My Mum’s neighbour got this game for her son, (who is 10), for his birthday and asked me to play it so I could teach her son how to. I realised quite early on that her son wouldn’t be able to get on with it yet as some parts of the game are quite complicated and he would get frustrated and annoyed with it.

The “12+” label on the front should have given his Mum a clue but it seems those stickers are there to be completely ignored!

The official website for Dragon Quest is www.dragonquest.eu.com/english/index.htm. The site is really cool with loads of information about the game and the characters as well as downloads like wallpapers and even a competition.

Dragon Quest VII: The Journey of the Cursed King, (DQ), is made by Square Enix, (www.square-enix.com/eu/en/index_f2.html), the very same fabulous people who make Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. Being a huge fan of both of those games I knew there was a good chance that I would enjoy DQ too so it was with some excitement that I first played it.

I had never heard of the Dragon Quest range of games before this and I haven’t really looked into it either but this has in no way hampered my enjoyment of the game. I have a feeling that this is done in a similar way to the Final Fantasy games where each game is a completely new story in a new world and with new characters.

~~~{ The Plot }~~~

In the Kingdom of Trodain a mysterious heirloom, a sceptre of great power, is locked away in the castle. It has been there so long it seems that everybody has forgotten what the object does but they know that it must never be allowed to leave the castle. Needless to say the sceptre falls into the wrong hands, the hands of a Jester of all things.

The Jester uses the power of the sceptre to unleash a terrible curse on the kingdom of Trodain which turns the inhabitants to thorns and the King and Princess into beasts! Only one inhabitant survives unscathed, the Hero of the game which is obviously played by you the player.

This is where the game starts and it follows the journey to track down the sceptre and return it to its rightful place in the Castle of Trodain. You make friends along the way. All in all it’s a great plot with lots of twists and turns which make it very exciting.

The basic premise is very much an RPG cliché with a hero discovering their true heritage on a long and dangerous journey. It’s a plot line that most people will be familiar with but DQ has been thoughtfully put together and although the plot may be predictable but it is never boring and there are no bits that reminded me too much of another game or story.

~~~{ The Graphics }~~~

The graphics in DQ are really cute. The style is very Japanese and I love Japanese animations anyway.

The backgrounds are rendered stunningly and look truly amazing and the characters and monsters are really detailed. Despite this the makers of the game have chosen to make the whole thing really cutesy and cartoon like. Obviously this game was intended for children and this gives the game a softer and more child-friendly edge.

I really like cutesy graphics, (it makes it easier to beat people up and kill them if they don’t look too real), and so I was really happy with the graphics. Tim, (my other half), on the other hand likes the super-realistic graphics that games have these days but after watching me play this game for a while he began to appreciate the cleverness of the graphics how they are rendered as well as new games and then made to look cartoony to soften the effect.

~~~{ The Landscape/World }~~~

The world in DQ is huge. There is loads of roaming landscape which you can explore as you travel from place to place. There are monsters, side quests and treasure chests hidden all over the place which encourages you to explore everywhere. It is even worth exploring areas more than once as some things are only active in the day/night or after certain events have happened in the game.

I really like the amount of detail that has been into the scenery. There are cows and sheep and horses scattered about and even cute little pigeons! It all adds to the allure of the game and the idea of how huge the world actually is.

The only problem with such a large world is that it can be a little slow and boring at times. This is combated later in the game with a spell called “zoom” which lets you basically teleport to selected places that you have visited before; the only problem with zoom is that you tend to start zooming everywhere and as a result you don’t fight monsters, you don’t earn experience points and you don’t go up levels.

~~~{ The Characters }~~~

There are six main, (good), characters in the game and you get to control four of those characters. You start with just two, (plus the two you can’t control), and pick the others up as the game progresses.

The main characters are:

* Princess Medea – she is currently in the form of horse due to the curse. (You don’t get to control Medea).

* King Trode – He is currently in the form of a weird little green troll and is incredibly grumpy the whole time. He always gets angry when people refer to him as a monster as he is really a King and feels that people should respect him! He is actually quite fun to watch. (You don’t get to control King Trode).

* “Hero” - This is the character you play. At the beginning of your new game you will be asked to enter your name, this will be the name of the main character so if you’re a girl you might want to add a boys name instead as I found it a bit weird when they kept referring to the main character as “Donna”. I eventually started again and called him Tim! Hero does not speak much in the game and in fact he is really bland personality wise. I guess this is because he is meant to be you so they let you add your personality.

* Yangus – Yangus is my favourite character. He has a bizarre cockney accent and is a bit of a thug! He is good at smacking things really hard! His accent never fails to have me in stitches and look at for the cool animation when he is surprised by something! I have missed whole cut scenes in this game because I have been laughing so much at it!

