Like your RPGs with in-depth storylines, little repitition and entertaining gameplay? Well then this game is not for you
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King promises its' players gorgeous graphics, lovely music, and a fun "epic" adventure. Now, I must admit, the graphics are absolutely stunning. Colorful, detailed, and eye-grabbing. "Eyecandy" with a capital E. The music is also a plus. The field music has an "outdoors-y" sound to it, town and dungeon music is quite fitting for the scenery. This game has excellent presentation and at first, this is a very good game. But it fails to keep it's "fun, epic adventure" promise which you realize later on.
Okay, after hearing all that, you may ask why I'm giving this game a 4.7. "Is it really THAT bad? Everyone else loved it.." I have 3 reasons. One, the repetition. This game gets so repetitive that it's painful. The main reason why it's repetitive is because nothing changes! The music, the field scenery, the objectives, everything stays the same. Once you complete one goal, your next is pretty much the same. Go to the next town, complete the dungeon in that area, watch the dull cutscenes and repeat. Also, every new land you go to will look exactly like the last, excluding the little desert and winter areas, but they pretty much feel the same and becomes a bit of an eyesore. Yes, there are other, more unique areas and the towns aren't as bad, but there isn't much to do and you'll be leaving to the old field shortly after entering. The music on the field and the battle music is always the same as well, no matter where you are. Once you get to other areas, the field music will no longer even suit the scenery. The reason why thats a big deal is because you WILL be spending a lot of time on the field and in battles. I know I said that the music was nice, but it's definately not good enough to the point where I want to listen to same musical scores for hours on end. And trust me, if you plan on ending this game, you WILL be playing it for long hours.
Two, the difficulty is unbalanced which makes gameplay even more repetitive. Any time random field battles are just as hard as boss battles in a game, I'd say it's unbalanced. When you go from one area to another, there's a huge difference in the monsters strength which makes the game just a little unfair. That being said, you will need to level grind. A lot. With very little reward other than a few new moves and staying alive long enough to complete your goal for that area. I don't know about the rest of you, but I do not enjoy spending more time desperately trying to survive a simple field battle than actually playing through the story. I stated earlier that nothing ever really changes, and the battles are no exception. EVERY battle will consist of "Attack. Heal. Attack. Heal. CRAP, someone died AGAIN. Attack. Heal. Yay, we won! Now for a trip to the church, revive, and repeat..." Thats it. Yes, you do get new moves, but they are NOT cool or interesting to look at after the first time seeing it, and you will be seeing the same animation A LOT. Now, in RPGs, other than the storyline, the battles play a major role. Unless you're one of those gamers that love or don't mind frustrating, unrewarding battles, you'll be fine with this.
Three, (and personally, my biggest problem with the game) the storyline. Absolutely NO thought was put into the storyline. None. The characters have little to no personality and dialog between them is as rare and uninteresting as a Superman game. The characters, like any RPG, is the bulk of the story and when developers and writers fail to do anything with them, the rest of the game feels stale. Now, for the story. It is the most cliched and poorly executed story I have ever seen. An evil jester/wizard steals your kingdoms hidden secret power and goes faround the world flaunting it. The mute, nameless hero with a heart of gold (thats you), the cursed king and princess (they tried to mix things up by having the royalty travel with you, I guess), and your friend set out to stop him and save your kingdom. Along the way, you'll pick up two other people that decide to join up with you since the jester killed someone dear to them. Revenge, pretty much. So you and your crew chase him down, watch him do bad things and get away, and repeat until the end of the game. This RPG is just one big cliche. I thought because it sounds so cliched, it'll be interesting to see where they went with this old, dried-up idea. I regret even thinking that. Yes, there is a plot twist later on, but after the long hours of level grinding (about 60 hours all together), it really isn't good enough to redeem itself and regain interests.
Conclusion:
That wraps up my review for this game. This review, like all others, is A PERSONAL OPINION. If you disagree, thats just fine, but my experience with this game was unpleasent no matter how much anyone may disagree nor will my opinion change. This game is ideal for the old school, "hardcore" (whatever that means) gamers that suffered through the difficulty of the first Final Fantasy and early Dragon Quest games and love the repetition and the good memories this game brings back to them. For the rest of us that first started getting into RPGs after playing FF7 and/or want more in our games, I wouldn't recommend this game to you. The storyline will not keep you interested, the constant need to grind will not appeal to you, the overall repitition will leave you wanting a refund, and you will not appreciate this game as much as the old schoolers do. Psychonauts or even Fable is cheaper and a better investment for us. So please, avoid buying this game and rent it. The end.