Dragon Quest: The Journey of the Cursed King
Verdict: Surreal, epic and very funny
Platform: PS2.
Rating: 4½/5
It’s a rare honour to play a Dragon Quest game - The Cursed King is the first released in the UK and typically, the eighth in Japan. As revered as the Final Fantasy series abroad and at home amongst UK importers it’s a series that has similarly been honed and refined over the years.
As I settled in for an evening of Japanese role playing with Noel (no, it’s not what you think) in an attempt to recreate our Final Fantasy glory days the first thing that struck me was the game’s distinctive aesthetics. With a glorious mix of stylised 3D graphics and cell shading you are immediately thrust into a vibrant cartoon world full of subtle confidence and primary colours.
With character design by the Dragon Ball Z creator it’s populated by wild and wacky creatures. From the King Kelp (an Elvis made of sea weed) to the schizophrenic calamari with arguing tentacles and Jessica’s well endowed Buff Puff ability it’s brimming with visual humour and ranks as one of the funniest games i’ve played without it even telling any jokes.
Special mention has to be made of the games localisation too, re-recorded with British voice actors it’s one of the few Japanese games with such a sensitive and well judged translation. Admittedly some of the squeekier voices grate but when it comes to portraying emotion it’s expressive and thankfully lacks the adolescent awkwardness of some of Final Fantasy’s heavier scenes.
Dragon Quest is a game created in the classic mould of the Japanese RPG. In fact it could be argued that it’s the series that set the mould. With turn based, random battles and the obligatory barrel smashing and levelling up of characters you’ll know exactly what to expect and while it could be argued the game is unoriginal and stuck in the past, what it has done is refine the formula with enough streamlining, thought and panache to make it a welcome and special sequel.
If it weren’t for the frequent and repetitive random battles and minor menu gripes it would be perfect - a rare example of how a sequel can improve a series, not degrade it.