Very charming DQ8 movie.

[passerby]

Go to http://www.square-enix.co.jp/dragonquest/eight/, select the 'new' at the top-right, then the play symbol when the window loads. It's flash, so it'll stutter madly the 1st time. But once it's fully in the browser's cache, you can replay it smoothly.

You've got to see king slime in battle...

 

[thop]

Looks fantastic.

 

[cthellis42]

Man this game has been a long time in coming... Might actually be the first DQ I've played since #1! Heh.

 

[JacksBleedingEyes]

The art seems to look a lot like that of the Dragon Ball Z series.
I wonder who this game is aimed at.

 

[one]

The art seems to look a lot like that of the Dragon Ball Z series.
I wonder who this game is aimed at.

The character designer is 1 person
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Toriyama

 

[Farid]

I wonder who this game is aimed at.

It's aimed at 4 or 5 Millions japaneses. Without any distinction.

BTW Akira Toriyama is the character design of the serie since the beginning, the firsts US Dragon Warriors had a different cover design to please western tastes, though. Seeing at that time Akira Toriyama mangas and animes were not known in the US, like they were in the Japan or Europe.

 

[Natoma]

I was so disappointed that they stopped bringing the series here after DW2. I think that was what, DQ5?

 

[V3]

I was so disappointed that they stopped bringing the series here after DW2. I think that was what, DQ5?

Hmm that's not right. I am pretty sure the NES got it upto DW4.

GB has it upto DW3.

They stop during the SNES era though. So DQ5, 6 and remake of DQ1&2, 3 never made it.

The last one is DW7 on PS1. They cancelled the remake DW4 though. Cause DW7 sold though was less than stellar.

This one is already plan for worldwide from the beginning I belive.

 

[London Geezer]

Totally Dragonball look. Love it. I wonder if we'll ever get it before PS4 comes out here in the UK.

 

[jarrod]

I wonder who this game is aimed at.

It's aimed at 4 or 5 Millions japaneses. Without any distinction.

Actually, DraQue is aimed directly at Japanese children.

The last one is DW7 on PS1. They cancelled the remake DW4 though. Cause DW7 sold though was less than stellar.

No DW4 PS1 was canceled because of politics with the original developer, Heartbeat. Enix had already decided to move to a different team for DQ8 (which would eventually turn out to be Level 5) and in response Heartbeat refused to aid in any localization of DQ4. Hertbeat soon dissolved and reformed under Nintendo funding as Genius Sonority (who made Pokemon Colosseum), and Enix of America was forced to give up on DQ4 as the localization was suppossedly impossible without Heartbeat's key insight and code knowledge.

This one is already plan for worldwide from the beginning I belive.

Yep... in fact promoting DQ worldwide was one of the driving forces in Enix deciding to merge with Square. The game's rumored for a heavily promoted American debut summer 2005, after which Square Enix USA will probably start bringing over the older DQ games they've been neglecting (Slime Morimori, DQ5 Remake, DQM3, Torneko 3, etc).

 

[London Geezer]

So i take it one doesn't need to have played the past installments to understand this one... not like we'd have a choice anyway....

 

[jarrod]

So i take it one doesn't need to have played the past installments to understand this one... not like we'd have a choice anyway....

Nope. The series used to progress in 3 game arcs, but DQ7 broke that tradition.

 

[cthellis42]

How did it break that tradition? I thought DQ7 was the beginning of its own arc that DQ8 will continue?

 

[Megadrive1988]

the NES got all the Dragon Quest games in the form of Dragon Warrior I, II, II and IV

we never got the Super Famicom Dragon Quest V or VI though.

or the Super Famicom remakes.

 

[jarrod]

How did it break that tradition? I thought DQ7 was the beginning of its own arc that DQ8 will continue?

Nope, evidently DQ7 was entirely self contained and DQ8 won't be at all related to it. DQ1-3 were the Roto trilogy while DQ4-6 were the Heaven trilogy. It was thought initially that DQ7 would be the start of an Eden trilogy but with the move to Level 5 I guess it was decided DQ8 would break the cycle.

 

[zurich]

How deep are the plots/story arcs in DQ? I always sort of wrote them off and figured they were ~Golden Sun level (not a bash, but those games are written at the grade 1 reading level...).

 

[jarrod]

In terms of what games Americans got...

-Dragon Warrior (NES) Nintendo 1989
-Dragon Warrior II (NES) Enix 1990
-Dragon Warrior III (NES) Enix 1991
-Dragon Warrior IV (NES) Enix 1992
-Dragon Monsters (GBC) Eidos 2000
-Dragon Warrior I+II (GBC) Enix 2000
-World of Dragon Warrior: Toneko: The Last Hope (PS) Enix 2000
-Dragon Warrior III (GBC) Enix 2001
-Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Cobi's Journey (GBC) Enix 2001
-Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Tara's Adventure (GBC) Enix 2001
-Dragon Warrior VII (PS) Enix 2001
-Dragon Warrior VIII (PS2) Square Enix 2005

...it's worth noting that we almost got the DW4 remake (before Enix fubbed their relationship with Heartbeat) and DW Monsters 3 (before Square Enix merged and sidelined all Enix USA's projects). Nintendo also looked into bringing DW6 over here themselves back in the SNES days but ultimately decided against it.

 

[cthellis42]

Nope, evidently DQ7 was entirely self contained and DQ8 won't be at all related to it. DQ1-3 were the Roto trilogy while DQ4-6 were the Heaven trilogy. It was thought initially that DQ7 would be the start of an Eden trilogy but with the move to Level 5 I guess it was decided DQ8 would break the cycle.

Well, one of the reasons I was wondering was you said DQ7 broke the tradition, but if this is the case it is indeed DQ8 that breaks it instead.

Sadly there's not enough information out there. But one of my recent GameInformers pretty much said that VIII would be related to VII somehow, so I assumed the "trilogy" bit was still in place. Perhaps I'm mis-remembering... (I can't find the right mag at the moment.)

 

[passerby]

How deep are the plots/story arcs in DQ? I always sort of wrote them off and figured they were ~Golden Sun level (not a bash, but those games are written at the grade 1 reading level...).

One can say that the 'tradition' and 'charm' of a DQ is that stories are presented in a simple, child-friendly and un-menacing manner. Having said that, there is a lot of story in a DQ, and playtime usually reach ~80hrs.

 

[pcchen]

It looks interesting... Perhaps I should get one when it's out
But I rarely played the last PS2 RPG I bought (Xenosaga 2), maybe I should consider it carefully...