I promise not to do daily updates of DQ8, but these are my first new impressions of the game.

After making the full day journey to Alexandria I was ready to go straight to the inn. Unfortunately I was interrupted by a pair of young boys named Bangerz and Mash. Plucky little brats they were, but their heart was in the right place. Upon getting up from a few hours rest I decided to see what was in the rest of the town. After a bit of looking around in the Manor I sent Munchie, my rat/hamster thing, through a mouse hole to investigate Jessica’s room.

All that talk aside I was delighted to be able to control Munchie the Punk Hamster. This game really is pure joy to play. I don’t know how but the level grinding in DW8 is no where near as bad as it is in the previous DQ games I have played (1, 2, 3 and 7). Perhaps I am just not far enough into the game yet. This really feels close to perfect. My complaints are minor but they are they and they break the 4th wall even harder than it being a RPG with random battles while holding a controller.

When you get to a spoken part of the game you are required to progress through the text boxes to advance the spoken words. I have tried to judge when to hit X by not reading and waiting for a pause in the voice, but when I do that I will look down and realize that I have skipped a sentence or two of spoken words. I just want an option to have natural spoken progression.

Other than that the game is beyond charming and wonderful in ways that goes beyond any other DQ game I have played. While playing you have a lot of time to think (as with any RPG) and I keep going back to thinking just how much progress was made with the series from 7 to 8. It is more than just 3D, it really feels like the true progression of the series from how it was even envisioned as DQ1. Zelda could have learned so much from DQ it is not even funny.

Well, I guess it is a little funny that Zelda has progressed in the approximately opposite direction that DQ went. Going from a wonderful expansive and well represented in size free roaming over world, to a stiff scripted out hand holding set of pieces Zelda has lost me over time. More and more I slip from what I use to love in the NES game, as I am less and less willing to play the new games for more than an hour or so. DQ started as many strictly set pieces with the representation of an over world that was not right with the scale of your imagination. It has progressed into a feeling of being able to go anywhere, explore everything experience. This is really the largest jump from DQ7 to 8. In fact I would have to guess that 7 is one of the most restrictive on exploration. Although I loved the first 3 hours of DQ7, and will forever love the game for it.