Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

"Not for the casual gamer"

When Dragon Quest 8 (DQ8) came out and received so many glorious reviews, I thought maybe it had finally entered the realm of RPG stardom: an epic tale that could be played out by even the casual gamer. While it doesn't live up to that expectation, it is certainly still a fine game that will be thoroughly enjoyed by its loyal die-hard fans.

Graphics

As expected, the character and monster designs are superb, no small thanks to Toriyama's magnificent contribution. There are so many wonderful animations for each monster - each has their own attacking animations and defeat animations, some of which are devilishly cute. The characters stand out very nicely against the background, and aside from the main character, each one has a fairly strong edge to their personality. The main character is just the stereotypical say nothing and look innocent hero. It's not easy to forget these characters, they really do jump out at you and stick in your head. Nor is it easy to forget the monsters, which really do come to life via the generous number of animations.

Unexpectedly, everything outside character and monster designs seem disappointingly mediocre. In particular, the 3D layout of the overworld, towns, and dungeons are uninspiring and dull. There's no grandeur to the open world, no liveliness in the towns, and no intensity in the dungeons. Everything's just flat and incoherent, and at times it breaks down so bad you start to see the underlying 3D geometry (in an abstract way). Doors are illogically placed, stores are scattered randomly, even inane objects like dressers and chairs seem to be out of place. Unlike the characters, which breathe life and vibrancy, the world of Dragon Quest 8 is rather unconvincing. It's just too plain, too boring, too vanilla. If Dragon Quest 8 could couple the character designs with an equally wondrous world, such as the one from Skies of Arcadia (DreamCast), this game would rise to the heights of RPG stardom. As it is, there's just no excitement in exploring new areas, because nothing really manages to stimulate the visual senses. Perhaps Square-Enix could try outsourcing their level designs to a more talented developer, much like how they outsourced their character designs to Toriyama.

Sound

The SFX in this game are very nicely done, if not a bit old-school. A lot of synthesizer sounds are combined together to simulate more complex sounds, and it works to great effect. Some sounds remain completely unchanged from previous Dragon Quests, such as the miss sound (a 3 tone synth arpeggio), which delivers a nostalgic feel in a modernized DQ. Combat sounds are sharp and crisp and deliver the necessary amount of intensity.

The music however, is rather controversial. Most RPG music is vast and expansive, featuring pieces from a variety of genres, but the music from DQ seems to be strictly baroque-classical from beginning to end. Everything is strings and brass, and about a few hours in, this fact starts to become rather irritating. When I reached the second town and heard a soft E.P. piano melody, I actually exclaimed "Wow, a new instrument!" DQ also seems to sorely lack a main theme to establish some kind of musical coherency - the only guarantee you have between each piece is that it will only feature strings and brass in a classical arrangement. This is not to say the music per se is bad, individually each piece is fairly well done, but it falls short when it comes to appropriateness, coherency, and emotional impact. If I were to venture a guess, the composer of DQ8 became obsessed with the technicalities of baroque music and counterpoint, and eventually got so lost in his passion that he forgot that he was making music for an epic RPG. There are other RPG soundtracks were each piece was technically simpler (such as the Final Fantasy series), but they fit the theme and setting extremely well. DQ8's soundtrack seems to have it backwards, it feels out of place and it's too complex for its own good. There's also a distressing lack of variety.

The voice acting is also fairly controversial. For one thing, practically everyone speaks with a heavy English accent. Now I'm actually quite a fan of British English, but sometimes this game goes too far with the concept. One of the characters, Yangus, speaks with so many British colloquialisms I started to feel he was a character straight out of the movie Snatch by Guy Ritchie. He calls the main character "guv" (for governor), calls girls "birds", and starts sentences with "This here eh". It clashes too hard with the already dissonant theme of the game, and just stands out too much for its own good. One can almost imagine the voice talent for Yangus in the studio, complaining how the script is so dull, and thus tries injecting his own colorful dialogue adlib. Well, it's colorful all right, but whether or not it's appropriate is entirely another matter. Overall however, the voice acting is done well, but much like the music, there should have been more coherency checks to see that it all fits together as one piece.

