dragon quest 8
The heroes of "Dragon Quest 8." http://www.dragonquest8.com/

The Sony PlayStation 2 had a lot of great role-playing games (RPGs) and now one of the best ones is coming to the Nintendo 3DS with exclusive new features. “Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King” will be coming to the Nintendo handheld in August, so publisher Square Enix has decided to reveal some of the new content that wasn’t in the original PS2 version.

One revelations by Pocket Gamer is that new story chapters will focus on the history of “Dragon Quest 8” antagonist Dhoulmagus and the childhood of the unnamed protagonist of the game. This is an interesting addition, as it adds to the mythos of the game’s world, rather than being a simple game gimmick.

“Dragon Quest 8” also will add characters Red and Morrie to the party of the protagonist. Red is a nimble thief and a friend of Yangus, one of the first members who joined the protagonist’s party. Morrie is the owner of the Monster Arena and organizer of the Monster Battle Road; he also has the ability to summon monsters that will do the fighting for him, so that should come in handy.

The game’s original soundtrack has been scrapped in favor of a completely orchestrated soundtrack by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, which should make for some good ear medicine. The game will also be fully voiced, though the original PS2 version of the game did have snippets of voice acting. This could mean that every cutscene in the game will now be fully voiced, instead of a few chosen ones.

One thing that hasn’t been fully detailed yet is that the game will have street-pass support, a feature found in a good amount of Nintendo 3DS games these days. While this hasn’t been answered, a report from Gematsu stated that the details of it would be revealed soon.

Sadly, there has been no news on whether the game will be coming to the West, though it also hasn’t been fully disclosed either. If the vocal support reaches an all-time high, there is always a chance that “Dragon Quest 8” will make its way to Western shores again.

GameSpot - Dragon Quest VIII Video Review (PS2) (Credit: YouTube/ClassicGamespotRevs)