Dragon Quest 8: A Tribute

[Scythe]

One game will stand out for me, as something truly special from this decade/century/millenium, and that's Dragon Quest: The Journey of the Cursed King.

What did this game have that made it so special? Well, on the face of it, it isn't very special.

The graphics are pretty, for PS2 graphics, but let's not go overboard, they're not cutting edge. The cel-shading is beautiful, but cel-shading is not cutting edge either.

Gameplay-wise, it's a nuts and bolts turn-based RPG. Hard to call that special. I don't think there were any mechanics there that could be called original.

Plotwise, it's occasionally slightly different, but not enough to go all bug-eyed over. And the plot doesn't move at a particularly good pace either.

Quests? A bunch of fetch quests sending you into a bunch of dungeons. Nothing new here.

Characters? Well, ok, now we're starting to go places. Akira Toriyama (of Dragon Ball Z fame) designed the characters, and they're very distinctive. Not just the mian characters, but especially the mobs. While the voice acting was not everybody's cup of tea, I liked it for being so distinctive.

What else? What makes it so good? Probably, it's all the extras. Like the huge alchemy mini game, where you combine items to make new ones. Or the monster arena, where you can pit your team of captured monsters against other teams for prizes. Things like the subtle sexual innuendos that are naughtly in a very cute way. Of course, there's also the length - if you're thorough, you'll clock 100+ hours in this.

Maybe it's just the whole magical feeling of the entire package? Then again, maybe it's just Jessica.

In any case, I love Dragon Quest 8. A game with personality.