Review
Release Date: 11.15.2005
Platform:
PlayStation 2Developer:
Level-5Publisher:
Square-Enix USAReviewed by
Jeremy Barnes on 4.3.2006
| Review Rating: 9/10 | User Rating: 8.67/10 |
It's strange to realize that many gamers weren’t even born when the first
Dragon Quest (
Dragon Warrior in the US) title was released. It’s nearly impossible to believe the series has finally made its long overdue migration to a 3D world with the release of
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King. This installment of the series is a huge leap forward and a whopping step into the wayback machine for RPGs.
The amazing thing about this game is that the change from 2D to 3D is flawless. The
Dragon Quest series hasn’t altered the basic formula that's been in place ever since gamers in the infancy of the console RPG era ventured forth to reclaim Erdrick’s Balls and seal away the mighty Dragon Lord. The venture from one town to the next in the older games was as harrowing as delving into dungeons and clichés was rampant. The most important thing about those old games was the lack of gimmicks.
There’s no great hook in
Dragon Quest VIII to pull in the masses besides the graphical upgrade. No battle system that requires you to rotate your controller while standing on your head with a lit fire cracker stuck in an orifice to perform an ordinary attack. Its traditional battle system ends up being an innovation in an RPG market saturated with overly complex systems that forget about having fun.
In
Dragon Quest VIII your characters will line up in a turn based system where all actions for that turn are selected in advance. Your agility score will affect how soon your character performs their action in the turn, but won’t get you any additional moves. Each character possesses the usual array of spells, special abilities, and the ability to attack or defend. They can also psyche up to strengthen their next spell or attack.
The special abilities available to the characters are determined by which weapons you decide to place their skill points in to improve their abilities with that specific weapon. The skills vary from swords adding fire to an attack or slashing twice all the way to charming monsters with your sexiness. Each character also has a unique skill that isn’t weapon-based, such as the hero's Courage skill that will teach him spells like Omniheal or the offensive spell Zap. Some weapon disciplines will also teach spells or abilities that can be used whether or not that weapon type is equipped.
Whether you love or hate
Dragon Quest VIII is going to be largely dependent on whether you like the battle system, because you will be developing a serious relationship with it. This game is hard. You’re going to have to stop and level up at certain points. If you want to afford the best equipment from shops, you’ll be spending even more time slaying foes for gold. There’s rarely going to be a boss that you will roll over and often even if you are sufficiently leveled and equipped, you can still lose if you’re not careful.
You’re also going to be spending cash and time on the alchemy system. At a certain point in the game, this aspect will become available to you, and you'll then be able to combine certain items in order to make new and often times much better items. In many cases weapons and armor will be available through the use of alchemy earlier than you can purchase them in shops or even find them in dungeons. This also means that your bag will often be quite full and selling your old items may not be the best option for fundraising. So you’ll probably be seeing even more battles during your alchemical endeavors.
It’s a good thing the art style for
Dragon Quest VIII is pleasing to the eye. Akira Toriyama is best known for his work on the animated series Dragonball Z and is often revered or reviled. His work on the series in the past has been limited to a 2D realm and this foray into 3D allowed gamers to see if his style would be different from his work in other areas. The characters are obviously Toriyama’s work and they suffer for it. They are not far enough removed from his other efforts to be unique. The characters throughout the game have similar features and expressions as those in Dragonball.
The game is a beautiful entry into the PS2’s library regardless. The landscapes are well done and the environments are exquisite. Many of the dungeons carry a layout and feel similar to the previous games in the series, but make a smooth graphical transition into the 3D world, keeping most of the movement and mapping aspects associated with the series.
The story of
Dragon Quest VIII makes a similar leap to that of the graphics. The jump to 3D does allow for more expression via body language and other means, but it is also apparent that time was devoted to crafting unique personalities for the characters. The mute hero shows his kindness, loyalty, and honesty in a variety of ways throughout the game. The characters that join him along the way are distinctive and even speak according to their station and personality, albeit all of them with heavy accents.
The story starts off a little ways into the journey of the hero as he travels with his king and the princess to remove a curse cast upon them by an evil sorcerer who stole a valuable artifact from the kingdom. As the sorcerer fled, he left the king as a little green..uhh…let’s say a toad-like thing and the princess as a horse. The entire castle itself was covered in vines and its people turned into plants as well.
The hero was the only one unaffected and now must track down the evil Dhoulmagus to force him to lift the curse and return the stolen artifact. As the game opens, the hero’s camp is attacked. He and Yangus, a companion picked up along the way before the game begins, must fight off some enemies. After the scene, you’ll head for the first town and things are off.
The opening scene gives you plenty of time to decide if you’ll be able to handle the voice acting. It’s very well done, but the entire game is riddled with heavy accents, the predominant one being a British accent that wears on the ears awfully quickly.
The score of
Dragon Quest VIII doesn’t annoy like the voice acting can; instead, it often doesn’t make any impression at all. It’s very lovely music, but its soft melodies are overshadowed by the other elements of the game. The long level grinds tend to induce it being turned off completely as well.
It’s been a long time coming for this series to go 3D, and it’s been worth the wait. The developers should teach a class in the way to convert games to 3D and keep the feel of the 2D versions on the new consoles.
Dragon Quest VIII is a spectacular addition to the series and should be tried by fans of both old and new. Those who hold the SNES era as the golden age of RPGs will certainly enjoy the game and its traditional elements. Those who prefer the new 3D RPGs will be pleased with the update to the graphics as well. Buy it, rent it, just play it.
