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Minecraft has a way of tapping into the deepest parts of us: the primordial instinct to survive the night and, once through it, to spend the day in creative endeavour. Through its stubby vision we learn to wrangle the land, refining elements and building first a cave, then a castle, then a computer. Dragon Quest Builders takes up the elemental themes, just as it takes up Minecraft's world-conquering template before attempting to refine it into something new. The citizens of Alefgard may have survived decades of embattlement at the claws of the local monsters, but they have lost something fundamental to their humanity: the ability to build. Stripped of this species-defining quality, civilisation has fallen to ruins. Tumbledown houses sit unrepaired. Ghosts wander crumbled castles' breezy halls, mourning time's blows to the memory of past glories. People wander sleep-deprived; they've forgotten even how to make a bed.
You awake from a thick slumber, in the Japanese RPG tradition, as the chosen one. This time, however, your destiny is not that of the warrior, but of the hard-hatted construction worker - the gift of crafting is yours alone. Guided by a sassy spirit voice, you begin the blistering work of rebuilding the Alefgardian's world, restoring their homes, installing their ovens and, through some creative interior decoration, rejuvenating their spirits. It's a premise plucked from the daytime TV schedule - the foppish designer, airlifted into a site of municipal catastrophe with a hacksaw, some white paint and a pocketful of flower seeds - but, once you've hacked your way through the spun-out tutorials, it works exceptionally well.
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