View Full Version : Official Dragon Quest VIII Thread
boatofcar
11-26-2008, 02:27 AM
Up from the depths....
I finished it last night (well, got the Star ending--I haven't been back to see what else I can do after the game "ends") at about 85 hours. I gotta say, it's better than any FF game since VI. The enemies crack me up, and the sense of "old school" exploration and leveling really appealed to me. As in DW IV (and I guess V and VI) the Casino and little side quests were welcome diversions when I got tired of the main quest, and the story, while generic, still had a charm to it due to the colorful characters.
Eventually, I'll go back to it to finish the "after-game" content, but for now, it's on to Mother 3! Oh yeah!
mb7241
11-26-2008, 02:37 AM
I *still* haven't had the chance to play it for any more than 6 hours or so (and this was several months ago)... I was more than impressed by what I saw, though, for sure :) .
Octopod
11-26-2008, 02:46 AM
I have this game but i have never played it. I even bought a strategy guide for some reason. I dont really like JRPGs. I think my wife played it for a few hours. I dont know why i bought this game lol...maybe ill try it out when i have some down time from other games in the "Needs Playin'" stack. I liked the first game on the NES back in the day so maybe ill enjoy this one aswell.
Dragon Quest VIII is amazing overall. Played the game for around 178hrs total. I found many of the plot twists and story developments to be very predictable, but it didn't take away from the enjoyment of the game at all. The Dragon Quest/Warrior series has never let me down, and always provides tons of gaming for the buck.
mailman187666
11-26-2008, 09:34 AM
I played this game closer when it came out, and I liked it a lot. I have it on my shelf and I'm constantly walking past it, wanting to play it, but I never do. I've been playing Talez of Vesperia, which is a very good game, but I know I'd love DQ8 much more.
RPG_Fanatic
11-26-2008, 10:11 AM
Still my favorite PS2 game of all time!!!!!
Daria
11-26-2008, 10:33 AM
After all this time DQ8 is still me favorite PS2 game. I loved Yangus's dialogue. I did beat the game and the after quest a few times. I didn't get all the equipments, just enough to complete the main hero's armor.
I also thought it was awesome that the alchemy pot made a return in Rocket Slime, renamed crack pot.
Incidentally I'm on the after game portion of DQ4 now. Just taking my time until 5 is released.
SpaceHarrier
11-26-2008, 11:27 PM
I left off in some desert town where I am supposed to find a guy. Been meaning to get back to it but haven't dug it out.
kupomogli
11-26-2008, 11:47 PM
While Dragon Quest 8 has been the best in the series graphically, in my opinion it's not as good as any of the titles 3-7, though it is better than the first two.
There are quite a few PS2 games I enjoy over Dragon Quest 8, but then again, those same PS2 games aren't as good as Dragon Quest 3 and 7 to me.
boatofcar
11-27-2008, 12:26 AM
I'm curious, why do you like DQ 7 more than 8? I put 110 hours into 7, beat it, and felt nothing.
kupomogli
11-27-2008, 01:25 AM
It sortof boils down to the very expansive skill system that has been in the Dragon Quest games since DQ5 was removed almost entirely for a pretty small generic list of abilities. Add the entirely generic storyline that Dragon Quest 8 had which is one of the worst in the series next to the original.
Now I know Dragon Quest has never had a good storyline, but I really enjoyed the storyline of Dragon Quest 7. The class system was the best out of any of the games and the ability system was varied enough to where you had more of a variety of options to go through rather than usually the same choice of what you're going to do on almost every boss you come up to which is what consisted of DQ8.
One thing I don't like is the psyche up. You could utilize it to make bosses a cakewalk(and if you didn't try to push it and go overboard, even the bosses that could reduce it to zero by just building 20 at a time.)
Also. Did you do all the sidequests on Dragon Quest 7? Turning your town into all the towns just to get all the equipment and then to the casino has to be the hardest, but definitely the most rewarding. I actually cheated sortof. I created a new character, got to where I could create a town, saved and made multiple saves and then transfered what I needed over to my good character. Then attempting to fill up the monster town was a nice idea but I only did it a little before I quit trying to finish it. I ended up beating God and the Elementals in the bonus dungeons, too.
boatofcar
11-27-2008, 03:52 AM
I played 110 hours of the game. I wasn't going to do any more sidequests. I reach a point around 80 hours in where I say screw it and just want to finish the darn game. You're right though, the job system in 7 was way better than the one in 8.
Cryomancer
11-27-2008, 08:07 AM
Heh, Blue Dragon has very repetative endgame optional boss fighting as well. You simply keep Previving your party so when they die, they come back. Do this until someone gets Corpereal form, use it. Repeat that for all the optional bosses and it's not a big problem.
Class system wise, I think DQ games either choose to tell the story of somewhat fleshed-out characters, or that of nameless custom ones. DQ8 happened to be one with people with names, so no classes. It would be nice if they would do a game with both though, DQ8 would be that much better if you could recruit an optional custom class or something.
josekortez
11-27-2008, 08:57 AM
I kept saying I was going to finish this game, and I got to the point where my party had to cross the desert. Then, I got frustrated and stopped. Ah, well, maybe someday...
kupomogli
11-27-2008, 12:22 PM
Heh, Blue Dragon has very repetative endgame optional boss fighting as well. You simply keep Previving your party so when they die, they come back. Do this until someone gets Corpereal form, use it. Repeat that for all the optional bosses and it's not a big problem.
Well honestly, Blue Dragon isn't related to Dragon Quest in the slightest aside from Akira Toriyama doing the character and enemy artwork.
Hironobu Sakaguchi, the father of Final Fantasy, and Mistwalker(his company after he left Square) are the ones who made Blue Dragon. Yuuji Horii is the one who made the Dragon Quest series and is still with Armor Project and Square-Enix.
You might not have thought Blue Dragon is related to Dragon Quest, but the post made it seem that way.
SeverThe7th
11-28-2008, 11:32 PM
I played about 110 hours and got pretty much all the weapons and armour except those you have to sacrifice the one of a kind items. Like the metal wing boomerang for the metal king spear. Also finished the Dragovian trials, which were very hard, even though i had the lvl 65 move for the hero.
What other sidequests were there except the dragovian trials and the casino i guess, which really isnt a quest per say.
JSoup
11-29-2008, 02:59 PM
I beat the game a few months ago and have been debating on if I really wanted to level a bit more for the Dragovian Trials or not. I know what the 'best ending' is already, but still....I think I'd like to see it.
Cryomancer
11-30-2008, 07:59 AM
Well honestly, Blue Dragon isn't related to Dragon Quest in the slightest aside from Akira Toriyama doing the character and enemy artwork.
Hironobu Sakaguchi, the father of Final Fantasy, and Mistwalker(his company after he left Square) are the ones who made Blue Dragon. Yuuji Horii is the one who made the Dragon Quest series and is still with Armor Project and Square-Enix.
You might not have thought Blue Dragon is related to Dragon Quest, but the post made it seem that way.
I know it's not, other than Toriyama. But the endgame boss strategy repetitiveness reminded me of it.