Gameplay

The battle system in DQ8 tries to preserve the Dragon Quest flavor as much as possible, and to that extent it succeeds brilliantly. It's the classic turn-based, round-based, random-encounter system, sprinkled with vintage oddities that should make any Dragon Quest fan smile. You still get messages like "Jessica does 15 points of damage to Slime", which is coincidentally redundant since the damage also appears right over the monsters head. As with most RPG's, the majority of random encounters go by with you just mashing the X button to get everyone to fight. There aren't many innovative features in the battle system, it's the same old Fight/Magic/Ability/Item menu that many of us are accustomed to. The only interesting feature of note was the "Psyche up" ability that allows each character to forego one turn in exchange for more powerful attacks and heals in the next. However, I found this ability to be more of a distraction because it requires three consecutive Psyche Ups before you actually get a return on your investment - it's more effective to just attack normally otherwise.

The difficulty is higher than most modern RPG's, you cannot go traipsing into new territories without having at least grinded a fair bit of experience and gold. Weapon and armor costs are generally more prohibitive, and unless you're willing to grind for an obscene amount of time, there are many times where you must forgo certain upgrades in order to keep moving. Bosses can be easy or frustrating depending on your level, gear, and sometimes luck of the draw. If a boss decides to use a strong attack on the weakest character two turns in a row, and you lose out on the agility rolls, an easy fight can turn into a nightmare very quickly. Combine this with the fact that there are rarely any save points before bosses, and the potential for needless frustration becomes very high.

I'm not a big fan of the spin that DQ8 puts on leveling. Every time you level up, you must decide on how to allocate a certain number of skill points to various categories. For example, when your main character hits a new level, a dialog box will jump right in your face asking you to put three skill points into either Swords, Spears, Boomerangs, Bare-Fist, or Courage. Talk about being put on the spot. Unless you have a strategy guide or constantly read the FAQ's, you'll be at a complete loss as to where to put what, because you're offered no preview as to what each category has to offer. Somewhat later in the game, there is an NPC that offers information on each category, but it's really a case of too little, too late. Unprepared gamers might put all their points in the "wrong" category, and since the skill points are 100% non-refundable, it might cause a fair bit of a grief. The paranoid obsessive-compulsive gamer will most likely scour the forums and discover that Swords, for instance, are worth leveling up and Boomerang is not, despite the Boomerang being an extremely powerful weapon at the outset of the game. The question then becomes - why even offer the choice in the first place? The only purpose it seems to have is to instigate paranoia, leading to lengthy discussions across bulletin boards worldwide on which category is worth your points, and then having everyone follow a cookie-cutter build. While other games with customized leveling up systems also share the same problems of player maximization-indecisiveness (such as World of Warcraft), at least in those cases, the points are refundable, thus encouraging individual experimentation, and at least the entire skill progression is visible from the beginning. DQ8's system actively encourages cookie-cutter builds because nobody wants to be the first loser to discover than putting 100 points in Bare-Fist for the hero is a bad idea.

I am, however, a fan of the Alchemy system. At some point in the game, you will be able to craft new items by mixing two (and later three) items into a “Alchemy Pot”. It's a very simple system that rewards resourceful players well. You're not forced to used it, but if you want to, you can spend time gathering the right items and crafting more powerful ones that will help you beat the difficulty curve. It's curiously satisfying to dump in two cheap items and to get a much better one in return. The graphics and sounds that accompany the Alchemy Pot are also very polished. Much like the leveling system however, the Alchemy system is much better exploited through exterior resourcefulness – whether it's gathering information from websites, bulletin boards, or a strategy guide. When I first encountered the Alchemy system, my addiction level to this game took a sharp jump, until I crafted all the possible items I could. It is certainly one of the highlights of the game.

Regarding the storyline and overall progression, DQ8 shows nothing remarkable in this area. It does do us the favor of not having a lengthy intro and gradually revealing the characters' histories slowly, but for the most part, the storyline cutscenes feel stale and sometimes even awkward. When I first learned of Jessica brother's death, or why Yangus seems to have a liking for the main hero, it was just a matter-of-fact “oh, so that's what happened” affair. The main villain, Dhoulmagus, is rather unspectacular and unconvincing, partly due to his annoying voice talent. Much like the 3D areas and the music, it seems the storyline and progression style is fairly washed out and does little to stimulate human emotion.

Overall

All in all, DQ8 is a fine RPG, certainly better than average, but I would hesitate to call this even a fantastic or epic RPG. It does some areas very well, but then leaves others to utter mediocrity. For sure, any DQ fan must play this (as they probably already are), since it is definitely one of the better games of the series - but I would hold my reservation for the casual gamer. The Final Fantasy series easily offers a more sensuous and gripping experience while offering all the modern conveniences of present-day RPG's (convenient save points, smooth difficulty curve, more dynamic fighting, etc.) In my opinion, DQ8 is still an RPG that is categorized under a die-hard or niche market. It's not for everyone.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/23/05