A series of bullet points on Dragon Quest 8:
-This game is everything a Dragon Quest fan could want from a PS2 DQ game, with a traditional soul but AAA production values circa 2004--at least, in the US version. It basically is like playing a high-end SNES RPG in full 3D, but with a full-scale overworld. The traditionalist feel of DQ7 was suffocating and boring, but at a time and place where JRPGs were going to vastly different places (such as FF10 jettisoning the overworld map completely), DQ8's old-school JRPG feel is instead refreshing.
-To that end, if you really like JRPGs, this game is sure to be one of your favorites. If you kinda like JRPGs, it's still pretty damn good, but a bit repetitive and overlong. If you don't like JRPGs outside of maybe EarthBound or Final Fantasy 7, this probably won't change your mind, but you'll likely still be charmed to at least some degree.
-DQ8's combat is very polished, but only a little more engaging than previous games. The battles (which still randomly pop up) mostly go swiftly and smoothly, with greatly satisfying animations. But they also tend to linger on things about two seconds too long, and those trivial seconds add up a lot over the course of 60+ hours. In general, the random battles were getting really repetitive by the end. The new tension system is a nice addition, and adds a risk-versus-reward feeling to later boss fights when all those super attacks you're charging up could potentially be rendered worthless in an instant.
-A few other gameplay observations:
--The leveling system is easily the best in the series up to this point, and provides good replay value.
--The Zelda influence I noticed in DQ7 continues to be felt with the dungeons, which even give you a map near the beginning. They were pretty fun to play through, though probably better in the 3DS version where you know when a battle is about to interrupt your puzzle-solving. Like Zelda, the puzzles are easy, but still satisfying. Rydon's Tower was really fun.
--Exploration was generally fun, but I wish the world map had areas' names labelled.
-The game is a delight to look at! The models are fantastic, environments are very colorful, and the world is quite vast and detailed with lots of pleasant scenery. The cutscenes are somewhat limited in animation, but characters' faces can at least be quite expressive. The enemies are very expressive and charming. Jessica's boobs.
-It's mostly very nice to listen to as well. I've heard better soundtracks in this series, but this still has a fair amount of memorable tunes. The orchestral soundtrack is mostly lush and beautiful, but I actually like the MIDI soundtrack a little more in places--the percussion is definitely stronger, and the orchestral recordings are a bit smothered in reverb, meaning the melodies can be a bit muddier. However, the game does not have enough music for its runtime. Final Fantasy 6 (1994) has over 60 songs over the course of ~35 hours. Dragon Quest 8 (2004) has about 40 songs over ~65 hours. Some story sequences really could have used unique music, and there definitely aren't enough town themes. This is DQ traditionalism at its worst--having a single two-minute overworld theme works a lot better on a zoomed out map you don't spend a ton of time on.
-On the topic of audio, I'd like to say the voice acting they graciously gave us for the English release is mostly very very good, or at least entertaining. A few characters have annoying voices, and having almost every character have a different zany accent got excessive late in the game. But generally, the decision to ham it up and play into the game's goofiness was brilliant. The localization is generally super charming and chock full of puns--leveling up your boomerang skill a bit earns you the rank of Baby Boomer, and leveling it up a lot makes you a Boomeranger (presumably with a soft G).
-The voice acting contributes to some stellar storytelling all around, with some really memorable and surprisingly emotional scenarios. The bad guy is a real bastard this time around. As I said before, I do wish the cutscenes were a little more animated and had more unique music, or that some conversations cut out the town music in favor of atmosphere. But the narrative generally strikes a good balance between classic DQ episodic storytelling and a more epic overarching story. It's definitely an odyssey. There are some really cool setpieces in this game, some of which remind me of classic moments from DQ2 and DQ5.
-Later in the game, there's some filler busywork in the vein of "Go here and talk to this guy...oh gee he's not here, better go to the cave dungeon nearby to find him!" After playing for so long, this was tiresome. Maybe the game should've been more like 50 hours instead of 65-ish. There were also a couple harsh difficulty spikes I had to grind at, but generally the difficulty was at a pleasant upper-medium.
-As long as this game was, and as annoyed as I occasionally was with random encounters by the end, I was already missing it a bit as it ended. It was a hell of a ride, and I love all the main party members and King Trode and Princess Medea so much. This game gets an 8, as in Dragon Quest 8.
