Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
 

So hey, I finally got this game and came on GFF looking for info and tidbits only to find that no one's made a v.2 thread for it yet.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
Release Date:
04/2006 (EU)
11/2005 (US)
11/2004 (JPN)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rsed_King.jpeg

Gamespot Review (9.0)
IGN Review (9.0)
GameFAQs Page

I've been playing the game for several hours now and I totally love it. I'm not too far into it, about to leave the second town, but I can't believe how much better the game is on my TV than in the screenshots. I have to admit, I was unimpressed by the way the game looked until I saw it being played by my friend at his house. I felt like I was watching a living, breathing cartoon play out on the TV screen, for the most part. It may not be as fluid as Zelda: Wind Waker is, but it looks the part pretty well.

The combat system is refreshing as well. I'm so used to the bloated battle systems of the RPGs today, like SO3's or FFX's, even the convoluted Xenosaga's system. Returning to the battle system of olden days is like a breath of fresh air from that favorite haunt you used to love when you were a kid. It's simple, clean, does what its supposed to do, and doesn't get in the way. I like that.

I also have to hand it to the voice actors, great work. It's so much better than I could have hoped for. King Trode sounds about right, Jessica's voice matches, even some of the less important characters like the townsfolk are acted out good and well.

Of final note before I go to play it some more, I have to confess my unoriginal hero name: Hiro.
At least I didn't name him 'Eight'.

I've really been enjoying DQVIII as well, the old school elements are very welcome in today's age of complicated systems, and although I wasn't quite sure how I would feel about the graphical style at first having never been into DBZ I have to say I love it (it's just another welcome change).

I'm about 80 hours into it, I'm sure some people probably finish the game in less time but I've just gotten so into the side stuff with alchemy and the casinos that I've been taking the long way for just about everything (I like "gearing up"). Might as well, and from what I understand there is post game content like Xeno2 so there should be plenty to keep one busy even after the main story comes to an end.

The music really needs no additional fanfare, it's nice that gaming technology has come as far as it has now that we essentially get to play with the "symphonic suite" as the actual game soundtrack instead of just as a soundtrack album.

I just got this game. I've only heard good things about this, and I can't wait to play it after I finish SotC and Gun.

Sorry, come again? No offense to Wind Waker, but hell no. Dragon Quest 8 looks much more clear and vivid than Wind Waker does. If you need proof, look at the differences in the water. Granted, Wind Waker is a lot more cartoony than Dragon Quest 8 is though. DQ8 is probably the closest cel-shading will come to photorealistic, at least until Rogue Galaxy come sout (which is done by the same team, Level 5.)

Anyway, I adored Dragon Quest 8 for all that it is. I now firmly believe that anything Level 5 works on is an instant classic and a perfect example of how games should be made, especially RPGs. I love the use of British VAs, even though they were toned down from the PAL release -- I heard that the European version had some really heavy British voice acting compared to the the U.S. release.

The battles are great and very, very turn-based, but that's not a bad thing. It's good to step back into nostalgia. I dunno, I really can't say anything else except that I really enjoyed this game. It's on my list of top games I've ever and probably will ever play. Every RPG fan should own this, and everyone else should at least rent it.

I beat this game recently and loved it. Was nice to play an RPG that isn't so terribly complicated, but still requires some strategy and has a totally addictive leveling system(atleast I thought so). Music was astounding and the monsters were some of the best.

I'm going to play through again to use some of the weapons I didn't on my first run. I used Swords with Hero, Bows with Angelo, Whip with Jess and Axe with Yangus.

Oh and here's a hint for beating metal king slimes easily. I figured this out on my own one day and it really helps. If you get the spear skillk that has a chance of auto-kill(forgot the name but its early) and also get the axe skill that does the same (executioner), then you have two chances a turn to automatically kill a Metal King Slime. I've gotten 60k exp in a fight doing this....quite helpful indeed ^^

I haven't seen a better new (non-remake) RPG in 6 years. (since the 90's).

Music: Holy god it sounds like you are hearing music from a movie. 10/10.

Graphics: Excellent use of PS2. Full and giant world to go into with huge and realistic towns. 10/10.

Gameplay: Classic random battle & menu fighting with classic spells, weapons and armor. The only downfall is that I find many DQ games harder/more challenging, and thus better because of that. DQ8 was too easy. 9/10.

