How Dragon Quest VIII Stacks up on 3DS

Inside buildings, where the console doesn't have to draw stuff quite as far away from the camera, it'll hold its own compared to the original methinks (though character models seem to have less polygons), but in wide open areas, you can definitely see a lot of details are missing. Makes you wonder how some other games which are far more in line with PS2 style of visuals like Metal Gear Solid 3D can run on the system, with higher polygon count characters (though this resulted in choppier frame-rate in places).

The big differences from what I see are art direction choices. If those are based on the fact that the hardware is weaker or based on looking better on a portable system (brighter colours are always a better choice on a portable device to make things clearer due to the smaller screens and tiny details are not as visible on a portable system and might therefore be removed for a cleaner look) I cannot judge.