Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

"A fun but repetitive RPG."

Dragon Quest 8 is the first game I have bought in the Dragon Quest series. At first I was a little taken aback by how difficult it seemed, but after many hours of intense game play I found myself mesmerized by this game. This RPG is in the vein of all the great Playstation 2 RPG's that proceeded it, and probably all that will follow it. This game showed me what I have been missing out on in this series, and why I should pay more attention to this series.

GRAPHICS

The graphics are well done. The graphics consist of a technique known as cel-shading, and lends a fluidity to the attack and defense animations. The enemies are nicely drawn and animated. Each enemy is so beautifully done that sometimes you'll just marvel that this level of attention could be put onto a Playstation 2 game. Each of the four heroes plus troll king are also nicely animated, and each attacks in a fluid motion. There seemed to be attention to every detail, and in some instances you can even see your characters grimace in pain! Not only that, but in places the characters expressions can down right be hilarious. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when I saw an expression on Yangus' face that I have never seen in any game before, or since.

The area though that I have my problems with the graphics are in the game world itself. The environments are sparse and very generic looking. In fact at certain points during the game you'll get a sense of deja vu, because every continent looks exactly alike. I mean there is very little difference from continent to continent, and that frankly bums me out. Another area that I have a problem with is the people populating the towns. There are about six generic townspeople that are in each town. This frankly is just flat out unacceptable for a game in this day and age. I mean literally by the third town in I basically knew who to expect in town. The only thing about the game world that I did like, was the fact that each town did feel different. Each had its own theme, and purpose, no matter how many similar people were in each place.

SOUND

The sound for me is a mixed bag. It is well done and dramatic the first time you hear it, but it continues to play and play and play, until it gets on your nerves. Literally you'll hear the same tune basically all the way through the game. However, the one tune is very well done and you can admire the song. It even stayed stuck in my head for a few days and hummed it out loud at work. But no matter how much you like the song, I found myself turning down the T.V. and/or muting the T.V. to rid myself of it. Another area that bugged me was that the towns all had the same music. Now this would not have been bad, had there not been so many similar people there, from previous towns. Even at one point, I thought maybe there would be a different tune for the next town I would go, but town after town, the same tune repeated itself.

The voice acting, however, was the strong point of the game. Each voice seemed to fit each character perfectly. They all speak in quasi-British accents and this seems to fit the game perfectly. The only problem I have with the voice acting is in the form of King Trode. He is one of the most annoying voice overs I have ever heard. It felt as if someone was taking their nails and scratching the chalkboard, every time he talked. That however, was infrequent and I could handle that. The sound effects for the game are superb. The best sound effect in the game was every time a character was puzzled or excited. A little sound effect went off and an exclamation point over their head. This was your cue that something good or bad was going on.

CONTROLS

The controls are also a mixed bag for me. The controls are bad enough to merit me to rant. When I press a button I expect it to do it, and with this game, the button press did not translate into action. I once pressed the button to go into the menu screen,to heal, and it did not go there. I then proceed to get dropped into a fight with a reasonably low HP and MP total and had my party wiped out by a high level monster. This infuriated me to a great extent. Another time I pressed the button and it did nothing, then I pressed the world map button and it worked fine, then I tried the menu button again and it worked! The responsiveness of the controls really irritated me a great deal

The controls are also the standard RPG form. The only thing that seems out of place, is the world map button seems out of place. I continuously pressed that button over and over again trying to get to the menu screen. Other than that the controls are easy to learn for the RPG player, but take some time for the novices out there. There is even a control in the game for the camera. That is a great thing in my opinion, and you can even enter into first person perspective as well and look around.

STORY

Basically the story unfolds after mysterious events at Trodain castle. The king becomes transformed by a curse from a powerful scepter, and a powerful magical jester. he transforms the king into a troll, and leaves only one person in the castle unscathed, and that is you. Thus, this starts a quest to find this magical jester, take back the scepter, and get the curse lifted. Thusly you go on a journey and do all the traditional RPG things. Basically, the story follows a tried and true formula for success, and it does it well, with just enough twists and turns to keep the story fresh. There are very few deviations from the story and all things that happen in the story take place for a reason.

GAME PLAY

This area also follows a tried and true formula. This game is a turn based RPG. Some say these games are a heresy, but I find that this adds a level of depth within the game. It also adds strategy elements into the game. You'll find yourself planning three to five moves in advance trying to psyche up your characters enough to unleash devastating attacks. You'll find yourself anticipating an attack on a certain member of the party and plan the best way to counter said attack. The strategy element is my most favorite element and real time fighting, while may be more exciting, also tends to get to frantic and cumbersome. Battles though tended to become the same and then very repetitive. You'll fight the same monsters a lot and it does drain the strategy factor quite a lot.

Another area where I had a tremendous amount of fun and respect for was the alchemy system. This system could develope you some very useful tools earlier than you could purchase some items. I found myself just trying for hours to figure out recipes for some great things. Alchemy also played into the strategy of the game as well. For some objects you only have a certain amount of material to work with, and if you blow and spend your material on something that you didn't want, then you're in bad shape. The only thing that I did not like in the system is that you had to put it in the pot and wait for a little bit. I would have just liked it if it came out right away, but oh well...

The other thing was that you the player had the choice of three weapons for your character. Each weapon was fully upgradable with skill points acquired by gaining levels. It was quite a bit of fun to watch your character grow from a mere weakling to a powerhouse in this game, and you the player rather than the game had a choice in how you did so. You learn certain abilities with each weapon and there are many ways to get through boss battles with these abilities.

RENT/BUY

This is a rent. It all depends if you are the patient type. For me there was nothing wrong with turn based RPG's, but for some people they'll have to try it, to see if they like it. For others, and big fans of Square-Enix games, you'll be very happy with a purchase of this game. It does all the right things in my opinion.

THE RUNDOWN- for those with limited attention spans or hate reading!

GRAPHICS- 8/10 Can we get more than 6 townspeople please!!!!
SOUND- 6/10 The only thing that saved this, is the voice acting.
CONTROL- 7/10 Respond to me controls! Oh please respond!!!!!!!
STORY- 7/10 Hmmmm.... a curse, must be original work.
GAME PLAY- 9/10 Fun until the last battle. Curse you last battle!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/08/07