[PS2] Dragon Quest VIII

[Kane]

Played on PS2 - via RGB Scart in 480i

I think the following review can be summed up in one sentance: 'The game is fantastic'. This is another game I had sitting on my shelf for a while after I bought it, just waiting for me to play it.

I'm not a fan of Akira Toriyama. This is probably due to the fact that I really dislike the circular storytelling of Dragonball. At least I wasn't a fan before I played this game. The artwork of this game is superb, and gives the game a cartoony feel without making you feel like this is a game your as yet unborn son should be playing (Zelda anyone?). It is cell-shaded beautifuly. The landscapes are textured in such a way that they are detailed while still retaining the cartoon-esque feel. The characters are oozing with polys so that Jessica's breasts.... uhhh everything looks really smooth. The special effects used in battles are impressive without being so OTT that it takes 14 minutes to take a turn. All the weapons that people use in combat look different. You can actualy see the difference between a rusty old sword and whatever the ultimate weapon is, even in the field. The game is in short beautiful.
However, what was interesting is that I can only remember one (count that: one) FMV in the entire game. The storytelling is done so well scripted in the game engine, there simply was no need for more.

The Voice acting sounds very.... British. It's pure class to my mind. The voices really sat right with the characters they were portraying. I could find very little to fault in the overall performance, but very occasionaly there were pregnant pauses and once again occasionaly a lack of the right emotion. The music... the music was awe inspiring. A proper orchestral soundtrack which I never tired of the whole way through. There was a tendancy to re-use tracks, but I really did not mind as like I said the music was superb, and memorable throught the entire game

The Gameplay was solid. It used essentialy the same turn based battle system we have seen for years. But this was done with such polish you could not fault it. I liked the skil points in particular disciplines, allowing me to focus my Hero on a multi hit weapon rather than the standard Sword affair. The characters had reasonably clearly defined Jobs, and in this type of game it is a good thing as a characters Job is a part of their personality. The game has a lot of side quests, mini-games and the now ubiquitous 'New Game+' where you can go back into the game with your characters in the state they were at the end of the game, giving it a lot of replay value on top of the already 40+ hours play time

The plot is I suppose standard fare: Hero finds himself emroiled in a battle so save the world, but once again, such polish is put on it, such development is given to all the characters, it turns it into something entirely different. Square Enix went a lesser trodden path in this game, not having the hero speak, (a-la Chrono Trigger). It works really well for this game, as teh story is driven by everyone else's chat and Hero's actions.

Final Scores:
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 9/10
Replay Value/Longevity: 9/10
Overall: 9.5/10

The game is a masterpiece. It takes me back to the days of my SNES RPGs while at one and the same time is very much a, well I suppose it's Current Gen now, RPG, with beautiful graphics, great voice acting, superb music, old school plot, great old school gameplay all wrapped up perfectly together. Buy it! Now!

....

Are you still here?

[hushypushy]

Your review is so interesting, it makes me want to give this game another shot. I played it for a while when it first came out because I was very intrigued by it. I really wanted to like it. I loved the artwork; visually this game is amazing. I loved the music.

However, I just couldn't get into the game. This game kept leaving me with an empty feeling...I hate games that make you search around for something to do, and then when you do it, you're left high and dry and you have to search for something else. I got sick of just being stuck and wandering around for a bit, only to figure out what to do and then....be stuck, wandering around again. Maybe I'll play it again with a guide

How long is this game anyway?

[Kane]

Long. I played it for around 40 hours.

[Densetsu]

The beauty in Dragon Quest games is that at the beggining of the game you already know your main quest (kill the baddie) but it's the stories which you collect trough your journey that make this game powerfull and believable. I am about 15-16 hours into it and i am really enjoying it. But it's a pretty hardcore RPG, if you don't lvl up and get some better-than-decent weapons, you're screwed.

[Holic]

I didn't enjoy this game very much,
I admit that the quality was there,
but it seemed to old school for my taste,
I just lost interest in it,

it feels like a nes rpg with updated graphics,
some like it, i don't.

[INCA]

I lost interest playing the game after awhile mainly because i got tired of rpgs of late.
What I liked:
Graphics: I like them especially the whole cell shaded look.
Story: Really light hearted. Alot of funny scenes.

What I didn't like:
Leveling: I had to spend way to much time leveling up and probably main reason i quit.
Story: Main character didn't talk. Not to much of a big deal since the other characters are really energetic.