Game:

Dragon Quest VIII: The Journey of the Cursed King (2004)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 20:28

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What is Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King?

It's one of the best games ever made, that's what it is. Or at least in the Dragon Quest series. The main character of Dragon Quest VIII, Eight (yes, that's the main character's canonical name) is a representative of the Dragon Quest series in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as an alternate costume for the hero of Dragon Quest XI, after all.

Now, Dragon Quest VIII. If you've played the previous Dragon Quest games, then most of the stuff here isn't exactly going to wow you, especially in the original Japanese version of the game. For the North American version, however, it's a different story, but we'll get to that because even in the Japanese version, there are a few differences from previous Dragon Quest games and the first one is the most obvious in that, for the first time, a Dragon Quest game is in full 3D. No longer do the characters walk onto a tile in the overworld that is representative of a town or a dungeon or whatever, now the towns are just as big on the world map as they are in the actual town, and the same thing goes for dungeons, caves, and towers. The battle system is also now fully 3D and while you still see the enemies from a first-person view, after you've chosen all of your commands, you then see it play it out in 3D, with your characters and enemies actually moving around on the screen and attacking each other and casting spells. While the animations for spells were present as far back as the SNES Dragon Quest games, this was the first time the player can actually see their characters using animations while casting spells. Another new thing to Dragon Quest with this iteration is the introduction of skills and skill points. As characters gain levels, they eventually start gaining skill points that they can invest into one of their five skills, three different weapon skills, fisticuffs, and a personal skill. Each of the skills grant your characters new skills, spells, and stats as they're leveled up. However, until you've reached a certain level, that character's skill points are capped at whatever the character's current level is times 2. Eventually, however, that stops being an issue.

Graphics-wise, the game is a real feast for the eyes. Seeing Dragon Ball characters moving on a wide open 3D world is just beautiful. Everything in the game is cel-shaded and from what I've heard, Akira Toriyama loved doing every single minute of it.

Music-wise, the game's soundtrack is fully orchestrated, at least in the US version. In the Japanese version, they use a midi version of the soundtrack. Apparently this was because Koichi Sugiyama, may he rest in peace, wanted people to pay money to come watch him perform the soundtracks with an orchestra in person. RIP, Sugiyama-san. Funnily enough, for the 3DS version, the situation is reversed completely.

Replay value wise, this is one of the least replayable Dragon Quests, unfortunately, not because it's bad, no, but because the characters' stats on level up aren't randomized and no matter how you invest your skill points, your characters will always have the same amount invested into arguably the exact same skills every single time. Not that this is bad or anything like that, I just wish that the stats had more variance at level up. On that same exact note, in the 3DS version, Yangus gets a strength buff starting at level 21 because in this version of the game, he starts to get outpaced by Eight in the later levels. Oh, well.

Out of all the Dragon Quest games I've played so far, which is all the mainline ones except 10, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is my second favorite of the mainline games, second only to Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation. Since I could have recorded Dragon Quest 3 at any time and I recently got a laptop that can play PS2, Gamecube, DS, and 3DS games, along with several more demanding games recently, the time just felt right to go ahead and start recording one of my absolute favorite Dragon Quest games, indeed one of my all time favorite games ever, for the channel. I hope you enjoy watching this playthrough as much as I had fun and am having fun making. Enjoy!

Also, one last thing, for every couple of videos, there will be a new type of episode in the playlist called a Grindisode, which is where I leave in all of the grinding that I do so that we can get better equipment and a few level ups because someone in my Elnard longplay actually acused me of cheating one time. If I ever cheat when grinding, it's only to speed up the grinding so that we can move on, not to cheat the game. Anyways, all that's there for is to prove that I'm not cheating during my grinding.

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