This most-recent installment of the RPG series is the best it has to offer.

User Rating: 9.5 | Dragon Quest VIII: Sora to Umi to Daichi to Norowareshi Himegimi PS2
With the Dragon Quest series of role-playing game breathing new life under the Square-Enix brand name, the first game of the series to appear on the PS2 comes with all of the fanfare than would make even a presidential inauguration look like a little league baseball game.



Graphicswise, the game pushes the PS2's Emotion engine to their limits. Using a cel-shaded graphics style, which was made popular in the GameCube game The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the character models and scenery look fabulous. Also, the characters and monsters in this game are designed by Akira Toriyama, the creator of the Dragon Ball franchise of anime, thus making them even the better.


As far as sound and music are concerned, the game takes advantage of the DVD-ROM format and succeeds. The game's music is composed of orchestrated tunes instead of the now-standard MIDI music that's been around since the NES era of RPGs. Also of note is the voice acting, which has a cast of mostly British actors to give the game it's medieval feel.


Controlwise, it is your standard RPG fare. You have your standard buttons for talking to people, searching drawers and calling up the menu. What's new to the series, however, is the confer button--A command that lets you talk to your fellow party members by pressing start. The hints they give you is mostly useful, with the occasional "........" added to the mix.


Regarding the gameplay, this is Dragon Quest at it's best. While there will be some level grinding early on in the game, but by the time you get a third of the way through the game, it gets very interesting. New to the series is the Psyche Up command, which has a character skipping their turn in order to multiply his/her damage totals on the next turn. This is extremely useful against boss battles.


Also included in this game is a Skill system, which a character is given at least 1 skill point at level up to distribute into any of the character's five skills, allow him/her to learn new abilities, spells and traits. This game will last you at least 70 hours, which is alot for an RPG nowadays, but definately worth the time spent.


Overall, Dragon Quest VIII is the best entry of the series, and it really shows in it's graphics style, music and voice acting.