Dragon Quest VIII

I rented it yesterday. Not really played a Dragon Warrior/Quest game before. I do know I hate the art style, but I've always hated that guy's art before (Chrono Trigger only gets a pass because it was sprites). But the game is nice and colorful. And the music is phenominal, all orchestrated. I hope they go that way for the next Zelda...I'm not very far in, but I am enjoying it. I hear, and am starting to experience, that it's a lvl. grind. I don't think I like that. And the voices are amusingly good. I wonder how long it will take Jacob Singer to come in and shit on the character design (although, anything he would say I would wholeheartedly agree with) and tell us how much better old school PC RPGS are.

As for FFXII, I don't know. Combat is different, and I expect I'll like it better when given t the chance to change some controlls around. The story looks like it's going to span several years, be epic as shit and political as hell. And the art style is odd. Half the characters seem to be done the FFX guy and the other half by the Vagrant Story guy. It's somewhat disconcerting.



Just kidding there, Jacob. You're cool. You old bastard.

I hope to see this game in action later this week. If I had the time to play this game I would have bought it myself... but with a Baby coming less than a month away, I doubt I would finish it before Baby arrived.

Finally started playing last night and I'm really happy with it. Nice story that's not trying to be more than it is, turn based combat, random encounters, loads of weapons and and a nice abilities set, pretty much everthing I look for in an RPG.

Hell, not only do I not hate all my characters, the big guy with me from the start is actually amusing.

Saw this game in action and its definately my type of game. Very Colorful game. Just wish I could afford it.

Only just starting this game at the moment, level 6 and just about to enter the cave behind the waterfall. I really love the vibe and feel of the game, exploration is really exhilirating and it's a joy to play a real old skool RPG which doesn't look utterley horrid. It takes me back to my misspent youth with Planescape, Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Cross.

Absolutley having a blast so far, it's nice having such a cheery and colourful game to play. The localised voice acting is pretty great too and the orchestral/big band score is really fabulous.

Yeah, I only picked it up a few weeks ago and it's a very entertaining time-waster. I'm about 20 hours in and haven't played such an enjoyable Japanese-style RPG since Skies of Arcadia.

This game is crazy hard, it's wonderful. I love the fact that random battles are challenging, makes every expedition seem exciting. Also the game just looks gorgeous and the enemies are too well designed for their own good.

It gets more manageable once you level up a bit, fill out your party and don't have to buy freakin' medicinal herbs anymore. I got wiped out twice in that first cave and only once more in the following 19 hours. But yeah, the first few hours are kind of merciless. The game actually ends up being pretty forgiving once you learn spells to evacuate dungeons and warp to towns.

I have them, am about level 13 around Maella abbey and break into cold sweats when hell hornets and scorpions show up. Zoom is a lifesaver, but not very helpful if your heroes just been killed by a tree...or had his MP sapped by the tree's weird dance.