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Dragon Quest VIII is a classic role-playing game, but the minds behind Square Enix have added some great new twists. Looking for drama? Action? Adventure? Horror? Barfights? This game has got it. Just when the plot and storyline starts becoming clear, it turns around and stabs you in the back.
The story line is one that should be familiar to RPG veterans: a group of rag-tag characters with different backgrounds unite for a common cause: killing the bad guy who manages to unleash evil upon the world while staying one step ahead of the heros.
In DQ VIII, the evil, maniac jester Dhoulmagus (don’t ask me to pronounce it) steals a forbidden scepter which unleashes a curse. The kingdom housing the scepter becomes entangled with enchanted vines, while the king and princess are transformed into animals. The only person who manages to survive is you: the Hero. King Trode is now a “hideous” frog, and his “beautiful” daughter Medea is transformed into a horse who pulls your wagon (let’s see the feminists in the crowd comment on this).
The three of you set out to catch Dhoulmangus. A cast of characters eventually meet up with and join in your quest. Yangus, an ex-bandit and thief with an English accent (a la Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins), wields a mighty club among other items. Jessica, the now only child of a rich family, can cast spells and due minimal damage using whips and daggers. She also uses her “feminine charms” to subdue enemies (namely, blowing kisses, sexy dances, etc.).
Last is Angelo, the Templar Knight who is cast out of the Abbey to join your group. He not only has a fair amount of attack power, but learns a lot of status and healing spells for your party. These three characters accompany you on your quest to annihilate Dhoulmagus.
The graphics in this game are awesome. They are cel-shaded, but not in a Zelda: Windwaker kind of way. If you’ve ever watched Dragonball Z, you’ll immediately recognize the art style. Why? Well Akira Toriyama, head artist of Dragonball Z, is at the helm for the graphics. Anyone familiar with DBZ will see what Toriyama borrowed from the series from this game.
When your tension becomes rediculously high, your hair flies up in an o-so-DBZ-style. (Ka-may-ha-may-ha! Oops, sorry…flashback..) The detail is simply amazing! Need more proof? Look at the facial expressions of characters during conversation. If the Hero is running on grass, small shreds of grass fly up behind him. Dirt paths more your flavor? Well, a small dust cloud forms. Awesome.
The world that DQ VIII exists in is huge. If you like to explore your surroundings, this is the game for you. The player has complete control of exploration; you can travel on foot, on a boat, or on giant Sabrecats (and yes they do have huge fangs. You know you wanted to ask me that). The more you explore, the more cool items you find. Also, it doesn’t take time to reload graphics unless you go into a town. Therefore, you can walk around as much as you want without having to wait for a new area to load.
The soundtrack of this game is right up there with the Final Fantasy series. The orchestral background is literally music to your ears. It is in your face in the right moments, and akin to elevator music at others. Composer Koichi Sugiyama used the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra to record the soundtrack. When a composer calls in the big boys for a soundtrack, you know he means business.
Another great thing is the character development. The player has control over how their characters develop. Instead of simply leveling up and learning new spells and techniques, the player actually plays a factor in determining these skills. When your players level up, they are awarded a certain number of skill points. You can allocate these skill points into 5 different areas. 3 of these areas include weapons. For example, the Hero has swords, scythes, and boomerangs to choose from. If you put all of your skill points into the sword category, you will become a “master swordsman”, and learn some really cool techniques specific to the use of swords. The other two areas depend on your character. The Hero has “courage”, while Jessica has “sex appeal” (namely her huge rack). These character-specific traits can be really fun once you reach the higher levels.
DQ VIII brings some new features to the table. One of these is to “psyche up” during battle, where characters raise their tension for more damage during attacks. Correct use of this can sway battles in your favor. You can also tell your allies to do only certain things during battle, and they do them on autopilot. If you instruct Jessica to “focus on healing”, she will just cast healing spells. If you tell Yangus “fight wisely” he will use a combination of status and healing spells, as well as attack.
Also, characters have voices in this game. Adding vocals has become more prevalent lately, but finding games without them is still all too common. It’s refreshing to see so much work put into such a long game. The different accents (yes, the voiceovers were recorded in England) doesn’t get old and tends to even be entertaining.
The customization and command over your allies in DQ VIII makes battles in this game way more entertaining. Also, enemy AI is vastly improved over other games of this genre. Old enemies actually come up with new attacks. There is one cat that continues to pop up with new attacks and color scheme depending on which area you’re in. Lastly, boss battles are no picnic. If the characters are not leveled up enough when they encounter a boss, they’re going to pay for it. Strategy becomes more important than luck, which is definitely refreshing.
DQ VIII is has A LOT of content. Clocking in at 100+ hours, this isn’t just a small diversion anymore. Luckily, the plot doesn’t drag. It is fast paced enough to keep the player interested and motivated to continue playing. Plus, there are other things besides exploring towns and leveling up to do. Among other things these distractions include monster arena battles, collecting medals, and gambling. Sweet.
King Trode and his cart (the source of the annoying “clip-clop” background noise when traveling on the world map) are beneficial to your characters during the game. After a few hours (like…6) into the game, King Trode grants you the permission to use his alchemy pot. The function of this is similar to that of Rikku’s alchemy technique in Final Fantasy X. Instead of being able to create items and objects on the spot however, you must put items into the pot and wait a few minutes until the new item is created. Thankfully if your items will not work together Trode will tell you right away, rather than having you wait around just to find out your experiment failed. You can mix items and weapons for interesting combinations that cannot be purchased at stores.
RPG’s are continuously annoying in one respect: random battles. Even after you’ve finished leveling-up, baddies continue to sponateously appear. After some time, Yangus learns to creep past baddies in the field. But for the first few hours of the game, battling becomes monotonous. There’s only so many baddies that “holy water” can keep away…ugh. The many monsters and other creatures in the game are very colorful, though. One of the most hilarious monsters is an upright rooster-man thing called the Cockateer… no I’m not making this up. Yangus requently gets bitch-slapped by a Cockateer while wielding his “Mighty Club”. This stuff just writes itself. I guess that’s where the Teen rating comes in.
Replayability of this game is rather low. After investing over 100 hours in a game, the complete story is revealed, so there is no reason to learn it again. There is only so much gambling and monster taming to do before growing bored. Playing through the entire game again will probably only appeal to those fascinated by Cockateers and vivid colors – the only reason I’d play this game completely through again would be to customize my characters differently. However, that option isn’t very motivating. Maybe after some time I may be tempted to leave on this long, long journey again, but for now I have an appetite for one of the many other games out this holiday season.
Dragon Quest VIII, while not very innovative in terms of gameplay or plot, is entertaining enough to keep one’s attention for hours at a time. The combination of new battle techniques, diversions, and customization opportunities make this game worthwhile. Lastly, it helps that the game is extremely pleasing to the eye as well as to the ears. Square Enix, you’ve created another hit… keep ‘em coming!
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