Dragon Quest VIII Isnt Great
Dragon Quest VIII is the quintessential PS2-era Japanese role playing game, but that's also the game's biggest weakness.
Don't get me wrong — I'm not saying that Dragon Quest VIII is bad; it's just not a great game, especially for someone who is accustomed to the creature comforts that modern role playing games have to offer.
Dragon Quest VIII existed in that weird middle ground between “retro†RPGs and “modern†RPGs. The graphics were certainly better than the RPGs of the previous generation, which often relied on sprites and pre-rendered backgrounds.
However, Dragon Quest VIII was missing many important gameplay elements that we’d expect in a modern RPG.
For example, the game has a world map, which is good, but it has no functionality. You can zoom in on your location and you can zoom out. That’s it. You’re unable to zoom in and then scroll around the map to get a better sense of direction. Even The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening had an interactive map, and that was released years before this game.
Dragon Quest VIII had great graphics and an awesome art design, but the graphics had a negative effect on the gameplay. Obviously, PS2 games had limited space available, which meant that 3D games couldn’t be packed with as much content as 2D games.
In other words, the game world seemed barren and empty. You’ll spend hours running across large patches of land without encountering anything to interact with until you stumble into a random battle.
There was also a severe lack of sidequests, minigames, or distractions, other than the Monster Arena. The game gives you little reason to stray from the main path and strips the player from any chance to feel like they’re having a true adventure. Since there’s not much to see outside of the main story, there’s just no reason to do some adventuring.
Sure, there’s a lot more to praise about Dragon Quest VIII. I’ve already mentioned how the art style, designed by Akira Toriyama, is beautiful. Additionally, the game’s story slowly sucks you in and actually becomes pretty interesting.
However, I don’t think this game is worth 80 hours of your life. If you’re planning on picking this game up, try playing the slightly more polished 3DS version instead.Â
Wackoid December 3rd, 2020
Did you know you can earn WAD to promote yourself on GameSense.co and your level will increase, giving you more influence on how you change scores?