[Nephilim]

I saw "Dragon Quest VIII" on a couple of "best game of the year" lists, and I saw that it was developed by Level 5, who made the two "Dark Cloud" games which I enjoyed, so I picked it up.

It's pretty good. The visual design is fantastic, and the game world feels expansive and explorable. The storyline is comfortably traditional; not so riddled with cliche' that it feels like a rehash, but not so revolutionary that it breaks its nostalgia value.

There's not much innovation on the gameplay front - it plays almost exactly like the old 2D console RPG's: wander around the world map, go into towns to talk to people and buy weapon and armor upgrades, and crawl through dungeons fighting monsters that appear out of nowhere with commands like "Attack", "Spell", and "Item". Not new, but at least tried and true.

I was expecting there to be more in the way of minigames and other activities, though, because of the history of Level 5's "Dark Cloud" games, which would provide other activities to break up the gameplay a bit. (There is a casino in the game, but that's about it in the way of minigames, that I've found so far, anyway). I was kind of disappointed in the homgeneity of gameplay as a result, but that's probably more because of my expectations than an actual fault with the game design.

Have any of you guys played it? If so, what did you think about it?
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Visit the Sacraments web site to play the game and read articles about its development.

[LeoDraco]

I have a bit of a preliminary write-up about the game here; that was written about a quarter or so of the way through the game. Unfortunately, as I mention in that post, the UI in DQ8 is rather lacking in certain areas; while I realize they were going for an old-school feel for the game, the interface just totally gets in the way of efficient gameplay, nine times out of ten. (These are fundamental things: you literally have to sit through a full minute of text just to save your game; while that is, obviously, hyperbolized, there are at least two save locations relatively late in the game that I can think of that feature priests whom tell you their life stories before even allowing you to save.)

On the other hand, the game does feature visuals which are, most of the time, very awe-inspiring; the first time I came around the bend just south of the Tower of Alexandria on the road to Port Prospect, I was amazed at the shear feeling of immense size of the world (and that area is relatively small, in comparison to others).

With the exception of the hero, I absolutely love the characterization and voice overs; Yangus' "Cor Blimey!" has to be the second best line in the entire game. (The best being, naturally, "Cor Blim.... Nah, I'm tired of saying that old line.", also by Yangus. Although, one could debate that, "Va-Va-Voom," was also very fitting.) I've never really cared for the whole silent protagonist thing --- supposedly, it is to make the player feel more in-step with the character whose role they are playing; I feel the complete opposite: as you have no control over anything the character says or does during conversations, there is little point to taking his voice.

So yeah: it is a bit of a love/hate relationship. I'm nearly done with the game, but have been a bit too busy/distracted to spend the time needed to finish it.
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"...LeoDraco is a pompus git..." -- Mandrake

[Nephilim]

[LeoDraco]