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I figured this was worthy of its own thread. If you head on over to www.dragonquest8.com there's a new registration page. If you fill out the form, you'll be sent a copy of the DQ8 demo. If you refer a friend and sign them up, you'll be sent a Slime keychain (while supplies last, anyway).

The site claims the shipping is 4 to 6 weeks, but I'm sure it may come faster than that. I've been reading that the demo is around 3 to 4 hours long with sidequests, even for decent players. Nice to have a large demo for once.

The game itself is set for November 22nd, so whatever happens, you should recieve the demo before then I hope lol.

Heh, I just signed up for it. Too bad I don't have any keys.

I hope DQ8 will be better than the previous Dragon Quest games -- I always found them a pain in the ass to get in to.

I didn't like what I've played of DQ, but I'll play the free demo and see what I like of this one.

A friend sent me the demo a bit early and I finished it last night. Personally I loved it and I think some of the US adjustments will turn on some new players, but it's also very rooted in Dragon Quest style in some ways. Still, it's modernized enough that I do expect it to do rather well. I had a great time with what I played and it did last a good three hours or so.

The full game also comes packed with a playable FFXII demo, which will probably help its sales in the beginning lol... but I care more about DQ8, myself.

US Adjustments? Such as?

Also, does it still use that obnoxious "Menu Interface", where you've got to go through a menu to talk to someone or to search something?

No, it doesn't, it's been removed for the US version as one of the "modernizations", I believe. X is the action button and it takes care of all of that stuff... talking, opening, etc.

Here's some of the adjustments offhand:

• Voice-overs. In major cutscenes, the characters (aside from you) all talk. They've been done in a slightly British style, I guess in an attempt to fit in with the fantasy setting. Most of them are pretty well done.
• Menu and text alterations. Aside from what I already mentioned, they've been changed from the "nostalgic" black and white to something more presentable. In addition to this, images of each item have been added to item screens and such, which makes the game look far more polished.
• When the main character is charged up through the Psyche command, he now gives off this weird Super Saiyan look ala Dragon Ball Z (just in appearance, no abilities). His hair gets all big, basically. In Japan he kept on his bandana.
• Sound effects have been modernized. In Japan most of these sounded just like they were playing off a NES/Famicom. Here they sound quite a bit nicer, but still are based on the originals.

Aside from that this is the first time the translation has attempted to be literal with spell and monster names. Babbles are now the more correct "bubble slime", for example.

All in all, I think they've done a good job in an attempt to interest more people here. I've noticed that people's biggest problem with the older titles was the completely first person viewpoint battles... but that's been changed as well. When you pick from the commands, it's in first person, but the actual battle moves are animated in third person. Looks nice.

The game is also really damn gorgeous, too. That will help lol.

Now this game is finally released(in English), I must get it! For those playing it, how do you like it so far? I heard a lot of good things about it, even from new comers to the series.

It's just absolutely excellent in every way I can think of. The demo was fun, but the game is definitely far better than it let on. My only "complaint" was that the demo is basically the first two hours or so of the main game, aside from an opening scene. You're basically stuck playing through the same stuff again, but really, it's not as bad as it sounds since it's still enjoyable.

Obviously the game is just plain gorgeous. Level 5 did a phenominal job with the engine... it's obviously similar to their work on Dark Cloud 2, but Toriyama's art manages to set the two titles apart in this sense. This is definitely the first time his style has been utilized perfectly... The last few Dragon Quests had some amazing 2D battle animation on the part of the enemies, but it's nice to finally see the main characters getting the treatment as well.

The sense of scale thanks to this engine is just absolutely insane as well. I've not seen it this well utilized since Skies of Arcadia on Dreamcast, personally. A lot of games have big things in them, really, but utilizing it to leave a lasting impression is not that common. Dragon Quest exceeds at this so far.

Anything else to that effect was mentioned in my post above. What I can say is that after several hours or so, the game just keeps getting better. The battles, while simple, are fun and have a sense of uncertainty to them since enemy HP is somewhat randomized. The plot is not award winning, but, for that reason, it doesn't succumb to a lot of the melodrama you see in FF titles and other modern RPGs. Really, the characters shine here because they're just fun to play as.

I'm very happy with the purchase.

Ah, that's good to hear and I can't wait to make my purchase of the game!^^

I heard VAing was inputed into the game that wasn't in the original version. How does that fit in? I heard good and bad things about it but I'm still a little more curious to hear others views on it.

I really like a good story as well so will I be expecting something like that in this game?

I touched upon it on an earlier post, but basically English voice overs have been added to any of the major cutscenes... which turns out to be more often than one might initially suspect. The Japanese one had no voices whatsoever.
 
All the voices are European in some way. Most of the characters sound British (including regional slang), but there's some French and Slavic accents in there as well. This actually applies to the text translation as well... They've gone with "armour" and so forth... that would be spelled as "armor" in the US.
 
There's a couple of NPCs I found to be a bit grating (this blonde teenager at the start of the game), but aside from that I have no complaints. It's very cartoony, I suppose, but it definitely fits the style and atomosphere. I can see some people being annoyed by the king's voice, but the main characters outside of him are pretty damn good overall and rather well timed.
 
I've also read that the music in the original Japanese version wasn't orchestrated. I don't know if that's true or not, but it's definitely orchestrated in the US release. It's really great to hear Sugiyama's music in all its glory in a DQ game finally... I'm done with MIDI. Perhaps this is part of what made the FFXII demo soundtrack less memorable, I don't know.