Customer Reviews:
 I enjoyed it while it lasted June 28, 2010
Kenny Zhu (Southampton, NY)
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
The game didn't work after I have a 3rd person added to my team. Then the screen turns black and never returns back to the game. Oh well.
 Remember when Games Were Fun? May 23, 2010
Oliver (New Jersey, USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Dragon Quest is an old franchise, but while it still has that classic feel, it's only gotten bigger, richer, more beautiful, and a lot more fun.
Graphics
Let's get some things out of the way right off the bat. This game is GORGEOUS. The colors are lush and beautiful, and the game world is very well rendered. It's a much more cartoony and colorful kind of beautiful than the lush realism of recent Final Fantasy offerings, but it's no less impressive in its own way. The only way to put it is it's as if you stepped into your television and started wandering around in one of Akira "Dragonball Z" Toriyama's illustrations and personally interacted with his iconic character designs. The game even gives you the ability to go into 1st person mode to just stand there and look around at the sights (or at a female NPC's goodies, this IS Toriyama after all). Even the monsters, also designed by Toriyama, have tons of cartoonish personality not only in their design but their animations.
Another thing I really can't over-hype is the size of this world you're allowed to explore. You can climb mountains, explore valleys, run through forests, and poke around just about everywhere looking for treasure or other surprises, all in a fully 3D world around you. In terms of size, the overworld is nothing compared to Elder Scrolls, but the in-game sun will rise and set several times if you try to cross even the main continent on foot and the world of Dragon Quest is rich with places to explore by land and sea. Thankfully you learn a teleport spell fairly early, and it can make backtracking a far less painful experience than most other games.
BTW, as far as graphical ability goes, I have to hand it to this game for being the first RPG with realistic jiggle physics for a female character (who in an incredible break from tradition isn't the de-facto healer and can be quite formidable). That in itself is as hysterical and awesome as it is pointless, and frankly, this game does a lot of wonderfully pointless things purely for the fun-factor.
Gameplay
The battle system is old. You know what though? Sometimes it's best to know when NOT to fix something, and Enix made a wise move in keeping the classic battle-mechanic that has worked for over a decade and a half. With every RPG now trying to compete for most gimmicky battle mechanic, Dragon Quest can feel like coming home to an old friend. Oh, don't get me wrong. It's been sharpened, streamlined, added to, and perfected over the course of its eight games, but its still based on the classic battle system, and for the most part it works beautifully. Dragon Quest VIII is an old-school RPG with a very beautiful look. For those who need a gimmick to justify the time and cost of a new game, we do have a few neat features like the ALCHEMY POT, an ingeniously fun little item that lets you brew different items together to create new items. There are hundreds of combinations and you won't get tired of experimenting. Party customization, while limited to the four main characters, nevertheless allows you to distribute points when you level up to various SKILLS, (mostly for a certain type of weapon) gaining different special attacks and abilities with each. When leveled up, one of Yangus's abilities as a former thief, for instance, allows you to walk quietly, lowering the monster encounter rate, or sniff out nearby treasure. The pretty-boy Trunks lookalike, as befitting a roguish ladies man, can flash his eyes and make female monsters swoon. It runs the gamut from genius to ridiculous, but it's always fun. The CUT-SCENES, one of my biggest gripes in modern RPGs, also manage to be a lot more bearable by way of using in-game graphics (as opposed to fully rendered videos) so as not to yank you too far out of the action, and are brief and infrequent enough to not interrupt game-play. The game also has another holdover of the classic games, and this is the day/night cycle. An in-game sun will rise and fall, depending on what time it is, towns might close up shop, taverns might open, and different people and monsters will be about. Because certain events only happen at certain times, this adds a great deal to the exploration. There's also a fun little side-quest game that has you hunting down certain exceptionally powerful monsters, beating them, and if you let them, joining your team. The main point of this is to compete in a monster battling arena, but unlike most side-quest games this can really help you out of a tight spot in the regular game, as you can call your team in to back you up in a tough battle. Some monsters are absurdly powerful, and having a good team of them can add a new dimension to your strategy.
Story
Right off the bat you are dropped into the middle of the story as you, the mute hero (a la Chrono Trigger), your buddy Yangus, and your king (who is under a curse, hence the title) make your way to a nearby town, fleeing the ruined castle. The story develops over the course of the game and you meet two others to join your party, each with their own back-story and reasons for pursuing the villain. Long-time RPG fans may be somewhat disappointed at the fact you only have four characters and can't adjust your party, but the characters present make up for it and there's a great deal of customization to be had with them. VOICE-ACTING is also well above-average. Though a lot of info is still conveyed via text boxes, the parts where the characters get to speak sound refreshingly well-done (provided you have nothing against English accents). The story starts out simply enough, but as usual, things get bigger and more complicated, but thankfully not so much so that you are left scratching your head wondering what anyone is talking about. Things stay comparatively simple, but clever. If I have one complaint it's that the SHADOW WORLD you journey into in the second half of the game wasn't expanded upon. It would have been fascinating to explore a dark, shadowy version of the game world to see how things were different (good monsters and bad humans?), but alas, we only get to explore a small part of it. A bit of a wasted opportunity.
In Short
If this is the last traditional JRPG ever made for consoles, then it'll have been one heck of a swan song. Classic gameplay with a huge sandbox of a world to explore, beautiful anime-style graphics and scenery, crazy and imaginative monsters, interesting and well-defined characters, and a big old-fashioned adventure that never slows down, all add up to a game that remembers what games are supposed to be about.
Having fun.
 The Best May 1, 2010
Benjamin S. Short
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is the best console role playing game ever made (well at least on planet earth). Better than all of the final fantasies (even VI). Better than Persona 3 and 4. I bought this game in 2009 and dusted off my ps2 to get a decent RPG (because there still isn't much for ps3). I put easily 100 hours into this game and I didn't mind at all that I was playing a last generation game. BUY. The game is so cheap right now, there is no excuse not to buy it if you still have a ps2 and don't have this game. Not only is this the best ps2 rpg, it's the best RPG evar! seriously :)
Not enough reviews mention the music April 28, 2010
Pete C (Orlando, FL)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I decided to pop over here and read some reviews of this great game, but after reading the first page of the "most helpful" reviews I was disgusted...no mention of one of the most important aspects of the JRPG: the music. I have to wonder if it is that most Americans would rather play modern music in the background rather than listen to the classical pieces that lend real atmosphere to the game. The music in Dragon Quest VIII is pure orchestral heaven. It is STUNNING, and top to bottom is one of the best I have ever heard in an RPG. Yes, it even gives FF VI a run for its money. The compositions run the gamut: inspiring, nostalgic, whimsical, mysterious, enchanting, intense. Each piece lends a huge hand in the enjoyment of this epic. Not only that, but the American version has the symphonic master of the original PCM...the entire thing is played by a real orchestra, lending even more emotion to the compositions. I have the entire soundtrack on my iPod. Get the game to play it, obviously, as it is a true masterpiece of an RPG. However, give some credit to the composer for completing the world beyond the visuals.
OMG Dragon Quest!!! March 7, 2010
P. McKidney (California, USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Playing this on my PS3, 60 hours in and still having fun. Can't go wrong here, with Square-style RPG gameplay and character design by the creator of Dragon Ball.
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