Topic: Dragon Quest VIII

[SixthAngel]

With Dragon Quest IX coming to DS I figured a lot of people would be interested in the previous one.

I have had this game for about a month now and it is awesome.  The gameplay is tried and true old school rpg.  You have a cast of 4 characters max and you know the rest.  The graphics are amazing, everything looks just like the drawings of Akira Toriyama.  This is some of the best cel shading I have ever seen.  It took me a minute to get used to his art style in a non-dragonball world but I am loving it now. (Jessica )   The voice acting so far has been excellent, most of the voices having an English accent.  The character you play suffers from the rather common disease of SHS.  Tragically I think he may have caught silent hero syndrome from Link but I can't be sure, it could have come from any number of the Nintendo franchises DQ used to slut it up with in its youth on the nes and snes.

The game also has found the perfect balance between not taking itself seriously and being serious.  It has the hilarious Octopus boss who names his tentacles and has them talk to each other and later it can have someone die with an entire funeral scene.  You have to see the giant squid have Tenta and Tickles tell him what to do, priceless.

If you have a ps2 and like rpgs get this game now, no excuses.  It is probably only about 15 dollars if you look. It is a real shame that square seems to have advertised this game as having the ff12 demo to be the selling point.  I think they should have stuffed the demo in some other piece of crap game like they usually do.  They should have advertised this game as the originator and phenomenon that it is, not as some second rate wannabe.  With the right push this game could have been huge in the US because it is very well done.  Squarenix needs to find a way to advertise and bring up new non-FF products in the US.  Dragon Quest has so many spinoffs as well that Squarenix was stupid not to put as much advertising as possible behind this game inorder to turn it into a huge money making machine over here as well.  The games will keep coming so they might as well promote them early.

[NWR_pap64]

I got the game last Christmas and I wasn't able to get into it. I got stuck in the part where you get Jessica, then you fight a giant octopus. I think I went to grind in order to level up and buy better armor and weapons.

I ended up lending the game to my friend, but I will ask for it. I too have felt like playing through it after the DQ IX announcement.

I think the problem with the game is that it might be a little to old school for some. Personally, I've learned to tolerate grinding, but I know some friends (SB included) that can't stand it. Which is why I hope DQ IX isn't as old school as VIII was.

[Nick DiMola]

RPGs are one of those genres that I really have to be in the mood to play. I tend to get bored with the grinding and the repetition. DQ8 looked visually appealing (bright and cheery) which should make it easier for me to play the game. I think I will wind up picking this one up somewhere down the line, hopefully before DQ9 comes out.

[Magik]

Quote
Originally posted by: pap64
I got the game last Christmas and I wasn't able to get into it. I got stuck in the part where you get Jessica, then you fight a giant octopus. I think I went to grind in order to level up and buy better armor and weapons.

I ended up lending the game to my friend, but I will ask for it. I too have felt like playing through it after the DQ IX announcement.

I think the problem with the game is that it might be a little to old school for some. Personally, I've learned to tolerate grinding, but I know some friends (SB included) that can't stand it. Which is why I hope DQ IX isn't as old school as VIII was.

I'm in the same boat as in the grinding got too out of hand for me.  I'm a big RPG fan and I'm use to grinding, but for some odd reason, the grinding in DQ8 really got on my nerves.

[nitsu niflheim]

leveling up in DQ8 is easier than previous games in the series, but getting gold was made a lot harder, you get very little in battle (previous games had you getting very little exp and more gold) but the money maker is the alchemy pot, but it both takes time to get the right items and for the pot to make your item once you get the right items.

[NWR_pap64]

I forgot to mention earlier that the boss battles are challenging to say the least AND when one of your party members die you can't revive him or her using items (like in Final Fantasy). You must go to a Church and revive them there.

Like I said, old school RPG fanatics should have no problem, but newcomers and even modern RPG fans could be seriously turned off by it. Hopefully, DQ IX will not be that old school.

[couchmonkey]

You know, I have a friend who loves RPGs, including the Final Fantasy series, yet his main complaint about DQ VIII was that they spent too much time showing off the graphics with mini-movies (such as when finding a treasure).  Has anybody else experienced that?

He didn't complain about grinding, but he's also a big-time grinder.

[SixthAngel]

I am not really sure what you are talking about with the whole mini-movie thing.  It has the regular rpg cutscenes where the characters talk and stuff, pretty standard in length.  When you find a treasure you just open it and its done.  

[NWR_pap64]

Yesterday, I went to see if my friend was done with the game. He "doesn't know where he put it"...I may end up picking up a second copy of the game...bastard.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Kick his ass.

[couchmonkey]

The poor donkey doesn't deserve to suffer because his friend is a...oh.
Agreed!

[Ymeegod]

I've beaten the game back at launch :0 as for the challenge there really was much of an issue since you do level up quite easily so you just kinda have to bear with it.  There are points near rest areas that make it great for leveling up.

I was a littlle shock to see the DS getting an actual DQ game (usually the handhelds get spinoffs) but what worries me a littlle is the fact it isn't an turn-based RPG anymore.  It's a action-rpg with a 4 party team where you can either join others to play co-op or have the AI take over the other characters.

You really don't have to play DQVIII anyhow since there's really not much of an attachment to any of there games in the past other than similar enemies (slime) and classes.