The Dragon Quest series is pretty much the only JRPG franchise that refuses to change in order to broaden its demographic. No deep scripts, no complex character development, no changes in combat mechanics, no new monster designs, or even a change in key developers.
The overall gaming community doesn't like this, but fans of the series prefer it this way. The series never needed to change and we love it exactly as it is. Around the early 2000s, series creator Yuji Horii personally picked Level-5 to develop the eighth game in the series under his supervision after playing Dark Chronicle. It became one of the best selling games of its time and is regarded as one of the best entries in the series, and, of course, it made the JRPG gaming community aware that Level-5 was a force to be reckoned with. Let's take a look:
The Story:
Just like all other games in the series, the story was written by Yuji Horii. This series never had deep storytelling and it doesn't pretend to, either. An evil jester steals a magic scepter from a castle. The power of the scepter curses the castle and everyone in it. The king becomes a monster and the princess becomes a horse. The only one that escaped unscathed is one of the castle guards. The three of them give chase to this villain to try to break the curse. The plot is very simple and the characters are equally simple. It is, for all purposes, a lighthearted story with great British humor. The characters have just enough personality to be likable, except for the main character, who is silent and devoid of any character. See, this is an old school JRPG where you're supposed to pretend you're the main character. Still, it's not as good as the best DQ plots, but it works for what it does, and even then it still has its moments of greatness.
7.5/10
The Gameplay:
It's almost unnecessary to describe the gameplay. If you have any sort of familiarity with old school JRPGs, you know exactly how it goes. It's all here: Giant world map full of places to explore and things to do, tons of side quests, random battles (with a well-programmed frequency), turn-based battle system, dungeons filled with monsters and towns full of NPCs and shops.
The character development system is still the traditional Exp system, but this time around we also have a skill point system. Every time you level up, you get a certain number of points that you can distribute between your character's "weapon" stats, and make your characters better at using certain types of weapons. Let's say you give 10 points to your "Swords" stat: from now on, that character will get a bonus of +10 attack if he's equipped with a sword. Obviously, it's wise to distribute points equally to each weapon stat. We also have a tension system. The command "Psyche up" allows the player to skip a character's turn in order to build "tension", making that character's next attack stronger. By using it multiple times in succession, the character's attack will do more damage and, if you're lucky, put that character in a state of high tension, where he/she becomes incredibly strong.
Overall the gameplay is basically brilliant in its simplicity.
10/10
The Audio:
As always, the composer is Koichi Sugiyama, the godfather of gaming music. This is the first game in the series to have an orchestrated soundtrack, and it is done beautifully. All songs are memorable and create a great sense of adventure and atmosphere. The British voice acting is also very charming thanks to Level-5's trademark quirky, British sense of humor.
10/10
The Graphics:
Using the same graphics engine as Dark Chronicle, Level-5 creates a cel-shaded world that feels like a cartoon and that still looks quite appealing today. As always with this series, legendary manga artist Akira Toriyama designed characters and monsters, and that characteristic charm of his is all over this game.
10/10
Overall, Dragon Quest VIII is what I like to call a game for JRPG gamers rather than JRPG fans. If you need a deep plot with complex characters, stay away, but if you love deep character building, challenging turn based battles and rewarding exploration in a vast world, then put aside a few months in your calendar, and prepare yourself for a rich gameplay experience
Final Grade: 9.4/10
See you next review ;)
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