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Showing reviews 1-5 of 200
 One of the Greatest Reborn in the Same Shell November 26, 2005
Antonio D. Paolucci (Beaver Falls, PA)
78 out of 85 found this review helpful
Dragon Quest (previously known as Dragon Warrior in the US) has always been one of those games that I had to have. When I was a kid, I got the first through a subscription to a magazine, and I was in love ever since. Though as basic as a game can get, there was something addicting about the monotonous walking, fighting, and leveling up. In two, three, and four (four in particular), they attempted to bring more detail to the story lines, and succeeded just enough not to ruin the normal, DW game play that RPG lovers have come to love. Then, we missed five and six, and had to wait for the ugliest PlayStation game ever released in Dragon Quest VII. It was fun, but it seemed dated from the release; the graphics were only barely better than the old Super Nintendo.
Then, Enix, the long-time publisher of Dragon Warrior, merged with Square, and thus Dragon Quest VIII was born. I worried, at first. Was Square going to dilute it with all those Final Fantasy cut-scenes, or were they going to take away the simple battle system that's in every DW game?
The answer: NO. Everything is there that was in every other Dragon Quest game; dungeons, constant fighting and leveling up, struggling to buy all the new items, seeking out all those rare items, getting lost more often than not, a simple, point-a-to-point-b story, and that same battle system. It's all here, but with one major edition: extraordinary graphics. Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball creator, and long time designer for Dragon Quest) was able to fully show his skill in this game.
This game is excellent to play, as well. Not only for its nostalgia, but for the actual game play. It's still addictive, but even more so since the world itself is now rendered in 3D and huge, making it a lot to explore, and exploring it is worth it as it has numerous things for you to find all over the land-map. Finding these things are important, because they've added a new feature called the Alchemy Pot which requires you to use two or three items to make one are item. Also, its fun meeting some of the new characters, and hearing the interesting ways they are voiced.
For anyone old enough to remember the first Dragon Warrior, and for anyone who actually understood it, I recommend this game. I also recommend this for anyone who loves RPGs but hasn't yet experienced one of the genre's roots. Dragon Quest VIII is a great edition to the Dragon Quest library, and an instant classic.
ADDED NOTE: I've just recently finished this game, and I must now say that my impressions were vastly ignorant. This game, from start to finish, is pure excitement, never diluted by long, dramatic cut-scenes, with an emphasis on the game play. The ending, without spoiling, was surprisingly interactive and incomplete, though I have had a chance to complete it. It also isn't nearly as serious as those other RPG endings. It allows you to laugh at the characters despite enduring the nearly seventy hours of game play and storytelling involving the end of a world. And the replay-ability is decent, with an entire extra quest and area to explore after saving your game following the credits. Now, I'd recommend this game because it is clearly the top choice in its genre (RPG). It's a great prologue to the up-coming Final Fantasy XII or Kingdom Hearts 2.
I'm impressed! November 17, 2005
M. A Jenkins (Manhattan, KS)
97 out of 113 found this review helpful
Many of the RPG's I know have suffered immensely in their transition from 2-D to 3-D (the "Suikoden" series immediately comes to mind, as well as "Breath of Fire"). The colors become washed out, the gameplay becomes much more boring, and in many ways, they just plain svck...
Enter "Dragon Quest VIII" from Enix, the 6th game of the series to be released over here. I have only played for a couple of days, but I must confess that I am quite pleased at the result of adding a new dimension to the gameplay.
For starters, the environment (including the "overworld" is now fully interactive. There are set roads the player may travel, but one may also branch off of these roads to find new caves, treasure chests and secrets galore. Hence, it trumps FFX in this regard (although the playable demo of FFXII included in the game already has me salivating!). Furthermore, some walls contain secret passages, etc., and in general the game offers full movement in the world and secrets which are only made possible in the 3-D setting.
As for the gameplay (and here may be a bit of fanboy-itis, I'll admit), the game is much more fun than its predecessor. Gone is the cumbersome class system of DWVII (which I personally liked, but many hated), and in its place is a very easy to learn skill system. Each party member has five skills which they can raise any way they like. Skill points are awarded at level ups, and as skills gain more points (and the point distribution is entirely up to the player), the party member will gain battle spells and "traits", which are essentially bonuses to attack, defense, etc. The game is quite linear at the front, but I know of a few sidequests later in the game which will give the player more freedom to choose his path.
As for the graphics, well, they don't stand up next to the might of the FFXII demo packaged alongside, but the cel-shading seems perfect to bring out the charm of Akira Toriyama's character and monster designs. However, I am surprised that the female character can manage to keep her incredibly-revealing top on!
In any case, this is a worthy addition to the "Dragon Warrior" legacy, and a fine game in its own right. And I particularly like the translators' decision to use British persons for the voices of the characters - it just comes off better, it seems to me...