Story: Characters that I'll never forget, and a plot that I'd love to re-read over and over, unlike 99% of video games I've played. 10/10.

In my top 10 of RPG's ever.

The battles were really easy....until you got to the part where you fought Dhoulmagus. That was an insanely hard battle, and all the rest of the enemies also got stronger. Even still, you may be right -- this game as a whole was a bit easier than previous DQs.

I didn't think the game was easy, but I do think it was easier than some of the other DQ games. After playing the demo version, I was surprised how much easier the same section of game was in the final version. But still, I felt that the level of challenge was well balanced, never too easy or too hard. I still haven't gotten around to tackling the Dragovian trials, though...

i got the game a few weeks ago, im search of the moonshadow harp(i think that was the name.) i have 20+ hours, and this game is good, really good.
i love the world theme is so inspiring, and the hero in super high tension, looks exactly as a super saiyan gohan!
i love this game, and i think i have a long way to beat it!
3 hooray fot square-enix!!!

I am at the Dark Ruins right now, ca 50 hours into the game. It's pretty enjoyable, the first 20 or so hours were addictive as hell. The graphics are pretty cool, the characters are likeable and the battle system is not bad although they could have given it a little more speed. The story is pretty much straighforward, atleast it has been up until the dark ruins.

I think that Level 5 have made a very good and enjoyable game.

So how long did it take you to finish the game?
I've heard it's about 80 hours or so, is that right?

I think only 50-60 for the regular game and 10 more for the bonus.

Ehhh, I got around 120 doing everything. If you only spend 50~60 hours on the main game, I severely doubt 10 hours will be enough time to powerbuff your party to beat all the Dragovian Trials.

Maybe if all you meant was beating the first trial for the "good" ending but otherwise, no; not without walkthroughs or something to tell you exactly what to do to minimize time spent with alchemy and the like.

Hmm I forgot my exact time....I saw my brother do most of the Dragovian Trials so I only did the 1st one to get the other ending....I'm assuming around the 80-90 hour mark?

My brother just finished the game. He's got over a hundred hours and has finally decided that he's done with it. I'll be starting it up next week. Between playing through this one as well as the upcoming release of KH2, gaming will certainly suck my free time away.

Picked it up, tried it, got bored. My tolerance of RPG stories that insult my intelligence is pretty low these days, and DQ8 was a very bad offender. A few quirks aside, the whole thing felt like something that was cranked out of RPG Maker, the whole works is so generic. Maybe it's every other developer leeching bits here and there from the original DQ games, but not a damn thing feels original anymore. Or maybe Akira Toriyama's slimes and skeletons were never that innovative to begin with.

Or maybe you expect too much.

Yeah no kidding.
Those 20 zillion Japanese fans who bought DQ8 on day one knew what to expect, after all.

Hoping a DQ game will be a totally fresh experience is like buying a Metallica album and hoping that the lyrics have deep symbolic and emotional depth.

The gameplay is just as classic (with the new skill point idea and massive tension ability), but for a DQ game, we got something that we've never seen in DQ before:

Voice storyline
"Infamous" Monsters (enemies walking on worldmap)
Sabrecat (fast worldmap ride)
Alchemy Pot
Real / Full 3d Graphics
Orchestra Music
Story with Full Plot and memorable characters that have characterization

what???? there more than one ending???
shheesshhh, this game is long, and i have to beat it several times?
i wont have time to beat Suikoiden Tactics!!!!!!
hehehehe
anyway, its better to have more endings, how many ending is in the game?

It's not necessarily a separate ending so much as it is a different version of the same ending, ya dig? Anyway, it's only that one thing. And no, you don't have to play though the game again.

When you beat it, you're given the option to go back to a point just before you fought the boss, at which point you take the time to explore, do any sub-quests like the Monster Arena, etc.

i see, thanx for the info dude.
now that you mention the monster arena, i found it really enterteining, who is your party member?
i got Salsa, Brickman and the axenosaur(dont remeber the name) and i climbed easily to rank D in the first try.
I guess there should be more monster.
which one are the strongest ones, or more valuable?
just give the name, i dont want any additional info, i dont want to spoil the discovery feeling of the game.

It's been so long, I don't remember my final party. But I know that the trio of the robots and the brickmen each had a few wins. There are a couple GFFers who used the Brickmen team to win.

yeah, brickman is really powerful, and have some tendency to raise his tension level.

