The deepest, best, and most endearing RPG on the PS2.
Visually the game is stunning. Level-5 has delivered, as usual, brilliant cell shaded graphics that have a timeless quality to them and carry their vibrant colors wonderfully. The NPCs are a mixture of typical townsfolk and more typical townsfolk that are allusions to previous games in the franchise. The cities, cottages, and castles are often both visually striking (or at least impressive), and there is a respectable amount of variety. Even the menus are graphically impressive, as they have done away with the black-and-white text based menus from the rest of the series and replaced them with a charming graphical menu that is faster to navigate and just much more pleasing to use.
The audio in this game is fantastic. The entire soundtrack is orchestrated wonderfully and matches the visual style and pacing of the game beautiful. The music is nothing short of a joy to listen to and it contributes in no small part to the joy of playing the game. The sound effects are a bit less dominant. The general clashing and slashing sounds are in there, and they sound fine, but there also are a good number of retro sound effects (the "beep" sound from the menus) that have been intentionally kept as similar to the originals as possible. This is good for fans of the series, but will seem obscure to anyone else. The voice acting is overall quite well done, and is present in every major plot point. Yangus, in particular, has a great VA who more or less steals the show, so just sit back and enjoy it. The rest of the cast ranges from pretty good to passable. Overall the voice acting is above average for a video game but there will be a few points where you may cringe (not unlike most video games).
The characters and storyline are also solid, although not earth-shattering. There aren't too many groundbreaking steps forward in either department, although Dragon Quest has always focused on a rich delivery of the classic formula rather than being original, and at this it does not disappoint. The hero is your typical silent protagonist, and most of his speaking is implied through your answers to simple yes-or-no questions (often illusory ones, as only one answer will advance the plot many times). Fortunately for the gamer, Yangus is one of the best characters in the entire Dragon Quest series, and you'll have his company for the entire game from the first second onward, and he helps fill the void created by the generic hero. The other characters aren't quite as sharp, but they play their roles well. The storyline goes relatively deep for a Dragon Quest game and is quite satisfying to play through. It doesn't compromise and although it boils down to the classic epic of you vs some sort of evil hellspawn, it's about as good a telling as that tale can receive.
The gameplay alternates between brilliant and traditional. There is turn based combat with random encounters. The random encounters can be frustrating, especially with the focus the game places on exploration. Many times you will be wanting to explore just what's over that beautiful green hill, hoping to find a treasure, but in so doing, trigger 5 random battles on your way there. It acts as a bit of a deterrent to exploring, which is too bad, because there is a big beautiful world out there to explore and see, and there are hundreds of treasures to find, but the random battles just keep pulling the gamer away. The battle system itself is fine, and is easily the best implementation Dragon Quest has seen yet. Battles actually clip along fairly quickly, the enemies and attacks are interesting and often hilarious, and the game balance is spot on. The only drawback is that the game features only 4 characters, so there is no aspect of swapping in and out party members as in previous titles, which is both good and bad.
Aside from general combat and overworld exploration, the game features plenty of other little things to keep the player interested. The alchemy pot allows you to combine two, or eventually three, different items to try creating a super item from them (although occasionally what comes out will be worse than what went in - be careful with those cowpats). It's a fun thing to have, and it makes the player want to hold onto their old equipment rather than sell it all. All sorts of old and new things can be tossed into the alchemy pot to create awesome items. It also creates a great balance to the typical RPG dilemma of always needing to buy the best equipment at every town. Often one good purchase put in the alchemy pot will get you a weapon or armor that will last you for days. There is also a monster-hunting mini-game that provides direct (and significant!) bonuses for your main party, there is plenty of bonus content outside the main quest, and overall, there is just a lot of depth. Rarely have I played a game where I could sit down, play for five hours, not advance the story one bit, and at the end still felt like I had a meaningful gaming session.
All things considered, Dragon Quest VIII is a fantastic game. It's only drawback is the random encounter system, and aside from that it is a strong title that is either average or significantly better in every single aspect. It is a very long and satisfying title, taking easily over 100 hours on a first play through. It is quite easily the best RPG in the series, and also the best RPG on the PS2, so if you have any love for the genre you owe it to yourself to play it.