Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
Developer: Level 5
Publisher: Square-Enix
Platform: PlayStation 2
Genre: RPG
ESRB: Teen
MSRP: $49.99
Release Date: 11/22/05 (US)
An evil magician, a demonic scepter, a cursed princess and king, a cursed kingdom, and a lone and silent hero who remains mysteriously untouched by the darkness (and of course a quarky gutter mouthed sidekick along for the ride). These are all the ingredients given to you when you begin Dragon Quest VIII. Half the fun of this game is learning the "hows" and "whys" that all of these characters' destinies became intertwined. The further you travel along your quest, the longer the journey to uncover the past becomes.
The gameplay is pretty standard as far as RPGs go. Walk around town inquiring NPCs to find out clues on what to do next. Use keys, maps, and treasure chests in dungeons. Smash pots to find money and treasures! The battle system is also standard: a turn based system where you control the actions of each your party members; Attack, Abilities, Items, Magic, Defend, Flee (and Tension). All the basic traits. There are Skill Points the characters learn when they level up, and you can place these skill points in weapon categories (Sword, Spear, Axe, Club, Bow, Whip, Boomerang, Staff/Magic, Fists) to level up the character's strength of the weapon and/or learn new weapon Abilities. Each of the four characters (the silent Hero, the kindly yet rude mouthed bandit Yangus, the tomboy-ish short tempered mage Jessica, and the charming "bad boy-ish" monk Angelo) have their own stat with unique skills that fit their personalities: the Hero's "courage" stat (allows the hero to learn abilities every party leader should have such as dungeon evacuation, and the ability to teleport to previously visited cities); Yangus' "humanity" (where he'll sacrifice his MP or HP for his comrades); Jessica's "sex appeal" (that can paralyze and confuse your enemy); and Angelo's "charisma" (which can weaken and lower enemy stats). The Tension attack is a way for a character to charge either their attack or magic (offensive). Your tension level rises to 5, then 20, then 50, and if you are lucky, 100 (and the character's appearance will change), but most of the time if you try to charge to 100 tension it will not succeed. Raising your character's tension will also raise the character's defense, agility, and evasion stats as well, but once you perform an action other than "tension" the tension level will return to 0. The higher the Tension the more exponential it's effects, for example if a normal attack does 80 damage, at 100 tension the attack will do +1000 damage (also if you receive 80 damage from an enemy attack at 100 tension you may only receive 4 damage). However be cautious, most boss enemies (when you'll most likely use Tension) have abilities that will cancel tension (you may be at 50 tension and a boss casts a spell that returns tension to 0, that's 3 turns wasted)!
The gameplay may be basic and standard with it's few quarks, but the story is where this game really shines. The tale gets deeper and deeper the more you play, each character playing a more epic role in the grand storyline. Dhoulmagus, a power hungry mage steals the Rapthrone Staff and places a curse on Castle Trode as well as it's king (turning him into a troll) and princess (turning her into a horse) there is but one survivor in the entire kingdom from the curse, our hero, but how - out of the entire kingdom - was he the only one untouched? As Dhoulmagus rains down destruction over the land other members join your party to strike down this evil, each member holding an unknown link to our hero and Dhoulmagus alike.
All of the characters were designed by Akira "dragonball" Toriyama himself, and many of the enemies, no matter how deadly, all are very cute! Sure it's horrible when a Falcone paralyzes your entire party, but it's very cute. Also the battles are not so cut and dry. Sometimes if you are really weak an enemy may cure you, or an enemy may do an attack that causes you to raise your Tension! You never know what to expect from battles (my fav random gag is a monster may "hear it's mother calling" and flees from battle!, or a monster may try to attack but it's weapon is so clumsy it trips and falls and misses). Funny stuff (but the same can happen to any of our heroes as well!)
The soundtrack is full orchestra. It adds to the epic feel of the game and - for lack of a better description - makes the game feel very "Disney-ish" (sound wise). The voice actors are great (about 50% of the text, i.e. NPC dialogue) is voiced, all the actors have strong European accents ranging from British, French, Italian, and Russian adding to the variety of already colorful characters.
A great game with tons to do and lots to see and hear and find out (just completing the main quest will take +50 hours). A great buy for any RPG lover.
