, get loot, search out secrets," which really is all this genre needs.

It’s safe to say that Minecraft has become one of biggest gaming phenomenons ever, earning mass cultural significance and merchandising opportunities, all while solidifying Persson’s creative mastery and contributing to the indie game boom of the 2010s, but Minecraft has taught many gamers and developers alike that there are ways to approach game design from other angles and still provide a fulfilling experience. When it comes right down to it, gaming hasn’t had the kind of creative milestone Minecraft has shown in a long time. It uses the gaming medium in groundbreaking ways that no other medium can use; it is a work of art in every wood type in minecraft sense of the matter.

Someone needs to have a nice sitdown with the gaming industry about VR and what it can and can't do. The ability to transport the viewer inside a scene is incredible, and if that scene happens to be in the cockpit of some kind of ship, then it opens up a whole range of movement options that would otherwise be a bad idea. Putting the player behind the eyes of a protagonist who walks around freely in the standard FPS viewpoint, on the other hand, is something that has only sounded awesome. It's hasn't been. Really, seriously, it's kind of sucked, and while wanting it to be different won't change that, clever viewing systems just might. So now Minecraft has official VR support, and it's taken an interesting approach to the presentation that's a little awkward but usable.

[N. Fujimoto] Dragon Quest Builders is an open world sandbox game where item and town construction is a major component so that similarity to Minecraft does exist. Beyond that it is a story driven adventure game with many RPG elements, so even though there is some common ground, it is a very different game.

(thinks for a few seconds) If I suck at sandbox and building games, would I still be able to play this? Like traditional Dragon Quest games, anyone can pick up and play this. Dragon Quest Builders includes blue prints that will instruct the player on how to build certain structures. You are of course free to deviate from them as much as you want but for people who want to quickly build a structure we included them to facilitate faster gameplay and progress if someone wants to use them. (Here I am shown some screenshots from a phone that include a ridiculously huge and impressive kingdom, the amusement park, a giant gold slime, and even a replica of a screen shot of the battle with Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy V) All of these are screenshots from Dragon Quest builders. If you can imagine it, you can build it. There are some people in Japan who have spent excess of fifty days constructing magnificent kingdoms strictly from their own imagination. Even people who are not fans of traditional Dragon Quest games can enjoy this so I hope a lot of people give it a shot when it comes out next month.

Between each level is a brief stop back at base camp, which is a fairly empty area that honestly feels like it's missing content. The shops let you spend the green gems found throughout the levels on a random piece of equipment or accessory, and...that's it. There's a map on a table to choose the next level or you can just hit the Select button to do the same thing. Sometimes there's a random chest somewhere in the scenery if you wander about. It's a good amount of space, nicely decorated, with little in it.