Dragon Quest VIII

[Aylmer]

Has anyone here played this? This has turned out to be one of the best JRPGs I've ever played on any system. I've beaten the main boss, and the resulting save file from that opened a new part of the world that is by far the coolest looking with the most difficult enemies. I have more than 110 hours into this game so far. It does not really bring any new concepts to the table, it is a traditional JRPG, but it does those traditional elements in a very well polished and cohesive way.

All of these games seem to have a particular area of focus, be it the battle system, or storyline, for instance, but DQ8 is all about exploration. The game world is vast indeed, and graphically stellar. On my 60gig PS3 the upscaled imagery is true eye candy.

The real kicker is that I only paid $5 for it in a used book store.

[Gadfly2317]

Hey, wondered what you've been up to lately!

I don't play much in the way of JRPG's, so I don't have anything to add to your thread.

But, I have been wondering, what have you been doing with the handhelds? DS in particular. You always have had a knack for sniffing out the odd quirky gems. Any puzzle games that have flown under most of our radars?

Just curious. Anyway, glad to see you are still around!

[Aylmer]

I found a DS title by the name of Chameleon (by Taito) used for $10. The JP version was Kouro Kouro or something like that, but it is a unique puzzle game as only could be created across the pacific.

It's two player, simple, and tailor made for those in an altered state of mind. It's very colorful with some nice anime overlays to boot. You have a static playfield filled with hex shapes that do not move. they are a mixture of seven colors. You have one color pre-assigned to you, as does your opponent. You and they take alternate turns selecting one of the five colors available that are adjacent to your current color, since yours and your opponents are taken. The color you select turns all your previously colored pieces to the new color, so that you 'grow' the number of pieces you control on the board. Whoever controls over half of the pieces first wins.

You have a gauge that fills which allows you to do stuff like lock out certain colors from your opponent, set off bombs that randomly change piece colors, etc. it's totally stylus controlled. It is not deep, the AI is not terribly smart, but it is addictive as hell, especially when you are buzzed.

on my PSP I'm playing a new Chessmaster game that is basically one long tutorial. i'm a lifelong chess player and this game takes you from the casual game that you've taught yourself into deeper strategies and internationally accepted rule sets, stuff like that. It's done well, and is actually pretty neat.