Dragon Quest 8

[Jetman]

I love it too, and I am a little surprised that it still plays like a Dragon Warrior game when other RPG's series are changing and evolving (for the better?). The presentation, graphics, musical score,characterization, charm and everything else are setting this game way above the others in the series,if not other RPG's in general.

I think I'm in Compass' camp about the silent main character though. It really bugs me to see him not talk back when Yangus and the others ask him something.( I just started playing a bit of SMT:Nocturne, and this annoyed me in that one too) I mean do people in this day actually name the main character after themselves and ...pretend....to really be him or something?(And how ironic I just saw the commercial for the Marvel Nemesis game with the guy in his underwear pretending to be a supevillian or something.Maybe people do,still do this?) I never did this as a kid either - I would just name my main character Cunt Monkey, or Slut Bag or something,funny.But,to me playing an RPG is almost like reading an interactive book. I dont pretend to be MacBeth when I read Shakespeares classic why would I do it here.

I think the produers do it out of respect to tradition or something, but it needs to change.

But, uh, yeah, besides that, I'm having fun with this for the same reasons you all mentioned.

[epmode]

I think the produers do it out of respect to tradition or something, but it needs to change.

I agree. Either make it possible to have meaningful choices (a la Deus Ex) or get rid of it altogether.

[Salsashark]

Honestly, I don't even like it when you HAVE to input your own name for a character. I always use the default names, because even though I'm playing, I'm ultimately being told a story. When I got the prompt to name my character in this I stared at the screen in agony for a few seconds and named him "Hachi" because "Hero" or "Eight" or my own name would be distracting.

[Finch]

Main characters are ALWAYS named "Finchie" or "Fini" if i get that choice, even if they're pre-set.

[Salsashark]

Haha, see, if everytime I was summoned to some important quest as "Finchie" I would think it was funny and that would be untrue to the game or something. It's just too huge of a decision to make, like deciding what you're going to do when you grow up. I break under the pressure.

[Finch]

It's not funny! It's very serious! If i have to choose a class, it's always thief. It's my dream to one day have an rpg about the under class thief Finchie.
<- if this character was named Finchie, would you not take him seriously? He will steal your golds!

[Salsashark]

If that was a character in a game that was named Finchie I would absolutely take it seriously.

100% serious.

Oh, and DragonQuest8isneatsofar.

[MechDeus]

This is wierd considering all the praise I see for this game... but I've reached about 13.5 hours and DQVIII is boring the hell out of me. Everything just seems so lifeless, the combat is blah, the world is pretty empty and not interesting, each of the characters is okay in their own right but they don't feel like they have any connection with each other, and the hero is just a bland shell that drags it all down even further. I've gotten to the castle in black and if they killed off the entire cast right now the only thing I would care about is if they reset my levels with whomever replaced them.

It feels like I'm playing the original Dragon Warrior on the NES only with really good production values and added party members, and I don't mean that in a good way. I don't think it's so much that the game is doing anything wrong but more just that it hasn't done anything to make me care. I might trudge through some more later but I really hope this picks up and goes somewhere at some point.

p.s. It's not that I feel the main character has to talk - after all, a few of my favorite RPGs have silent heroes (both of the Chrono games, for instance) - but for whatever reason it feels really terrible in here.

[blueskied]

MechDeus-- there was a bit of a lull in the game at about the 12 hour mark for me, in fact I was so bored at that time I stopped playing for SIX MONTHS. I recently picked up the game again over a month ago and I'm so glad I did. It picks up dramatically from there and never disappoints again. And are you referring to Troden Castle with all the brambles and stuff? I think that was my least fave dungeon in the whole game. Some of the later dungeons are brilliant.

I really got into the alchemy system and finding all the coins. Also, the story gets dramatically better as you go along, and there are some really great side stories and stuff. Overall the game is loads of fun.

BTW I just beat the main quest today at 65 hours. I was at level 41 when I faced the last boss. Now to move onto the extra stuff, and then Dragon Quest V for the JP PS2!!

[MechDeus]

I don't think it's Trodan, it's the one where everyone's depressed.

I'll have to take your word for it and try to push through to when things perk up, because right now it's pretty whatever.