Dragon Quest 8- Review by Peter G.

Dragon Quest 8 starts off so basic and familier that its almost comforting. An evil man has gained new powers and cursed a king (what a concept) and you survived his craziness, now its up to you (and a few friends along the way) to save the king and the princess and the whole kingdom!

Such a predictable and used plot! So why is this the best RPG on the PS2? Because its the perfect example of old school RPGs, the story is actually good, it flows nicely and doesn't leave you wondering what is going on! Its just a good story that flows.

The graphics are excellent and consistent. With character designs from the designer of Dragon Ball Z; so some characters look familiar, in particular, Angelo looks like Trunks. The environment is very nice to explore and the dungeons are creepy yet beautiful.

The music is fantastic! A beautiful orchestra sound track really embodies the emotions of the game. The voice acting quality is superb, and the action sound effects are very well done.

Now, the big thing about this game, is of course the genre trade marked battle system. It is wonderful. You may take turns, but it feels action packed. And the random battles have an excellent interval in between, enough so you can get places, but not long enough to get comfy or bored. Its perfect, they didn't tweak anything about turn based battles or the random battles, they just perfected it.

I also like the implementation of saving, you go up to a priest and select confession to save. It feels like your really in the game, rather then the normal Square Enix save spot, the blue sphere that randomly pops up. The church is used frequently in the game, to check progress on leveling up, to save and to resurrect a fallen ally.

This game is stupendous for RPG fans. What it really is, is an old school RPG, and the core systematics of the genre have been perfected.

An absolute must own for the RPG fan and gamer, and if your not so much into RPGs then its still worth renting, though you may not have enough time to complete it! Its a big game, its fun, and it will make you feel many emotions.