Classic nostalgic RPG gameplay June 2, 2007
Aaron K. Harrington (Hawaii)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
I have to start out saying that for me, this game was exactly what I needed. With a great amount of RPG's out there and all their attempts to continually evolve the console RPG, they often seem to over embellish upon such evolutions and leave out some of the common staples I personally enjoy in my rpg,(Final Fantasy X-2 losing weapons and armor upgrades in place of the whole Garment system for example or card battle sytems). While I respect the attempt to evolve on the standard rpg formula, they often leave out some of the classic elements in order to allow such changes. On two different occasions I attempted to play FF X-2 and found myself missing the more classic elements that had been left out, and end up losing interest.
Dragon Quest VIII however pulled me in and kept me going till the end.
Now some will feel that the classic elements are dated and may become bored with it.
The combat in DQ8 is the simple turn based system that gives you the standard options such as fight, item, flee,etc.., as well as a few new ones, you have the all too common random battles while you walk around with your basic 4 character team, each with their own look and style, supplemented with their own slew of weapons and abilities that you must improve upon or find throughout your quest. You merely gain levels with the hopes of entering a new area or dungeon without dying, you simply try to get the money to buy that next weapon, and have to explore outside world one step at a time. For some that will be all to tiresome.
But honestly thats why I fell in love with console RPG's. So I may be a little biased in this review. Dragon Quest had everything I personally missed from most of the modern rpg's.
You see my very first console rpg experience was Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System, and in fact was really my first rpg experience period, in any format. It was actually the first console rpg that had been released in the U.S. at that time. At least as far as I know. Neither Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy had been released in America yet.
And well.....playing Dragon Quest VIII actually brought back what I experienced when I first played Phantasy Star and later Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy. These games were where those those classic rpg elements derived from.
Dragon Quest VIII is the full and classic console role playing experience, but with all the modern technical enhancements,(graphics, sound, voice), as well as a few of the more recent game elements incorporated to modernize it a bit.(monster teams, item creation, ability building options) If you ever enjoyed the older rpg's from the 8 and 16 bit era, and you still love to play RPG's, you will most likely enjoy this game even more.
There's nothing really fancy about DQ8, and I personally love it. The game plays simply, yet allows for a good deal of depth in character building, development, personality, and story. The story itself is quite standard and expectedly typical of most rpg's, but it moves along rather tightly and refrains from bogging down of an over imposing storyline or a bunch of long drawn out dialogue. It has many of the common rpg cliches when it comes to the characters and story, but the voice acting to me is superb, and found that it keeps those cliches from being so cliche. Admittedly my bias shows a little more here as I am no fan of the long video game storyline. I like mine simple with a few twists and turns, and the rest is left for you to look into or not. I seem to enjoy the idea of creating and guiding the story with the characters and the actual game playing itself, and not just being guided through a novel, or a movie. Dragon Quest feels more like a choose you own adventure experience.
There are a great many recent RPG's out there, but I find most of them to be quite linear,(Final Fantasy X comes to mind, one of the best battle systems in any rpg, but nothing more than a pre-set adventure) or they contain very repetitive maps and dungeons( .Hack//, Dark Cloud). Dragon Quest avoids both of these issues.
The most important thing that Dragon Quest 8 does for me, and what seems to have disappeared from the majority of RPG's today, is it created the wonderful illusion of an open world with no permanent boundaries. It never sets you on an strict storied path, but never leaves you guessing what to do next. There are side quests that allow you to focus on something other than the main path of the story. Exploring the countryside for secluded treasure chests or special monsters who join your monster team give you reasons to explore the vast world map. There are often times when you can go to areas and towns ahead of schedule, simply because you can walk, sail, or fly, to multiple places on the map. There are many hidden items to find in cupboards, barrels, pots or water-wells, as well as searching bookshelves for recipes to create useful items with your alchemy pot. So you can actually interact a bit with your environment. Another thing lacking in many modern rpg's. Most just lay a few treasure chests while you travel your linear path. And finally with this illusionary sense of openness, you also find yourself traveling back to older areas to find other surprises that had previously been unattainable or that you simply missed. Again giving me the appearance or the illusion of a game world without borders.
Many recent popular action-adventure games such as Grand Theft Auto and all their clones have seemed to reintroduced this aspect to console games, with a few other games like Zelda having kept it up.
For me this was what I always preferred from the games I played. Whether it was a standard rpg(Phantasy Star,Final Fantasy III), an action/adventure(Metroid, Casltvania - Simon's Quest & Symphony of the Night), or adventure/rpg(Zelda, Secret of Mana, Kingdom Hearts), the illusion of boundless exploration, hidden surprises, field interaction, back tracking, and the ability to build your character's strength through item's and/or leveling was always preferable to the common straight forward gaming. It makes me feel as though I control my characters on a much more organic level.
Dragon Quest VIII has all of that. It is the best of the classic console rpg formula.
Unfortunately, that will turn a few people off completely.
