Awwwww yiss.
Behold, one of the finest RPG's I've had the privilege to experience. And also one of the longest. Along with being the year that I first played a Tales game, it was also the year I played through my first Dragon Quest game, a series I had been eager to get into for a while. Dragon Quest, created by one Yuji Horii, is a series that is in fact older than Final Fantasy, with the first game appearing in Japan on May 27, 1986 for the Famicom System, a full year and a half before Final Fantasy would make its mark (in Japan, that is). Dragon Quest, then published by Enix (now part of Square Enix, with Square publishing Final Fantasy), wouldn't hit North America until three years later in August of 1989. Its release would be the first of many that bore the moniker Dragon Warrior, rather than the original title (due to old copyrights here in North America). For many, Dragon Warrior was the first console RPG they played, as any subscriber of Nintendo Power in late 1990 received a free copy of the game (as well as the guidebook) as part of a promotion. Dragon Warrior was a huge success in Japan, but was barely an entity in North America. As a result of the promotion however, Dragon Warrior picked up, but would still never see the sales figures in the West as the Final Fantasy series would.
Dragon Quest would see a total of four entries on the Famicom, and each would be localized overseas under the Dragon Warrior name on the NES. But due to declining sales, western audiences wouldn't get another Dragon Quest/Warrior title until Dragon Warrior VII, on the PlayStation. The fifth and sixth entries were released on the Super Famicom, and wouldn't see a western localization until almost a decade and a half later, when Dragon Quest V and VI, along with IV, were ported to the Nintendo DS. After DWVII, the next entry is the topic of today's discussion, Dragon Quest VIII, released on the PlayStation 2 on November 27, 2004 in Japan, and a year later in North America, having finally dropped the Dragon Warrior title once and for all.
To give you an idea of how much time I spent on this game, I picked DQVIII up at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo in mid October, and I played it nearly every day from when I got back until about a week ago, when I completed it. The total time on my file is almost sickening, but it is the truth: 150 hours.
Of course I imagine over 10 of those hours were spent either gambling or grinding, but still, loooong game. And to be honest I enjoyed every waking second of it. Dragon Quest VIII has an engrossing story, and a wonderfully vibrant world to explore with plenty of memorable characters. For the character and monster designs, Dragon Quest employs the work of the amazing Akira Toriyama, the character and setting designer of Chrono Trigger, and also known as the creator and designer of Dragon Ball! His designs translate almost flawlessly into the cel-shaded, realized world of DQVIII, offering some stellar production values. Exploring the game world by various modes of transport is a delight. And like the other entries in the series, Koichi Sugiyama returns as head composer of the exuberant and superb orchestrated soundtrack, here performed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra! A curious fact about the soundtrack: the North American release featured the fully orchestrated soundtrack, while the Japanese release, surprisingly, did not, instead having a more simplistic version of the tracks.
Of all the production values however, the most surprising to me is the outstanding voice cast. Although not fully-voiced, key characters and those found in cutscenes feature some stellar voice work, like the Cockney accented Yangus, the regally Trode, or the befuddling Elmer Fudd-like Prince Charmles. The voices add an emotional layer of depth to the already remarkable story; the tale of a cursed king and kingdom, and a mysterious ancient power. You are the silent Hero, accompanied by the ex-bandit Yangus, and the Cursed King himself, Trode. Fleeing the ruined kingdom, the party embarks on a mission to find and stop the evil jester Dhoulmagus, the cause of such events. As one might expect, this is merely the beginning of a far grander tale, and the adventure takes many twists and turns as you travel around the world, over mountains and over seas.
In battle, the system is reminiscent of the most basic of RPG's. Turn-based, with no Active Time Battle or Linear Motion Battle systems to speak of, but the simplicity is where the fun lies, if that's your kind of game. Recall my entry last year on EarthBound, with a simple interface to select an attack, ability/spell, or other contextually dependent action, before each character and enemy exchanges attacks or moves. The Dragon Quest formula is generally similar, but in the case of DQVIII, several additions have been made to improve upon the 20-year old Dragon Quest combat. The most notable improvement is that battles are now fully animated, making battle in DQVIII much more visually appealing and exciting. There's also a new action called "Psyche Up" which raises a character's tension level each use. As tension builds, attack power increases, and in the late-game this action becomes imperative. As each character levels up, skill points can be assigned into several different weapon branches, which unlock Abilities at different levels, with some skills being entirely unique to each character. So for example, if you wanted the Hero to specialize in Spears, you would put your points in the "Spear" tree, or you can divide up points into more than one tree at a lower upgrade rate.
On the road and outside of combat, you can talk to your party members at any time with the push of a button, and here witty banter or helpful hints from them depending on where you are. You can also, much to my ABSOLUTE HAPPYNESS, heal your entire party at once with available magic spells, via a single option in the main menu. I can't tell you how much minor time is saved by using that one command, and even though it's such a small thing, I'm surprised more games don't make use of a similar command. But I must concede that the coolest addition (that's also a first in Dragon Quest) is the Alchemy Pot. The Pot allows you to add (initially) two items that can be combined to form an entirely new weapon, armour, item or accessory. As you progress through the game, you will learn new recipes from reading books, or talking to different people, and your Pot will be upgraded to allow a third item to be mixed in. You can also try combining items randomly, to see what results. Or...if you feel it's justified (as I had), you may simply go onto the internet and good ol' GameFAQs to acquire a giant list of possible recipes. The Alchemy Pot is undeniably useful, and several of the game's most powerful weapons and armour can only be found by creating them in the Pot. Craft-able items can be found in breakable pots (lol Zelda), by unlocking chests found throughout the world, by completing tasks, or by going to one of two casinos and gambling your day away. I have a moderate amount of shame for how much time I spent in the in-game casinos. Oh come on, you get some great stuff out of it, dammit!
It's not every day you come across such an enveloping game, and I'm genuinely surprised and saddened that I gave this game such little thought, and passed on it over these years. A mistake it truly was. Indeed, there is a lot to this game, and it carries the term "adventure" with pride. 150 hours in, and I left totally satisfied and complete. That was of course, also counting the post-game content, which is an optional new area and set of challenging battles that are unlocked after you beat the end boss once. After doing so and saving your file, you may pick up right before the final battle, and partake in several new challenging battles in a new area of the world. Completing this section of the game grants you more closure in the story, as well as some kick-ass new gear. You also get an expanded ending, which happily ties up probably the last loose end in the game. But man, talking about that post-game content here feels weird in this day and age. It makes me cringe at the thought that if this game were to be released new today, Square Enix would most assuredly secure that post-game content behind a 5-10 dollar pay wall as "DLC." Disgusting, but I wouldn't put it passed them. Hell, there are examples of other studios pulling that nonsense before.
As I mention that however, I am reminded that Dragon Quest VIII was in fact re-released not too long ago on iOS and Android devices - complete without any lost content. Although I balk at the thought of playing this on a phone...if one was interested in giving this fantastic game a look, you can find it on your respective store for phone or tablet, for I believe about 20 bucks! Oh you know what? I recommend it, wholeheartedly, no matter the platform you choose. Phone, tablet, PS2...play it!
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