Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King Standard Edition - Nintendo 3DS

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• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  For King and Country

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  Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King was already an incredibly JRPG standard back when it came out on the PS2. And while the game also released on mobile devices a few years back, this new 3DS version aims to breathe new life into the game that already had a well packaged experience. In this whimsical world of silly monsters, Dragon Ball Z look alike characters by the same creator, and surprising darkness in the plot, Dragon Quest VIII takes you on a fun journey across the globe in search of a mad Jester who leaves despair in his wake. Along the way you meet fantastic characters fleshed out by great writing and voice acting that goes well with the world design and cell shaded art style. And unlike the days of RPGs gone by, you are no longer a huge character the size of towns on a small world map, but expecting in a world to scale. The gameplay is definitely standard turn based combat, but it's refined here to perfection. There's no complicated mess of menus, but it's also full of enough abilities and spells that there is a lot to learn and master. Now beyond the base of the game which this version builds upon are a host of new features new to the 3DS. You new a new ending to choose from as well as new post game content. There's also 2 new playable characters that you recruit to expand the party from the set 4 to 6. The party members even had roles in the existing game so they don't feel shoe horned into the plot. Beyond that there's also the new camera focused side features and side quests, as well as smaller additions here and there. For example in the original game when you leveled up and used skill points acquired at each level you would never know what skill you would get next unless you went online or used a guide. However now not only can you save skill points, but it easily displays your progress for the next skill and even gives you an idea of where it will go from there. All of these changes combined with the new portability greatly make up for the loss in graphical power, and orchestral score which are lost from the PS2 version. If you are a fan of RPGs though I can't recommend this game higher. It's polished to an incredibly level, and it's just a smile (and some tears) all the way through. It still cracks me up when you encounter an enemy that caught you by surprise. You're expecting to take that hit which you may or may not be ready for and... It licks itself, or rolls around on the ground! Dragon Quest is full of silly characters, monsters, and a whole lot of puns. But it uses this tone to lure you into a false of security. Because the stories that these characters deal with are not so light hearted and will grip you to the end!

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  Posted 8 years ago by LordLoto

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Great port of a classic JRPG

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  I played this game multiple times in its PlayStation 2 release, and curiosity got the better of me for the 3DS release. I hadn't played the game in nearly 10 years, and I had to know how it translated in its port. I'm really impressed -- a few corners had to be cut, but for the most part, it's the PS2 classic in handheld form. It looks and runs great. I found myself sucked right back into the game's world. Dragon Quest VIII shines by giving you a wonderfully charismatic cast of characters (with voice acting that's pretty decent overall) without piling on too many faces. There's joyful music at every turn, and most enemies take a turn for the silly. Having a mascot resembling a small blob of goo with a cute face, Dragon Quest is a series that almost never takes itself seriously (except when the opportunity in the story arises.) The story is pretty linear and cut-and-dry, but this is one of those rare RPGs where I didn't mind the story taking a backseat. Everything else -- characters, gameplay in and out of battle, music -- carries the game much further than story alone. And in the wake of some more recent JRPGs, a bad (or otherwise overwrought) story can do more harm than good. The 3DS version of the game adds a little content to entice people who've already played the PS2 version. Camera mode (complete with cheesy purikura stickers and effects,) a new dungeon I've yet to see, and two new playable characters. I've noticed some other quality of life improvements as well, namely, being able to quick save anywhere in the world (plus the always-useful suspending of 3DS games), the alchemy pot is easier to use now, and you've always got a map ready on the lower screen. I've gotten a surprising amount of mileage out of camera mode. There's a new NPC in the game that gives you challenges to take pictures of specific landmarks, plus the fun of simply creating a photo log of your journey. Final Fantasy XV recently did this a little better, but it's still a clever idea put to good use. Negatives are pretty minor. The soundtrack is downgraded to a MIDI arrangement (apparently, from the original Japanese release of this game) and is mixed too high over the voice acting. Fortunately, this can be fixed in the settings (I set the music down to "2" out of "5") and the MIDI tracks sound plenty good. The voice acting quality is hit or miss. Certain areas of the game are a pain to slog through, now that monster encounters show up in the world -- namely, narrow hallways where it's difficult to get past enemies without fighting them. There's only a few areas like this, though. Controlling the camera with the New 3DS C-nub is a pain, but this applies to any game that uses the awful C-nub. If you don't have a New 3DS (or just don't like using the C-nub,) you can still control the camera with L+R and the D-pad just fine. I mainly use L+R to rotate on the X-axis so I don't have to take my thumb off of the circle pad for movement. Dragon Quest VIII is a great, great game (GGG.) One of my favorite JRPGs of all time (my personal favorites, in no particular order: Tales of Phantasia, Persona 3, Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Dragon Quest V and VIII, Final Fantasy III, VII, and X.) Any JRPG fan should pick this up, even if you've already played it on PS2 -- you know it's worth revisiting! I went in with a little buyer's remorse, since I still own the PS2 version and a PS2 to play it on, but this game's worth it. Here's to hoping we get more Dragon Quest on the Nintendo systems in the future.

  Posted 8 years ago by eynoj

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Still Going Strong a Decade Later

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  While it's extremely sad sacrifices had to be made to the graphics of a game that came out over a decade ago on a system two generations behind us, but such is the state of the 3DS. At least the lack of 3-D is due to hardware limitations, not developer laziness or a personal, misguided choice of the lead designer. It's worth it to have the game on the go, and not have to mess with AV cords and a display that takes up about a third of your HD TV display. There are some other additions to make the deal sweeter - two new playable characters, rebalanced spells, new cutscenes, voice actors where previously there were none, and the ability to bank skill points rather than use them right away (but still no ability to reset them). Highly recommended, whether you're experiencing this for the first time, or have beaten it numerous times on the PS2,

  Posted 7 years ago by Rich