Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

GUSTO

Dragon Quest VIII has been one of my favorite games since before I ever owned it personally. When I was much younger, a friend of mine had this game and occasionally I would play it if I went over to his house or he brought it over. Naturally, I never really got very far into the game, but the intro left such an impression on me that I ended up buying it for myself many years later. In short, what won me over on the first impression is what ended up making this one of my favorites.

There's so much to admire about this game, from the colossal length (55+ hours for a decent run, not all the side content but some,) the high level of consistent attention to detail across the game's many locations, foes and dungeons, and the grand, epic feeling that the game's world and story provides. To start with the most apparent aspect of the game, the visuals are one of my favorite parts. I just love the bright, cartoony yet somewhat subdued art style that Dragon Quest is known for, and it looks great on PS2. I always loved how large the environments felt, it gave the game a much grander sense of scale. Since there is no world map, the game feels very interconnected and travelling is very organic, compared to older JRPGs. You could even see this game as predicting the genre's shift towards open worlds, but the encounters are still random at this point in the series - unless you're playing on 3DS. With the soft, colorful art style and the strong sense of place established by the world design, the game's locations feel very realized and are just beautiful. Even today this game really is a treat for the eyes and undoubtedly one of the best looking on PS2. This beauty is further accentuated by one of the series' finest soundtracks, fully orchestrated on the North American PS2 version of the game. The inclusion of orchestral soundtracks is important here because it further gives the game world and its locations a sense of grandeur, a feeling which is already established by the seemingly epic scale of the buildings and countryside.

In addition to the audio and visual aspects of this game being stellar, the gameplay facets are great as well. The weapon system/character progression is a lot of fun, and allows for some diversity between different playthroughs. There's also a very in-depth crafting system that never really hooked me, but is something I plan on taking advantage of on a subsequent playthrough. There are some difficult bosses and even regular enemy encounters in this game, but the game never approaches an infuriating level of challenge. It is generally a very well-paced and consistently challenging but fair experience. The story is... well it's Dragon Quest, so you know what to expect, but the fun and witty characters as well as the episodic nature of the game's scenarios make up for what can be a slightly lacking main narrative. The game is extremely long, in fact at the halfway point of Dragon Quest VIII you may very well think you're approaching the end. But if you're looking for a huge time-sink that is worth as much as you're willing to put into it, that feels very polished and memorable, I highly recommend it.