DragonQuest VIII review

The history of Japanese RPGs in the United States begins over twenty years ago. Hundreds if not thousands have made the long trip across the Pacific to land in gamers consoles. Over the years the genre has branched out from its simple turned base combat roots to include such things fully tactical systems to actions based combat. The games have left their fantasy roots to span decades and even the reaches of space. Is there any place left in the modern gaming world for the old fashioned fantasy turn based RPG? You better bepin believe it.

It’s hard to know even where to begin a review of DragonQuest VIII. I am not sure how long this game has been in development, but the previous game in the series, DragonWarriorVII, came out on the ps1 2001. The developers used their time well. The production values are the highest possible and great effort was put into the details of this one.

The game looks beautiful on the ps2. It’s not so much the number of polygons or shaders or whatever that moves this game to the tops of the graphics pile. The art direction and design is brilliant. The guy who did Dragonball Z did the character designs for this game. It’s not just the characters that look good but the entire world looks and feels good. The colors are bright and the designs have a whimsical style about them. Initially, the dungeons and towns seemed a little small to me, but they are packed with such character and characters, that you soon realized it’s just right. I have to mention the monster design. They’re funny, colorful, and larger then life, with character all their own. Each class of monsters has reactions and animations. I would wander around to find monsters just to see what they would do. The voice acting blends well with the quirky characters that inhabit this world.

Combat pays homage to the old days of Japanese RPGs. It’s a straight forward turn based affair. Your characters agility determines what order in which the combatants act. You can attack, use special abilities, or cast a spell. Certain attacks affect groups or all of the enemies. In one slight twist you can “psych up” which gives your attack or spells more power. I didn’t find this technique helpful except against certain bosses. In a clear tip of the hat to Dragonball Z, if you psych up to 100 you go “super saiyan” except for glowing pink instead of yellow. At this level you can unleash extremely powerful attacks. I hit one boss for over 4000 damage once.

The story for the first half of the game is a breath of fresh air. It’s really simple. You and your party are chasing a jester around the world to kill him for revenge and to lift a curse. No amnesia, no chosen ones, just find the evil guy and kill him. Unfortunately, a little over half way through the game they decide to resort to the tired clichés and you half to stop the dark lord blah blah blah.

There’s a fun little side quest in which you defeat special monsters throughout the world. You are then able to have these monsters fight as a team against others in an arena to earn awards. Eventually you can call this team into battle for you, which can be very helpful in certain circumstances.


It’s hard to describe how well this game holds together and simple enjoyment it brings. The tradition Japanese RPG has reached its apex with this game. I can’t see this being topped without adding some gimmick. In terms of design, simplicity, and fun, I haven’t experienced a Japanese RPG in years that could match this game.

9/10 Game time 90 hours.

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Funny but scary

Metroid Zero Mission

Here’s a reviewlet. Metroid Zero Mission is a GBA remake of the original NES metroid game. I can’t really compare this to the original because I don’t remember much except for the very beginning and having to write down those crazy long codes to remember where you’d stopped playing. This works well as a GBA game. The graphics don’t detract from the experience, which is really all I ask from a GBA game. The intuitive control scheme makes it easy to pick up and play. With short term goals the game is easy to pick up and play for a short period of time which is a must with a portable game. I did have a vague sense that this version was easier then the old one, but that could have just been me being older.

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Important Story

Area 51

I’ve been a fan of First Person Shooters since the beginning days of Castle Wolfenstien 3D. I’ve played many of them throughout the years, from the big budget, big hype games, to the cheap low budget ones. Area 51 is somewhere in between. A fair amount of effort went into the production. The producers used some Hollywood voice talent; David Duchovny, Powers Booth. They also developed a good graphics engine.

Area 51 is a FPS for FPS fans. It doesn’t stray far from the tried and true formula of the biggies like Halo and Doom. You travel through similar looking areas trying to find the next key or computer station that will open the next door, while gunning down hoards of enemies. You have access to all the standard weapons: shotgun, machine gun, and grenades. They do not give you a rocket launcher though.

The graphics do an excellent job. There’s good lighting effects and the characters models look realistic and move with a life like air. They did a good job on the sound as well. The guns sound solid and convincing and the chatter of teammates seems realistic. The voice acting is in general quite good. Your teammates sound natural. The one big falloff is with David Duchuvney’s performance. He mailed this one in. I actually felt embarrassed for him during the cut scenes.

The gameplay is divided into two distinct types. Early on you are traveling with a squad on a rescue mission. This leads to some very exciting and frenetic fire fights early in the game. Hoards of enemies will be assaulting out of the dark. Your buddies are shooting, bullets are flying everywhere with glass breaking and commands being issued that you can’t hear over the din of combat. These were some of the best combat sequences I ever experienced in a FPS. The second stage begins when you are separated from the rest of your men and end up on your own. You at this point become infected with a virus that allows you to mutate. During this mutated state you move much faster, have a great melee attack and can shoot out enemy seeking attacks. You can only be in this mode for a short time. This adds a somewhat interesting element to close in combat. But overall the last half of the game loses some of the excitement that the first half built up. The game become more of a straight hallway crawl.

It only took me about five hours of game play to finish this one. Usually I would consider that a bad thing, but in this case it was the correct decision by the game designers. If the game was any longer it would have simply become boring. It’s the precise length to survive its derivative, if at times exciting gameplay.

7.5/10