#dqviii

A liquid metal slime... so elusive...

I was not expecting the Moonshadow Land to show up again at Castle Trodain! After some running around, we got the ship afloat. Sailing is fine but... I have NO idea where to go. I ended up stumbling around for a while.

Finally, somewhere to turn in my mini medals. AND A BANK!!! And that she-slime sitting at the table, so cute and polite.

I met a king slime named Hori the Slime Creator. Get it? Horii Yuuji? That's hysterical.

I already blundered into Argonia. There are some interesting sights on the western continent. Like the mystical spring where the protagonist can talk with Medea. And this village built atop a natural archway. I like taking photos, but the photo album is almost full! I'm scared to delete any, but I do have them safely backed up on my computer...

After retrieving the Venus Tear and a stolen horse, the party is now in search of a boat.

So far there's one big thing that I DISLIKE about this game... the 3D overworld. Specifically, the map. It hardly shows elevation differences so it's difficult to tell where there's an insurmountable cliff until you're stuck at the top of one! Also, I wish you could draw markers on it. This is the Nintendo DS, let's get some Etrian Odyssey action going! Also, a few minor gripes with the battle menu. The item menu is locked behind the Fight option, which makes sense for usable items, but then you can't switch equipment unless you change that party member's tactic to Follow Orders. In addition, I wish you could customize which skills a party member will use automatically, but as far as I know, that feature is only in a couple Dragon Quest Monsters games, so I can't really expect that. Anyway, back to the good stuff.

Red is cool. According to the wiki, she and Yangus are THIRTY-TWO YEARS OLD. I suppose that's fine, but I can't believe there's such a huge age gap between them and the hero, Jessica, and Medea, with Angelo in the middle. That means... the events of Yangus mystery dungeon took place WAY before the main game. Maybe over 20 years?! It would be nice if the whole party was in their mid-twenties or above. As I approach 30 myself, this teenage hero trope is getting tired. I suppose from that perspective, only having 3 teens in the main cast is a fine compromise. It's neat that they added Red and Morrie as party members in this version. However, I am currently enjoying that I don't have to choose between party members because there's only four... I'm sure it'll take a while to unlock them anyway.

The Swordsman's Labyrinth was a pretty fun dungeon. Yes I was pushed into a hole by a fake door. That's ok, because I like exploring every corner for treasure!

I also unlocked Morrie's Monster Arena! I don't really like Morrie's personality, but that's beside the point. This is my current team, Slimers. I have no idea how you would accomplish anything in the tournament without a wiki to consult. And look! It's Hork! Hork slimed you! Its title is even Old-School Drooler, a reference to how walking corpses were called horks in the old translation. This was so important I had to take a few pictures with my phone camera.

Imp dressed as Morrie is funny! I like these special monsters. I wish they could join my monster arena team!

The Moonshadow realm was cool. Real quotes uttered by me:

"Some Dragon Quest IX bullshit is happening!"

"I don't think anyone expected there to be an elf twink in here."

This whole "grant one wish" thing does raise the usual question... why didn't we wish for Ishmahri to defeat Dhoulmagus?! I suppose it really means any wish within his powers.

I thought it would be annoying, but I was pleasantly surprised by the photo mode challenges. They make the game more fun! And taking photos is far less annoying than all the stuff the quests had us doing in DQIX.

Behold... the pinnacle of slimes! Crème caraslime!

The challenges encourage you to get some nice shots of the scenery. And the scenery in this game is beautiful!

It's Maribel!!!!

Just kidding, but the color palette of this NPC in Port Prospect is awfully familiar.

I just finished the Maella Abbey section, which put my playtime up to 12 hours. Jessica and Angelo have joined the party!

I like Jessica's story and personality, but I hate Jessica's appearance. It's one of the reasons I've put off playing this game. I understand that they toned down the fanservice in this remake (thank god), but is that only on the unlockable outfits? I liked her original outfit better, but it seems outfits are their own armor sets with actual stats. Is there no way to play dress-up while keeping the real armor stats?

Her special skill tree, Sex Appeal, also isn't great. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Angelo has a similar one, called Charisma. Why can't they both be charisma? Anyway, I know a lot of people say Angelo is their favorite character in all of Dragon Quest. I see the appeal, but he hasn't quite won me over yet. And his stats aren't any better than Jessica's!

A few days ago, I found my copy of Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King. I bought it when it was released in the US in 2017, then forgot about it for 9 years. After some deliberation, I decided to break the seal and start playing! I'm about 4 hours in and I just got inside the Tower of Alexandra.

I'm surprised the art direction isn't more similar to DQVII 3DS. The game looks pretty nice, like DQIX but fancier (and full 3D of course). I was disappointed when I turned on the 3D slider and nothing happened. Wait, right there on the box it says "Playable in 2D. Some areas also playable in 3D." What areas?!

Slimes are so tiny in this game!! The photo mode is fun. I wish we could also take normal screenshots though. I want to capture lines of dialogue and battles!

Hunting down infamous monsters is pretty fun. So far I've beaten Automaton Aviator, Shortshooter the bodkin archer, Buffalo Bill the bullfinch, and Axoraptor the hacksaurus. I wish they were in the defeated monster log. Wait, I just got spoiled that you can recruit them later?! Oh boy!!!

More thoughts (without screenshots 🥀):