Dragon Quest VIII

Review from Jess - Friday, 30 June 2006 @ 12:00am

I know I will probably get crucified for saying this but if Square Enix crapped on a disk people would still buy it. Although Dragons Quest 8 - The Journey of the Cursed King is not entirely crap on a disk, more like a regurgitated kebab with a colorful garnish to dress it up, it certainly is nothing new. It features an unoriginal story (useless princesses in trouble again!), over dramatic music, terrible voice acting and gameplay as slow as the creative side of Uwe Boll's brain. As a reviewer I found it hard to find anything of merit in this game that didn't relate to its graphics.

Also known as Dragon Warrior 8, Dragon Quest 8 is more like an interactive movie, you spend most of your time watching the lovely cell shaded cinematics and that's about it. There didn't seem to be any attention paid to immersion or creative game play at all. It almost seems as though they just recycled an old build of one of the Final Fantasies and slapped on some pretty graphics then tried to pass it off as something new and original. In fact it seems quite obvious the developers put more effort into making it visually impressive rather than making it a fun game to play (one of the main selling points of the game was that the artist Akira Toriyama from the Dragonball-Z series helped to create the original character designs). Personally I'd have preferred to have seen this whole saga turned into a movie, cartoon series or even a machinima rather than a computer game. Don't get me wrong, Dragon Quest 8 has some of the best cell shaded graphics I've ever seen in a game, it's just a shame that they were wasted on such an average piece of work.

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Sadly, the Story has absolutely no creativity at all. It's the usual fantasy drone of the hero who sets out on a quest to find the evil wizard Dhoulmagus who has stolen a legendary scepter from the King's castle. Apart from stealing the scepter, he also turned the King into an ugly toad-like creature and the princess into a horse. Along the way you meet two other characters: Jessica another T&A female game character who performs magic and Angelo, a knight who drinks and gambles. Together you journey and quest to track down Dhoulmagus and make everything right. (You know the rest.)

Dragon Quest 8's random turn based combat system is not only tedious and frustrating, it feels as though you're watching a bad 80s breakdancing competition. It tends to slow down the game and doesn't do anything creative to further the genre. Some people really enjoy this combat style and watching a battle unfurl through random calculations and chance, however, these battles do occur too frequently which hinders any excitement. Plus, there is also an awful lot of loading time, which just adds to the exasperation. All these factors unfortunately ruin the fun and enjoyment of exploring the beautiful environments. For example, several times a battle would finish, the level would load, I would walk two steps then another battle would begin.

Be warned - the music may make you want to shoot yourself in the head. It seriously pushes the Wizard-of-Oz-fairy-fluffy-over-the-top musical clich's to their utmost limits. For example the soundtrack accompanying a battle with a petty slime resembled an epic battle scene from Ben Hur. This created continuity issues which further detached me from taking the game seriously. The quality of the music sounds as though someone grabbed the local primary school concert band, put them into a big echoing room, stuck a dodgy microphone in front of them and said 'Now Play!' Anyone who thinks that the music in this game is good needs to get help.

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The game might have redeemed itself if the characters were well written and believable, but unfortunately their dialogue and voice acting is so extremely corny and over the top that it's hard to take them seriously. I found myself getting to the point where I had stopped caring about the characters because of this. It is worthy to point out that this is a PG rated game and unless you're used to watching children's TV shows, you might find the dialogue very irritating after a while.

Not everything is bad about Dragon Quest 8. It really is very visually impressive and it does almost feel like you are playing an anime. Hardcore anime fans might love this game just for its visuals alone and anyone who absolutely loves random turn based battle games should get a good kick out of it as well. The game world functions nicely with a full day/ night cycle and NPCs going about their daily lives, most of whom you can talk to. Conversations with NPCs are in first-person view which is good for getting a closer look at the great graphics. To wrap things up, I must state again that as a reviewer I found it difficult to find good thing in this game that didn't relate to its graphics.

Summary

If you're looking for an innovative, immersive, fun gaming experience, don't play this game. However in saying that, if you love anime, nice cell shaded graphics and you are a Square Enix fanboi, Dragon Quest 8 The Journey of the Cursed King is the perfect game for you.

Pros

Lovely cell shaded graphics

Cons

Rotten music, dialogue and voice acting; drab story, lots of loading, game play was not imaginative, frustrating and slow combat system