Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the cursed king is one such game which deserves every single word of praise.
Before you read the rest, I would like to warn you that it may contain some minor spoilers but I guess it is inevitable if I want to give the game its full credit. The game follows the adventure of King Trode and his henchman(your hero) after he and his princess has been turned into to a Toad and Horse respectively by a Jester’s curse. Midway through the game, you battle this jester and upon victory, realized that there is a greater threat else where. That’s where your save-the-world theme comes in. The storyline is definitely more than that, but I would not break more spoilers here.
The good: At a glance, this game sets out to be different from all the pretenders out there. It actually tries to be the cliché of a RPG. In my opinion, this turns out to be the strongest point it has set out to achieve. In fact, you can almost feel that this game actually takes pride in being a cliché. Such bravery. I mean, how many games this day follows the strict rule of saving only at churches and sleeping/recovery only at inns, definitely not a certain ff game. I will first talk about its graphics. DQ VIII is designed by level 5, the same team who’s responsible for Dark Cloud 2. Every character is hand drawn and its cell shading completes the job. Colour selection is aplenty and it gives the whole environment a vibrant and cheerful outlook. This cheerful environment totally complements the tone of the game, which deliberately sets out to tell its story in the most light hearted fashion. Unlike our usual do-or-die RPGs, the characters here almost stroll through the pilgrimage, taking some side quests every here and there. Like our old school RPGs, DQ VIII forces you to stick with what you have, the characters that is. Not that it’s a bad thing. Be it loud-mouthed Yangus, feisty Jessica, Charismatic Angelo or your muted Hero, each character is special in their own rights. In fact, Yangus could have turned out to be my game character of the year for his funny antics. This lack of selection meant that you would have more time to focus on your characters, and you would soon find out that character building plays a big part in this game. Each character has 4 sets of skills to master, 2 of which are weapon skills, 1 fisticuff(bare knuckle fighting skills) and a unique trait. This trait tells what your character’s personalities are all about, and as you invest in it, you will be rewarded with skills that can range from unique to fantastic to downright useless(but hilarious). Each new skill learnt is accompanied by a new title, and it can be as peculiar as a say, 'master boomerang-er' to 'sexy kitten'. Sound selection is fabulous in this game. Although it may lack variety, it certainly scored by pulling all the right notes at the right places. A 80+ hour adventure also promised value-for-money. Unlike many RPGs, DQ does not boast of any lengthy CG cut-scenes. But who need those when you have perfect graphics and voice overs to begin with?
Despite all the good points listed above, it could have been easily found in other good RPGs out in the market. Alas, it’s the finer details that perfected the diamond and cements the game in a league of its own. The producers’ eyes for details are totally spot-on. Inconsequential stuffs like reading a book or opening a door are actually being literally carried out, giving this game a realism edge. Monsters designs are given so much attention it almost feels like a 5th character to the game. To further insult other pretenders out there, each monster is actually given a special set of behaviour and inexplicitly minimises the bore of random battles. Just don’t be caught off guard the next time you encounter a monster cat which seemed more interested in washing its face than say, bite you. This gives battles a surprise element and offers a whole new dimension to battle tactics. Voice acting is perfect and people of different regions of the world in the game actually have their own special accent. I mean, who’d have thought of that?. Surprisingly, a game of such depth was not to be marred by long loading time, it was kept to its bare minimum. Finally, this game stretches the word ‘fantasy’ way off what the word could have meant. From mole hills to snow capped mountains, from talking squids to grumbling mermans, this game has pretty much covered it all. The highlight of the game? When you get to control King Trode in a certain town late in the game. He’s still a cursed monster, remember?
The bad: Seriously, what do we have to do to let producers know that random battles ain’t the thing anymore. On the otherside, it may have been well-intended. Afterall, I’ve said that this is the cliché-est of RPG, didn’t I? Another thing I would like to point out is that money is INCREDIBLY hard to earn in this game. Just imagine the number of battles to say, afford a bow which cost 15K, while right till the end, some high-end monsters could only offer you 150 gold for defeating it? The pain.
Take a bow, square-enix, and I mean take a bow. Such intensity and passion(I hope so) in one RPGs has been unseen for in many years. This game truly defines the genre, like it or not. Just do yourself a favour and get it, as this game deserves your attention. I am sure that as you finished the game, you will be guranteed an emotional, satisfying and fun gaming adventure. All this, and I am not even a DQ fan to begin with!
Cor Blimey!