CIS 487 Game Design Game Review Presentation Michael Berryman Fall ‘06

1. CIS 487 Game Design Game Review Presentation Michael Berryman Fall ‘06

2. Basic Information • Title: Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King • Company: Square-Enix • Developer: Level 5 Studios • Genre: Role Playing • Players: 1 • Release Date: Nov. 15, 2005 • Price: Originally $50, now $20 • Hardware: Playstation 2

3. Game Summary A sinister wizard named Dhoulmagus has broken into the castle of Trodain and broken the seal that held a powerful magic staff at bay. Using this staff, he cursed the castle and froze time for everyone within except the king and princess, choosing instead to change their forms into a toad-like monster and a horse respectively... Dhoulmagus

4. Game Summary Cont. …but miraculously, you seemed to have survived the curse. No one is really sure how, but as a royal guard, you have taken it upon yourself to help break the curse on the king, princess and everyone within the castle. And so, your journey with the cursed king and princess in pursuit of Dhoulmagus begins. The Hero (You!)

5. Overview As an RPG, Dragon Quest VIII is a one player game the relies heavily on the storyline to capture the player’s interest. Dragon Quest VIII has a precedent that it can fall back on, being part of a series of games not unlike the Final Fantasy series. Fans are already predisposed to buying the game, and certain elements of it (gameplay, monsters, equipment, main character, etc.) don’t have to be reinvented. Fans of the series will recognize the famous slime-type monsters from the previous seven games

6. Overview (cont.) Obviously gameplay for an RPG can pretty much be summed up into “Fight Monsters, Level Up and Get Better Equipment to Fight Stronger Monsters, Level Up More,and Get Even Better Equipment to Fight Even Stronger Monsters… etc”, with slight deviations from game to game. Given this type of formula, skill isn’t anywhere near as important to an RPG as it is in say a First Person Shooter. Therefore games such as this tend to have extraordinary challenges beyond merely beating the main story, as well as secrets here and there in the game. Some games even go so far as to introduce quite clever ways to perform otherwise mundane tasks. DQ8 falls prey to the repetitiveness of this system, although it does do its best to alleviate the boredom associated. Having never played a Dragon Quest game before, but being a big fan of RPGs, it was interesting to see how DQ8 tackled these common pitfalls

7. The Manual • Opens with an overview of the system setup and controls, then proceeds to the story and short bios for the main characters. • Presents general gameplay mechanics, such as movement on the overworld screen, accessing menus and saving the game. • Glossary for character status ailments, statistics and character AI styles. • After these introductions, then the manual begins presenting the combat system, side points-of-interest within the game and new features of DQ8. • Finally, the manual has a fairly comprehensive listing of battle skills/magic for reference purposes.

8. Game Play Gameplay for DQ8 is standard for most RPGs in that you run around the world completing quests, entering dungeons and fighting monsters in an effort to accomplish some (generally) heroic task. DQ8 takes a light, almost comical approach to the RPG formula, as is reflected in a the female PC’s special abilities (stemming from her “Sex Appeal” skill) and the style of game animation (comical anime). One of the playable characters, Jessica, uses a “sexy” attack.

9. Game Play (cont.) The Menu screen interface isn’t the best I’ve ever seen, but it isn’t the worst either. Item management can be a pain in DQ8, since you start accumulating seemingly worthless items that for good reason, you don’t want to get rid of, and each character can only hold so many items (including their equipment). Accessing out-of-battle magic is slightly annoying, although not terribly difficult. My biggest gripe with the menu system is the character attributes section. Whenever a character gets a new skill, it can’t be viewed unless the player goes through layers of menu screens. A second thing I find terribly irritating that stems from the menu screen is the system configuration options, or lack thereof. I did not like the default controller set-up, but was stuck with it since there is no option to change it.

11. Combat System Being an RPG, gameplay is heavily combat-oriented, as that’s the only way to truly advance through the game. DQ8 is turn-based, meaning that everyone in the battle (monsters and party members) take turns performing actions. At the beginning of each “round”, you input your commands (either for just the hero or your entire party depending if you have AI set up for the other characters) and then let that round of battle commence. The party as a whole can choose to either attack, intimidate, flee or change battle tactics.

12. Combat System (cont.) • Fight: Choosing the fight command allows the player to input choices for combat. The Player can decide on actions for just the hero, or up to everyone in the party, depending on the tactics the other party members are assigned. This command will be the most common, as it accesses all the battle skills, item usage, magic, and other standard RPG battle commands. It’s the only way the party can get experience points, too. The character can also “Psyche-Up” themselves, skipping a turn to cause greater damage next turn. • Intimidate: The party can attempt to intimidate the opposing monsters into running away. This works better if the party is higher levels than the monsters. • Flee: The party attempts to run from battle. • Tactics: You can change the AI for each party member (to options such as heal, be defensive, attack all out, etc.) or put them under your control for battle. Personally, I like having control of my party members.

