Colorful,funny and very interesting Dragon Quest VIII is one of the best Role-playing games ever!!!
Dragon Quest VIII is one romantic journey.In the game have a lot of killings ,charm and funny moments,some drama and good action.In the start of the game you are surprised and confused what the hell had happened.One castle,one magician and king with the princess.After one minute you see one boy with his own mouse and one little ugly creature which one searching for his daughter.In the other moment the you realised that his princess is one horse.You may accept my confuse situation and thinking.I said what a goofy and crazy thing.. But after a few more minutes you released the general part of the story...The castle which one you saw in the first FMV is cursed and you are the only one who is not affected. The king Trode is green like frog and the princess Medea is transform into the horse.In this party in first moment joined one thief - Yangus.Soon in your party join the last two of the team - first one magician named Jessica and second one beautiful and charming templar knight named Angelo.After many funny and sad situation the story stop looking too familiar..
The battles of the game are the normal old school tactical fighting.The mechanism are simple when you have turn you choose for every hero what must do like attack ,heal ,use item and etc.All of this actions depend on your hero agility.The one of the new things in this game are the leveling up bonuses. After the moment when you gain level it not only improved your status, but gave a bonus points for improved the heroes characteristics and abilities to make a skill or gain a new magic or bonus damage when you bear the specific weapon - example if you increase your sword skills on Angelo it will give him a bonus 10+ sword damage and some skills.The only bad thing in the battle is the slow battle text. It take nearly 25% of the battle to read how much damage you make or etc. This get you nervous.The other bad thing is the reallyyy big encounter.And the last one is the problem with the difficulty from time to time. I hate too easy boss fights..One of the best ideas in the game is that - when you fight for example in the Sea when it is a day you fight some monsters and in the other moment when it get dark you fight other kind of monsters.This make a big list of enemies.The list total is 295!!!
In the game have a few side quests.The last one you can take when you finish the game.In this moment you can load the game before the battle with the final boss and go to the optional dungeon to seek your true origins,some awesome fights and items and the second ending.
The graphics are colorful.This game make me to love again the animations like never before.Everything in the game move so beautiful, real and monotonously like only a few other game.Even the smallest details are so touched. I am a hardcore gamer and play games like Laxius Power and etc. but when i see a game i can tell are it beautiful or not.In the sound part the game are nearly perfect.The only bad thing is the repeat of the normal battle music. I have over 2000 battles and it piss me off.But in the other aspects it's perfect - the voice acting are better then the HollyWood movies,the property of every one single little tone are perfect.
And last the time spent playing..It take a lot of time for the story mode,but a little for the side quest, with exception for the Dragovian Trails.The good things in the side quests are the boss fights and the reward.In the Dragovian Trails you fight with tremendous strong enemies and it take a lot of time.
For the finish i said this - If you like Square-enix,If you like animated games you must have Dragon Quest VIII.
Graphics - 10/10
Sound - 9/10
Gameplay - 9/10
Story - 10/10
New ideas - 10/10
Side quests - 9/10