Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King Reviews
Dragon Quest VIII is an amazing JRPG, which has become even better on 3DS thanks to great new features. As a result, we got one of the most beautiful and well-designed JRPGs on the platform, where all aspects work competently, allowing you to enjoy the atmosphere of a fabulous adventure with a company of bright and very memorable characters.
Review in Russian | Read full review
This game is good. I have made good memories, and hope to make many more. I'm going to miss these characters, their quirks, their catch-phrases, and their flaws. It's a good egg.
If you're a JRPG fan, you should be playing this game.
Dragon Quest VIII is a massive world with well over 50 hours of gameplay. It stands out thanks to stellar voice acting and a huge, quirky set of monsters to battle. While there’s plenty to do, both the plot and the majority of the characters are flat and uninteresting. The quicksave feature and the ability to increase battle speed are significant quality of life improvements over the original, making this a solid title sure to entertain JRPG fans, but the dated and grind-heavy mechanics can make it a bit of a slog.
Even then, there are some concessions made in the name of more effective gameplay that aren't exactly native to the series.
The best Dragon Quest game gets bigger, but deserves a better port than this.
The personality makes it a joy to explore
What makes Dragon Quest so special is that each game manages to straddle a line between nostalgia for simple, elegant combat mechanics, and the modern game design world, where it can poke fun at itself and laugh along with players. Dragon Quest VIII isn’t the perfect port in coming to the 3DS. It is, however, very close to the perfect classical JRPG.
Dragon Quest VIII is a magnificent RPG that is an absolute highlight and showcase of the entire genre. It’s a long journey, but it’s one worth taking, especially if you’ve never played it before. I know that, after getting through this game, I need to reassess my personal favorite RPGs of all time. This game is that damn good.
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is the crown-gem of RPGs on the 3DS, and one of the most enjoyable JRPGs of recent memory.
New characters and gameplay enhancements make a great game even better.
Square Enix and Nintendo team up to release Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King outside of Japan, providing gamers with a wonderful JRPG to take with them on the go.
Dragon Quest VIII was without question one of the best RPGs on the PlayStation 2, and 13 years later it's one of the best RPGs on the 3DS as well. If you haven't played it before, this version offers a lot of features that make it very easy to recommend over the PS2 and mobile versions. Even if you have, there's more than enough new content to make DQVIII worth revisiting. As I said in my review in progress, this game is a classic in every sense of the word, and I'm overjoyed that it's available for a new generation to get their hands on.
Dragon Quest VIII‘s almost random plot and character moments carry complex emotional weight.
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is an enjoyable classic RPG on the 3DS with a few 21st century mechanics thrown into the pot. I like how it has been ported to the 3DS as it works on all levels from not just the control system but how the game plays out. It’s the perfect title for this console as it allows you to get lost in this world for either quick or long gaming sessions. Fighting is a challenge, creating items is easy and all in all, it’s a game that has been tailored for lovers of role-playing games.
Though the 3DS version falls short in a number of ways from being the definitive way to play Dragon Quest VIII, the newly-portable version of the title is still, nevertheless, an excellent way to experience an excellent RPG despite its few technical shortcomings. More than anything the pros far outweigh the cons when it comes to a title that, even after a decade after its release, still plays remarkably well and manages to put a smile on my face. Dragon Quest VIII was charmingly old-school even back when it released in 2005, but like the best and timeless stories, the 3DS version shows that this story has only gotten better with age.
While the 3DS version adds worthwhile content and I hold Dragon Quest 8 near my heart, it's not without its faults.
Dragon Quest piles on the enhancements in the 3DS version, and these tiny improvements are so numerous, that Dragon quest VIII feels far less dated than an RPG over a decade old should feel.
The charm of Dragon Quest VIII for me has always been how it feels like a child’s fairy tale, crafted with the mediocre English impressions and memorable adventures that our parents used to read to us when we were young. While the writing can be cheesy at times, and the gameplay may appear barebones in comparison to newer titles, I actually enjoy that kind of campiness from a series like Dragon Quest and it never detracted from my personal experience.
Well made handheld port of one of the best JRPG with some sensible innovations.
Review in German | Read full review