The ease of play and deep gaming experience are a perfect blend for whiling away far too many hours, and marathon sessions with this game are going to be commonplace. It is just really hard to put down.
This was absolutely worth waiting for, and credit must be given to Squenix for releasing a game that bravely sticks to its guns in the face of all these ridiculously complex additions to the formula that Dragon Quest got right all along.
I played this game all the time when I was younger. It's got a great story, a good soundtrack, fun characters, and it's simply just really fun to play. There's very few actual flaws that I can think of, and even if there were, this game is just so good that the flaws don't matter in the long run.
Highly recommend.
Dragon Quest VIII's world flows. It moves. It's utterly huge. It reminds one of "Zelda: Ocarina of Time" on a "Grand Theft Auto" scale. It is an adventure. It's possible to get hopelessly lost in mountain paths, or on tributaries in rivers that dissect giant continents with no place to land a boat outside of a shady hidden casino in the rocks. [JPN Import]
The landscape could be considered a character in itself - it rivals the state of San Andreas in size and detail. It's one of the few landscapes where you can look in any direction and realize that the mountain in the distance isn't scenery. [Dec 2005, p.116]
Gamers who are seeking a more modern RPG, possibly darker and a more mature western-style storyline may not really find Dragon Quest VIII to their taste; the whole game may be a little too cute for their liking.
While I did get some enjoyment from playing it, especially the first 20 hours or so, I’m left craving something more substantial, probably something that invloves the words "Fantasy" and "Final".
Imaging making the game not dead easy like DQXI, with not just lovely character, but sexy characters, without modern censorship and without modern bash on sex appeal or fan service. Now add funny moments that are actually funny and finally add the sense of adventure that old JRPGs used to have. That sum what DQVIII do well.
You actually die in this game and dying have consequences, dead character can only be revive on save points (till you get the magic to revive, but that's like 20h into the game and it's a 50/50 magic) and getting wipe out take half of your money. I would not say this is a hard game, it's not, but is not completely easy.
The look is a 10 out of 10 for a PS2 game, the jump from DQ7 is HUGE, the biggest in all the series. Toriyama's character design is beautiful, even for NPCs. Jessica gets a lot of fan service costumes and details, I'm always grateful for that, because is something modern mainstream games are not allow to have anymore. For me the weakest part of the design are the monsters, i can't get used to the goofy monsters of DQ games. Scenarios and overall world looks awesome.
The world is very open and the sense of "going in an adventure" is very strong, there's no waypoint or HUD message saying where to go all the time.
The story is super simple and classic, cliché, i would say.
Alchemy and Monster Arena do a decent job to add some variety to the formula.
My main complain is how painfully SLOW everything is... No skip, nothing have skip here.
Saving takes take like 10 unnecessary question and/or menu movement, same with item movements, menu navigation, everything. Random encounters makes exploration feel slow too, I feel for PS2 era we should already have real monsters on the map.Also, this game is grindy, unfortunately, the main and almost only way the game knows to add difficulty is raising levels, farming is almost mandatory. There's very little place for skill or tactic in this game, gameplay is super straight foward, plain for RPG standards. Status-effect, buffs/nerfs, elemental rock-paper-scissor... pretty much all is negated in most important battles, they feel useless to be honest.
So if you want a comfy adventure and you have the necessary patience, i recommend this game, its one of those works where you can clearly see it was made with love. In my opinion this is the right game to get into the Dragon Quest series.
A good lengthy story but mediocre gameplay.
