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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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.

Gameplay

The gameplay is turn-based during combat, and free roaming while not in combat. There is a leveling system and you are able to buy new weapons, armour, and various other items. You also unlock various different attacks and abilities as you level up in certain areas.

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.

General Information Edit

Game Name	Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Publisher(s)	Square Enix
Developer(s)	Level-5 Inc.
Genres	Add a new genre Adventure Role-Playing (RPG)
Themes	Add a new theme Fantasy Anime
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