Dragon Quest VIII is a beatiful game and a great way to start a new series, even if you never heard of the past games.
The Journey of the Cursed King starts off as a strange toad like little man trots off to town along with a strange bandit and a knight. And all of them are followed by a horse and cart. Soon as they enter town, all the people are scared since a house was burned by an evil jester. That jester is Dhoulmagus, a crazy clown bent on ruining the kind kingdom of Trodain and the rest of the world.
The evil clown turned magician put a terrible curse on the king and princess of that kingdom, turning them into a troll-frog and a horse. Until they can defeat Dholmagus, King Trode and the princess need to gather clues of the wizard's whereabouts as they travel the world, being forever trapped in their current bodies.
The party, consisting of you, Nameless Hero, former knight of the kingdom andYangus, former road bandit, are soon joined by Angelo, a Templar knight and Jessica, a female mage with an aristocratic background. Jessica is really made to be the central male-turning gamers to look into the game. The classic Akira Toriyama kinky humor is really present in the game, as the character models, monsters, scenery and items. There's even some Dragon Ball references if you can find them.
The graphics of the game are cel-shaded, following the trend of anime-like games. It really suits the game. The voice-acting is really well done, with a touch of accents depending on the characters. Expect to hear some italian-like, some irish-like and even some russian-like sounding characters. The soundtrack is one of the strong points of the game, it really tips the scale all the way... orchestral music plays through all of the maps and battles.
It's really hard not to recommend this game. It is a really good traditional RPG with so much personality and humor that will make you go through its sometimes tough-as-nails 90-100 play length and keep playing it until you find all of its secrets. And believe me, there are a BUNCH of secrets here...