I think that Dragon Quest 8 will appeal to a very specific group of people. It does a few things really well but it feels like a game out of the past. That can either be seen as a good thing or a bad thing. Personally I enjoyed the story but I found the gameplay to be very boring and repetitive. I love long RPGs and this game is certainly that. The main quest is very long and there are lots of secrets. The problem that I have is when you get late in the game pretty much the only way to level up is by hunting metal slimes and they are extremely boring to fight against. Another problem I have is that there are very few combat abilities. Even late in the game I was still using basic attacks. Compared to games like Tales or Symphonia, Final Fantasy X, and Shadow Hearts: Covenant, all games that came out before, the battle system in Dragon Quest 8 feels extremely basic and boring. Outside of combat the gameplay is nothing special. There aren't really any puzzles to solve and exploration is hindered by annoying random encounters. The crafting system is quite good though and can be very rewarding as it gets you many of the best weapons in the game. The monster area was also a highlight.
The story is probably the best part about the game although it is fairly simple compared to most Final Fantasy games but it is full of fun interactions. I was interested enough that I always wanted to know what would happen next and it is a very long story. The characters are quirky and enjoyable enough to watch although they aren't particularly deep. The protagonist is silent but the game does a great job of making him appealing by having Yangus communicate for him. Their relationship is surprisingly quite fun to watch and is an interesting way to present a silent hero.
The visual design is clean and cartoony, it looks good enough but there are many older games that look better. The visuals fit the game fine and have aged pretty well but it is average looking for the most part.
Sound design is quite good, the soundtrack is orchestrated and has some really appealing songs. The voice acting is a mixed bag, most of the accents sound pretty unnatural but for its time I think the voice work is pretty decent and the game gives you the option to disable it so it deserves some credit for that. The environments also have really nice atmospheric sound effects that create a sense of immersion.
Overall, I think Dragon Quest 8 is good but it is held back by repetitive somewhat boring gameplay. Nothing about the combat stands out as exceptional when compared to other RPGs. The story is enjoyable with a lot to offer but it isn't as deep or complex as it could have been. The characters are quirky and mostly likable but they lacked the depth that I would have liked to see in such a lengthy Quest. It has a big world with lots of locations to explore but many of the areas look very similar and exploration gets repetitive. If you really like old school RPGs this game is probably great for you if not it is not likely to win you over to the genre.
I give Dragon Quest 8 - 71%
Gameplay – 5
Story – 8
World - 7
Characters – 7
Visual Style – 6
Sound Design – 8
Uniqueness/Ideas – 7
Length/Amount of Content – 9
Immersion – 7
X-Factor - 7
This is absolutely, without doubts, the worst game I've ever played in 31 years of my life. I've been into gaming since I was 2 years old. I played DQ1, DQ11, all the FF saga, blue dragon, all Fire Emblem entries from the SNES onwards.
After 20 hours of playing, NOTHING happened. I closed the game just when the monster arena and the Chateau Felix appeared to be inserting SOMETHING into the game. This is a pure cashgrab with diluted story, gameplay and without doubts one of the worst in terms of characterization of each individuality.
There is no surprise, characters are just tropes into a game, there is literally zero motivation to play the main quest, the gameplay is insanely simple and straightforward, just rushing towards the highest DPS with little to no strategy regarding statuses or anything worth mentioning.
Monsters design is TERRIBLE, wtf are two peppers on a stick doing?
I spent 20 hours waiting for the game to get better, only to see mechanics that should've been there from the start diluted just to make this **** insanely long, uninspired, boring and ultimately a nostalgia trip for even more boring people.
HORRIBLE.
Un jeu du Club Dorothée avec ses graphismes 256 couleurs, son histoire éculée, sa mise en scène sans queue ni tête, ses personnages niais et son interface consternante (on regarde à droite, la caméra va à gauche... il faut confirmer chaque ligne des dialogues débiles avec X...). Les combats avec les menus à la Final Fantasy sont à dormir debout, tout comme l'ensemble de ce soit disant RPG qui ennuierait même des enfants de maternelle.
SummaryThe world of Dragon Quest VIII is created with breakthrough 3D graphics. The world, which includes fields, towns and dungeons, allow players to move around seamlessly. The graphics are of a high-quality animation, and players can feel as if they are walking around inside the world created by Character Designer, Akira Toriyama. The battle...