13. Skill System One of the ways Dragon Quest 8 tries to spice the monotonous formula of RPGs up is via its skill system. Each character has certain skills they can advance in, including 3 weapons skills (which vary from character to character), an unarmed skill and a special powers skill. Whenever a character levels up, they get skill points to allocate amongst their skills. Reaching a certain level in a skill will grant the character special abilities or magic usable in battle, or statistics increases. This system grants a certain customizability factor to each character, and adds a factor of planning into the game, as the weapon skills for a character can only be used if they are currently equipped with the applicable weapon.

14. Alchemy System Dragon Quest VIII introduces an alchemy system near the beginning of the game (and then an upgraded alchemy system further into the game) that allows the player to create their own items using other items in their possession. Throughout the world are scattered recipes for items to be created, but the player can also experiment and see what they can make themselves. Seemingly useless items can be combined with others to make very powerful things, and some of the best equipment in the game can only be obtained via alchemy. The Alchemy Pot is how the player combines 2 or more items into something new.

15. Aesthetics (Art and Sound) • Artwork: The artwork is of Anime style, which is no surprise considering the guy who animated DQ8 is a famous Anime artist in Japan. The cutscenes are not movies in the game, but more scripted portions of the gameplay, using all the resources available during player-controlled gameplay (which has had me on more than one occasion standing around waiting for the cutscene to continue only to discover I regained control of my character). The graphics are crisp and very cartoony, which add to the light-hearted path this game is trying to take in a usually serious genre of games. • Sound: The sound effects are nothing special, with the occasional cartoony sound here an there (like a ‘sproing’ sound for certain jumping attacks). Likewise is the voice-acting nothing special, which says volumes considering there’s nothing wrong with it. What stands out immediately when playing is the music. It sounds exactly like an orchestra was hired to do all this music in a truly acoustic orchestra hall, and the resulting effect is beautifully renditioned and makes exploring the world that much more enjoyable

16. What is Good about this Game? • Light-Hearted, Comical approach to a generally serious genre of RPG. • Skill system for character customizability. • Alchemy system the leads the player on a game-long side quest. • New concepts to battle system (Psyche-Up ability and Intimidate). • Orchestral Music. • Recurring concepts for long-time fans of the Dragon Quest series. • AI option for party members. • Quick-Travel Magic • Obtaining Levels/Money isn’t incredibly easy, and therefore getting new gear isn’t incredibly easy; IE it’s somewhat challenging.

17. What is Bad about this Game? • Inability to configure controller buttons. • The RPG curse: Level/Gear grinding. • Not a very deep storyline. • Unfamiliarity with the skill system can keep the player from getting the best skills/magic unless they restart the game. • Annoying collection quests to get some of the best items. • Menu Interface. • Hero has no personality (which is supposed to be good, supposedly making it easier for the player to insert himself into the role of the hero, but I don’t like it).

18. Comparison Dragon Quest 8 is a good RPG in its own light. It has a series of games, of which there are seven other predecessors, so it must be doing something right. The game itself lends itself to a more childish attitude, which is not bad considering the other games out there. Other RPGs have a much better interface system, in my opinion, probably since the game itself is more ‘mature’ and the interface can be more complicated. It’s obvious that this game is aimed towards teenagers to young adults, barring some of the blatant comical sexual jokes, with the streamlined menu/battle interface, bright colors, upbeat music and cartoon/anime artwork. What DQ8 does do, it does well. It’s an easy game to enjoy and laugh at, but lacks the seriousness and mature attitude other games such as the Final Fantasy series have used to appeal to older audiences. Unfortunately, trying to compare DQ8 on anything more than a surface level to most other RPGs is pointless due to this approach in game design. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still an enjoyable RPG.

19. Conclusion Dragon Quest 8 is a game that is appropriate for almost anyone who has the patience to actually play an RPG. About the only controversial matters in the game are some thinly veiled sexual jokes. Keep in mind, though, that it IS a light-hearted approaching-comical game, and that it still IS an RPG. The game is truly worth its price, especially now that it’s dropped to $20, and some of the major flaws of the game (menu system, lack of controller configuration) are, if not overcome, then relatively easy to overlook and rarely hinder actual gameplay. Overall, it’s a game well worth the price already, but if the little things such as menu, control configuration and the can’t-go-back skill system were improved, then the game would be an astounding, albeit different than what most are used to, RPG.