Game Reviews | Game Previews

Summary

To start of, I would just like to say that I have clocked way over 200 hours into this game (across about 2-3 playthroughs) and I still keep coming back to it.

The game has a great artistic style and looks absolutely gorgeous for a PS2 game. Whether it be lush plains with trees or even caves and dungeons. It has a very distinct art style and you'll learn to appreciate it more and more as you discover further locations in the story.

Possibly the best aspect of this game is the musical score. I loved it so much that I got the soundtrack for it about 3-4 years ago and still love it to date. Music ranges from slow, sad and graceful tunes to upbeat, slightly fast-paced ones, and they all capture the scenes brilliantly. All are great, but you'll learn to absolutely love some. The sound effects are also great and very well done. Really great stuff.

The story starts you of through playing as one of the guards for the king who's castle has been ruined by an evil magician called Dhoulmagus. The king himself has been transformed into a hideous creature, and you begin your journey by trying to find this Dhoulmagus. The plot twists and turns during some places and really keeps you interested, overall great delivery all the way to the end where everything gets blown up to a much bigger problem. The characters are all rich, developed and interesting and the game's humor is executed well.

The gameplay is superb. It bears a traditional turn based rpg typed play style where you command (eventually) all 4 of your characters on the battlefield and issue them orders such as attacks, skills, or item use. Strategy is involved and the player is ensured that he takes advantage of each character's strong points by the game's rather challenging difficulty starting from early-mid game. This does not end up frustrating but rather encourages the player to farm for better items and leveling up further to maximize their chance for victory. Boss fights are incredibly satisfying once you beat them, and enemies are very varied from region to region. Of course, the game gets better and better as you progress and level up through gaining additional skills, items and characters to use. You also get to mix and combine different items to form new ones through an 'Alchemy Pot' and this is certainly a great way to receive new weapons and armour if you're rather low on cash. Overall, extremelly well executed.

Simply put, this game is superb. Not only will you most likely replay this game because of its such strong qualities, but also because for each character you have a choice of 4 weapons styles (including fists) to pursue, meaning that more playthroughs are likely if you want to give other styles a try. Everything from graphics to music is exceptional about this game and it is definitely a must for any rpg fan.

Summary

this game has a sick story to it nice graphic and i definatley like how u choose how u customize ur characters. The character design could have been better but overall i give this game a 9 out of 10.A really good part of this game was the ending when even tho u beat the game there was an extra part. dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing dragon quest viii is awsmazing v

Summary

Dragon Quest VIII is so traditional its not even funny. Your character is a young man you get to name--referred to as "the gov" in game the few times voice actors need to say it out loud--who finds himself thrust into a situation in which he must become a hero. He, of course, does and along the way picks up several other characters who become members of his party and join him in leveling up and opening treasure chests in strangers' houses. The only thing it's missing, oddly enough, is dragons.

The game is set in a world designed to be much like medieval Europe, which is portrayed w/ stunning cel-shaded graphics, and the plot centers around your hero, naturally, who for some reason was the only person not turned to stone in the Kingdom of Trodain aside from King Trode himself and his daughter the princess who were turned into a little green monster and a horse respectively. Your goal is to track down the fiend who did this, a dandy little jester by the name of Dhoulmangus, and destroy him in order to return the kingdom to it's natural state. Before the game begins, you acquire friendship of a gruff Cockney-esque bloke named Yangus and shortly afterward you'll enlist of the tough but sexy Jessica and the arrogant Angelo. This remains your party for the remainder of the game. Of course, along the way, you find you are fighting for a cause much greater than on kingdom and while your party never changes and there is only one possible outcome in the game, there is plenty of flexibility for adventure and customization in the large and beautiful world in which it is set.

Battles are exclusively and very traditionally random and turn-based so there is little need for particularly responsive controls. Navigation through dungeon-areas and the overworld is smooth, though I personally always find it a bit aggravating when your character cannot jump at all. Menu design is not perfect but it doesn't lead to any great frustration so it all works well enough. The style of gaming here isn't really about control but options--and Dragon's Quest VIII gives you options and spades. There's your typical spells, skills, levels, items, &c. you find in RPGs and to this system it adds a device called the alchemy pot which allows you to combine various items into new unique items and provides seemingly limitless possibilities for customization. Overall, this game plays as expected for the style and the controls never get in the way, which is about all you can ask for.

