Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is a video game that consists of 3 releases
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Hero (You)-"A loyal guard who had to leave his kingdom when a curse was place upon it. Through his training as a royal guard, he is proficient with swords, spears, and boomerangs." (full bio)
Yangus-"A former bandit with a rather strange accent. An unexpected turn of events brought you together; and now Yangus treats you as his trusted "guv." He is a physically powerful man who favors axes, clubs, and scythes in combat."
Jessica-"The only daughter of an aristocratic family from a small village. Something of a tomboy, she is a constantly arguing with her mother but is respected by her fellow villagers. She is a budding sorceress who is adept not only at casting combat skills, but at wielding short blades, whips, and staves as well." (full bio)
Angelo-"A Templar knight who has sworn an oath to protect his abbey. He seems to be far more dedicated to gambling and beautiful woman than to the church though, so he is somewhat scorned by his fellow Templars. Still, he is quite competent with swords, bows, and staves and is capable of casting a variery of recovery spells."
Trode-"Your odd-looking traveling companion. Despite his outward appearance, he speaks with a royal tone befitting a king."
As said, the game features a huge environment for the player to explore. Treasures chest are scatter throughout the world fulled with some interesting, yet sometimes useless, items. Church are also scatter throughout the world of Dragon Quest VIII, they're use for saving the progress that was made in the game, and healing the player's characters, and purchasing items. The environment also has a daytime, night time feature; when the player travels around the world in the day, he or she will encounter certain enemies with some fairly attack and defenses strengths, but when night falls, different, much stronger enemies will appear. The game also has a casino that contains some mini-games for the player to participate in to win prizes such rare and powerful weapons.
The battle system is a very old-school, more technical elements that are feature in other RPG games like the later Final Fantasy games weren't feature, like summonings or more technical leveling up systems. The battles were more cater to the old RPG games from the SNES era games; the player has the option to attack, magic, or certain abilities the can be access if a character has a certain weapon equip. The leveling up system is very old fashion - earn enough experience points and the character levels up. But the player can earn ability points that is use for certain attributes that a character has. For example, when a character earns a ability point, it can be use for the character's fisticuffs attributes, or "sex appeal" (One of Jessica's attributes). A verity of weapons are used in the game such as, swords, scythes, axes, whips, bow & arrows, magic staffs, spears, boomerangs, and knifes.
The game's difficulty is probably the most notable thing about Dragon Quest VIII. The random battles that the player encounter can be very difficult (esptically during night time), they can be just as difficult as the boss fights in the game. The amount of experience points and money that is earn from the battles in the game is not much, by the time the player reaches in later areas it would be too difficult for the player's level -the experience points earned is not enough to get the characters' level strong enough to take on the later enemies. Weapons from shops can also be very expensive, and the money that is earn is not much, either. The only way for the player can get through the game is the use of an item known as "Alchemy Pot."
The Alchemy pot is uses to mix items to create new ones such as weapons and healing items. This item is very useful to create powerful weapons that go for very high prices at weapon shops (It can also save the player a lot of money). Recipes for the mixed items are hidden throughout the game, and items such as gold are use for the Alchemy pot.
A mysterious jester; A forbidden scepter; A fiendish curse. A once idyllic kingdom lies entangled in a web of enchanted vines, its king and princess hideously transformed, its castle and subjects frozen in time. Only one person has survived this horror unscathed: you!
Overview
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is a role-playing game developed by Level-5 and published by Square Enix. The game sold 3 million units in its first week of release in Japan, and went on to sell over 4 millions units worldwide.Plot
The game opens up with you as the Hero in a forest, along with your partner Yangus as you fight off attacking monsters. You are working under King Trode, who has been transformed into a hideous green creature, as well as his daughter Medea who has been transformed into a horse. A jester by the name of Dhoulmagus has stolen a magical scepter and destroyed the castle, fleeing to pursue more evil deeds. It is up to you, the hero, as well as Yangus and two other characters you will meet along the way, to find Dhoulmagus and undo the curse.Characters
Gameplay
The game features a beautifully constructed 3D environment for the player to explore - it's fulled with many secrets, towns and side-quest. It's also has a non-liner progression, unlike most 3D RPG that many see today. The turn-based battles and leveling up systems is very throw-back to old 2D RPG games from the early 90's., it's "Easy to control but difficult to master."
The beautifully constructed world, of Dragon Quest VIII.
The battle system is a very old-school, more technical elements that are feature in other RPG games like the later Final Fantasy games weren't feature, like summonings or more technical leveling up systems. The battles were more cater to the old RPG games from the SNES era games; the player has the option to attack, magic, or certain abilities the can be access if a character has a certain weapon equip. The leveling up system is very old fashion - earn enough experience points and the character levels up. But the player can earn ability points that is use for certain attributes that a character has. For example, when a character earns a ability point, it can be use for the character's fisticuffs attributes, or "sex appeal" (One of Jessica's attributes). A verity of weapons are used in the game such as, swords, scythes, axes, whips, bow & arrows, magic staffs, spears, boomerangs, and knifes.
These enemies aren't so tough now, but later in the game, it's a whole other story.
The Alchemy pot is uses to mix items to create new ones such as weapons and healing items. This item is very useful to create powerful weapons that go for very high prices at weapon shops (It can also save the player a lot of money). Recipes for the mixed items are hidden throughout the game, and items such as gold are use for the Alchemy pot.
Differences between versions
Several major changes were made to the game when it was localized for Western audiences.- When the Hero goes into maximum tension mode, his bandana flies off showing very Super Saiyan-like hair. It can be assumed this is a little easter egg for fans Akira Toriyama, as Square Enix USA used to run a poll related to the game asking fans if they had ever heard of Akira Toriyama and/or Dragon Ball Z.
- Voice acting was added for every major character except the silent hero.
- The old-school MIDI-style soundtrack was scrapped in favor of a fully orchestrated soundtrack.
- The biggest change would have to be the menu system. Where the original Japanese version had a fully text-based NES-style white-text-on-a-black-background menu system, the Western release got a luxurious icon-based menu system, very similar to those in other Level-5 games such as Dark Cloud 2 and Rogue Galaxy.
| Game Name | Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King |
| Platform(s) | |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Developer(s) | |
| Genres |
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| Themes | |
| Original US Release |
Nov. 15, 2005
need a fuzzy date? |
| Original US Release |
know the real date? |
| Aliases |
DQ8 Dragon Quest 8 Dragon Quest VIII: Sora to Umi to Daichi to Norowareshi Himegimi |
| CERO |
CERO: A
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| ESRB |
ESRB: T
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| PEGI |
PEGI: 12+
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