Long story short: Dragon Quest Builders 2 is shaping up to be just like the original, but with smart new features and quality-of-life improvements. Many of those new features weren't accessible in the demo I played at E3 2019, but you can get a glimpse of them in the trailer below.

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Playing Together in Dragon Quest Builders 2

“ [Dragon Quest Builders 2] was designed so that anyone... could pick up a controller and learn how to build cool stuff.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 Release Date

According to the producers, the idea behind the original Dragon Quest Builders was to take a sandbox-style building game (i.e. Minecraft ) and give it the structure of a, you know, regular video game. It was designed so that anyone, young or old, longtime gamer or novice, could pick up a controller and learn how to build cool stuff. Dragon Quest Builders 2 is based on those same principles, but expands your capabilities.Multiplayer is probably the biggest new feature in Dragon Quest Builders 2, allowing up to four people to play and build together. While there's no cross-platform play, another new online feature is platform-agnostic: If you build something you want to share, you can now upload it to a notice board, where other players can view and visit your creation. If you're checking out someone else's notice board masterpiece, you can get a blueprint and use it to create it in your own game. Better yet, when you start to build someone else's blueprint, your townspeople will join in and help.Unfortunately, the demo I played at E3 included almost none of these new features. It started as my (sigh) amnesiac companion Malroth and I got off a boat and set off to explore the land of Furrowfield. We broke some rocks and chopped down some trees. We killed some slimes that were minding their own business (sorry!) and stabbed some giant snails.Malroth followed me around, acting like a younger sibling who wanted to be just like his big brother. When I scavenged for resources, so did he. When I fought helpless slimes, he joined in the massacre.Soon a woman on a distant hill cried out for help. Mal and I moseyed over and found a pair of baboons harassing her. We slew them fairly easily (combat is less challenging this time around, the producers say) and talked to the woman. She said her name was Rosie and she asked if we could assist with her struggling farm. You see, her harvest had been all but destroyed by toxic spoilspores.My first job was to craft a scarecrow to keep the spoilspores away. Building a scarecrow required cord and wood, which I got by smashing vines and trees. Once I built the scarecrow and planted it in the field, a new goal appeared in the corner of the screen, requiring 10 patches soil to be tilled. Rosie got right on it, and as she tilled the soil, the objective began completing itself. That's another new feature: this time around, villagers can help you out with your tasks.As she tilled, I broke a rock in the field. When I did, three yellow hearts leapt out of Rosie and landed nearby. She seemed startled by this. She said she didn't know what they were, but she had just felt a great surge of joy. Then she told me I should collect anything that spills out of her. I was thinking about what a weird thing that was to say when the demo ended.I thought the original Dragon Quest Builders did a great job of creating a campaign around its building mechanics, but like many others, I found some parts lacking. Based on what I've seen and heard, it sounds like the sequel will address many of the problems people had with the original.A playable demo of Dragon Quest Builders 2 is coming to PS4 on June 27. The game has a July 12 release date for PS4 and Nintendo Switch. And because it's been out in Japan for a while, the producers said, the notice board is already filled with impressive creations we'll be able to check out at launch.

Chris Reed is IGN's shopping and commerce editor, and he's useless without blueprints. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed