A review of SquareEnix's Dragon Quest VIII
Your motley crew. Both the manual and the box cover spoil who is going to be in your party. As have I with this picture. Er, oh well.
From what I read, Dragon Quest is very popular in Japan. It was Enix's answer to Squaresoft's Final Fantasy - but I'll leave open whether I meant that in terms of how good the game is or how good the hype is...
I certainly don't know what this means now that the two companies have merged. Judging by the ff12 demo disk slipped into the inside cover of the latest Dragon Warrior game, they must be working together - we're all doomed.
But anyway, politics aside, what's the game like?
The world map in the game is amazing, both graphically and in terms of size. It's better than anything in most games. Pity about the loading times for it though.
Dispite the number 8 in its name, I've never played a Dragon Warrior game before. And I'm not exactly in a minority here - they've never been as popular in the English speaking world as in Japan.
But if the same goes for you too, now might be a good time to change that - because what's here is actually quite good.
The game lets you attempt to scare off weak enemies. Which is always funny, regardless of whether it actually works or not.
Probably the first thing worth noting is that there has been a change in the development team since the previous version. This time, the reigns have been handed to Level 5(check) - that's right, the same team behind Dark Cloud/Dark Chronicle and True Fantasy Live Online. And yes, they've brought their cell-shading engine with them.
And - I'm starting with the graphics here - it looks amazing. If you thought that Dark Cloud 2 looked good, then this is the next step up. They don't use fmv anywhere, so the screenshots you see alongside this text are from the game engine, in real time.
I never knew that you could heal people's wounds by dancing, but apparently you can.
Another achievement that the team has managed is to get around the ps2's limited memory by adding streaming to the game. Yes, this is an RPG, and it has streaming in it.
Don't read that as "no loading times" though - the world map is one big continuous world, but there are still long periods of black when going into/out of a town, house or dungeon. And longer periods than most, although most are tolerable.
The worst offenders are whenever you get on or off the boat or (this game's version of) the airship. The game uses three different maps for the world; one for each mode of traveling - and whenever you switch between them there is a long loading time.
Just as annoyingly, you have to go into your inventory (and wait a couple of seconds more as the menus load up as well) in order to use the airship.
Very early on, you get the ability to teleport instantly two major towns and dungeons that you have visited, relegating the boat and airship to being only used a sparse few times whenever you need to go somewhere new, making them seem almost pointless.
...but, the graphics are amazing, arguably it's a small price for the graphical prettyness that you get. Even if you do have to go to the pain of opening up the menus after each battle to heal your party.
Laughter is also a formidable weapon.
The battles in the game are both nothing special and pretty amazing at the same time, depending on your opinion.
From a gameplay point of view, there's nothing here that you wouldn't find on an RPG on the NES or Master System. I'm not joking here, it really is that old fashioned. Turn-based battles, where you pick either to attack, use magic, use an item or defend, then your turns are played out in order of your character's reflex stat. (In its defense you might note that Wild Arms F, that I reviewed earlier, also does this. But in Dragon Quest, there are none of the aditions to the gameplay or tweaks to the battle system.)
Don't let the cartoon look make you think that this is a kids game. There's no violence, but the women-in-a-bikini factor is quite high.
The battles are triggered by random encounters, and while there are some puzzles, most of which are triggered whilst running from A to B in the middle of a dungeon or the world map.
Also, this game probably has some of the worst balancing that I've ever seen. It's not that it's so difficult exactly, more like it's impossible to clear a few of the bosses without spending about an hour leveling up beforehand due to a sudden jump in the difficulty at that stage in the game. Probably the best example of this is the first boss, which is even more frustrating, because at the very start of the game already you have to level grind.
A lot of the special moves have a sense of humor.
So, if the balance is off, why have I just said that it's so good?
Well, it's hard to explain, but it's a presentation thing really. Level 5 have put a heck of a lot of effort into making the battles look good and animate smoothly, and there's a bit of humor in just about everything..
Fans of the series will recognize all of the usual cast of monsters, only complete with cell shading, and very well animated. They've been animated so that they start the battle initially posing like their old 2D relatives used to, but then actually start moving when it's their turn, which is a very nice touch.
While there's not much tactics past "Which enemy should I take out first" and "Is it worth using a special move or a support ability here", it still does manage to be involving and brings a smile to your face at times.
The enemy probably wasn't expecting to be trampled to death by a bunch of old geezers.
The plot is quite involving as well.
The story starts as the player is traveling after a mysterious jester. This man is obviously evil, because every sentence or two he bursts out into insane laughter. Oh, and he has placed a curse on your hometown, turning all of the inhabitants into plants. The game then continues with you chasing him Sephiroth-style around the world map.
The way I've described it makes it sound predictable, and on an overall level it is. But when you actually play the game, the details of the plot will keep you hooked.
Before you ask, no I don't exactly know what the puff puff is...
Oh, and I've not mentioned the soundtrack yet.
The Japanese release had a pretty average soundtrack, with nothing really special in it. As so often happens, they released an OST anyway, which someone in Japan must have brought, and then followed it with an orchestrated version.
For the English release, SquareEnix have the brainwave of actually putting some of the orchestrated versions into the game itself. Apologies for the awful pun, but it really is music to my ears.
This isn't the first game to go for an orchestrated track - for example Hitman has had one for a long time - but so few games do, it still stands out.
...only that it can be used to paralyze the enemy for a short time, and every time it is used, the action is covered up by this screen.
One thing to note, despite the cartoony look, this isn't aimed at as quite a young age-group as the rest Level 5's games. For example, there are a couple of jokes playing on attractive female members, as well as a few bikini costumes available. There's nothing scary/violent about the game though, and no bad language.
Another paralysis attack. This one isn't censored, letting us see it in its full mental-scaring glory.
I think the game is worth 8.5 out of 10.
That's lower than most other people would say. I think it's a great game, but I think the issues it does have should weigh into the score somewhere.