The "Dragon Quest" franchise is seeing a rise in popularity in North America, with several titles now being imported for Western gamers. One of these is the 3DS remake of "Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King" and Square-Enix has now released a brand new trailer to showcase some of the changes and new features.
Given that the game is now on a portable gaming device instead of a home console "Dragon Quest VIII" has implemented a few features for player convenience. Some of these new features include the option to speed up combat and to quick save at any time, Dual Shockers reported.
One major change is the removal of random encounters. The original game on the Playstation 2 utilized the traditional random encounters system but the 3DS remake now shows enemies on the map. Players who want to avoid combat can do so by maneuvering around the monsters.
Characters also recover their HP and MP upon levelling up, a feature that was not in the original version of the game. Players can also now take photographs and alter these photos by adding stickers and borders. As noted by Gematsu, these photos can then be shared with other players.
Two new characters are also being added to the game. First shown in the trailer is the dancer Red and the other is the arena manager and fighter Morrie Mozzarella. The latter is also a good friend of "Dragon Quest VI" characters Ragnar and Torneko.
Red is shown using her skills "Death Dance" and "Dosh Toss." Morrie, on the other hand, is shown using his skills "Can Opener" and "Pit of Fire." The full extent of these abilities and what conditions they can inflict on enemies are still unknown at this point.
"Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King" will release for the Nintendo 3DS on Jan. 20, 2017. It will be available for the regular 3DS, the 2DS and the New 3DS.