Yea I used the My Three Golem team which consists of Brickman, Goldman, and er...Stoneman(?) kinda forgot. Anyway they make a great team and I guess I got lucky, but I beat the last rank on my first try with em.

I am currently working on beating Rank B. The whole monster arena concept is really brilliant and fun to play. I love Morrie and the prize winner guy's accents, especially when the prize winner says something like: "A most spectacular performance, here is the prize for winning Rank (?)". That line cracks me up everytime I hear it :)

iyou are right, and morrie is cool because he looks like to mr satan from dragon ball z?

I got this game a week after it released, and I played it non-stop and beat the final boss at around 80 hours, and beat it all in 114 hours, but not at max level yet. Yes, the story was predictable, the combat system wasn't excellent, but it was a well polished game with great music (The tower music in this game is awesome for such a slow piece.) and fluid graphics, I wasn't even a big fan of cell shading, but I was shocked.

I liked the characters, even with the mute hero bringing back memories of Crono. And the story had some good parts to it, even some funny stuff.

Overall, it's the best RPG I have played in a while, it must rank easily in my top 10.

I played 20 hours of it but I haven't enjoyed it that badly. Sure there are some fum parts but there are also A LOT of boring parts, especially all of those moments that have no relation to the game's story.

I was so far from being entertained that I dropped it in 20 hours and I will return to play some other time. My cousin who had already finished the game said the game get's a lot better at the point I was (The 2nd Island) but I was not paying to see it. Maybe at the middle of the year or so I'll keep going from where I left.

But if there is one thing I really loved in this game was the soundtrack, I simply loved it. There were times when I wasn't much in the mood to play it but I kept playing just so I could listen to it.

Don't get me wrong, I think it is a good game, I just get pissed off when you're playing something that takes forever for the story to move onwards.

remember that the story of DQ8 is really straight forward(everything is about the quest of the cursed king to regain his former self) so, there are no surprises at least talking in twist manners.

Yeah. DQ8's story is about as simple as it gets. If you can't see the end result coming from a mile away you must be completely out of it.

Question: is the worth it?
I am about ready to beat the game, so I was just wondering.

Yes it is, because you can obtain the Hero's second appearance in it. But be warned, it's a pretty tough series of challenges. It'll make the end boss comparable to fighting a Slime at level 60. >_>;

You don't have to actually go through all of the challenges to trigger the second ending. Just, what, the first one?

Yeah, just one of 'em. But to get the costume....

Yeah, but the costume isn't really that great looking. I don't think it's really worth the time, but I am sure if I were a kid who had a ton of free time, it might be fun to try.

Random out of context comment: Toys R Us has dropped the price of DQ8 to $40, so if you haven't gotten it yet, your patience has been rewarded.

For the first time since I beat the game a few months ago, I played it again just to kinda mess around for a second.

I remembered that during my playthrough, I never hit 100 tension on any of my characters, but it wasn't from lack of trying. So this time I used the recipe for the Timbrel of Tension in the super alchemy pot, and a couple seconds later I had the Timbrel.

So I took it with me in to battle and used it, and in one battle got all of my characters up to 100 tension! Just thought I'd share. Heh.

Timbrel of Tension rocks.

I'm about 45 hours into it. Just passed the Dark Ruins.

It's a refreshing game. Not because it's innovative (because it isn't). Not because it has a deep, engaging story (because it doesn't). But because it's so unapologetically OLD SKEWL that it's taken me right back to the days I was playing my free copy of Dragon Warrior that I got for subscribing to Nintendo Power in my bedroom. Of course, I'm glad they left out some truly old school touches (like making you select "DOOR" or "STEPS" from the command list).

My wife hates the game though. Swears it's the stupidest, most childish game I've forced her to sit through. She just doesn't get it. She wasn't weaned on DW1 & 2, Phantasy Star 1, and Final Fantasy 1 as a kid.

I've only been wiped out once - by Dhoulmagus's second form. It was funny, my wife was all like, "So does this mean you're done with this game?" as her hopes were quickly raised. I just shrugged and said, "Naw. If I know Dragon Warrior games, there's another boss after this one." Sometimes predictable is good.

