Best RPG Game
(2 of 2 Found this Helpful)
November 21, 2008
I beat DQ a few months ago and I am still mourning the loss. I loved this game. It is by far my favorite video game period. Completely enjoyable with enough variety in the gameplay through leveling up, new weapons, the alchemy pot, side quests, that it never gets boring. The characters are 3 dimensional and believable. THe game is HUGE. I love the freedom you have to go where ever you want. I have been spoiled by that and now games like Odin Sphere that don't let you do that are almost intolerable to me now. When you wander off the beaten path to explore and/or level up you always seem to find something whether it is a treasure, a monster you have been looking for, a character you haven't met, the game designers have really outdone themselves.
The battle system is awesome. I love the old school style done in a modern way that doesn't make it seem outdated but instead it seems revolutionary because it is done so well.
I have never played the previous games but I am anxiously waiting for DQ VIIII to come out. If it comes out on XBOX then I will buy an XBOX to play it.
Even after over 100+ hours of play I kept stalling knowing I was close to the end because I didn't want it to be over. My boyfriend and I were constantly haggling over who got to play. This time I will buy another system so we can both play whenever we want.
Get this game. I cannot imagine you will be disappointed.
Super Game
(1 of 1 Found this Helpful)
October 21, 2008
I have played many rpg's but never played a Dragon Quest game in all these years. This game was excellent. Ive decided to hold off on next gen consoles for another year or more due to the fact that the ps2 still has so many quality titles that i havent experienced yet. This is one of those titles that is well worth your time, i recommend it very much!
Beautifully rendered cell-shaded bliss.
(1 of 1 Found this Helpful)
September 29, 2008
This is the first Dragon Quest to make its appearance on the PS2 and quite a debute it is. You control a precocious young scamp named Hero who is in search of a way to reverse the spell that has plagued his world. You will recognize the characters as they were designed by the creator of the Dragon Ballz and are cell-shaded to produce that true anime feel. The game also includes a playable demo of Final Fantasy XII...though I bought mine used and never got it. Anyway, let's take a closer look at why this game is so popular.
Story:
The Kingdom of Trodain has been attacked by an evil jester named Dhoulmagus who breaks into the kingdom's treasure vault and takes a mysterious scepter....he then uses the magical scepter to inflict a plague across all the lands in an attempt to free Rapthorne, the prince of darkness. You control a precocious young scamp named Hero (you'll name him yourself, thus the generic name) who was unaffected by the plague and is asked - neigh - commanded by the king (now a monster) to retrieve the scepter and defeat Dhoulmagus so the plague will be reversed. Upon entering your first town you learn that an evil jester has been killing innocents who are mysteriously linked to each other, but how?
Gameplay:
As with previous Dragon Quest games, they don't really offer any revolutionary advancement in the RPG genre....just your basic turn based fighting system, but where the series shines is the amount of customization you're allowed for each of the playable characters. Each character also has a unique ability that when optimized will offer the party some intriguing abilities during battles. There are some tedious aspects to the game: leveling can take quite a few kills to advance just one level....and the gold distribution doesn't reflect the price of the weapons, armors, and items you'll need to progress the story. With many costing in the 1000s you will soon discover that the amount of enemies you'll need to fight just to acquire that amount is staggering. Another feature that is either hit-or-miss depending on your taste, is the church save system. If you want to save your game, learn about your characters, cure them, etc... you must confess your actions to a member of the clergy....but this is only a minor annoyance. The game is loaded with side quests like Monster Arena, alchemy, and collecting mini tokens that can be exchanged for some valuable prizes. While there are quite a lot of side quests, Monster Arena is by far the most fun. Monster Arena grants you the option to capture certain monsters to use in a 3-on-3 battle against other teams in the arena. This aspect of the game is highly addictive and more often than not you'll find yourself searching for monsters to capture rather than advancing the story.
Graphic and sound:
Being a cell-shaded game, Dragon Quest has some of the most stunning graphics around. The world, its characters and everything else that it encompasses is beautifully rendered and a joy to experience. The sound doesn't match the graphic's quality but is adequate for conveying the mood of the game.
Final thoughts:
Dragon Quest VIII is the very definition of RPG. It utilizes well-established aspects of the genre and introduces a few new ones. There is enough here to keep new and old fans of the series busy for weeks. However, once you do finish it, there isn't much in the terms of replay.
Great old-school RPG
(1 of 1 Found this Helpful)
September 26, 2008
I haven't been able to stop playing Dragon Quest VIII.
I'm a big RPG fan, but over the last years, all japanese RPGs have been invaded by whiny androgynous spike-haired prettyboys with amnesia and a knack for giant swords, roaming around a techno-magical world, and never seeming to get a grip about the feelings of the lovely but klutzy female party member who was also a childhood friend.... Mind you, I loved Final Fantasy VII, but I'm getting tired of playin the same story with the same stereotypes over and over again.
DQ VIII is a throwback to the good sword and sorcery RPG games of the NES/SNES era, with colorful and likable characters, and decidely evil antagonists. It makes for a prety straightforward plot sometimes, but is a refreshing change among hundreds of games filled with convoluted plots and non-sequitur filled conversations. Plus, the dialogue with the NPCs and specially the interacions among the party members (a feature often overlooked and sorely missed since the Grandia series) is often funny and even hilarious, but is also very endearing and touching when it needs to.
Graphically, the game is totally gorgeous, and the expressive and cartoon-like graphics will likely age very well overtime, unlike many other games (RPG or not) that tried to be realistic in their time, but look like total crap nowadays. I was never a big fan of DragonBall, so it's not a fanboy statement when I say that the character designs from Toriyama fit the game atmosphere so well, and while the enemies are sometimes too cute to look truly menancing, it gives the game a distinct look and feel among the gritty gray-and-brown-only palette of so many current-gen games.
It certainly has some flaws, some of them related to the retro-feel of the game, such as the savegame spots being scarce (although you can teleport with a spell you learn pretty early in the game, solving this issue), and the inventory system feeling pretty clunky and unfriendly sometimes... but most of those problems don't ruin the overall experience, and may even feel like a reminder of how things were in the old days of gaming, so count them as a plus if you are a retrogamer.
I'm liking it pretty much. I almost never play my RPGs from start to finish, usually leaving them to play something else for some time before jumping back and finishing them. But this may be one of the few games that I'll play throughly without distractions, because it just keeps pulling me in.
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
(1 of 1 Found this Helpful)
August 16, 2008
This is a riviting, fun game. Challenging and hard to put down once you starts. Time just slips by. Thoroughly enjoy it. I wish they would make more of this type of games for the older systems.
