Speaking of battle, it’s been streamlined considerably over other versions, and this is the feature that helps modernize Dragon Quest VIII most. If you’re looking for the cracks they’ll show up, but if you don’t think about it too much the new characters are both very enjoyable additions to the team, and are a breath of fresh air when it’s time to battle.

I did notice during one sequence that Red disappeared, though this was handwaved away by Yangus, who said that she could “take care of herself” while the rest of the party was imprisoned. They show up in cutscenes when appropriate and have occasional voice lines. Once you do beat him, you’ll unlock the brand new Rank X battles in the arena, though how these can be beaten is beyond me at this point.įor the most part, the two new characters are integrated well. Expect it to take a couple of hours and some serious exploration to complete this sidequest if you want Morrie on your team.

The monster arena is a fun sidequest, but this is no minor task, requiring you to seek out and defeat some very tough monsters. You’ll encounter him fairly early on, but I was shocked to find that he won’t join your party until you best him in the arena, meaning that you have to clear the Rank S challenge. If you’ve played DQVIII before, you may remember Morrie as the flamboyant owner and operator of the monster battling arena. Red the bandit queen will join your team automatically after a plot event, but Morrie requires a lot more effort to recruit. Fortunately, everyone gets the same amount of experience whether they’re actively battling or not, so once they join, you can choose the party composition you like and stick with it. Both characters will enter your game at level 35, regardless of how high or low the rest of your team is, so it can be hard for the newcomers to keep pace with the rest of the party.

Both characters had roles to play in the original version of DQVIII, but the four main characters are well balanced even without the additions. What surprised me most was just how late into the game each of them is recruited. It may be considered a spoiler (though it’s featured pretty heavily in Nintendo’s marketing) that there are two new playable characters in the 3DS version.

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