Ha, that's pretty funny about your wife not being weaned on the previous DQ/W games. I wasn't either -- DQ 8 was my first and I actually bought a copy of DW7 after I beat 8, which I plan on playing soon.

I played it trough now and technically it can't keep up with Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy games in pretty much every way of course but it's suppose to be an oldscool game anyway with all it's flaws and addiction for discovery and collection.
All in all it was more an average game for me which couldn't give me such a great 3-D feeling like Zelda did and the music isn't bad composed but too boring after a while and destroys sometimes the atmosphere with pretty lame cues in climatic moments. It's bad enough that the sequences aren't really good cut together and can look extremely cheap. The score simply can't keep up anymore with the high quality osts today but well, it's an oldschool game with all of it's flaws.
The slow leveling up and waaaaaaay to many random battle can drag the gameplay pretty down but I'm in such a high level now that I don't get them at all anymore with holy protection. Only have to beat the dragonian dragon 3 more times.

The two boss thing really came into its own with DQ3. DQ1 was all about the Dragonlord, and DQ2's Malroth only popped in long enough to fight you. But DQ3 was where the two boss model was perfected. Just as you start celebrating taking down Baramos, Zoma goads you into crossing over into the cursed world for a fight (which, of course, was the world of DQ1 and 2, tying the whole trilogy together nicely).

DQ has been a series of trilogies thus far, with 1-3 being a single storyline and 4-6 being another. Part of me wonders what the connection between 7 and 8 is that we aren't being told yet.

Dragon Quest VIII is clearly connected to a small degree with both Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest III, and possibly Dragon Quest IV if you want to reinforce the fact that the locations of the two cameo characters are even mentioned.

Dragon Quest IX may tie the two legends (Loto/Zenithian) together once and for all.

Dragon Quest can more than keep up with Final Fantasy with ease, and ANYTHING can keep up with Kingdom Hearts.

Also, I don't know what you're smoking when it comes to the OST saying it can't keep up. Exactly how many games have fully orchestrated scores when they hit stateside?

It can keep up in the sense that it's the only one of the three RPG series you've mentioned that legally CAN'T be released on a weekday in Japan because it would promote too much absence from work and school!

@Kostaki
Oh yeah the story is sooo much better than the one of KH2, it also looks better than FFX and not to mention those AMAZING cutscenes-.- Omg play first a bunch of RPGs before making posts with no sense and I'm not complaining about the orchestra just the composition itself but you don't really seem to read posts anyway before quote little parts of it with no sense.
You wanna now how a an orchestra score of a game really should be? Than play Cameo and like I said. There's simply not enough dynamic in the score that at some point you just stop listening to the music and nothing in it really stands out.
The ONLY things it can keep up with FF and KH is the gamplay, discovery- and collecting part but that's diffrent from every player anyway and I'm not an oldscool rpg type of guy since I simply don't have time to ways over 60h just to finish it so DQ8 is an exeption.
Oh any I'm also done with the monster arena. Just used the team of golems. They are the best combination for the arena.

I've played and beaten hundreds of RPGs starting from the early PC to NES all the way to this generation of games. I've done more than most people will ever do in my time of playing RPGs. I've also clocked more time with RPGs that you've probably played with every game you've played ever combined. I don't need you to tell me what to play and what not to play.

I have played, have beaten, and own copies of Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts 1, and Dragon Quest VIII.

Dragon Quest VIII > Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy X.

That is all.

So I finally finished the basic game, though I was taking my time. Overall, it was a pretty cool game. The story isn't all super melodrama and ninja fighting with giant robots or anything, but I wasn't disappointed. It really seemed like I went on this amazing adventure in a cartoon fantasy world. I'm sure I'll be going through the whole thing again some day using different weapons.

I like the way the ending was presented. Can you actually effect the way it plays out by making different choices? I've heard of another ending, but that's something additional that you get from finishing postgame stuff, right? I guess I'll keep trying with that, since I got wiped out in the first dungeon. It looked really cool when I got to the part outside amongst all the clouds.

This is probably the most I've enjoyed an RPG since FFVII or FFVIII.

The second ending is obtainable by acquiring a certain item after the second post-game dungeon. It's incredibly hard to miss, and you'll know exactly what it is and why it's there when you get it.

I wish it wasn't so obvious though.

I know I'm almost a month late, but I just wanted to post this. It's quite funny.
http://www.ilovedragonquest.com/