about to go out and get dragonquest VIII

woohooo!!!

i preordered at sofmap and im about to roll out and collect

impressions in here for those who care.

You think you're going to have time to give impressions?

The box art alone is worth the price of the game.

I ordered it just to make both kaos and Now Loading jealous.

I'll be getting it for Christmas, I'm sure.

But I will be jealous until then if that makes you happy.

I wonder if beelze is playing right now.

I do not know how to read Japanese, so I will not be importing this title. But I will pick it up if (when?) it comes out in the states.

You lucky bastards, I have to wait for this to come to the states, I just hope S-E doesn't cancel it.

I think an US version is more than possible, I just gotta wait....for a year or so, I'm dealing with it, the VERY few jap I understand (only hiragana) ain't enough to fully enjoy it
nevermind, I'll keep playing DQ7, I'm "just" at 170 hours.....

I'm playing through VII now myself for the first time. I'm at 60 hours right now. How many times have you completed it?

I generally play RPGs no more than 2 times, except Xenogears which is my fave game EVAR and objectively one of nicest piece of artwork in vg history

I'm playing DQ7 for the 2nd time (completed first time in about 90 hours), and I'm going through every side quest....you know, just watching those superdeformed carachters walking "old school" makes my day

edit:
fixed some points....forgot you said youre playing it for the first time
I dont wanna give any spoilers

beelzebubble said:

impressions in here for those who care.

Click to expand...

Tell us about the battle system!

On the negative side, I hear the music won't be done by an orchestra like the remakes (which just sound AWESOME).

On the plus side, I hear it's impossible to make a game more boring than DQ7.

/trolls

Looks good though! Hope it plays good, too.

graphics are nice, the textures look clear and sharp even at a distance, there is also virtually no fogging from what ive seen so far. on the other hand the environments although a pleasure to walk through are not very organic. they are quite sparse and the textures on the trees, exposed soil on the side of small hills, etc looks very cartoony, 1st gen.

the story is pretty cool so far but to enjoy it youll really need to speak the language. if you didnt really care about the story you could get through the game quite easily though i think between a little trial and error and some help off forums.

the music is a tad repetitive, there arent any in game options either, if you save and choose "dont continue" it tells you to turn off your ps2!! id really like to invert l+r look on the analog sticks (though up and down is luckily plane style).

lots of levelling up is required which means lots of random encounters just outside the city gates then inside to heal up, buy new weaps, etc. i tried (foolishly) to head straight to the first dungeon which is your first quest and got whipped by the first monsters i met (they werent that hard but id taken a beating on the way).

which brings me to the unavoidable random encounters, they seem to pop up without fail every 10-15 seoconds!! bards tale had unavoidable encounters as well (i much prefer ultima style ones you can see) but not so frequently iirc.i really want to enjoy outside a bit more.... maybe ill be better able to escape as i level up...

Ah, you said this would be your first DraQue? They are famous for kicking your ass, and you're going to like it. Usually, once you've learned the likes of Rukani most of the bosses aren't too terribly difficult early in the game though.

And after you save in the church they always ask if you want to quit and turn the system off, so that's just nostalgic.

And please tell me the first enemies you fought were Slimes?

Now Loading said:

Ah, you said this would be your first DraQue? They are famous for kicking your ass, and you're going to like it. Usually, once you've learned the likes of Rukani most of the bosses aren't too terribly difficult early in the game though.

And after you save in the church they always ask if you want to quit and turn the system off, so that's just nostalgic.

And please tell me the first enemies you fought were Slimes?

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MINOR SPOILER ALERT
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yeah you are waiting outside town and you choose your name, get aquainted with your party then three slimes attack you

battle system, well basically you choose from run, scare, attack and.... thats right, strategy.

scare if it works makes some of em runaway, if it fails they might get a free hit.

strategy is to choose how your teammates play. you can control your teammates by selecting "command others" from the strategy menu.

next screen is attack, use, spell, store (tension), special attack and defend.

after you attack you can choose exactly which monster you want to attack.

as your skill goes up you increase the chance of criticals.

I'm thinking of picking it up. My japanese may be just good enough to get the idea of whats going on but its a great game just to look at.

beelzebubble said:

lots of levelling up is required which means lots of random encounters just outside the city gates then inside to heal up, buy new weaps, etc.

Click to expand...

In that case, how many seconds do you wait from when the random encounter starts to when you execute your first command?

A lot of PS1 RPGs did this... with like 5 second wait times.

beelzebubble said:

yeah you are waiting outside town and you choose your name, get aquainted with your party then three slimes attack you

Click to expand...

: D

Scare? That's new. I take it Talk (Hanasu) isn't there anymore? That was one of my favorite things added in VII.

So, do the tactics have the same names as before (Gan Gan Ikouze, Inochi Daiji Ni etc.) or are they "plain" now?

Also, one more thing: do you give commands in first person view? Or is it in 3rd person for the whole battle?

loading times are neglible throughout the game, to load a battle the screen twists like its swirling down a drain and when that little show finishes (maybe 1 second) then the battle starts, very quick.

there is no talk in battle, only before its starts [scare, fight, run, strat]

choosing commands is 1st person but all the actual attacks and spells are 3rd person with the camera positioned in the most appropriate place (like at you if you cast hoimi or something).

the game is downright beautiful in places, just before the sun sets looking over lots of trees is really beautful as are the luminescent water pools in the first dungeon which cast a dancing glow on the walls of the cave itself.

you need to be about level 7 to do the first dungeon, i got through it last night on my 2nd go (after id done all the levelling up to level 7)..

really cool game!

Can you talk to your party members in towns and on the field?

Is there any reason why this game is so expensive? Both Lik Sang and Play Asia are charging $85 for it.

Not that I'm looking to get it before it comes out in English, just curious...

Now Loading said:

Can you talk to your party members in towns and on the field?

Click to expand...

@ now loading : yep, any time outside of battles iirc.

@ kristian : its expensive becoz it was expensive in japan, 8500 yen or so though most places have it at about 8000 incl tax.

Yeah, I was kinda wondering why it was so expensive in Japan... I kinda figured the prices at the mentioned stores reflected the price in Japan.

I'm going to wait til it comes out in English. I'm just not up to playing an RPG in Japanese only anymore.

Besides, I can wait.

I loved 7, but I think I went through it too fast and beat it at around 70 or 75 hours.

I stared at the promo video for this game in akihabara for about 10 minutes. I picked up the box about 3 times and almost bought it. The graphics and character design are so awesome. But, I've never played dragon quest before, I've always been a final fantasy boy and I stopped playing with number 7.

The price and time investment turn me off. It looks old school in a good way. Im trying to resist!!!

@RBJake...

Go and download the old Dragon Quest games and play them on an emulator. They are some of the only old rpgs that are still fun now. The style has remained the same more or less since the begining, it's mostly been graphics updates only since the NES games.

Syxx573 said:

@RBJake...

Go and download the old Dragon Quest games and play them on an emulator. They are some of the only old rpgs that are still fun now. The style has remained the same more or less since the begining, it's mostly been graphics updates only since the NES games.

Click to expand...

Wicked. Which should I start with? I was thinking about getting DQ 5 remake for ps2.