Doragon kuesuto VIII: Sora no daichi to norowareshi himegimi

(www.plasticpals.com) Dragon Quest VIII: The Journey of the Cursed King follows the trail of an evil jester named Dhoulmagus who has cursed the inhabitants of the kingdom of Trodain. The hero is the only person in the castle who manages to resist the evil magic, so the king (who has been transformed into an imp) enlists his help. Together they'll make many friends and some enemies on a grand old quest for king and country. It closely follows series' tradition, but also pushes the series forward with its more modern presentation.

As usual you'll explore towns, talk to characters to learn what to do next, and fight enemies along the way in random encounters. It's all fairly typical role-playing stuff, following a linear story progression without too many opportunities to get lost. While some of the scenarios aren't particularly interesting, there are quite a few memorable ones. One minor gripe is that, because of the size of the world map (which has been built to scale), it can take quite a while to get from point A to B until you get the Zoom spell (and other forms of transportation).

A couple of notable new ideas were introduced that would carry over in Dragon Quest 9. The first is tension, which can be built up during battles to boost a character's abilities. It adds a bit of strategy to the battle system, since it's often a gamble to build up tension over several rounds if an enemy has the ability to neutralize it.

The second is the alchemy pot, which can be used to create new items, but the implementation here is a little janky. Unlike in Dragon Quest 9, alchemy recipes don't always tell you what ingredients are required, or even what the resulting item will be. Even more annoying is the time required to actually alchemize anything, which ranges from 5 to 10 minutes.

When the series moved to the PlayStation with the 7th installment, it kept most of the trappings of the series' traditional appearance and sound. Dragon Quest 8 brings things more into line with modern expectations. For the first time story scenes feature voice acting for every major character, and the score is fully orchestrated. The titular cursed king Trode is particularly well acted, as is your main pal Yangus, who both provide much comic relief throughout the adventure. Most of the characters have English accents which fit the setting and really add to the overall tone of the game.

Additionally, all of the characters are modeled in 3D which allows them to better express themselves during the story scenes. It's a huge departure from the small 2D sprites of the previous games which hardly captured the look of Akira Toriyama's character designs. The game's cinematic moments are done using the capable in-game graphics, which have a hand-drawn anime appearance with ink outlines.

The settings are slightly disappointing, since they can't quite reflect Toriyama's style and are often a bit bland. It is somewhat excusable, given the hardware limitations as well as the sheer number of towns and castles that had to be made. That said, the draw distance is pretty impressive, allowing you to see to the horizon.

Dragon Quest games are never too challenging, but a few of the bosses and optional side quests certainly can be. Finding all 110 mini medals, for instance, requires that you explore the world with a fine-toothed comb. The monster arena can get pretty tough, and the Dragovian Trials are especially difficult. You can easily spend an hour or two just in the game's casino.

It's possible to complete the main story in around 50 hours but it's likely to keep your interest well beyond that. My personal play time was around 75 hours with very little time spent level-grinding. Completing some of the post-game content will even unlock an enhanced ending.

Fans of traditional role-playing games will find it hard to put the controller down, and when it's all said and done the experience leaves you totally satisfied. The PlayStation 2 was certainly no stranger to RPGs, but Dragon Quest 8 manages to rise above them all with its great cast of characters and memorable storyline. This is hands-down the one RPG you simply must play on the PlayStation 2.

This game just proves you do not need to have computer generated film sequences in a game to make it good, instead why not just make the entire game a wonderful visual experience. That is what they did here as the game is just stunning to look at, it is like watching a very well done cartoon. In fact, the characters were designed by the guy who did DragonBall Z and it most certainly shows. The story has a king and his beautiful daughter cursed...he is now turned into a troll like creature and she, while still beautiful, is now a horse. They are traveling to find a way to end the curse of themselves and their home, as the castle is now overrun with thorns. They are accompanied by a young man who was a guard at the castle and somehow escaped everyone else's fate of being turned to thorns and a thief they meet along the way named Yangus. Who could have brought about such terror you ask, a strange magician clown that goes by the name Dhoulmagus. Most of the game you are tracking him in an attempt to break the curse, and along the way you meet two more allies in the form of the very lovely Jessica and Angelo a man who has a special place in his heart for the ladies. During your adventures you will run across many fiends and many lovely locales. And some not so lovely as you will find out in the thieve's paradise of Pickham. You even get to see a lovely winter land and a strange land with virtually no color. You sail the seas and soar through the skies, though not in the old standby airship. The fighting is turned based, nothing to complicated to pick up, you do have your special attacks and you can psyche yourself and make your attacks that much more effective. The only complaints I have for the game is that getting money and upgrading your equipment can be a pain as is using the alchemy pot (though that has its pluses too). Then there is the music, which is not bad, but it is not varied enough for my tastes. However, the game is overall very enjoyable and it has a very sweet ending that I thought was one of the better endings I have seen in a role playing game.

This game shows a perfect mix of turn based strategy and Japanese anime. However what makes it better than the other Dragon Quest games is its full English voice actors, which makes it much more enjoyable than reading subtitles. The humour, whilst at times can be a bit silly, is very well done in my opinion and actually made me laugh at loud a couple of times, the graphics are not the best but for the time are absolutely amazing and very nicely stylized.

All in all with over 200 hours of playtime to complete the game and never a moment of boredom I give it the highest possible rating 10/10.

Dragon Quest 8, a story about a traveling company to find the evil jest Dhoulmages, who stole the Scepter from the Kingdom of Trodain. With the scepter's power, he turned the King of Trodain into a small, green creature, and his only daughter, Medea, into a beautiful horse. Along with those powers, came thorns that covered the castle with it's tight grasp, turning everyone to stone, except for the King, Medea, and another person, whose name is chosen by the gamer, I will refer to him as HERO, as the guide mentions him.

I have not finished this game yet, for it is very long, and you must take breath-taking hours looking for all the treasure chests in this huge world, so vast it will take you many hours to explore all of it, while the first 3/4 of the game is on foot, or by sea. The rest you fly on a bird, and certain locations come to your disposal. I love the graphics in this game also. Not many people like these graphics, but I happen to love these cartoon graphics, which I believe it to make the gamer more involved with it, and there is a little bit of humor in it. Which leads me to my favorite character, Angelo. Strong with the sword, and strong with the heart. Very smart I believe, and very nice.

But the thing I love the most out of this amazing game, is the music. I have not heard such beautiful music in my life in any game, not even Shadow of the Colossus fulfills this goal. Especially the World Map. That song just gives me goosebumps whenever I listen to it, and sometimes I find myself just staring into space, looking at my wall, listening to it and doing nothing. Another song that really gives me goosebumps is the song when you are on the ship. That is my favorite song in the game, and i could listen to it all day long and easily fall asleep to it. Since I haven't finished the game yet, I will eventually like another song.

Definant 9/10.