The Interesting Subtle Details of Dragon Quest XI (Erik is Left-Handed?!)

On a Monday morning, I was playing Dragon Quest XI and scrolling through Erik’s weapons to switch from Boomerang to Sword when something finally dawned on me after 26 hours of playing. You see, usually when I do this weapon switch with a character like Sylvando it also involves putting a shield back after using a two handed weapon, so I’m in the habit of checking the other non-dominant hand is equipped with what it needs to be regardless of what kind of weapon I’m switching. For Erik, this usually involves me being told I don’t have anything to put in his right hand even though I have a few spare shields, which made me realise something. His character holds his dagger on the left and he can’t hold the shields that the other right handed characters can hold in their left. It was then I had the realisation that the Dragon Quest team probably make a conscious decision to impact gameplay with Erik because he is left-handed, a tidbit I found pretty amusing.