This game is good, very good in fact, good in almost all aspects but it fails to be outstanding in any of them.
The story while not being exceptionally long does tick all the right boxes, it is engaging enough to make you want to play on but not very complex so you will always be able to pick it up a couple of weeks later without having to remember hours of back story.
The characters are likable enough but they will not be remembered as all time gaming greats. The lead character of the game is one of the game’s small flaws, Level 5 have decided to go back to using a mute for a main character (which I an kind of understand remembering how irritating Maximillian from Dark Cloud 2 could be) but I believe that this is a poor idea; Developers use this method so that gamers can find it easier to put them selves in the place of the hero but I find that it makes the character appear less human and so alienates them from the person who is playing the game. This is just what I personally think; you may prefer the none talking lead.
The battle system is about as turn based as they come but is beautifully executed with dazzling special abilities that are always good fun to watch and are regularly comical. So if you do not like the random encounter/turn based system then this game is certainly not for you.
There is a bewildering selection of weapons and armour but unfortunately they do not tend to change the outward appearance of the characters which is a shame in this day and age, I would have settled for less of a selection of armour if a few more of them had changed the appearance of the team.
Aesthetically the characters are nice to look at and very well animated, the NPCs are well designed if not a little repetitive and the diversity and design of the enemies is brilliant (fans of the DQ series will recognise a lot of old faces here) as well as also being excellently animated. Architecture is nice but nothing groundbreaking. There is an all around sense of attention to detail through out the game.
The dungeons are adequate with nice design, simple puzzles and the bosses at the end never disappoint. The dungeons are numerous and there are also several secrete dungeons hidden on the game that extend the longevity of the adventure.
The side quests will rapidly increase the amount of game play, they are varied and do not feel like a chore to do, there is nothing original but it does not really matter as they are tried and tested solutions that work well.
The menus are logically set out and work well. The levelling up and skill point system is nothing revolutionary but they fit in and are quick and easy to master so it is easy to get the best out of the characters.
One advantage of the game, especially to new/young gamers is that it is very difficult to go wrong; there are only four characters so you do not have to worry you are levelling the wrong one, there are no ‘wrong’ decisions to be made, the skill system can’t go drastically wrong, there are know miscible items, the difficulty curve is parallel to the learning curve and the worst that can happen is that your party gets wiped out in which case you just go back to the last inn with half you gold missing. A problem for some, especially if you are used to the Final Fantasy series, is that it is a long time until you get the capability to revive a dead team member so you may find yourself making frequent trips to the last town.
The graphics, being cell shaded, are not to everyone’s tastes but are brilliantly done and quite a technical achievement, having the entire world map to run around in with no loading screens, impressive draw distance and minimal slowdown. Some of the best graphics we will see on the ageing PS2, even looks good on a 50HZ television.
The orchestral sound track makes a nice change from standard RPG synthesized melodies but unfortunately is not varied enough. The sound effects are as everything else in this game, they do their job perfectly but no more than that.
The one area in which this game is exceptional, especially for European gamers, is that it has one of the best localisation jobs done on any games in recent years, finally a game set in a middle aged Europe scenario has actual European voices instead of American ones (or even worse, Americans attempting European voices) and uses English turns of phrase. So instead of substance being lost in translation, which unfortunately is the destiny for many great games, the versions released outside of Japan have got as much if not more detail than the original.
So in conclusion, Dragon Quest VII: Journey of The Cursed King is the quintessential RPG, everything it attempts to do it does very well and if you like RPGs you will love it but you won’t help but feel that you would have liked them to of pushed the boundaries back a bit further.