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
Developer: Level 5
Publisher: Square-Enix
Platform: PlayStation 2
Genre: RPG
ESRB: Teen
MSRP: $49.99
Release Date: 11/22/05 (US)
An evil magician, a demonic scepter, a cursed princess and king, a cursed kingdom, and a lone and silent hero who remains mysteriously untouched by the darkness (and of course a quarky gutter mouthed sidekick along for the ride). These are all the ingredients given to you when you begin Dragon Quest VIII. Half the fun of this game is learning the "hows" and "whys" that all of these characters' destinies became intertwined. The further you travel along your quest, the longer the journey to uncover the past becomes.
The gameplay is pretty standard as far as RPGs go. Walk around town inquiring NPCs to find out clues on what to do next. Use keys, maps, and treasure chests in dungeons. Smash pots to find money and treasures! The battle system is also standard: a turn based system where you control the actions of each your party members; Attack, Abilities, Items, Magic, Defend, Flee (and Tension). All the basic traits. There are Skill Points the characters learn when they level up, and you can place these skill points in weapon categories (Sword, Spear, Axe, Club, Bow, Whip, Boomerang, Staff/Magic, Fists) to level up the character's strength of the weapon and/or learn new weapon Abilities. Each of the four characters (the silent Hero, the kindly yet rude mouthed bandit Yangus, the tomboy-ish short tempered mage Jessica, and the charming "bad boy-ish" monk Angelo) have their own stat with unique skills that fit their personalities: the Hero's "courage" stat (allows the hero to learn abilities every party leader should have such as dungeon evacuation, and the ability to teleport to previously visited cities); Yangus' "humanity" (where he'll sacrifice his MP or HP for his comrades); Jessica's "sex appeal" (that can paralyze and confuse your enemy); and Angelo's "charisma" (which can weaken and lower enemy stats). The Tension attack is a way for a character to charge either their attack or magic (offensive). Your tension level rises to 5, then 20, then 50, and if you are lucky, 100 (and the character's appearance will change), but most of the time if you try to charge to 100 tension it will not succeed. Raising your character's tension will also raise the character's defense, agility, and evasion stats as well, but once you perform an action other than "tension" the tension level will return to 0. The higher the Tension the more exponential it's effects, for example if a normal attack does 80 damage, at 100 tension the attack will do +1000 damage (also if you receive 80 damage from an enemy attack at 100 tension you may only receive 4 damage). However be cautious, most boss enemies (when you'll most likely use Tension) have abilities that will cancel tension (you may be at 50 tension and a boss casts a spell that returns tension to 0, that's 3 turns wasted)!
The gameplay may be basic and standard with it's few quarks, but the story is where this game really shines. The tale gets deeper and deeper the more you play, each character playing a more epic role in the grand storyline. Dhoulmagus, a power hungry mage steals the Rapthrone Staff and places a curse on Castle Trode as well as it's king (turning him into a troll) and princess (turning her into a horse) there is but one survivor in the entire kingdom from the curse, our hero, but how - out of the entire kingdom - was he the only one untouched? As Dhoulmagus rains down destruction over the land other members join your party to strike down this evil, each member holding an unknown link to our hero and Dhoulmagus alike.
All of the characters were designed by Akira "dragonball" Toriyama himself, and many of the enemies, no matter how deadly, all are very cute! Sure it's horrible when a Falcone paralyzes your entire party, but it's very cute. Also the battles are not so cut and dry. Sometimes if you are really weak an enemy may cure you, or an enemy may do an attack that causes you to raise your Tension! You never know what to expect from battles (my fav random gag is a monster may "hear it's mother calling" and flees from battle!, or a monster may try to attack but it's weapon is so clumsy it trips and falls and misses). Funny stuff (but the same can happen to any of our heroes as well!)
The soundtrack is full orchestra. It adds to the epic feel of the game and - for lack of a better description - makes the game feel very "Disney-ish" (sound wise). The voice actors are great (about 50% of the text, i.e. NPC dialogue) is voiced, all the actors have strong European accents ranging from British, French, Italian, and Russian adding to the variety of already colorful characters.
A great game with tons to do and lots to see and hear and find out (just completing the main quest will take +50 hours). A great buy for any RPG lover.
What exactly are you trying to say? Well, anyway, I am so looking forward to this game. I'm a DQMonsters fan, though, and I am gonna miss not having the breeding mode (good thing DQM is coming out for DS). 
