Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1, StreetPass Compatibility

.

Review:

Dragon Quest VIII is a JRPG first released on PlayStation 2 in 2005, ported to mobile devices in 2014, then brought to Nintendo 3DS in 2017. This game’s plot follows a group of characters seeking to end a curse that has turned a king into a strange monstrous form, and his daughter into a horse.

I’ll cut straight to the chase here – where I was less than pleased with the Nintendo 3DS release of Dragon Quest VII, the Nintendo 3DS release of its successor has me stunned at just how good it is. The difference between the two games is like night and day, with this game not only addressing virtually all of the issues I had with this game’s predecessor, but doing so brilliantly.

This game’s plot premise is a clever one, and it is centered around its characters. You’re joined on your journey by the titular King Trode, whose toadlike appearance and demanding and quirky nature remains comical and avoids getting annoying as he bosses you around throughout the game. In fact, I would say that overall this game’s characters are a delight, and make this a charming adventure through and through. This is in part thanks to this game’s wonderful voice acting. Not all of this game’s dialogue is voiced (that would be quite a feat for a game reputed to be 120 hours long to reach full completion), but pretty much any story-centric conversation has all characters fully voiced.

While this was true of the original release on the PlayStation 2, the Nintendo 3DS version of the game does bring something else new in the sound department – a completely remade orchestral soundtrack. As I’ve said before, I’ve never been the biggest fan of the Dragon Quest series music, but I generally found this soundtrack to be a strong accompaniment to the gameplay, albeit filled with melodies that weren’t especially memorable.

The graphics, on the other hand, are mostly directly ported over from the PlayStation 2 version, although the journey to Nintendo 3DS seems to have stripped the original game’s cel shading out of the visuals. However, while some may like or dislike this change (I found the difference noticeable, but negligible), the game is overall still a graphically wonderful game, with beautifully detailed, colorful, anime-esque 3D characters and world. I did notice some pop-in from time to time, but overall this is a phenomenal-looking game.

If I had to pick a weak point in this game, it would probably be the gameplay. Dragon Quest VIII is a very traditional JRPG, which means there’s not much in the way of exciting options for character development and combat, just standard turn-based fare and a character-based skill system. Dragon Quest VIII does feature a “tension” system that allows a character to sit out a turn in battle via a “Psyche Up” command, making for a more powerful turn next time around, but this feature isn’t exactly revolutionary. Oh, and thankfully, unlike Dragon Quest VII, this game actually lets you select which enemies to attack (what a concept!), and the pacing is much, much better as well.

I should also mention some of the elements of this game that are upgraded in the Nintendo 3DS release. First and foremost is a new photo mode players can enter at any time to take snapshots of the action. Rather than being a nice little extra, this element has been worked into the gameplay, with new quests that make use of this mode, as well as the ability to trade content via StreetPass. In addition, there are two more playable characters during the course of the game, all random encounters have been changed so you now see enemies roaming around and can potentially avoid them, a new ending, and multiple other smaller changes.

It’s kinda’ funny, after Dragon Quest VII was a JRPG that did nearly everything wrong, Dragon Quest VIII seems like a JRPG that does almost everything right. Its charm is more than skin-deep, with great characters and an interesting story, it has very nice-looking graphics, and good pacing. Despite that its original release is 17 years old as I write this, Dragon Quest VIII still holds up today as a fantastic entry in the genre that every JRPG fan with a Nintendo 3DS should own.

tl;dr – Dragon Quest VIII is a JRPG about a group of characters trying to undo a curse that transformed a king and his subjects. This game does almost everything right – great characters in a fun story, nice visuals, good pacing. If it wasn’t for the very traditional, unimaginative gameplay, this would be an absolute masterpiece. Even so, this is a must-have JRPG on Nintendo 3DS.

Grade: A

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Andy Miller, Exlene, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Talissa, Eli Goodman, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Ilya Zverev, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}