January 11, 2006 - The first RPG I ever played was Enix’s Dragon Warrior on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game came free with a year’s subscription to Nintendo Power magazine and while I didn’t know what to expect from it at the time, it is the game most responsible for changing my view on gaming. A while later, I bought Final Fantasy and from then on, I was an RPG addict. Since that time, over 15 years ago, I have played almost every RPG franchise under the sun and although my copy of Dragon Warrior (the Japanese title Dragon Quest couldn’t be used in North America due to copyright) hasn’t been played since the SNES came out, it still (and will always) hold a very fond place in my gamers heart. The series continued to grow, but for some reason or another, I’ve never kept in touch with it, dabbling more in the Final Fantasy world. But now, with the developing genius of Level-5 (Dark Cloud 2), Dragon Quest VIII returns to reclaim its crown as RPG king; a game full of nostalgia, evolution, memorable characters and timeless gameplay. The perfect RPG.

While the manual does include a Prologue detailing how an evil court jester named Dhoulmagus unleashed a foul curse upon an entire kingdom, transforming the King and the Princess, and leaving only one person unscathed (the Hero - You), the game opens quite matter-of-factly without a loud intro or engrossing CG cinema. You find the Hero (which you can name as you see fit) in a clearing with a large oafish man named Yangus who speaks with an odd cokney-ish accent and a green troll standing next to a horse and carriage. The oaf refers to you as the Guv’ (governor) while the green troll addresses you with a royal tone, referring to the horse as the “Princess”. This quiet scene adequately sets the tone for the 100 hours that are to come. While there is an epic bubbling under DQVIII’s surface, it is mostly a game featuring intelligent character interactions, small bits of story cleverly revealed one piece at a time and mostly about enjoying the “now” as opposed to what is obviously coming up. The story, while simple, is secondary to the overall web of interaction that DQVIII casts. The characters are not only real, but everything they say and do is endearing and every NPC speaks intelligently and in a matter that will have you reading every word instead of skipping them. In a nutshell, you and your merry band will travel from town to town (a la FFVII) searching for Dhoulmagus while part of a quasi video game “road/buddy movie”; one who’s characters stay with you long after the resolution (which is really secondary) has come and gone. Jessica, Angelo, Yangus, The Hero and even Trode are so real; you will remember your time with DQVIII as time spent with friends.

Dragon Quest VIII’s gameplay is a finely tuned mishmash of every conceivable RPG staple that has ever worked with its own clever polish and tweak on things. The game follows the main character from a third person perspective using the shoulder buttons to control the sway of the camera. You can re-centre the camera at any time behind the Hero or use first person view to take in your surroundings. While in a town, you will find places to buy items/potions, armor and weapons as well as a bevy or residents that will further the story along. Each town also has its own church where you can (quite cleverly) go to confession (save your game), ask for divination (see how far each character is from leveling up), resurrect fallen allies (although you can use a spell for this later on as well), cure poison and remove curses. This may seem a little odd to some, but it works. The downside to having to go to church for saving your game is that you usually can’t save in dungeons or before a boss fight, which may annoy a few. As always, you will also find Inns to stay in (you can rest until nightfall or overnight), casinos which will gladly rob you of your time and money and banks where you can deposit your gold coins. This is particularly useful since DQVIII’s penalty for having your party completely wiped out is half the gold you are carrying.