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.
