Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age Accessibility Report - PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox X|S

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Dragon Quest XI S:
Echoes of an Elusive Age

Accessibility Report

24 Accessibility Features

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age is a narrative role-playing game. Play involves traversing a sprawling fantasy realm to recruit a party of companions for the turn-based battles, but the real fun is in the vibrant world and evolving characters. It stands out for revitalising the formula with seamless exploration and a sweeping, emotional narrative that connects its protagonist's journey to the mythic roots of the series.

We've documented 24 accessibility features for Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age, including Fully Voiced (Or No Speech), Large Subtitles, Custom Difficulty, Select Difficulty and No Repeated Pressing. Its accessibility is strongest in Controls and Reading but it also has features in Difficulty, Navigation, Visual, Audio and Getting Started to reduce unintended barriers.

This report is created from our extensive research, input from other accessibility experts and the player community, and information provided by the developer on the game's store pages.

Our accessibility examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age accessibility 5 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Thom Robertson and updated 3 weeks ago.

Accessibility Notes

The new S version of the game is fully voiced. You can switch between 3D and 2D graphics that offer different visual styles. There's an option to speed up battles by two or four times.

The subtitles can't be resized and don't meet our 1/20^th of screen height bar, but they are of good contrast and legibility. There are guide markers on the map and in the game world that indicate where to go next.

There's an Autorun toggle on L3 and a reset camera direction on R3.

Game Details

Release Date: 27/09/2019, updated in 2020

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox X|S

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Players: 1

Genres: Adventure, Battle, Narrative, Role-Play (Action, Communication and Traversal)

Accessibility: 24 features

Components: 2D Overhead, 3D Third-Person, Cartoon, Day and Night, Open World and Pixels

Costs: Purchase cost, In-Game Purchases and In-Game Pass

Controls

We've documented 9 accessibility features for Controls in Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age which deal with how you control the game, different options for alternative inputs and whether you can remap these settings to suit your needs.

Gamepad

Can play with the following:

Multiple Buttons & Single Stick: Can play with multiple buttons and a stick.

Mouse And Keyboard

Can play with the following:

Keyboard Alone: Can play with just the keyboard.

Remap Controls

Can customise the controls for the game as follows:

Remap Buttons: Can re-map all buttons so that you can use alternatives that better suit your play.

Remap Mouse and Keyboard: Can remap mouse and keyboard key bindings, on systems that support these controls.

Invert X/Y Axis: Can invert the direction required to control looking and aiming. This enables you to match your instinctive orientation when looking.

Button Combinations

Specific button operation required to play

Holding Down Buttons Optional: Holding down buttons for prolonged periods (a second or more) is not required or can be switched to toggling the action on and off. This is in addition to the movement stick/button which is not considered a hold for this purpose.

Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional: Quick, repeated button pressing (more than 2 times a second) is not required, can be skipped or switched to holding a button to trigger a repeated action.

Controller Vibration

Vibration Optional: Controller vibration not used in the game or you can disable it.

Sensitivity

You can adjust

Adjust Mouse/Stick/Touch Sensitivity: Adjust how sensitive touch/mouse/stick controls are.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Controls

If you want to play Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age, but it doesn't offer the Controls accessibility features you require, this similar game extends the Controls accessibility:

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (10 Controls Features)

Difficulty

We've documented 2 accessibility features for Difficulty in Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age which deal with how you can adjust the challenge of play, and whether this is locked once chosen or can be adjusted as you play.

Difficulty Options

Select Difficulty: Select the level of difficulty from a range of presets. This not only offers a way to adjust the challenge of a game but enables you to do so without dealing with individual criteria.

Customise Difficulty: Customise different aspects of the game to create a challenge of an appropriate level. Adjusting elements individually enables you to tailor gameplay to suit your needs and style of play.

Getting Started

We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Getting Started in Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age which deals with what support is offered to get started with the game. This includes customising the experience when you first open the game via any onboarding processes it provides as well as tutorials and other assistance when you first start playing.

Assistance For Progressing

These features aid your progress through the game offering different ways of maintaining your progression.

Bank Progress With Frequent Checkpoints: If you fail you can retry that level or aspect of the game without losing a lot of progress (less than 5 minutes). This is often provided via Frequent Checkpoints combined with restarting without losing time, equipment or score.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Getting Started

If you want to play Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age, but it doesn't offer the Getting Started accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Getting Started accessibility:

Triangle Strategy (6 Getting Started Features)
Octopath Traveler II (5 Getting Started Features)
Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (5 Getting Started Features)
Cassette Beasts (4 Getting Started Features)

Reading

We've documented 6 accessibility features for Reading in Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age which deal with how much reading or listening comprehension is required, how well the game provides visual and audible access to the text and whether subtitles and captions are a good fit for purpose.

