When comparing Surgeon Simulator 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 Surgeon Simulator is ranked 51st. 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
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Rewarding exploration based gameplay
There is not much in the way of hand holding in the game as many situations can be passed more easily once the payer understands the ins and outs of the game. Things like a green serum not being explained that it helps with a patient bleeding will only be discovered through trial and error, which in the end is rewarding to finally learn all of the mechanics of the game.
Pro Purposefully difficult controls create slapstick humor
In the game the player controls the movements, rotation, raised/lowered stated of the surgeons hand as well as each finger separately. It's purposefully difficult to control the movements of the hand well. The difficulty of controlling actions creates lots of opportunities for slapstick.
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 Can get frustrating
While lack of accuracy of the controls is the main draw of the game it can at times get unnecessarily frustrating.
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.