Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

"Approach With Caution"

Review for Dragon Quest: Journey of the Cursed King (UK Version)

This review is my personal opinion and is based on my experiences playing the game. It is not intended to annoy or offend anyone.

As a moderate RPG obsessive, and in recent years having put up with frustrating easiness of FF9 through 10-2 and the quirky but ultimately non-taxing Suikoden IV I found myself distinctly uneasy when I agreed to stump up halves for this game but at the time put it down to exam stress and the unseasonable weather. Having spent time playing the game I have decided my initial wariness was warranted.

The Graphics, in their cell shaded splendour cannot be stared at for any period of time without risk of retina damage, the kind of radioactive shades only seen on Saturday and Sunday morning television (Where they belong). Even in a well lit room, wearing reading glasses and caffeine high I could only look at the screen for short bursts. During my travels between towns the main colours I have seen are green and brown, which are nice but theres only so much I can take, and with the repetitiveness of the environment (I swear the type of tree barely changes) navigation is unwieldy. For example early on in the game when picking up an item for a mini side quest I managed to get turned around and succeeded in wandering round in circles for the better part of an hour the landscape lacks stand out orientation points and variety, the same piece of rock and the same ridges are use over and over again. Even with the World Map, for which the delay to appear is also annoying you cannot track your progress anywhere without having to stop, disrupting the entire game flow.

The towns are slightly stereotypical-port, castle, place with a casino etc, whilst neatly rendered nothing most gamers won't have seen before.

Music is somewhat forgettable, but at the same time repetitive, I know that the same piece is played in most towns which means each place loses something in its character. The shops upgrade at a fair pace, which is good, but all the time I find myself considering- should I buy this or check alchemy lists before I do anything. The churches are somewhat annoying as well. Never before have I played an RPG with such an awkward saving system. Plus all the text before and after. The cost of resurrection is also a pain, especially after you're nearly broke from an item and equipment splurge. And every time day becomes night or vice versa my character stops and the camera stares at the sky for the change over, whilst the view is nice it is ultimately frustrating.

The random battles I think are poorly pitched in terms of attack/damage ratio. A few hours in you can mix a very powerful weapon for Yagnus which surpasses the other options available to the other characters and Yagnus himself for a significant portion of the game. Whilst I have no objections to Yagnus hitting a good 30-40 points per turn it's just I'd like all the other characters to do so as well. And the damage caused by the enemies is also poorly balanced, some games I could enter a new area and not have to so any significant healing for the better part of an hour, when properly equipped of course. On DQ even having mixed and purchased the best items available enemies can significantly damage a party member with a single shot, healing is important happening often, I have been through the best part of forty medicinal herbs in half an hour even with my characters three or four levels above the recommended (I can be a power levelling obsessive). Another problem is the sheer number of opponents, often six or seven, (Or in the case of the red bells most of the alphabet) a targeting nightmare. Magic can be as much a help as a turn waster. Tension has lead to frustration, whilst properly powered up it is highly effective the monsters ability to reduce tension is maddening. The battle text is annoying, I don't need to be told how much damage I've done to a certain monster, I selected the attack and targeted the beast, I saw the little bubble with the damage done I don't need a little text-update. The turned based system had little urgency and whilst the enemy design is colourful it sometimes boarders on eyesore. The quirks of the monsters are an interesting touch, and I do admit to wanting to know the funny story. The difficulty doesn't work whilst I enjoy trampling all over a boss I don't like to be trampled over during a random fight. The item droppage rate is a pain, which things that are instantly useful rarely appearing, in two hours of battling I got one magic beast hide, whilst other things that are limited in helpfulness, like mould are in abundance.

The party members are unbalanced, with the Hero and Yagnus taking somewhat less damage than Angelo and Jessica, especially early on when Jessica and Angelo are short on HP. The supposed variety in the skills system doesn't not really reflect on the characters base statistics, if specialising in magic produced proportionately lower physical defence, whilst specialising in swords and spears produced significantly higher defence then I could see the point, but the characters have baselines statistics which side-by-side there are considerable differences, none of which are reflected by the fact that Angelo's skill points may have been spent on staves whilst Yagnus's on axe skills. The characters on the surface can be tailored but in reality skill points just give techniques, they don't affected stats like HP, Defence, wisdom which is a shame. The characters themselves whilst likable are not endearing which is frustrating, as caring about the characters makes the overall game more enjoyable. The voice acting is okay, not the best or worst I've heard. The conversations seem to take forever, the information you want can be as little as one or two lines mixed up in over a minute of chat.

The skill point system is also a point of endless annoyance, with abilities spread too thinly and effectiveness of some in question. Plus the limited ability points- why have so many skill classes if you can't learn them all? The alchemy pot whilst a good idea in principle is buried under several layers of menu and repetitive text. In fact the entire menu system is slow with item sorting seeming to take more time then is honestly required. Levelling up also doesn't seem to be in proportion to the exp available, as well as cash flow doesn't really work with the items expense.

The story itself is basic and not really engaging. Some of the main quest makes you wonder what the point was and some of the side are exhausting. This game threw up a lot of contrasts, normally I love spending hours upon hours collecting every item and exploring every nook and cranny, finishing every little side quest, power levelling. With this game it felt like on hard slog, such a lot of effort, almost so much that some things didn't get done. For putting a lot of hours into this game I feel like I got very little out. Other games I could circle the same place for hours training and item collecting. With this I feel exhausted taking to the priest, at the thought of collecting every item in Pickham I put down the game for an entire week. Believe me I did try and for the best part of the week before I forced myself to clock up a few hours each day so I could say I persevered. Often I would find my mind wandering as I bashed X through the battles. Then I'd realise two characters were barely standing.

Overall I give the game 6/10, if you have several weeks to kill, a will of iron and enjoy RPGs then you may want to try this game, but this game seems to be one of those it'll click with some people and not others so I'd advise a few days rent before buying.

Entertaining in short bursts but in order to get anywhere you have to play for longer.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/05/06