One of the first RPGs I ever picked up for my NES was Dragon Warrior. I loved it so much that I eagerly played my way through the next three games and then forgot about the series. When I saw that my beloved DW series had returned for the PS2 as Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, I was more than ecstatic. Slimes and not sprites! Could it get any better?
Gameplay
Dragon Quest VIII plays just like all the old NES Dragon Warriors, complete with familiar monsters and sound effects. A few new things were added to the mix but it’s still mostly your standard-fare, turn-based battle system. That said, I like innovation in my RPGs and although I love a good old-school styled game, the random battles got a little monotonous (especially when trying to level up). The bosses weren’t overly hard, the dungeons weren’t overly long, and nothing was especially difficult to figure out. I don’t think a 10 year-old would have a hard a time with this game.
One of my major beefs is that saving your game can be extremely cumbersome. Another major complaint I have is that there is no pause button. On more than one occasion, I had to leave the game on the menu screen while I ate dinner or something because there was no way to save or pause.
Of course, no RPG would be complete without side quests and a monster arena of some sort. The monster arena in this game was one of the few innovative things about it. Without giving too much away, I’ll just say that it was a fun and very useful side quest.
Story
The main character is a silent hero (meaning he doesn’t have much personality as well as no audible voice). As the hero, you are journeying with a king who is trying to remove a curse that had been cast on him. It turns into a battle for the world as you wage war against evil forces. (as all RPGs do). While battling it out with the evil foes, you meet colorful characters who help you along the way in your quest. The characters are well written and are only slightly stagnant; nothing unique there.
The main enemy is uninspired and doesn’t garner much dislike. I find that the more I hate the villain, the more I love the game. When you beat the game, you’re given a blah-say ending, which doesn’t quite wrap things up as it should. You have to save after the ending, do a little quest, and beat the boss again to see the good ending… why they didn’t just include that quest as part of the game is beyond me.
Graphics
The graphics are excellent and the world is simply beautiful. The person who did Dragon Ball Z designed the characters and it shows. I personally don’t like the character designs but I love the monsters (slimes abound, of course). They are unique, cute, and very well animated. The world is very detailed and smooth.
Sound
The music is complex and a little odd at first, but really good; nothing standard here. The voice acting however…oh god it was awful! Everyone had British accents, which I thought was a pretty cool idea, except that it’s really obnoxious in practice. The character who seems to get the most voice acting (Yangus) speaks in a bad cockney accent (think the chimney sweep in Mary Poppins) and the king has an annoying, whiny voice that you just want to hit him for having. Yangus calls you “guv,†and says “cor blimey†a lot. It’s kinda absurd. After the first village, I turned the voices off for most of the game and found it to be much more bearable.
Overall
This game was fairly fun for the most part and had a lot of nostalgic value for me. That aside though, it was not very unique, and I got a little bored with it a few times. I will probably not play it again (at least not for a few years) but I am happy with it overall. I am especially happy with the fact that I didn’t buy it when it came out for $50.
7/10 points
Hey have you ever heard of a manga that was based on this game?