CIS 487 Game Design

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

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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

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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
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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!)
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Overview

• As an RPG, Dragon Quest VIII is a one player
  game the relies heavily on the storyline to
  capture the players 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.) dont have to be reinvented.

Fans of the series will recognize the famous
slime-type monsters from the previous seven games
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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 isnt 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

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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.

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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 PCs 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.
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Game Play (cont.)

• The Menu screen interface isnt the best Ive
  ever seen, but it isnt the worst either. Item
  management can be a pain in DQ8, since you start
  accumulating seemingly worthless items that for
  good reason, you dont 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 cant 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.

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Combat System

• Being an RPG, gameplay is heavily
  combat-oriented, as thats 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.

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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. Its 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.

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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.

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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.
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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 theres
  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

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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 isnt incredibly easy, and
  therefore getting new gear isnt incredibly easy
  IE its somewhat challenging.

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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 dont like it).

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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. Its 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. Its 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 doesnt change
  the fact that its still an enjoyable RPG.

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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 its 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, its
  a game well worth the price already, but if the
  little things such as menu, control configuration
  and the cant-go-back skill system were improved,
  then the game would be an astounding, albeit
  different than what most are used to, RPG.