Dragon Quest VIII's main flaw is that in the end theres too much of it for it's own good...
Story & Characters
Dragon Quest VIII's story is a simple fair, refreshingly simple in some ways compared to the hordes of narrative dripping cutscene heavy titles out there. The games plot is simple, the evil jester Dhoulmagus has stolen a sceptre, turned the Princess into a horse the King into a Toad and our heros must accompany them and lift the curse. The story is told through quick, charming cutscenes and brief yet entertaining dialogue. You play the king's head guard, unfortunately one of those useless silent heroes with all the personality of a dung beetle whos been kicked out of dung beetle town for being too smelly, fortunately the other cast members cover this well. You have the loveable beefy rogue Yangus, the beautiful headstrong Jessica and the suave Angelo. They are all fairly cliche yet brought to life in such a way they are a joy to watch as they exchange banter on your quest.
Gameplay
This is where DQ 8 eventually got me down. To begin with the simple, fun, battle system and quick and easy levelling up methods were nice and refreshing, and still were to a certain extent even when I stopped playing. The combats quick, easy to get the hang of and the dungeons are easy to navigate and mostly puzzle free all great plus points and different to most titles out there.
However unfortunately the sheer numbers and amount of monster encounters you plough through on your treks across the games HUGE world began to grate on me a little and in part this was why I stopped playing, I didnt want to grind through hundreds more battles just to get a chest or level up once or something.
The core Gameplay of DQ 8 is to walk to a town across a large green area, battle monsters on the way, collect money to buy things, rest, then move on to the next dungeon. This is very old school and probably would have appealed to me more if A) The scenary had more variety, B) The game requires you to explore EVERYWHERE to be a decent enough level to progress. It's difficulty is VERY punishing and you need to grind and grind in lower level areas to be able to progress in new ones. Eventually this did get to me when I realized the "end game" wasn't the end game and I had a LOT more grinding to go, bleh.
Graphics & Sound
Now this is where the game excels once more, the graphics are jaw dropping for a PS2 game with the world stretching out before you. See that mountain on the horizon? Chances are you can climb it. It's amazing to behold thats for sure.
Sound wise the music is beautiful, the voice acting (comprised of regional british accents) is spot on and a joy to listen too. One of the best dubs I have come across in fact.
Lastability
Phew, well seeing as my reason for stopping playing is it's TOO big theres a lot too it, maybe 100 hours? At least? If you do everything. Thats a lot of game and providing you can cope with such enourmous levels of repetition youll probably love the game even more.
Overall
Like old school RPG's? Play DQ VIII. Dislike grinding or crave variety in a title that goes on for over 30 hours? Then the game probably isnt entirely for you. DQ 8 does have it's own unique charm though and it would be foolish to overlook it entirely without giving it a rent to check out the games humour, cast and to see if the gameplay is something you could enjoy for long periods.