“The Saved Game”…nice newsletter name! Wish I had thought of that 🤦🏾♂️
Anyway, I think you and I are gaming twins becuase I played DQ 8 for the first time last year after it sat around for like 15 years in my collection. And, like you, it took hearing someone else talk about it (Nadia Oxford on Retronauts podcast, ep. 605) before I decided to finally just play the damned thing.
Unfortunately, I got about halfway through the game (I think) and Petered out because I felt too tired in the late evening to really spend quality time with it without dozing off (living that dad life).
Also, I knew I couldn’t finish it before DQ III HD-2D came out and I wanted to play that game ASAP…which I also Petered out from after a few weeks for the same reasons.
But yeah, I also love the humor the series is known for. I had the same reaction as you when play DQV on the DS and tried warping while inside a building. That “thunk” sound was such a surprise and hilarious. 🤣
All that to say…nice write up! And I’ll get back into DQ8 at some point. Also, if you enjoyed that game, you are going to ADORE Dragon Quest 11.
It's hilarious, because I literally just picked up Dragon Quest 11: Definitive Edition the other day for the PS4 and just started it for the first time yesterday! It's been great so far, and I wish I had the time to just sit down for a week straight and completely finish it, but I foresee it keeping my summer pretty busy! Likewise, with all the other remakes of the older games coming out and some of the others, such as DQ9 on the DS, I see myself having plenty of Dragon Quest to last for a long time!
DQ8 was a pretty long game though! For me, with talking to as many of the NPCs and trying to get a lot of the side quests done, it took a bit over 90 hours! And even then, I think there was still some things I missed doing towards the post-game that I never got around to! The humor in it was fantastic though, and really breathed in so much personality that I look forward to seeing more of in Dragon Quest 11!
Thanks again, and thanks for subscribing too! I look forward to writing out more weekly newsletters!
It's rare in this day and age, for someone to give an old game a chance. A chance to a game from their way-back backlog. It's awesome that you did and found such a cool gem of a game!
I recently did something similar... went back to waaay-back to find one of my favs and play it with Junior :D, quite the experience! Article in the works xD.
Thanks so much! This game definitely meant a lot to me, and I knew that I wanted to share more about it! While I love my PS2 and enjoy playing games from different time periods, I never expected to really fall in love with a game like the way I did with Dragon Quest 8!
Looking forward to reading your article! Sounds like a lot of fun, and thanks again!
Love the shout out to Happy Console Gamer! He’s one of the internet’s best orators on gaming’s past.
Also a great read on a great game! I played the 3DS version a few years ago and while DQ11 is my personal favourite in the series, DQ8 is a very special game.
Thanks! That is awesome you played it on the 3DS! My local game store has me on a waitlist for the 3DS version, and I've been casually keeping an eye out on better prices for it on eBay since it's pretty expensive nowadays! I definitely want to replay it again next for the 3DS though, due to the additional content and characters, (I think it was Red and Morrie), that were able to be used in your party!
Happy Console Gamer is a favorite for me! I love his enthusiasm for gaming, and I definitely would not have played DQ8 had I not watched the videos from him that I had playing in the background!
Thank you for reading, and I'm glad you enjoyed it and shared your comment! DQ11 is definitely on the horizon for me, and I hope to pick it up soon! I've heard great things about it, and would love to dive into it soon!
Wow, blast from the past! This game gets very tough off memory. I remember the bit where Jessica gets possessed to be particularly tricky, as you lose a party member— a good one at that — and the games’ difficulty does not scale!
I also remember this game being quite funny. Enemies would fall in love with Jessica mid combat or stand in awe of Angelo’s charm. You could build them through levelling to capitalise on this.
I’m pretty sure I finished it. But it requires some perseverance. Wonder how it’s aged as a result? Even one of my fav games Final Fantasy X is a bit tedious to play these days!
Thanks! I'm glad you were able to play this game before!
I loved the humor in this game so much! It added so much personality and quirkiness, and it was a joy to play. The interactions between the characters, such as Jessica and Angelo, were also hilarious, and I loved how each character had a lot of depth to them as well! Even someone such as Yangus, who appeared as more of a comic relief when I first played it, had some surprising and quality character developments throughout the story!
I don't play too many turn-based RPGs, but it really held my attention throughout the 93 or so hours I put into it for my main game save! As you said, it was pretty difficult for some times, like when Jessica becomes possessed and you have to continue without her, but I was so interested in everything else going on that I was able to push through!
Even when I played it for the first time last year on the PS2, I think it held up pretty well and aged fairly gracefully. The loading times, while definitely longer than most any game nowadays, were really good in my opinion for that type of game with how large the open world was. The mechanics were also familiar enough that I had no issue with that aspect either. For me though, it was easy to set aside any concerns with the age of the game, given how much I enjoyed the story and quality characters!
Thanks again, and thank you as well for restacking my post! I appreciate it!
