Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

There is a small part of me that wants to go back to the days of gaming back in the mid 90s. With the Super NES in full swing and promises of 3D in the future, gaming was all 2D and very simplistic- and RPGs were king. Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy ruled the roost, with phenomenal games like Lufia and Breath of Fire tagging along to make one hell of an experience to be part of. Even the games no-one expected to be fun- games like the Illusion of Gaia, a pseudo-RPG action game, were an absolute blast. There's no wonder why I err on the side of nostalgia at times. And sometimes there are games that make that nostalgia come back full force.

Way back in the olden days, Dragon Quest/Warrior was essentially the force against Final Fantasy- much more adventure oriented and with less story, the Dragon Quest/Warrior (I'll go by Quest now, because Enix has segued back to that nomenclature) series was all about the plain concept of role playing- even to the point of being very open ended, especially for the Nintendo Entertainment System's standards. Needless to say, the games were impressive and detailed as well as rather deep, and many a gamer was engrossed in the series quite quickly.

Unfortunately, this did not last long. Upon the release of the Nintendo 64 and Playstation, the Dragon Quest series somewhat died out, only releasing one rather bland game to augment the series. It took the eventual merger of Squaresoft (the maker of the Final Fantasy series) and Enix (Dragon Quest, et al) to finally force now SquareEnix to pump out another Dragon Quest game.

And I can honestly say, it was a great decision. Yet again pulling the talents of Akira Toriyama to the series, Dragon Quest is a gross affirmation of everything that was great about Dragon Quest- and to some degree, a reminder of why some gamers may not want to go back to the old days. Everything here is, in it's barest form, a new coat of paint on the whole series, taking the great concepts of the old series (And some standard ideas, concepts, and gameplay techniques) and placing them in an environment where they can be shown in full glory.



Let me first take this whole game into account by breaking down what I mean above- and explain why some gamers may not warm to SquareEnix's new rendition. First off, the game has not fundamentally changed since the original Dragon Quest for the Nintendo Entertainment System- strange, you may say, but not surprising. While the graphics are absolutely perfect and the music is outstanding, the gameplay fundamentals have not changed in over 10 years- something that may leave gamers a little confused.

For example, the biggest part of Dragon Quest 8 is, of course, the battle system. Much akin to it's predecessors, the bulk of this game's time is spent in the midst of battle or some other similar function- so that it quickly becomes the standard skill mill that many were familiar with back on the Super NES. This is very foreign to the newer systems- because even the Final Fantasy series, sometimes a little cruel, has become somewhat light on the battle system itself. The impression I got was one of a very basic Massively Multiplayer Online game- one that required endless amounts of battling, except in this case, I really was getting no online fame.

But I can't stay too long on the bad part of this game, because in all honesty, there is so much good to go around. For those of us who have played the older Dragon Quest games, Dragon Quest 8 is like seeing an old familiar friend for the first time in years- a very nostalgic feeling that makes you want to hug your PS2. Little aspects of the game- such as the adherence to the “Facing the enemy” perspective of the battle system- remind gamers that SquareEnix does still remember about what many would call “The good old days”.

There is much to Dragon Quest 8 that needs to be praised in a very gratuitous fashion, and I suppose I should start with the graphics. Perfectly emulating the drawing style of character designer Akira Toriyama (Yes, Mr. Dragonball Z), the game chugs along seamlessly through large open landscapes and very detailed towns. All of the characters are unique and have the same feeling as the NPCs of the original Dragon Quest games- but with the familiar design that many of us only saw on the cover of the game itself. It's taking the artwork to the game- something that no other game could do as effectively- and it draws the player in- in a way that I had never thought possible. Surprisingly enough, this cel-shaded effect actually runs quite well on the PS2, though I must admit that the game is very simplistic graphically as well. The level of detail in the game is nowhere near that of fellow games like Final Fantasy X or Xenosaga- but it works well enough to pass off as a decent variety of land and sea.



The music is another place where Dragon Quest makes me jump for joy- because instead of the tried and true fashion of making fake music with a soundboard or mixing station- the ENTIRE GAME is conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. From the battle theme to every town to every talk to every rest scene- everything was made by a full out orchestra. This inevitably makes the music a beautiful composition of reeds, horns, and everything that makes music good- and beats the hell out of any RPG soundtrack I've ever heard of. The fatal flaw is, though, that this also shortened the whole game to about 10 key songs- so repetition is everywhere.

And I must yet again stress that repetition is everywhere- and beyond just the music. The battle system in Dragon Quest 8 gets old fast, which unfortunately made me end up ditching the game after 15+ hours of gameplay. The story of Dragon Quest 8 is very basic and simple and tries to reminisce older days of RPG gaming- and unfortunately suffers from it. With complex and great stories seen from games like Xenogears or Final Fantasy 9, Dragon Quest 8 feels to be as deep as the very first Legend of Zelda game- “Go kill Gannon. Bye.”.

Another facet of this lack of story depth comes in the department of the dungeons, which have to be some of the most irritating and boring in all of RPG history. Big open rooms (You'll find the game has no mazes, puzzles, or anything of that sort- just big open rooms) lead to more big open rooms which lead to more and then to the boss- and maybe an item or two. Yet again comparing it to it's competitors, Dragon Quest 8 makes even basic randomly generated Diablo II dungeons look deep and complex- which is sad, considering Diablo II proceeds Dragon Quest 8 by about 5 years.



So, all of that above into account, Dragon Quest 8 is neither a good or bad game. There is a lot to Dragon Quest 8 that makes it a great game, but the boring repetitive nature of the battle engine and the rather boring story ends up making Dragon Quest 8 a walk through memory lane, and not much more. Featuring a demo of Final Fantasy XII might have been a good idea, considering that the game itself gets boring so quickly, I found myself enjoying the demo of XII much more than I did the entirety of Dragon Quest 8. Sorry, my younger self, but I'll stay in the ages of complex RPGs and leave old nostalgic series like Dragon Quest in the nursing home.

4 star(s) out of 5

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