Dragon Quest VIII

[GameDeveloper]

   I was wondering, has anyone been able to play this game yet?  It's an outstanding RPG, as far as gameplay goes.  The story is pretty typical and cliche ridden, but I just can't seem to put it down.  So far, I have clocked in about 90 hours.  I'm not even done with the story yet!

  Still, I was wondering if anyone has played it or is planning on playing it?

[durnurd]

I haven't played it (No PS2).  My roommate is going to buy it and play it (so he says) some time though.  And I'm going to play the demo of FFXII on it as soon as he gets it

[GameDeveloper]

I thought the demo was actually really good.  They seem to have made the battling identicle to the FF XI battling.  The game looks promising.  I just think it might end up with the same fate as FF IX.  That was released when PS2 was already out, and barely made any sales.  It might turn out like that with FF XII.  It'll be good, I'm sure, but who knows how well it will do sale wise.

[durnurd]

The one numbered final fantasy I never played was 11.  I'm not a fan of MMORPGs.  So I don't know the battling style of FFXI, however, I heard that the battling system of FFXII was not something that the reviewer liked at all.  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.  (Is it anything like Star Ocean?  I think I remember something about that.)

[GameDeveloper]

Actually, I don't think it's much like Star Ocean's.  How it works is you control the main character manually and run up to a target.  When your attack bar becomes full (like all Final Fantasies) you are able to select an action.  After making your selection, the system carries it ou for you.  It keeps doing that attack you selected until you select a different one, but it doesn't repeatedly use a potion or things of that nature.  I believe it does keep executing magic though.  Think of it as this:  It works alot like the 'real time-turn based' fighting system in Chrono Trigger (considering you selected that at the begining), except it's sort of MMORPGish (I know that doesn't help).

I hope that description made sense.