Playstation Dragon Quest VIII

[Finchester]

Recently just played through this for the third time and I'm just curious to see what other FF fans make of it?

It is very much an old school style RPG just like any other Dragon Quest/ Dragon Warrior game, but in this case given a 3D environment makeover. This game simply takes an old RPG battle system formula thats be proven to be popular and just makes ever so slight changes that make it even better. And it looks fantastic, graphic designs were done by the same dude who did Dragon Ball Z which in all honesty would normally put me off a game but it just works really well with the colourful and bold style. It features a wonderful story, some great voice acting, exciting soundtrack, well designed characters and follows a very medievil English theme throughout.

Needless to say I really love this game and I think it's certainly one of the strongest RPG's to be released on the PS2 possibly even 'the' best, sorry FFX fans. It's quite a special game and has alot of charm so I'd highly recommend it to those that havent already played it.

 

[Blacksford]

Didn't cut it for me. The game looks too childish - Akira Toriyama made the designs, and you can tell, as the enemies look like something out of the original Dragonball. Even the bosses, every single one of them, fail to look menacing. There are no great characters in it either, overall I'm not fond of comical RPGs. The battle system also felt too dry; sure, it's classic, but they could have added a bit more of a twist to it... The best part is still the monster arena, which is a nice breath of fresh air, but overall, I just couldn't fall in love with it.
The only song out of the entire soundtrack that pleased me was Healing Power of the Psalms. The battle theme got on my nerves much too fast - only Persona 4's beat that record - because it didn't sound exciting, it sounded like a fanfare. :/

Still, it's probably one of the best bets for people looking for classic-style RPGs, since most are deviating from the original turn-based combat system. Regardless, for purists of the menu-style battles like myself, I'd still recommend Persona 4 or Suikoden V over DQVIII, unless you're really looking for a lighter, less serious type of RPG. I'm not saying it's a bad game, as it did get rave reviews, it's just not my style of game.

 

[Finchester]

hehe funnily enough I'm not normally a fan of comical RPG's either and this certainly is one, yet I don't know why but this game really caught me. Perhaps I was taking my RPG's a little too seriously and this was just a nice way of playing a game directly aiming for fun and silliness... and even so the game has some very grown up and quite powerful moments, for example, the story with the King of Ascantha which came to quite a heart warming conclusion.

 

[kevinj615]

I've only put about 12 hours into this game, but I am really enjoying it, this is a pretty epic game which is challenging and very fun, the only problem I have with it is that you have to grind levels quite a lot, but hey, we play RPGs, where is the difference.

 

[Caladbolg]

Have the game. It is really good game (not good as FFX sorry ;d) i haved played somethin' like 35 hours and stoped playing dunno why xD Never finished... I'm planning to finish it in future