* Jessica – Born to aristocracy but as tom-boyish as they come Jessica is a fiery addition to the party. She is best at casting spells and tempting enemies with his feminine charms. Jessica has very jiggly “charms” in fact which Tim enjoys very much! One of Jessica’s stats is “sex appeal” which isn’t so great for the younger players!

* Angelo – Angelo is a Knight templar and a pain in the butt too. He is a smarmy womaniser but you get stuck with him. I am sure that you are meant to dislike him but he is good with a sword!

The “extra” characters and the bad guys in DQ are excellent too and there are some great one liners for the grown ups. In all the pubs there are “bunny girls” which I could imagine leading to some fairly awkward questions from young children. In fact there are a few bits of the game that I sure aren’t really suitable for kids like a poster on a casino wall which reads “erotic” over a picture of a scantily clad bunny girl.

~~~{ Gameplay }~~~

Being a game for the children the Gameplay is fairly simple but not as simple as some other Square RPGs. The menu system in combat is a little tricky to get used to but once you have mastered it, it becomes second nature and you’ll soon be bashing through the baddies without a thought.

My complaint here is that the menu seems to have completely useless options on it that I have honestly never used, I don’t even know what they are for. I thought maybe it would become apparent later on but I was wrong. Perhaps there is big part of the game that I missed but I don’t think so.

For the most part you control the characters by using the analogue stick on the controller; I used to find this hard as I was so used to the directional pad but new games seem to enjoy forcing me to get used to the sticks and I have mastered it now.

X as usual is a crucial button. You use X to speak to people, trigger events, search, open chests and smash barrels.

A cool feature in DQ us that you can talk to your party members at any time by pressing the select button. They only have a limited amount to say but it changes as you progress through the quest and is most useful to remind you of what you were doing if you’ve had a bit of break.

Saving is annoying in this game as you have to find a priest. The priest then takes your confession and basically the game is saved. The religious aspect is odd as they have churches and cathedrals and even priests but they worship “the Goddess”; I suppose they’ve picked a bit of everything! The annoying thing is that obviously in the deep, dark dingy places when you really need to save there are no churches! Oh and you don’t regain all your health and magical power when you save either.

To regain health, (other than magic items, potions and the like), and magical power/mana points, (MP), you need to sleep at an inne. In most places there is a charge for this but I have never found money to be a problem in this game.

There are shops in all the villages, towns and cities and you can sell things you have found/made and also buy stuff that you might need. This is fairly self explanatory although it can be really long winded if you have to sell a lot of stuff because it resets to the main shop menu every time you sell an item.

There are two casinos in the game in which you can play various games. Both casinos have slot games and bingo which are fun to play for a very short while but they quickly get boring. At the bigger casino there are roulette tables too, which again are fun as a novelty but that’s it. I am unsure about the idea of twelve year old kids gambling but there we go!

*** (Somebody cleverly noticed that I’d missed this bit out – Thank you).

~~~{ The Battle System }~~~

The battle system in DQ is turned based – to a point. You select all your characters actions for the “round” at the beginning of the round and then your characters and the bad guys all act in there turns.

This system is quite cool because it adds an element of failure into the game which a lot of RPGs are lacking; what I mean is that you might select an action at the beginning of the turn which is pointless by the time your character actually acts.

The layout of battles is familiar in a lot of RPG games; your characters stand in a row on one side and the bad guys stand in a row the other side. The bad guys can appear singly or in groups. The groups are sometimes one large group, several smaller groups or several individual monsters. The significance of this is that some weapons and spells can hit multiple targets. The boomerang for instance hits all enemies regardless of their organisation but the whip will only hit the monsters which are grouped together rather than all the enemies you are facing.

~~~{ The Manual }~~~

The manual is actually useful for this game and lists the main weapons and items along with an illustration so you can find out what most things do as you find them. It also has a full list of spells and abilities which is really useful as it saves you going through the menus in game which can be a pain.

~~~{ Price & Availability }~~~

Amazon has DQ for £13.98, (used from £10.00) and the official guide for £12.34, (used from £7.90). You have to spend £15.00 to get free delivery.

Play.com has the game for £11.99 including delivery so they are definitely cheaper on this one.

~~~{ Conclusions }~~~

Overall I love DQ; there are aspects that bug me like the saving and the pointless combat menus but I still keep playing it and enjoying it. I’m not even going to mark it down because I really do enjoy it and I think it’s one of the best RPG games out there.

The cutesy graphics and enjoyable plot make this game stand out from the rest.

I would recommend this game for adults and older children due to the very adult things like gambling and bunny girls; but then maybe I’m a prude!