When comparing Evoland vs DRAGON QUEST VIII, the Slant community recommends DRAGON QUEST VIII for most people. In the question“What are the best Android games without in-app purchases/paywalls?” DRAGON QUEST VIII is ranked 43rd while Evoland is ranked 102nd. The most important reason people chose DRAGON QUEST VIII is:
Instead of a class system that is found in all of the previous Dragon Quest titles where players upgrade their player through beating monsters a certain amount of time, Dragon Quest VIII uses a skill system to level up the characters and learn new skills by placing skill points earned through battle into the available skill tree, this allows for a more fine grained approach of leveling a character up.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Offers a good bit of nostalgia
Starting the game one is playing something very reminiscent of a classic Gameboy game, many elements borrowed from famous franchises of the time. As the player advance the game changes it's graphics to match all of the popular consoles from the last 30 years and each change resembles many other popular classic. The game definitely brings back many good gaming memories.
Pro Seamless switching of game mechanics
The gameplay changes from action based combat resembling Secret of Mana or Zelda to turn based (when fighting bosses) that resembles Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger. This switchng back and forth fits with the theme of the game where it covers years of RPG releases of different genres.
Pro Fine grained controls over leveling each character
Instead of a class system that is found in all of the previous Dragon Quest titles where players upgrade their player through beating monsters a certain amount of time, Dragon Quest VIII uses a skill system to level up the characters and learn new skills by placing skill points earned through battle into the available skill tree, this allows for a more fine grained approach of leveling a character up.
Pro One handed gameplay design
The game plays in portrait mode to cater to the hardcore Japanese gaming audience that enjoy being able to play with one hand while commuting.
Pro Really long game
Including side quest the game can easily last over 100 hours.
Pro Classic JRPG battle system
As one would expect of a JRPG there are random battles on the map that are strictly turn based.
Cons
Con Too generic
While trying to pay tribute to the great classics in the RPG genre the game itself lacks any feeling of "soul" or personality making for a tale that is just too familiar and obvious.
Con Removed content from North American PS2 release
Things like the original orchestrated music and voice acting that were in the original North American Playstation 2 release have been removed from the mobile version of the game. Most likely to save room.