-This game is everything a Dragon Quest fan could want from a PS2 DQ game, with a traditional soul but AAA production values circa 2004--at least, in the US version. It basically is like playing a high-end SNES RPG in full 3D, but with a full-scale overworld. The traditionalist feel of DQ7 was suffocating and boring, but at a time and place where JRPGs were going to vastly different places (such as FF10 jettisoning the overworld map completely), DQ8's old-school JRPG feel is instead refreshing.
-To that end, if you really like JRPGs, this game is sure to be one of your favorites. If you kinda like JRPGs, it's still pretty damn good, but a bit repetitive and overlong. If you don't like JRPGs outside of maybe EarthBound or Final Fantasy 7, this probably won't change your mind, but you'll likely still be charmed to at least some degree.
-DQ8's combat is very polished, but only a little more engaging than previous games. The battles (which still randomly pop up) mostly go swiftly and smoothly, with greatly satisfying animations. But they also tend to linger on things about two seconds too long, and those trivial seconds add up a lot over the course of 60+ hours. In general, the random battles were getting really repetitive by the end. The new tension system is a nice addition, and adds a risk-versus-reward feeling to later boss fights when all those super attacks you're charging up could potentially be rendered worthless in an instant.
-A few other gameplay observations:
--The leveling system is easily the best in the series up to this point, and provides good replay value.
--The Zelda influence I noticed in DQ7 continues to be felt with the dungeons, which even give you a map near the beginning. They were pretty fun to play through, though probably better in the 3DS version where you know when a battle is about to interrupt your puzzle-solving. Like Zelda, the puzzles are easy, but still satisfying. Rydon's Tower was really fun.
--Exploration was generally fun, but I wish the world map had areas' names labelled.
-The game is a delight to look at! The models are fantastic, environments are very colorful, and the world is quite vast and detailed with lots of pleasant scenery. The cutscenes are somewhat limited in animation, but characters' faces can at least be quite expressive. The enemies are very expressive and charming. Jessica's boobs.
-It's mostly very nice to listen to as well. I've heard better soundtracks in this series, but this still has a fair amount of memorable tunes. The orchestral soundtrack is mostly lush and beautiful, but I actually like the MIDI soundtrack a little more in places--the percussion is definitely stronger, and the orchestral recordings are a bit smothered in reverb, meaning the melodies can be a bit muddier. However, the game does not have enough music for its runtime. Final Fantasy 6 (1994) has over 60 songs over the course of ~35 hours. Dragon Quest 8 (2004) has about 40 songs over ~65 hours. Some story sequences really could have used unique music, and there definitely aren't enough town themes. This is DQ traditionalism at its worst--having a single two-minute overworld theme works a lot better on a zoomed out map you don't spend a ton of time on.
-On the topic of audio, I'd like to say the voice acting they graciously gave us for the English release is mostly very very good, or at least entertaining. A few characters have annoying voices, and having almost every character have a different zany accent got excessive late in the game. But generally, the decision to ham it up and play into the game's goofiness was brilliant. The localization is generally super charming and chock full of puns--leveling up your boomerang skill a bit earns you the rank of Baby Boomer, and leveling it up a lot makes you a Boomeranger (presumably with a soft G).
-The voice acting contributes to some stellar storytelling all around, with some really memorable and surprisingly emotional scenarios. The bad guy is a real bastard this time around. As I said before, I do wish the cutscenes were a little more animated and had more unique music, or that some conversations cut out the town music in favor of atmosphere. But the narrative generally strikes a good balance between classic DQ episodic storytelling and a more epic overarching story. It's definitely an odyssey. There are some really cool setpieces in this game, some of which remind me of classic moments from DQ2 and DQ5.
-Later in the game, there's some filler busywork in the vein of "Go here and talk to this guy...oh gee he's not here, better go to the cave dungeon nearby to find him!" After playing for so long, this was tiresome. Maybe the game should've been more like 50 hours instead of 65-ish. There were also a couple harsh difficulty spikes I had to grind at, but generally the difficulty was at a pleasant upper-medium.
-As long as this game was, and as annoyed as I occasionally was with random encounters by the end, I was already missing it a bit as it ended. It was a hell of a ride, and I love all the main party members and King Trode and Princess Medea so much. This game gets an 8, as in Dragon Quest 8.