Dragon Quest 8

[Realm25]

So did anybody else find this game an absolute jewel? It reminded me a lot of oldschool RPG's, but still had a new feel to it as well. I loved the story, and the game looked very cute, and easy on the eyes. The voice acting was pretty good in my opinion also. I guess my only gripe would be that the main character "hero" doesn't talk or anything, he's just too mute, and honestly if that's the *only* bad thing I can come up with about this game then that's awesome.

So what are your opinions on it?

[Montoya]

I have the game and have yet to beat it. I really liked it though, but like most games these days, if I get out of the habit of playing them regularly I never pick them up again. It's a nice RPG and worth playing, gave me something different than Final Fantasy.

[Necronopticous]

Dragon Quest VIII would be a lot better if the game's main storyline wasn't so padded with tedious distractions and stacking fetch quests to mindlessly jack up the playtime without actually adding anything to the story.

The best example I can think of is when you have to get a ship to cross the ocean to follow Dhoulmagus. You hear of an abandoned ship in a wasteland. You find the ship, but it's stuck in the middle of a desert, so you have to go to a town to enquire about how to get it out of the desert. You find a book that leads you to a sorcerer that might be able to help you. You find the sorceror, but he needs a more powerful instrument to do it, so he sends you to get one from the king of Ascantha to get one. The king takes you to the vault to get the instrument, but it's been stolen by moles, so you have to go to the land of moles to win it back.

I mean, seriously, who wants to go through all this? Is this supposed to be fun? Just give me a goddamned ship and let me continue the game.

[Realm25]

Everything you just mentioned is fun to do though, especially if you enjoy grinding on mobs for hours at a time. I'm a huge fan of power leveling. I can sit outside a town and whistle for mobs for hours on end before moving on with the story. For example, I was level 11 before fighting the first boss in the waterfall cave :)

[Necronopticous]

There are enough chores to do in life as it is.

I play video games as a break from that.

[LunarWeaver]

I thought it was a pretty good game. A culmination of the tried-and-true. Its battle system wasn't anything new, but it was refined to a point that I had a lot of fun with it.

The world is enormous and gorgeous. I liked running about the terrain to that sweeping music. This was the first game in a long time that made me "feel" the adventure thing going on.

But this game falls under its own traps. It does quite a few things typical of a J-RPG that annoy me and I have to overlook: grinding needs to go; that church save point system needs to be burned; random encounters aren't funny anymore; I do not like searching through every nook, cranny, pot, cabinet, box, dimensional portal to Kermit's house, and so forth looking for things like "Herb" -- a tedious process you must repeat every time you go to a new town; and constantly cross-checking multiple guides to figure out Alchemy Pot bull:skull::skull::skull::skull: isn't very exhilarating.

And it really was too long, much of that being filler as exampled. The story was, er, "charming", but riveting it's not. There needs to be certain rewards to motivate picking phrases out of a menu. This game had the strategy aspect down, but... You need to feel your characters' progression is worth the battling and look forward to the next plot point, and this game just didn't have that for me.

But it held my interest for all bazillion hours, and that must mean somethin'!

[Bahamut2000X]

I didn't get too far in the game until I fell out of playing it. It's an alright game, it is a nice old school type, but however it IS a Dragon Quest, only with out any of the real interesting scenarios that V and VI did real well. Maybe some day I'll actually pick it up and finally beat it.

[Vivisteiner]

The story was pretty boring but the rest of it was very nice. It kept me busy during the summer holidays and was generally fun to play.

[Gilghamut]

I really enjoyed DQ8, had a wave of nostalgia hit me as I played. I found the story and characters to be enjoyable; my favorite characters were Yangus and the guy in red whose name I have forgotten.

I didn't mind the random battles much as annoying as they had become to me by the time this had released. I might have to replay the game again sometime soon.

[Realm25]

Random battles are the best. I hated FFXII because it strayed too far from oldschool gameplay. This is why I absolutely love Dragon Quest 8, otherwise my only oldschool enjoyment from RPG's has to come in the form of the FF remakes for Advance/DS (which are awesome).

[Ichimonji]

DQVIII has pretty much the best free-roaming worldmap seen in a J-RPG, imo. That alone merits playablility. The exploration aspect was extremely vast and interesting.

Also, if you're playing a DQ game for the storyline, expect to be dissapointed. You're bound to find a ton of fetch-quests. Which shouldn't be a problem as games (even RPGs) shouldn't priotorize storyline over gameplay.

Even though the Dragon Quest series is noted for tradition, I do agree that they need to rid of some out-dated mechanics, such as: turn-based gameplay and level-grinding. Nostalgia is a horrible attachment that prevents change. And as all things and industries grow, things need to change.

With all that said, I enjoyed DQVIII. Amazing world map ftw.

[leader of mortals]

I loved this game. I only played it for 72 hours though(:rolleyes2)

[NeoCracker]

Great game. Only problem was the level grinding.

God that game has so much grinding to do.

Though Yangus more then makes up for it.

"Ay Guvna'"
And the classic calling girls birds was awesome.

[Bolivar]

One of the longest RPGs I've completed, I think it was a great game. It's everything that classic RPGs are all about, with alot of stuff to do. I actually took about a year and a half break from it because it was just so damn long. The new graphics were great, and I usually hate cell-shaded; exploring the world was definately worth it, treasure chests really out there and stuff that you have to uncover... that's what these games are all about.

[Spuuky]

Fantastic game. I love it so much. Everything that non-RPG fans hate about Dragon Quest is the reason I love it. I love thoroughly searching every pot. I love random encounters. I love long dungeons and semi-pointless fetch quests. Everything about the Dragon Quest series is what I am looking for in an RPG, and it's just so rare these days.

For every Dragon Quest VIII, there are fifty Enchanted Arms. Its a good game in its own right, sure, but it's SO linear and SO "cinematic" for lack of a better word. At least that particular example has an interesting combat system.

[Realm25]

Fantastic game. I love it so much. Everything that non-RPG fans hate about Dragon Quest is the reason I love it. I love thoroughly searching every pot. I love random encounters. I love long dungeons and semi-pointless fetch quests. Everything about the Dragon Quest series is what I am looking for in an RPG, and it's just so rare these days.

For every Dragon Quest VIII, there are fifty Enchanted Arms. Its a good game in its own right, sure, but it's SO linear and SO "cinematic" for lack of a better word. At least that particular example has an interesting combat system.

Finally, somebody who understands what an RPG is supposed to be.

[Roto13]

Those things are rare for the same reason games without save features are rare. RPGs have evolved past the need to make everything into a chore.

[Sarc the Swordsman]

I liked the game. The music was excellent and the design was easy on the eyes. Plus, it was nice to have such a large world to explore - my only complaints was the amount of level grinding needed for certain bosses. Not to mention the save system. (If I had to go do something, I'd end up having to leave the game switched on for a few hours because you couldn't save in the middle of a dungeon.)

I really enjoyed it though.

[Montoya]

After a year and a half long break from this game I finally decided to pick it up again. It is the first game I've played this year and it's not bad. Yay, maybe I can finally accomplish my goal of beating every game I own.