DRAGON QUEST VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King revamps the series for a new generation of players. CG movies and futuristic locations were not present before and they aren't now either. Instead the game takes on a beautiful, hand drawn appearance with characters that look like the inhabitants of Dragon Ball Z. All it takes is one look and you can see that Akira Toriyama, the mastermind behind Dragon Ball, is doing the character and monster art for Dragon Quest VIII. Akira has been an integral part of the DQ series for many years, and this is some of his best work yet.

New RPGs try to differentiate themselves by having hybrid gameplay mechanics, or a strange magic system that does the same thing other RPGs do but takes hours to understand. Dragon Quest VIII sticks to the basics. Weapon or bare-fisted attacks, magic spells, and special techniques are the primary form of defense. Magic is learned the traditional way: by earning experience points from defeated monsters. Magic is character specific, and it doesn't come easy. HP and MP levels are low – forget the 1000+ hit points that modern-day RPGs use.

Battles are purely turn-based, occur randomly, and are unbelievably entertaining. They're old-school in every respect. Monsters are deadly without having crazy, elaborate moves. Chapsichums are two vegetable-looking monsters pierced together with a large skewer – their attack is a simple thrust. Dancing Devils are more adventurous, moving like a kid on a dance floor, hoping to cast a spell on his opponents that will make them dance uncontrollably.

DQVIII's story is about a cursed king and his daughter. Both have been turned into something most unsightly. The king has been transformed into a monster; his daughter has become a horse! How the main, unnamed character (you name him yourself) fits in was not revealed. The king expects him to help him and his daughter, which leads to a journey in search of Dhoulmagus, the evil one who made the curse. Who he is, what he is, and how far his abilities stretch are a mystery. I can't see him being the main villain, but maybe that'll change later in the game when he realizes he's being chased. Then his true colors shall be shown.

In the demo I had to do a couple of things to appease the king. First me, the main character (I'll call him Lou) had to talk to a few people in a local town. Lou's friend, Yangus, is the kind of guy you'd expect to start a bar fight. His skills come in handy in battle, clobbering monsters with his trusty club. He can use other weapons as well, including axes. Allocate skill points to strengthen the power Yangus has with each weapon he wields. The same can be done for the main character, who also has a list of exclusive weapons for him to wield (swords having the greatest potential for attack power, it seems).

Lou learned that the man they were in search for, Master Rylus, had died in a fire recently. Some suspect it was murder, but every time the topic is brought up people shut up. King Trode was hoping that Rylus could lead him to Dhoulmagus.

After a few events that I'll refrain from spoiling, they discover that a once-great fortune-teller could regain his powers if he had a real crystal ball. The one he's using now is fake and his daughter believes that that's the reason why he lost his fortune-telling power. King Trode loves the idea of finding the crystal ball, assuming that once his powers have returned the fortune-teller will happily tell him where Dhoulmagus is.

Little do they know that the crystal ball is being protected by a dragon.

Not all of the voice-overs are in place yet, but the preliminary content is very well done. The dialogue translation is on par with Final Fantasy, and the acting is much more believable than in most recent RPGs. The uglier the character, the quirkier its voice. For the most part these voices are effective and appropriate to the characters. The crystal ball-guarding dragon speaks a little strangely, but I suppose his voice was intended to instill confusion or annoyance, not fear.

“What do you mean I look like a frog? It is you who looks like a rodent!”

Coming exclusively to PlayStation 2 on November 15th, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is an epic adventure that is sure to captivate gamers everywhere. The story is simple but intriguing enough to hold your interest while the old-school battles are short enough to prevent boredom or repetition from weighing the game down. Koichi Sugiyama's soundtrack is one of the best of the year, up there with SOCOM 3 and Shadow of the Colossus. The graphics are another element that appears to be simple – look closely and you'll see that they have almost as much detail as those futuristic games. Better still the visuals are original, the art is beautiful, and the animation is appropriately close to Dragon Ball Z, where these characters look like they belong.