Thoughts for: Monday 8th May 2006
Dragon Quest :: [12:34:36]I've been enjoying my time off from uni' lately and have been playing a lot of computer games. Or rather a lot of one computer game. Considering the taxation my brain has suffered recently I think a little bit of mindless gaming is well and truly entitled. Even the over 70 hours I have had so far.
Dragon Quest is apparently the most popular game in Japan at the moment. It's also the most popular game in my house at the moment. As I already mentioned I have been playing this thing for over 70 hours so far and I'm still not finished and will not be for some time yet. Dragon Quest is an RPG for the PS2 with a simplistic although well told story. I am immensely picky about which RPG's I will play and which I will not. If I'm going to play an RPG it needs to be the best and simply put this is. The only RPG's I have found worthy in the past are Final Fantasy 8, Final Fantasy 10, Breath of Fire III and Shadowhearts 2. Dragon Quest owns them all. To really take the biscuit the graphics are cell shading, nothing special about that you might say, but you might change your mind when I say that I hate all cell shading I have ever seen in a game except this one. The artwork is provided by the same guy that did the art for Dragon Ball apparently and is perfect for this type of game. Exploring the massive and interactive world is a joy and a number of simple innovations like the Zoom and Evac spells make it a delight to play opposed to something like the endless dungeons and long treks of a Final Fantasy or other typical RPG. The levelling system is simple and efficient and the abilities etc that your characters will learn are not only useful but most of the time a hell of a lot of fun. This game in no way takes itself seriously and therein is the reason this game is so damn good. There are jokes galore and I challenge anyone to play this game through without laughing out loud at least once. Intriguingly your characters are no confined to a single weapon or type of weapon either, you have full control over what they are using and when and can abuse this advantage to your own benefit. Alchemy makes an appearance and allows you to create items with things you find upon your travels. This in turn adds an element of playability which a lot of games lack. The days of searching like a bitch for a new shops and new items are gone. You can now make your own with just a bit of thought and some useful items. The combat is simple to control and there's nothing complex to get in your way or annoy you but at the same time fights are chellenging enough to keep you entertained and force you to try out various tactics. One of the most impressive features of this game though in my eyes has to be the little things, like the fact that if you enter a room and walk past someone, that person will move their eyes or their head to follow where you are going, watching you. Similarly if there's a cupboard you want to investigate your character lifts up his hands and pulls it open, or the best yet, when you investigate a bookshelf if there is something worth reading, your character reaches out, picks up the book, flicks through the pages and reads. I know this is just a matter of aesthetics but why the hell shouldn't such things be taken into account. For an RPG to not have such features (which 90% dont) then they are kinda breaking the suspension of reality. Oh and in an unprecedented move for an RPG the music ISN'T annoying!
Buy this game! You need it!