A slow but deep RPG that will appeal primarily to fans of 8-bit era role-playing.
But of course Final Fantasy was not the only RPG option on the NES: In fact before FF ever hit American shores, there was Dragon Warrior. Somehow the translation between Japan's Dragon Quest and the US' Dragon Warrior got a bit murky but for the sake of the argument if you recall the plodding knights and damsels Dragon Warrior games, assume you have a passing familiarity with the early Dragon Quest titles as well.
Dragon Quest VIII is the first modern game I can recall that effectively harkens back to that 8-bit style of RPG. The formula is simple: A quick and uninspired story set up, an underpowered hero, random world map encounters, quests initiated by blabbermouth towsfolk, trying dungeons, levelling up, boss monster battles, collect treasure, lather, rinse, repeat. If it sounds like Dragon Warrior I, Dragon Warrior II and Dragon Warrior III, you're right.
Which is either bad or good, depending on your disposition. This type of game isn't nearly as personalized or as engrossing as Knights of the Old Republic or Fable, it isn't as sweeping as a recent Final Fantasy, it doesn't have a nostalgic tie-in like Neverwinter Nights and it won't approach the depth or pen-and-paper approximation of a MMO game like World of Warcraft. Since games like Dragon Quest VIII are kind of a dying breed, perhaps there is less and less of a demand for this style.
Still, if you do have fond memories of those older top-down RPGs, Dragon Quest VIII may just be what you've been waiting for.
The character designs by DragonBall Z artist Akira Toriyama are essentially anime characters and the game's cel-shaded visuals are for the most part stunning. The orchestral soundtrack is just the right blend of nostalgic and epic and the voice acting is quite solid. The game's battle mechanics revolve around a simple set of menu options (Attack, Magic, Defend, Flee) with a couple of nice twists.
The first twist is the Ability menu which allows you to perform special attacks with your weapon of choice. The trick is that these abilities are only unlocked by applying skill points to one of several skill categories. They differ from character to character but as an example the main character can choose between Spears, Swords, Boomerangs and more. You can choose to diversify or focus on one particular area, although the game seems to sort of nudge you to diversification since improved weapons of certain types are not available in every shop, meaning you might end up extremely skilled but forced to use an underpowered weapon to take advantage of that skill.
Secondly, characters are given the option in battle to psyche themselves up, which raises a temporary tension attribute that can be stacked several times in order to deliver a single, more powerful regular attack. Of course by choosing to Psyche Up in a round you don't get any other actions and leave yourself open to taking damage, but it can be an effective strategy especially later in the game when you get additional party members.
The monsters you encounter are generally just as well designed as the player characters, and the battle sequences are entertainingly animated with several different attack animations for most creatures and some clever attack styles which can make even standard random encounters suitably challenging. Most areas of the world map are pretty clearly marked off as being of one town's area or another so you can more or less choose which strength of enemies you wish to fight against. The temptation may exist to go rushing ahead as soon as the story allows it, but you'll soon learn that while Dragon Quest VIII looks kid-friendly, it's actually quite challenging in a lot of cases especially if you don't take the time to explore the current area and generate monster encounters to boost your experience.
The story itself is simplistic (hunt down the villain who is wreaking havoc all over the land) and while the voice acting is good, it is presented slowly--almost laboriously. Some of the longer cutscenes can last for twenty minutes or more as big chunks of the story unfold with minimal interaction. A few yes/no questions and combat-less sequences where you run from one location to another are not a suitable substitute for actual gameplay.
The other issues the game has mostly stem from presentation. Many of the special effects in the game (water splashes, spell effects, weather) are ho-hum at best and the cel-shaded graphics should make for less need to repeat character models but instead we end up with a lot of the same townspeople wandering through each town, sometimes finding doppelgangers in the same town. Characters' weapons and shields will adjust depending on the equipment used, but unfortunately the armor, helmets and accessories don't affect the character models at all which is a shame.
The voice acting is strong but it curiously is not pervasive. Characters speak during pre-set scenes or for specific conversations but may switch back to text-only practically in mid-sentence and the reliance on text for a game where so much of the non-combat takes place in towns as you wander around talking to everyone you meet seems downright archaic in an age where Final Fantasies and Grand Theft Autos can have massive, sprawling worlds and still manage to squeeze in full voice acting for the entire game.
On the other hand most dialogue in the game is glacially slow so perhaps the frequent switch to text-mode is really a blessing in disguise.
There are a few other minor quibbles to be found such as the lack of an obvious means to determine how close you are to advancing a level and the generally obtuse nature of some parts of the game (the alchemy system in particular is the primary way to get powerful items and yet requires intensive exploration, trial and error or perhaps just cheating by hitting up GameFAQs which makes it more of an annoyance than a fun diversion). And while you are free to wander and fight as you wish, there is really a rigid set of rails to follow in your pursuit of the story completion.
In all, Dragon Quest VIII is a fun game with some nice throwback stylings that will probably either excite you or bore you to tears. You might want to pick this one up as a rental first; you won't be able to finish it in one rental session but at least you will know if it's something you're into before you commit cash to it. And fortunately the game doesn't seem like it has come anywhere close to it's Japanese popularity so you can probably find it cheap if you look hard enough. Assuming you can get it for under $25, it's a solid nostalgic trip with a long quest and some fun battles.