Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy VI as probably some of the best music of the series (Final Fantasy VII is pretty Rad too) and has given countless beautiful interpretation. The opera scene sure come to mind has one of the iconic scene and music of the series.

Back in June, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra performed a symphonic poem arranged from the game’s music, entitled Born With The Gift Of Magic. It’s pretty amazing and the performance is available on their website.

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Born With The Gift Of Magic by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Watch Final Fantasy VI: Symphonic Poem Now!

Dragon quest I & Dragon quest II

Yes both of these originals games are out, while not has carefully done like Dragon Quest VIII . They stand has the beginning of the series, DQI is probably the first major RPG out on NES (in Japan) and DQII was the first with multi-member party, not just a lone hero try to find is way.

Dragon quest I

Contrary to popular lore, Dragon Quest was not the actual first JRPG. But it certainly the first major one. Yuji Horii wanted to simplify the complex systems found in RPG to make it easier and more playable on the NES limited input compare to PC RPG likeWizardry and Ultima. However, he wanted to still offer the player the satisfying feeling of following the narrative of a character who take on a journey to make the world a better place and becomes stronger in the process.

If you don’t know Dragon quest I what is you might be a little surprise with all the hype it gets for what it is compare to modern game you can get today. However, it you want to nostalgic feeling of the NES and educate yourself about a game that started a whole genre itself 25 year ago (yeah it’s that old) you should definitely give it a try.

Dragon quest II

Dragon Quest II is probably the game I had a hard time with when I was young. I’ve played it after DQI and Final fantasy so I was not stranger to RPG, but my god that game have too much stuff that you have to just guess and search everywhere for no (insert swear word here) reason. Don’t get me wrong I loved and still love the game but if I replay it, it will be with the walkthrough besides it. Most of my frustration come from finding the mirror of Ra (it’s hidden in a (more swearing)swamp) and find the crest which usually you have not much clue about where they were. However, Dragon quest should be look at what it is, a game perfect for your nostalgic or to get a sense from where all the game come from, it’s definitely a game worth playing (with the walkthrough).

Related :

Dragon Quest I Review

Dragon Quest II Review

Coming tonight Dragon Quest I

Coming tonight Dragon Quest II

Dragon Quest VIII is by far my favorite game on the PS2 and I’m trill to see it coming back on mobile device. Hundred of hours of story, fight and grinding in a beautiful and massive world.

Dragon Quest is well-known to have defined the JRPG genre so don’t be surprise by finding everything’s know from your beloved JRPG. DQ VIII battles reflect that more than anything else, the encounters are invisible and random, and the fights are turn-based. However DQVIII added an useful new thing called the tension meter, which allows you to use a character’s turn to charge up for a powerful attack. Tension actually makes this one of the easier Dragon Quest games, but you still have to remember to use buffs and debuffs to your advantage if you want you don’t want bad surprise.

Battle & Skills system
Unlike some the proceeding and following DQ game, there isn’t a job class system in Dragon Quest 8. Instead, when you level up, you get points that you can put towards any of five different categories. When a certain number of points are put into each category, your character will learns a new skill or ability.

Skill trees should be planned for the whole party. Thin air is a great move but getting it for three character is redundant. Not getting a critical hit move on just Hero or just Yangus is perfectly fine but getting critical hit skills for neither of them can cause trouble in the postgame, especially if Angelo did not get charming look. A staves build in which Jessica can use caduceus has more value if Angelo has gone down swords which has no focus on Angelo’s healing role. Your party is a team, not a sum of individuals.

Check out this post from gamefaq for more info on skills.

There much more than that, the classic casino is there, there a battle arena, a hand full of side quest and the Alchemy system to bang your head on.

Dragon Quest VIII is a solid game that will take probably 70 hour & more to complete and probably 100hr + if you want to complete all the post game quest. Some might say the game is a slightly strange fit on mobile devices, specially with to lost of voice acting and the hardware limitation, but it’s definitely worth playing.

Review of the PS2 Game by Clan of the Gray Wolf

Game Play Video by Touch Arcade

Related News:

Dragon Quest VIII (Touch arcade)

DQ VII: Journey of the Cursed King (Pocket Games)