Dragon Quest VIII

Well, I did go and beat the game last night. I had, seriously, just the one final boss battle to go (with hideous morbidly obese purple demon Rhapthorne). And I realize now why I let it languish so long – I didn't want it to end. I didn't want to say goodbye to that good friend.

I'm glad I did it, though.

Now you can finally move on with the rest of your life. Though, you don't have to say goodbye to that good friend. You could say hello to that good friend in a new way, a la Tom, by beating it in a more complete and exhaustive manner.

so this came out a week or two ago on iphone/ipad, and i'm finally going to play it (ipad style)! it's supposed to be a decent port (http://toucharcade.com/2014/05/29/dragon-quest-viii-review/).

if anyone else wants to join me on this epic quest it would be cool! please note that i am really slow and will not be beating this in 2 weeks or anything close to it.

I'm still waiting for this to be ported to a DS system or to HD more or less

from that review:

As for the iOS port, it's not quite as good as you might hope. Since this is just a translated version of the Japanese release, the orchestrated music and voice acting found only in the western PS2 release are out. The orchestrated music, I can live without, since it was recorded at low quality and bloated the game's loading times, but losing the voice acting hurts. Reading Yangus say "Cor Blimey!" just isn't the same as hearing it, and some of the jokes have a lot less punch in text, like the gags around Prince Charmles' name. Tailored for the train-faring Japanese population the game is played in portrait mode, which is going to seem like an odd choice for some people. I actually like being able to play one-handed, but there's no doubt the lack of horizontal space cuts down on the feeling of grandness in some of the game's environments. The controls themselves take a little getting used to, but after an adjustment period, I didn't have any problems with them. It's certainly a unique interface, but it ends up working out fine.

don't really care about the music because i'm usually playing ipad games on silent mode while my gf sleeps, and same with the voice acting. and actually i wouldn't care about the voice acting even if i had the sound on. i almost always hate voice acting in video games. bah humbug.

fuck this ipad shit hook yr PS2 up already and play it legit

i'm lazy man, so lazy

i never bought a ps2

i had a ps1 but haven't had a sony device since

i'm apparently about 10 hours in, although i don't trust the game clock. i don't think i've spent ten HOURS already (have i? oh god). i think i'm about to get angelo to join the party, except i'm embarrassingly having trouble finding the secret underground entrance to the sanctuary or whatever. they gave me clear instructions - head toward Simpleton but stay close to the river until you get to the ruins - but somehow, even though i see the little dot on the map where the ruins are, it's blocked off by the landscape and every 8 seconds i have to deal with a random encounter. maybe i should cast padfoot so i have some more time to explore. on the other hand i'm getting some much needed leveling up in while i wander. i fear that i spent too much time in simpleton village at the tavern and now i too am a true Simpleton.

my hero is named DIRKBURT.

the game itself is a lot of fun, and i like the characters. i feel like i probably don't exploit the tension system enough, and i probably rely on 'fight wisely' tactic way too much. part of that has to do with the menu system, and i'm not sure if it's in the original or if it's an iPad modification. but basically, any deviation from the fight wisely tactic results in several button presses. and it's especially cumbersome when switching weapons in the middle of a battle (which is often necessary to use certain abilities):

- tap DIRKBURT's options pane
- tap "items"
- tap the new weapon to select it
- tap the new weapon to equip it
- tap to close out of the options pane

it's not really a huge deal in isolation, it's that you have to do it so often. it would have been really cool to add a quick weapons switch button to streamline the process.

i especially enjoy how every village has a burly S&M guy wearing a horned mask.

Tailored for the train-faring Japanese population the game is played in portrait mode, which is going to seem like an odd choice for some people. I actually like being able to play one-handed, but there's no doubt the lack of horizontal space cuts down on the feeling of grandness in some of the game's environments.

bummer. this game is so pleasant and mainly because of the big, colorful environments.

I know the olympics are bad but pretty awesome to see all the teams march out to Dragon Quest music lol

I hope someone puts up a video of this

stopped watching but apparently they played some Sonic too!