Dragon Quest VIII Journey of the Cursed King

Lately i've been discusted with RPG games, Dragon Quest 8 actually brought me back to a time when RPG role playing was fun!

This is what RPG's should be, easy to pick up and play, no complicated menu systems and battle sequences in this game. Dragon Quest 8 brings back the series to its old school roots when the NES and SNES days were nothing but pure fun games!

The graphics in this game are awesome! The anime style artwork really works, and reminisence of old school SNES graphics.

The replay value for this game is through the roof! You can go anywhere, but if you decide to further up your adventures, you'll find that enemies will get harder to battle, so its best to fight around the area your in first to gain more experience before going further.

Similar to old school "Dragon Warrior" of the past, you'll encounter random enemies with the classic battle menu sequence.

The music and presentation is top notch, the graphics are superior to anything you'll encounter in a great anime style rpg game. Don't let the graphics fool you, it looks cartoony, but its not a game for children, I'm 31 and i love this game!

Story-wise, after an evil Jester destroys your kingdom, its up to you, and several others you'll encounter to help take down this evil Jester before he destroys the lands and lives of everyone in the world.

Like I said earlier; The replay value is through the roof, you can go to casinos, collect rare and monster medals, and combine items for new and rarer items and weapons.

I was skeptic at first before i purchased this game, but after hearing friends at work descibing their adventures and tricks, it got my attention and my moneys worth. Thjis is the best Role playing game to come out in a long time!

Dragon Quest 8 brought my attention to role playing games once again, even when i gave up on it years ago. Well done guys!

Dragonquest 8 gives you an intense adventure spanning hours and hours of gameplay in which you still might not have finished the game. Worth it for the great price.

Fluid, intuitive, game play, gorgeous graphics, wonderful sound. and an immense, utterly immersive, world, make this an RPG that's not to be missed.

The game looks and sounds great! The soundtrack is amazing. Those who've only played the demo need to know that the music has been completely revamped for the full release. The symphonic version of the music is beautiful.

The visuals are gorgeous. The cell-shading anime-like style is beautiful to look at. The brightly coloured, beautifully rendered graphics are full of plenty of little details. You're not going to get breath taking photo realism here, but the visuals are very consistent in their quality. The actual game play looks every bit as good as the cut scenes.

As this is an old school style roleplayer I fully expected to be hoping right onto the level up treadmill. However there is so much to do and explore in the overworld areas that this was never a concern. The leveling up ends up happening while you're busy just exploring and attempting to hunt down all of the hidden extras.

The overworld is huge! The game does a good job of limiting you from just wandering endlessly, while still maintaining the feel of a wide open world.

The world is beautiful to look at and utterly engaging. Time passes from day to night. The sun and the moon rise and set. The (gorgeous!) stars come out to light up the night time sky. You encounter different, more difficult, monsters based on the time of day. For example, some notorious monsters only show up at night time. The towns folk also have different things to say based on whether it is day or night.

The game play is simple and intuitive. The menus were clean and easy to work with. Movement both in town and on the overworld map is fluid. You have complete control over the camera angles at all times.

The monsters are great to look at and consistently amusing. If the storyline is the standard save-the-kingdom-from-the-evil-mage fare, the game makes up for it by having some rather unique characters. The characterisation and character interaction is great. Some very amusing stuff here. The plot is fairly linear, but the amount of side quests, and the wide open feel to the world, help nix the feeling of being dragged along. There is a vein of humour running throughout the game that I think most players, of all ages, will enjoy.

This is definitely one of the best RPGs I've played in a LONG time. Pick it up, you won't be disappointed.