Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

"Shallow's unbiased and fair review!"

It's finally here! After waiting for quite some time, we've finally gotten a Dragon Quest on PS2! After becoming highly addicted to Dragon Warrior VII, I was very eager to play this one in hopes that it would last me as long. However, I was a bit disappointed. Let me tell you why.

Graphics -- 9/10. They are simply amazing. The overworld is LARGE and beautiful. There are many different places to visit like a desert, caves, forests, plains, and mountains. SquareEnix did a good job in this department, especially when you compare the graphics to the older DQs. My only complaint is some of the monster animations. Although most of them are pretty good, some of them seem to be a little...'stiff'. It's kind of hard to describe, but it just seems like some animations had less time spent on them than others. Of course, graphics aren't the most important aspect of the game, but the fact that DQVIII has nice graphics is a real bonus. Not to mention the character design. Personally, I hate the Dragon Ball Z series and it's character design, but for this game, it just seems fine.

Gameplay -- 7/10. Here's where things start to get a little...iffy. The battle system is pretty good, though my complaints are the same as most others'. The skill system had really great potential, but doesn't live up to it. It works like this. Each character uses certain weapons. Once a character levels up, they earn skill points which you allocate to a weapon. For example, the Hero has five potential weapon skills he can master, Sword, Spear, Boomerang, Fisticuffs or Courage. If you put just enough in say Sword, for example, the Hero will gain a little bit of power while using the sword. Continue putting more points in it, and you'll learn some attack skills with it. The same applies for the rest, except for Courage. Each character has a personal skill like this where they learn support and healing skills and spells. The problem is that you don't get to master all of them. Well, you can, but it'd take a lot of time of fighting monsters to get Skill seeds, which gives a character skill points without the trouble of levelling up. You get around 350 skill points total when you reach level 99, and each skill is mastered at 100 points. This means that at most, you can only master three and a half skills. Because of this, your options in skills you use is very limited. DWVII had TONS of skills thanks to its job class system (which I love), but not so in this game. This is bad news for completionists (like me) who love games that takes forever to master every skill.

What's worse is that even when you master a person's weapon skill, the skills you've learned aren't necessarily useful. I tell you, it really isn't fun to master a skill only to learn that you'll never use the skills you've learned. And unfortunately, you cannot take skills back once you've allocated them. So if you've gone a game mastering a pointless weapon, well, there's nothing you can do about it. This pretty much limits your choices in only a few weapons everytime you play. Sure, you can go for the more useless skills, but why?

Another complaint of mine is the overworld. Like I said before, it's absolutely beautiful, but the problem with it is that it seems to be too big for no reason. Sometimes, you'll walk in this huge area off the main path to discover what's there, but you search around.....and nothing. Don't get me wrong because this isn't always true, you'll sometimes find hidden chests and rare monsters to battle, but it just doesn't seem to happen enough. A little more interactivity with the environment would have been nice, too.

Yet another problem with this game is the difficulty level. It fluctuates like crazy. There are some parts of the game where you'll have a pretty easy time, especially the beginning since you tend to gain levels faster then. At other times, the difficulty can be absolutely staggering. Even with the best equipment and armor (IF you can afford it all), even regular monsters will still do a surprising amount of damage to you. The bosses are a challenge, which is a good thing. Overall, the inconsistency of the difficulty makes it hard to keep playing and level-up later in the game when things get harder.

But among all my complaints, there are positives. Even though the skill system has it's flaws, there are still some skills that you learn that are quite useful and really encourage you to get more. Also, I mentioned rare monsters before. When you get a bit into the game, you'll be able to collect these monsters to make a team and fight other teams of monsters in the battle arena. I thought this was pretty cool, and after you've won enough rounds, you'll even be able to summon those monsters to help you in battle! It's temporary, though, but it's still very cool to see.

The game is a bit linear, though. There are some sidequests, but overall, not enough to keep you busy for as long as some other games. Although this may not pique the interests of some players, some might actually like it and see it as a nice change from most RPGs.

Story -- 7/10. Another slight problem with the game. Basically, a Jester named Dhoulmagus has broken into Trodain Castle and stolen the scepter from there. With it, he curses the entire kingdom, and changes the King into a troll and the princess into a horse. The only person who survived other than them is the Hero. In order to undo the curse, they seek out Dhoulmagus to defeat him and return the staff. Along the way, they meet people who join the party for their own reasons.

Yea, not too unique, and that doesn't change as you get further into the game, either. The game seems to keep most parts about it (except for the graphics) simple, and the story is no exception. And another personal thing that bothered me (that may not bother you) is that there doesn't seem to be quite enough interaction between your party members. I mean, of course they talk to each other during the most important parts of the game, and a lot of other parts as well, but in my opinion, it just doesn't seem like enough. It just seems like four people travelling together just because they're all going after the same guy.

Sound -- 7/10. This part sort of disappointed me. The music, although orchestrated and very nice at times, doesn't really get me going, you know? I don't find myself humming any of the tunes from this game after I'm done playing it or anything (which I often do because I really love music.) The sounds themselves aren't anything noticeable. They're fine, but they aren't anything special, either.

Overall -- 7/10. (NOT AN AVERAGE!) To summarize, this game, although pretty good, has a few flaws in some critical areas that may turn off some players towards it. The battle system, though fun at times, seems limited and the story seems just enough to keep you playing. There's nothing special about the sound and music, either. But some people will be able to look past these flaws and enjoy what the game does have to offer. I hope that this review has helped you decide on that.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/28/05, Updated 12/06/05