Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

Finally out for the 3DS. Anyone else pick it up?

Played this on the PS2 when I was still in medical school. Got to busy and distracted (or the other way around) and never finished it. Glad I could play this again on the 3DS. I still own the original PS2 version.

I'm tempted, but I'm still about 7 40 hour + RPGs behind on the 3DS. I'm sure this one is supposed to be extremely long even by JRPG standards, right?

I have the PS2 version but stopped playing it when my new tv made it look really ugly. I did find a way to get around the problem but haven't gotten back to the game.

I'm tempted to just get this game.

I'm maybe an hour in on 3DS, and I love it. It's beautiful, controls well, and is a great match for a handheld.

Clusks wrote:

I'm tempted, but I'm still about 7 40 hour + RPGs behind on the 3DS. I'm sure this one is supposed to be extremely long even by JRPG standards, right?

HowLongToBeat says 72 hours for the main quest.

I'm thinking about it. I'd get it for $28 or so after all discounts, but if I didn't finish by 3/3 it might be forgotten in the wake of the Switch.

I didn't like VII on PS1, liked IX well enough on DS but stalled out. I need to watch a gameplay video or two I think.

Yeah, DQ7 is the looooooong one.

I just finished up the first 'dungeon'. Save anywhere is such a wonderful add to these versions.

garion333 wrote:

Yeah, DQ7 is the looooooong one.

I just finished up the first 'dungeon'. Save anywhere is such a wonderful add to these versions.

Does it have a full save anywhere or just a single use/suspend save?

I think it's single use but you don't have to suspend.

It's in the gawd awful menu (it's a feature) under Misc.

Nice! I saw that and thought it was an Etrian style save and quit.

I'm 5 hours in. Loving it. Some of the dialogue are hilarious. Especially Yangus. Great voice actor too.

I wouldn't be singing its praises if it was a save and burn that forces you to quit. That'd be a weird fit for a DQ game as they're not that hard core.

The voice work is nice to have, but man does it sound old. I'm not sure if it's the compression or the 3DS speakers or a combination of both but I feel like they recorded it when on break from a Rankin and Bass film. It is, however, incredibly well done for how old it is in the video game world.

I'm loving how versed I am in Level-5 now that I can tell this was made by the same company who went on to make Layton. I see soany similarities. And then there's the Yokai games, Ni no Kuni and so on. I see them all here.

I appreciate that the friendly AI blatantly cheats on your behalf.

The photography mini game is pretty fun!

Whelp... I couldnt resist and ended up trading in some older games and picking this up (i really wanted the a hard copy). Havent played much of it yet, but cant wait to start digging in again tonight.

I'm 20 hours in. All the gaming time since release has been placed into this. Which is good. I was sort of in a gaming lull. The QOL changes really makes a difference. Hours of time saved. I checked my old PS2 save. 25 hours on the PS2 and not as far as I am now. And I'm higher leveled. Seeing the enemies on the field makes it so much better.

I've played about 10 hours or so. Basically all the gaming I've done since release. Just got Angelo into the party.

Yeah, it's really good. I'm almost as far as I got several years ago on PS2. Really excited to press on into new territory.

Been playing on breaks at work and really appreciate some of the changes that have been made. Speeding up combat has been a big plus. I am on a 2ds and i will say I hate the default camera and that it constantly switches back to it. I like it set looking up at the horizon just a little more then it wants to be. Minor complaint but it bugs me.

I'm not very far in on my way to get Jessica but I'm hoping to sink some major time into it this weekend.

Rave wrote:

Been playing on breaks at work and really appreciate some of the changes that have been made. Speeding up combat has been a big plus. I am on a 2ds and i will say I hate the default camera and that it constantly switches back to it. I like it set looking up at the horizon just a little more then it wants to be. Minor complaint but it bugs me.

I'm not very far in on my way to get Jessica but I'm hoping to sink some major time into it this weekend.

Unfortunately you have to be use the D pad to adjust the camera. I rarely do it but its nice to be able to use the little C nub on the New 3DS.

Despite having a New 3DS, I've stuck to using the L and R buttons to rotate the camera. I've found that the vertical is usually fine for me, although there have been times when I'll nudge it up a bit.

Yep. Me too. I forgot to mention that. But L and R works great.

Yeah I've Bebe using l and r mostly it works well enough for sure on the horizontal axis, it's the positioning on the vertical that bugs me. Just seems if the screen loads or camera gets moved in the environment it defaults back to a position that's one click to low on the digital and I have to readjust.

I wonder how this is selling, I really hope it does well so we can get 11 over here.

I've been playing this for the past week and it's just as fantastic as it was on the PS2, actually it's even better due to portability and all the extra content! I remember clocking close to 100 hours on my save file back then. The fact that they were able to fit this massive game on a 3DS cart is simply amazing. Although I did like the remake of DQ VII, this one seems more polished and in my opinion has a much better story.

This is one of those games where I got about 40 hours in and then stopped playing for a while and then couldn't figure out where I was supposed to go next because there was no log or quest markers.

The 3DS has a pretty great solution for that. At any time, you can talk to your companions, and they'll give you hints of where to go and who to talk to. If you've been away from the game for awhile, when you start it up, the game will encourage you to talk to your companions, one of whom will remind you what was happening in the story and what the next steps were. It's really pretty cool, and it never breaks out of character.

The PS2 version did that too. I had the same issue as I finally picked it up again last winter after a nearly 10 year hiatus. Got interrupted for a few days here and there at the beginning and made use of that feature multiple times.
Credits rolled in March or so.

I just recently got this on 3DS. Do I need to have played DQ7 before playing this? I feel like the intro is either a cold open or this game is a middle chapter of a story I didn't start properly.

You don't have to have played any DQ games for VIII. It's a bit of a cold open, yes.

maverickz wrote:

I just recently got this on 3DS. Do I need to have played DQ7 before playing this? I feel like the intro is either a cold open or this game is a middle chapter of a story I didn't start properly.

It starts kind of in the middle of their story but it is unconnected to previous games so you don't need to play DQ7.

Hope you love it. I remember it quite fondly from years ago. It is a fun game.

Dragon Quest games are just like Final Fantasy. Minimal or no correlation in story at all.