Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

Japanese RPGs have long been one of the most popular genres around the globe. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is yet another game in a long running series that never seems to get old. While this particular episode of the story doesn’t offer anything new or innovative to the gaming world, it’s great strength is how it reworks every detail of the original series to be its best.

In Dragon Quest VIII you have been called to investigate a spell that has turned the king of Trodain into a troll. His daughter the Princess has also been caught up in the spell, and has been transformed into a white horse. Your goal is to help break the spell, and return the king and princess to their original forms.

So-So Plotline

Perhaps the weakest part of Dragon’s Quest VIII is the plotline. While the navigation, artwork, dialogue, and character development are flawlessly executed, the storyline could have come from anywhere. It’s a stereotypical plotline we’ve all heard before, without anything moving to make us think about it long after the game is complete. Other games such as Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom have the same idea of king’s adventuring for the sake of their kingdom, but are told in a much more profound way.

Excellent dialogue

While the storyline is basic at best, the dialogue is what transforms it from an ordinary story into something you can’t wait to get more of. The developers love to do things like play-on-words or funny puns, and the whole game is chalk full of them.

The dialogue is made even better by the excellent voice acting, which adds a splash of color to the engaging characters that you meet along the way. If you love banter and fun dialogue, this game will keep you entertained for all 80+ hours of gaming.

Refined graphics

Although the graphics are the same style as in past Dragon Quest games, they have been greatly cleaned up. The sharp graphics and well designed characters do a great job of conveying the mood as you travel around. This isn’t much of a surprise because the characters were brought to you by Akira Toriyama, the famous designer who also brought you the characters from Dragon Ball Z and Chrono Trigger. The result is nothing short of fantastic, and is truly one of the better parts of the game.

Battles are no longer forced

Though the rest of Dragon Quest 8 happens about the same as every other game in the series, there’s one major change to it that players will take notice of. The game no longer forces random fights, so you can choose whether to engage an enemy or avoid them.

While it is still best to fight as many mobs as possible to try and level your character, if you really want to finish a quest or have something important to do, you aren’t stuck fighting every single mob along the way.

Pros:

• Beautiful Cell-Shaded Art
• Hilarious dialogue
• Great voice acting

Cons:

• Average storyline