Dragon Quest VIII - PS2

Last Played: October 2008.

For the first Playstation 2 Dragonquest game, it will be remembered as the most traditional RPG in the console. It's odd to pack the playable trailer of Final Fantasy 12 on this game because they share very little in common. I think this is one of those games that will linger in your mind for days to come after finishing it, but finishing it, well that's not an easy task.

The odd thing about my playing of Dragonquest VIII is the three month hiatus that I took inbetween the 40th hour of game time. Life gets in the way of video-games.

It's odd how many hours I spent on leveling up here. Compared to the previous Dragonquests, this one wasn't that bad at all. Fly to the plateau north west of Empryea. Walk around at night, and you'll find metal babbles. Have all your guys on "follow orders" for tactics. Have the hero do metal slash, Yangis to attack regularly (hoping for a critical hit), Angelo do metal slash, and Jessica to cast the Accelerate spell. Keep up this pattern until it's your third turn, by then your speed is so high, even Jessica should be attack (for the chance of a critical hit). Somehow with this strategy I was able to gain six levels for each of my guys. I totally over leveled for Rhapthorne, and I found that it was the easiest Dragon Quest boss I ever fought.

The two shots shows my winning team in the monster arena. The rival team uses a metal babble, so you better get lucky with those critical hits. In the end you get a nice piece of clothing. But anyway, I just like taking screen-shots.

All in all, I really liked this game. From the British accents to the cell-shaded graphics, the game really brought you back to the Dragon Quest franchise. I found myself not wanting it to end, but it had to finish somehow. I know that there is a New Game Plus for a second quest, but I don't think I will have enough time for it. The ending contains one of the funniest surprises in recent RPG gaming; the true guise of King Trode. I laughed, and I gave myself a pat on the back.

Spoiler Picture of King Trode below!

Completion: Beat the game's first run. Obtained S-Rank for the Monster Arena.
Hours Spent: 86 Hrs. 18 mins.

1UP's Review

Civilization I, II, & III (PC)

Sid Meier's Civilization definitely made an impact on my studies when I was in high school. It was two folded: on the one hand it got me interested in history, on the other hand it distracted me from my studies big time. Yes, the game of battling other historical figures. The thing was, I was never good at battling.

The first one started it all. It had the turn-based building, the cities, and a tech-tree that lasts up into today's games. I spent a lot reading about the Wonders and really was aspired to read about history and travel through the world. Then there was another part of me that just wanted to work for Sid Meiers.

The second CIV featured the space colonization, hence the Antares subtitle. I really didn't play this much, but I got the gist of it. It kind of sucked that my computer wasn't powerful enough to play this. I do remember trade routes, and how annoying they were.

My attention for CIV3 came a lot later, long after it was published. I was in Japan and I had my powerbook G4 with me. There weren't many games available to Mac, and one in particular was CIV3. Now studying abroad is a fun and exciting thing, but if you ask anybody that's done it, there's a lot of down-time. During those hours of self-discovery, I played CIV. And yes, I'd get aggravated at it. The computer doesn't necessarily cheat, but they do plot together. Not only that, but they didn't have the fog of war, so they knew where your cities were. Not cool. I was able to beat the fourth difficulty against eight players once, but only through space race. For conquest, it'd be unimaginable.

Completion: completed all three, but not at highest difficulty.
Civilization = 40 Hours
Civilization 2 = 10 Hours
Civilization 3 = 60 Hours
Hours = 110 Hours

Dragon Quest 1, 2, and 3

Dragon Quest is the first RPG game I've ever played, and most likely, it was the first for many. It was released in 1986, yes, that was during Ronald Reagon's second term. We barely had 14.4k modems back then. And most likely the game was less than 1 megabite. We, as Americans, got the English versiona as Dragon Warrior in 1989 for the NES.

The game featured one knight out to save a princess. It was pretty much the entire plot. It introduced ideas like regaining your HP at the inn, saving at the cathedrals, and getting clues from villagers. Monsters like the Wyvern, Golem, Slime, and Dragons got their start in this first game. Remember walking through tunnels and you actually had to use the ITEM torch? Remember walking through the marsh and picking up a clue in the middle? The good old days.

In Dragon Quest 2 we explored the possibility of the party. While Final Fantasy already had the hero party of four members, DQ2 introduced a team of three. The cool thing about Dragon Quest games are that they continue after another. The descendant of Erdrick (or Eldrick) makes his name in the world. You actually can find your father towards the end of the game. Pretty fun stuff. It came out in 1990, so I can't remember much about it.

Dragon Quest 3 still had an attachment to the first two games as it was set as a prequel to them. It introduced a system of recruiting teammates with different classes. There were skill points in addition to experience points. This game really brought replay value into the series as you can pick different classes of heroes to finish the game. I remember the goof-offs became sages, odd way of doing things, but I guess they wanted you to suffer carrying a goof-off in your team until you can get him to the shrine for a class change.

All in all, these games really set the tone for NES rpg's, especially since Final Fantasy 2 and 3 were not ported over to the US.












[image from Entropypump.com]

I recommend this the Dragon Quest Shrine for more info on this series of games.

Completion: Completed all three
Dragon Quest 1 (x 4) = 80 hours
Dragon Quest 2 (x1) = 50 hours
Dragon Quest 3 (x 2) = 100 hours
Hours: 230 hours