The game proceeds as expected, the hero and his party grow stronger as does the apparent evil they face. The plot advances step by step and there is a little bit of intrigue and a lot of side quests, one which, the Moster Arena, could practically be a full I'd imagine a player could blow through this game in about sixty hours if they tried, power leveling and avoiding side-quests but more realistically expect to drop seventy to a hundred hours on this one. It will be, for most people, worth exploring the full extent of the map and available side quests if only to avoid finding yourself under-leveled when faced w/ a tough boss.

There are no two ways about, too, this Dragon Quest VIII requires a lot of grinding. Depending on how involved you get in side quests, this might take ten to fifty percent of your gaming time. To its credit though, the giant world gives you many different areas with high XP enemies in which you can level up in addition to allowing you to chose between simple level grinding or creating unique and powerful items using your alchemy pot. You also have many upgrade paths for your characters and can chose between several different weapons specializations for each character by assigning skill points which you gain at each new character level. Your ability to experiment is limited though by the fact that you cannot redistribute these skill points once they are assigned. This makes for a veritable playground for those who like to tinker w/ stats but can grow bit tiresome when you just want some action.

Despite the deep and varied means of character customization, the pacing of Dragon Quest VIII definitely feels a bit on the slow side. While there are times that you can enjoyably lose yourself in a side quest for a few or even a dozen hours there are other times when you want to be advancing through the main story line and can sit down with the game for three or four hours and get literally nowhere in the story w/ nothing to show for it but XP and stats. It's a drag and the fact that you can sink a half hour or more into certain boss battles and still wind up losing doesn't help any. This is really a game for those who enjoy spending lots of time w/ their characters and don't mind going for quite a while w/o any real action.

For what it is, this game is superb, but what it is isn't for everyone, at least not all the time. It is a straight-forward hero's tale where the outcome and even the path to that outcome is certain but provides for almost infinite distractions and attractions beyond that. It's presented beautifully and there are times when you just can't help but take a trip around it's vast islands and continents just taking in the sights. Its simplicity may be a turn off for some but's also what provides it w/ an endless open feel for those who just want to spend some time completely lost in another world.

Summary

Dragon quest 8 is one of those games that gives the player a certain feel that can't be described

Positives
-Fun battle system with level grinding required
-Great graphics
-Trying to kill metal slimes is fun
-Story continues after you beat it
-100 hour quest
-Lots to find

Negatives
-Slow battles


All in all a great Dragon warrior/quest game I suggest it to the fans of rpgs

Dragon quest 8 is one of those games that gives the player a certain feel that can't be described

Positives
-Fun battle system with level grinding required
-Great graphics
-Trying to kill metal slimes is fun
-Story continues after you beat it
-100 hour quest
-Lots to find

Negatives
-Slow battles


All in all a great Dragon warrior/quest game I suggest it to the fans of rpgs


Dragon quest 8 is one of those games that gives the player a certain feel that can't be described

Positives
-Fun battle system with level grinding required
-Great graphics
-Trying to kill metal slimes is fun
-Story continues after you beat it
-100 hour quest
-Lots to find

Negatives
-Slow battles


All in all a great Dragon warrior/quest game I suggest it to the fans of rpgs

Summary

What I mean by "true" is it is a turn based battle system, with a huge world to explore that has many secrets to find. Current consoles are slacking on this genre of games. There isn't any turn based RPG's anymore. I guess developers think they are boring or something, but this game begs to differ. Dragon Quest 8 is pretty much flawless. It is worthy of a perfect score.

I don't wanna give any spoilers away so I'll be brief. Dhoulmagus stole a scepter, put a curse on your king so he looks like a midget troll, put a curse on the princess so she looks like a horse, and put a curse on the whole kingdom that turned everyone (besides you, who was mysteriously untouched by the curse, the king and princess) into half thorn bush, half human. Now it's up to you and your band of friends to reverse the curse and stop Dhoulmagus of his killing spree. The story has a lot of twists and turns that keep it interesting.
The game can be hard at times, or even overwhelming at times, but the game isn't un-beatable. It actually offers a good challenge.
The game has a huge world to explore. There are many hidden treasure chests, and many chests that are locked until you find the master key. You could spend a ton of time just leveling up while looking for secrets. You even get a ship to explore the entire world. Many sidequests to do. The monster arena had me interested until I beat it. Once you beat it, you can summon your monster squad to fight for you. You find them around the world, beat them, then you will be prompted to either accept or deny them to potentially be on your squad.

Any RPG fan should go out and buy this game asap if you already haven't. You will not be disappointed.