Reading Level

How much reading is required to play the game's main path or story and how complex the language is. The presence of voiced characters doesn't reduce this requirement, as it's recorded as a separate datapoint.

Extensive Complex Reading: Extensive reading required. The quantity and complexity of reading is suitable for someone who loves long books and enjoys extended dialogue or narrative descriptions.

Text Visibility

High Contrast Text: Text colour contrasts to the background or can be adjusted to be. The text in menus, instructions and other information is presented in high contrast with a solid background.

Subtitles

Large Clear Subtitles: Subtitles are large, clear and of good contrast. They are at least 1/20 (46 pixels on 1080 screen) the height of a landscape screen and at least 1/40 height on portrait screens, or can be adjusted to be. We base this on the full line-height, including the space above and below the letters. Considered separately from the general text of the game, the subtitles are large, clear and of good contrast.

All Speech Subtitled (Or No Speech In Game): All spoken content has subtitles, or there is no speech in the game. This means there is no requirement to hear spoken dialogue or narrative to play the game.

Captions

Speaker Indicator: Textual captions indicate who is speaking (or there is only ever one person speaking). This can also be indicated visually in the game with character icons or placing text in speech bubbles next to the person speaking.

Voice Acted

All Dialogue is Voice Acted (Or No Speech In Game): All of the game dialogue and narrative can be voiced, or there is no speech in the game. This means there is no requirement to read the dialogue and narrative text to play the game.

Navigation

We've documented 2 accessibility features for Navigation in Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age which deal with how the game provides guidance and assistance to navigate its worlds. These are only for games that have traversal and exploration in 2D and 3D spaces.

Clarity

Clear Mission Objectives: The game provides clear, structured missions with directional guidance and advice on which can be attempted next. This also indicates (ideally on maps where they are provided) which missions can't be attempted because you do not have the appropriate items yet.

Head-Up Display

Game Map: View a map of the game world during play, with the landscape, points of interest and missions highlighted throughout the entire game. This enables the orientation of the player and the world, confirming a direction of movement and the location of destinations or points of exploration.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Navigation

If you want to play Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age, but it doesn't offer the Navigation accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Navigation accessibility:

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (6 Navigation Features)
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (4 Navigation Features)
Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (4 Navigation Features)
One Piece Odyssey (3 Navigation Features)

Visual

We've documented 2 accessibility features for Visual in Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age which deal with how you can adjust the visuals to suit your needs, and offer additional information if you can't hear the game.

Audio Cues for Visual Events

Audio Cues for Visual Events: Audio is provided to indicate visual events. Game events or progress highlighted by visual icons, effects or animations are also accompanied by audio to signify that progress. This is useful for blind players.

Audio Depiction of Event Location: Indication with positional/stereo audio of where directional events are on the screen for things like damage, footsteps, environmental elements. This is useful for blind players.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Visual

If you want to play Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age, but it doesn't offer the Visual accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Visual accessibility:

Cassette Beasts (4 Visual Features)
One Piece Odyssey (3 Visual Features)
Triangle Strategy (3 Visual Features)
Octopath Traveler II (3 Visual Features)

Audio

We've documented 2 accessibility features for Audio in Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age which deal with how you can adjust the audio of the game and whether audio cues compensate for aspects of the game that are hard to see.

Adjustable Audio

Balance Audio Levels: Set music and game sound effects separately. This enables you to select your preference as well as ensure critical game sounds aren't obscured by other audio.

Play Without Hearing

Play Without Hearing: No audio cues are necessary to play the game well.

System Accessibility Settings

In addition to the accessibility features provided in the game, you can also use system-wide accessibility settings:

Nintendo Switch
Nintendo Switch has some built-in features, including a lockable zoom, that can be used on all games.

PC
Windows has extensive accessibility features. Some, like colour correction, work with games. Lots of accessibility software can be used with PC games, from voice recognition to input device emulators.

PlayStation 4
PlayStation 4 has a range of accessibility settings. Some are system only, some work in games (invert colours and button mapping).

Xbox One
Xbox One has a system features, the excellent co-pilot share controls mode and adaptive controller support for all games.

Xbox Series X|S
Xbox One has a system features, the excellent co-pilot share controls mode and adaptive controller support for all games.

Read more about system accessibility settings.