Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King Reviews
If you have a 3DS, love RPGs and never played the PS3 original, consider Dragon Quest VIII an almost essential purchase. If anything, its easy-going style and accessibility make it a better fit for the handheld console than for the original platform, and you’ll struggle to find a JRPG that’s easier to pick up or harder to put down.
Well made handheld port of one of the best JRPG with some sensible innovations.
Review in German | Read full review
New characters and gameplay enhancements make a great game even better.
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.
If you're a JRPG fan, you should be playing this game.
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.
Even then, there are some concessions made in the name of more effective gameplay that aren't exactly native to the series.
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.
Dragon Quest VIII Journey of The Cursed King was an amazing JRPG back in 2006 and it stood the test of time brilliantly, thanks to the great work by the developers. There's much here to be loved by both the newcomers and the old fans, as we're talking about one of the best Japanese role playing games of all time, all considered.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The personality makes it a joy to explore
The best Dragon Quest game gets bigger, but deserves a better port than this.
Even with its handful of changes, or regretful omissions, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King on 3DS is a grandiose adventure that manages to evolve the series in terms of technical achievement and presentation, story-telling and overall convenience. It takes advantage of the enhancements of technology to help make this adventure a joy to work through, unlike some older RPGs can be nowadays. It is a definite pleasure, while still delivering the classic feel of a Dragon Quest title that most of its devoted fans, more so in Japan than anywhere else, expect to find with every new release that the series has seen to this day. Lack of orchestrated soundtrack or minimal censorship should definitely not put anyone off this historical masterpiece, even on the humble and ageing 3DS hardware. This, along with perhaps Ever Oasis, might be the last major RPG release for the system, as it probably sees its last year of relevance in 2017, and it could not hope to go out with a bigger bang than with this impressive port.
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.
While the 3DS version adds worthwhile content and I hold Dragon Quest 8 near my heart, it's not without its faults.
Dragon Quest VIII: The Journey of the Cursed King definitely sits high up on my ‘must play RPG’s’ list and is a must play for all role playing fans.
This is the Dragon Quest experience that you have been waiting for, woven around a captivating tale and a wondrous world in which to tell it. This becomes another unmissable addition to the impressive RPG library that the Nintendo 3DS has built, kicking the year off with a jubilant fanfare.
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.