“The Saved Game”…nice newsletter name! Wish I had thought of that 🤦🏾♂️
Anyway, I think you and I are gaming twins becuase I played DQ 8 for the first time last year after it sat around for like 15 years in my collection. And, like you, it took hearing someone else talk about it (Nadia Oxford on Retronauts podcast, ep. 605) before I decided to finally just play the damned thing.
Unfortunately, I got about halfway through the game (I think) and Petered out because I felt too tired in the late evening to really spend quality time with it without dozing off (living that dad life).
Also, I knew I couldn’t finish it before DQ III HD-2D came out and I wanted to play that game ASAP…which I also Petered out from after a few weeks for the same reasons.
But yeah, I also love the humor the series is known for. I had the same reaction as you when play DQV on the DS and tried warping while inside a building. That “thunk” sound was such a surprise and hilarious. 🤣
All that to say…nice write up! And I’ll get back into DQ8 at some point. Also, if you enjoyed that game, you are going to ADORE Dragon Quest 11.
Thanks! I appreciate your time in writing this!
It's hilarious, because I literally just picked up Dragon Quest 11: Definitive Edition the other day for the PS4 and just started it for the first time yesterday! It's been great so far, and I wish I had the time to just sit down for a week straight and completely finish it, but I foresee it keeping my summer pretty busy! Likewise, with all the other remakes of the older games coming out and some of the others, such as DQ9 on the DS, I see myself having plenty of Dragon Quest to last for a long time!
DQ8 was a pretty long game though! For me, with talking to as many of the NPCs and trying to get a lot of the side quests done, it took a bit over 90 hours! And even then, I think there was still some things I missed doing towards the post-game that I never got around to! The humor in it was fantastic though, and really breathed in so much personality that I look forward to seeing more of in Dragon Quest 11!
Thanks again, and thanks for subscribing too! I look forward to writing out more weekly newsletters!
It's rare in this day and age, for someone to give an old game a chance. A chance to a game from their way-back backlog. It's awesome that you did and found such a cool gem of a game!
I recently did something similar... went back to waaay-back to find one of my favs and play it with Junior :D, quite the experience! Article in the works xD.
Great Review! Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much! This game definitely meant a lot to me, and I knew that I wanted to share more about it! While I love my PS2 and enjoy playing games from different time periods, I never expected to really fall in love with a game like the way I did with Dragon Quest 8!
Looking forward to reading your article! Sounds like a lot of fun, and thanks again!
Love the shout out to Happy Console Gamer! He’s one of the internet’s best orators on gaming’s past.
Also a great read on a great game! I played the 3DS version a few years ago and while DQ11 is my personal favourite in the series, DQ8 is a very special game.
Thanks! That is awesome you played it on the 3DS! My local game store has me on a waitlist for the 3DS version, and I've been casually keeping an eye out on better prices for it on eBay since it's pretty expensive nowadays! I definitely want to replay it again next for the 3DS though, due to the additional content and characters, (I think it was Red and Morrie), that were able to be used in your party!
Happy Console Gamer is a favorite for me! I love his enthusiasm for gaming, and I definitely would not have played DQ8 had I not watched the videos from him that I had playing in the background!
Thank you for reading, and I'm glad you enjoyed it and shared your comment! DQ11 is definitely on the horizon for me, and I hope to pick it up soon! I've heard great things about it, and would love to dive into it soon!
Wow, blast from the past! This game gets very tough off memory. I remember the bit where Jessica gets possessed to be particularly tricky, as you lose a party member— a good one at that — and the games’ difficulty does not scale!
I also remember this game being quite funny. Enemies would fall in love with Jessica mid combat or stand in awe of Angelo’s charm. You could build them through levelling to capitalise on this.
I’m pretty sure I finished it. But it requires some perseverance. Wonder how it’s aged as a result? Even one of my fav games Final Fantasy X is a bit tedious to play these days!
Thanks! I'm glad you were able to play this game before!
I loved the humor in this game so much! It added so much personality and quirkiness, and it was a joy to play. The interactions between the characters, such as Jessica and Angelo, were also hilarious, and I loved how each character had a lot of depth to them as well! Even someone such as Yangus, who appeared as more of a comic relief when I first played it, had some surprising and quality character developments throughout the story!
I don't play too many turn-based RPGs, but it really held my attention throughout the 93 or so hours I put into it for my main game save! As you said, it was pretty difficult for some times, like when Jessica becomes possessed and you have to continue without her, but I was so interested in everything else going on that I was able to push through!
Even when I played it for the first time last year on the PS2, I think it held up pretty well and aged fairly gracefully. The loading times, while definitely longer than most any game nowadays, were really good in my opinion for that type of game with how large the open world was. The mechanics were also familiar enough that I had no issue with that aspect either. For me though, it was easy to set aside any concerns with the age of the game, given how much I enjoyed the story and quality characters!
Thanks again, and thank you as well for restacking my post! I appreciate it!