Cor Blimey!

As you may have guessed, I've been playing Dragon Quest VIII. I've reached Argonia. My impressions so far:

The Good

The game looks great. Improvements from DW VII include visible players on the battlefield and 3D foes.

The music sound similar to the previous installments but the orchestration makes it sound much more sweeping and epic. Like a lost Aaron Copeland piece.

I love Yangus. His accent is endearing, as is the contrast between the way he looks and his rather reserved way of talking. I thought the game does a good job with accent choices.

I also like King Trode. Again, there's an amusing contrast between the way he looks and talks.

The Bad

I understand that DQ has a tradition of a non-speaking hero (as does BOF), but the characters have voice actors in this game. They should give him a speaking voice.

I dislike the way the game makers chose to dress Jessica, then make it a point to focus on her physical assets. I'm not suprised she's annoyed.

The Odd

Why is it every boss has a strange speech impediment? Spoonerisms and ventriloquists? :confused:

Why does Yangus freak out in exactly in the same way whenever King Trode makes an unexpected appearance? He should get used to it after while.

Most of the translations for monster names seem different from DW VII. Even recognizably similar ones.

EDIT: Also the comical lengths to which the game conceals the appearance of the cursed characters previous to them being cursed. Reminds me of the strategically placed objects in the opening of Austin Powers.

I'm glad to hear you're playing through, and seem to be enjoying, DQ VIII. It's one of my favorite RPGs of all time, hell, I might even put it as my favorite on the PS2.

It was obviously a huge step forward for the series, not saying it's definitively "better" than previous entries, but one thing I will always remember about the game is how impressive it is visually. I know, graphics don't make a game, but for someone who hates cell shading as much as I do, I was really taken aback by Level 5's work and what they did with it. It almost makes me sad that they didn't try to top it and go PS3 for IX, but as long as the next one is as fun as VIII I'll be satisfied. So much to explore, so much high fantasy, this is what RPGs are all about.

Enjoy!

DQVIII is teh .

Apart from the story being a bit bland.

I loved the comical stuff including the boss's with speech impediments. And the dirty Japanese oggling over Jessica made me lol. :p

Fantastic game. Great to see you're enjoying it!

The time spent in Argonia and shortly after that are my favorite parts of the game.

I'm enjoying it more than DW VII. It had a flexible job system that was fun for human classes, but an absolute pain to master the monster classes. Random drops absolutely killed me.

DQ VIII has a similar amount of fetch quests and level grinding, but those aspects don't bother me. I miss the Immigrant Town though.

I liked the characters and the world of DQVIII, and the battle system was actually pretty enjoyable; a bit odd since my interest in the traditional turn based systems is almost gone at this point, and this one was about as traditional as it gets. Hell, I didn't even mind fetch quests as much as I usually would because the world was huge and fun to explore. The only major problems I had were the kind of bland story (but I could live with that since the characters made up for it) and the constant need to level grind. I hate level grinding, and I can honestly say it's kept me from beating the game. After about twenty hours I just couldn't take it anymore.

^ Yeah, the "go-get-this-to-go-get-that" quests weren't bad, and i actually enjoyed searching every nook and cranny of the world map to find the remote treasure chests.

However, it does get to a point and I had to take a year off this game, but once I realized I wanted to start playing it again, I was hooked 'til the end.

Actually now that I think, the graphics in this game really remind me alot of how Valkyria Chronicles seems, which is probably part of why i'm excited for that. Other than the Sakimoto soundtrack... and the hope that Shining Force IV will be produced if it does well....

I don't mind level grinding; I like having buffed characters. What aggravates me a lot more is rounding up the neccessary gold to buy weapon/armor upgrades. I just finished Charmles' rite of passage and now there's a bazaar in town with tons of expensive upgrades. The catch is it's temporary.

1) When does the bazaar leave town, after a set number of days or when I advance the plot enough? Either way, I have a lot of 'fundraising' to do. :eep:

2) What is it anyway with this game and fiances? Did the game makers have a bad experience with an arranged marriage? Both Jessica's and Medea's fiances are shifty buffoons.

The grinding and the pacing are bad enough to keep me from continuing it.

Yeah the level grinding and gold farming were time consuming, and annoying.

If I remember correctly, the Bazaar will stay until you advance the plot, so if you hang around and level grind, it'll stay. I remember going back there after I finished that continent (a little ways on in the plot) and the bazaar was gone.

But that was over 2 years ago, so I could be mistaken.

Couldn't get into it.

This feels like one of those games I'll play for a while, go do something else, and then return to later. I'll finish it though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BG-57

This feels like one of those games I'll play for a while, go do something else, and then return to later. I'll finish it though.

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Yeah, that's what I did, more or less.

Ah, I've been playing DQVIII too! I just got Angelo; he's a very amusing character.

Funny thing is that it isn't supposed to be my game. My sister got it as a Christmas present from her Online friend a year or so ago, hasn't played it ONCE. Even completely forgot it existed.
So I decided to relieve her of it. At first I doubted its credibility, but once I got past the intro I fell in love with the concept designs.

Of course, I turned off the voices to keep the oldschool feel, so I don't know how the acting stands.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Black Magic Shopkeeper

Of course, I turned off the voices to keep the oldschool feel, so I don't know how the acting stands.

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It has some of the more enjoyable voice acting out there actually.

Oh really? Then I might as well have a whack at playing it with the voices.

...
After I beat it the first time through. xD

Yeah, the voice acting is one of the best parts of the game.

Almost done with 'fundraising'. Took off some time off to play Lego Batman, and now I'm back to this game. I've been home sick so I've been listening to a lot of NPR while I level grind. I found Minnie's castle a good place to level up, about 3000 gold for every 25 battles, which is about the number of times Jessica can cast Boom. That spell, combined with Swoosh, levels almost any foes in one battle round.

I want to get at least of one every bazaar item before advancing the plot, and I'm about 3000 gold away from that.

^ Yeah, the game's like crack.

Just finished Orkursk. Somehow I get the feeling the makers of this game played too much FFIX, especially the part where you spend time chasing a villain only to arrive too late to prevent him from killing people.

Since the next major plot is Empyrea, I went back to tie up loose ends:

I got most of the treasure room chests with the Ultimate Key. I also explored most of this continent to pick up outdoor chests.

I went back to Baccarat and met Cash and Carrie (ha ha), but haven't triggered their sidequest yet.

Instead I met up with Morrie and triggered the Monster Arena subquest. I managed to recruit a Dumbking, which gave me a strong enough party to reach rank C. Suddenly at the level B the opponents got a lot harder, so I'm going to have to do some more recruiting and leveling (I'm averaging level 42 right now).

Finish Empyrea, and you'll then have access to other areas and some good additions for your monster team.

I need to pick this up again. I stopped playing when I put my PS2 away for school, and now I don't have a TV in my room (because I have a turntable instead). I should set one up somewhere; I just don't have any idea where I'd put it.

Yeah, I was able to recruit some heavy hitters and get to A rank. Getting to S rank required a strategy guide. Even then it took about 5 tries.

I've got through the Dark Citadel and am now on a quest for Dragon Balls Sage Orbs. What's the range of the Echo Flute? SE Farebury is a large area and I'm not finding the first one.

EDIT: Stupid Godbird and her vague hints. It wasn't the SE Farebury region, but that part of the city of Farebury. I quickly caught on that it was the sites where all the sages met their ends.