Many people need a more modernized battle system, with a faster paced play through. If you need your rpg to have a consistently active battle system as opposed to turned based, or need grand visuals in battles, if you hate having to back track, prefer linear pre-set paths and story lines and abhor an open world with optional exploration, you may not enjoy this game.
Dragon Quest VIII is a wonderfully nostalgic gaming experience with all the modern goodness of the PS2's standard capabilities.
If you have been playing console rpg's for the last 10-20 years, get this game and enjoy.
An Instant Classic November 20, 2005
D
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Wow, this game is excellent! I won't say much about the graphics, music, and voice acting, because it's all been said before...it's just gorgeous, and you feel like you're in a living cartoon.
As for the gameplay, it's incredibly fun. I enjoy RPG's, but I often get frustrated because I find them too difficult. So I was worried about this game before I played it, because I'd read that it's fairly hard. And I was a bit overwhelmed when I first started playing it. But I soon found that all I needed to do was roam around a bit leveling up. Also, life becomes much easier as soon as your hero can afford a boomerang! Now the battles are much more manageable, as long as I'm strategic.
My only minor complaints so far are with the amount of random battles you need to fight (but I guess that's fairly standard in this type of game), and the number of button clicks it takes every time you want to save a game in a church. But the latter is a small complaint, and the former isn't so bad because of the fun variety of enemies the game provides. Where else can you fight cute blue gumdrops, evil bell peppers on skewers, and a giant squid named Khalamari who uses his tentacles as hand-puppets to voice his multiple personalities?? I love the marriage of cute characters, serious and challenging gameplay, and beautiful scenery.
I recommend this game highly to anyone with an interest in RPG's , even if you're intimidated by them like I am. I can see some people being turned off by the cutesiness of the game, but I happen to love it myself. This has immediately become one of my favorite games, and it will consume all of my free time until I've played it to the end!
A high quality game, you'll enjoy! November 24, 2005
Helel
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Dragon quest 8 has the distinction of comming with a demo of Final Fantasy 12, but don't buy/rent it just because of that, for DQ8 is a great game by itself. This has been well recieved by critics and rightly so.
GRAPHICS
The graphics are great and use cell shading (dark cloud 2, wild arms 3) to excellent effect. The character designs are superb and fit perfectly with the personalities of all the people/creatures in the game such as the sexy redhead Jessica. Also all weapons and some armour will actually show up on the characters which is a nice touch. All the environments are good as well and there is a real feeling of it being a living breathing world.
9/10
SOUND
One of the strongest aspects of the game is the superb music and voice acting. The music is done by a highly skilled orchestra and it sounds great, and fits the mood of a particular scene very well. The voice acting is brilliant and the use of British voice actors was a stroke of genius. All the voice acting is great, nothing sounds forced and there is real emotion behind the words. As such the atmosphere is never lost or diminished.
9/10
GAMEPLAY
The game is set in a third person perspective and plays much like a cross between wild arms and dark cloud. The battles are random (but the encounter rate is balanced), and the fighting is traditional turn based style. It's decent and you can learn many skills and wield a number of weapons. It's also quite hard, as enemies can often wipe you out in one or two rounds, and much of your time will be spent levelling up and getting better skills and equipment.
You have to visit a church to find out how far to the next level up and to save the game (Like the classic phantasy star). This can be irritating at first as it means backtracking, although you can quickly get the skills that allow you to teleport instantly. If someone in your party is reduced to 0HP then they die, the vast majority of RPGs have you simply falling unconcious. This is not a good aspect of the game, as you cannot lose, because even if your party is all killed you wake up at the church, albeit with half your gold taken away. It seems foolish to have dead companions in your party when it would have made more sense to have them fall unconsious like 99% of rpg's.
It's also nice how you can vist the battle status screen and check how many battle have been fought, max damage etc, and your travelling party leader gives you comments and criticism. There is also a large number of monsters and a good library to look at. Especially impressive is the variety of monsters and their atacks, some will try to defeat you with brute force, some will use only spells, others will have many different techniques needed to beat them, and others still will use their good looks to prevent you from attacking them!
The interaction between you and the party members is good,and you can talk to them at any time and their conversations always change depending on where you speak to them. Although this is another rpg that has a silent hero, which isn't that good as he should have a voice, because he clearly speaks to people. Also you name the character, which in an rpg with spoken dialogue has no point, because people should call you by one name only.
There are a number of mini games such as the Casino, the monster collecting/arena etc. You can also make alot of custom items with the alchemy pot which is a great addition to the game. There is plenty to do besides the main quest.
9/10
OVERALL
This is a solid rpg with a traditional combat style, and great music/voice acting. Given the number of disappointing rpg's released recently this is a welcome change. Certainly worth buying and a great experience. Best RPG of the year 2005. There's a reason this sold over 3 million copies in Japan alone, people know quality when they see it!
9/10
Showing reviews 1-5 of 200
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