If you still play RPGs on a Nintendo or SNES (or an emulator) then this game is going to be right up your alley!
My second impression was of how huge the world was. Through a multitude of travel methods, you could easily spend 80+ hours exploring the nooks and cracks of Dragon Quest VIII. That being said, however, I was a bit disappointed in the actual level of detail this huge world had been filled with. Occasionally, you encounter a treasure hiding behind a hill, or a special monster lurking by the road, but there isn't much else to find.
The gameplay is flawless as a recreation of previous Dragon Quests. Some added features are present (such as mixing items to create better ones), and there are a few sidequests. However, you'll find that sidequests are relatively rare compared to most RPGs. When I first started, I had some difficulties with the buttons...I'm used to different buttons doing different things. But I can hardly fault DQ8 for that.
The graphics are excellent for what they are. Golems, slimes, and drackies are all in here as smoothed down versions of their 8-bit glory. Don't expect realism here...or even the artistic cell shading of some games. What you have here is very much like a cartoon you might see on Saturday morning TV. Cute, colorful, but not artistic. However, since I don't think the artists (including the character artist, who is known from his work on a small anime called Dragonball) were trying for artsy, I don't discredit them this. However, once again, I would have liked to seen more details, and lest cut-and-pasted furniture, doors, shelves, etc.
The music gave me pause. On the one hand, the classical-style music that accompanies the entire game is typical of Dragon Quest, and I am a very nostalgic person. But I found the music (specifically dungeon and boss music) to be uninspiring. In fact, the final boss' music could have put me to sleep if it had not been the climax of the game. Even the voice acting was average...you could very well play this game with the sound off and not loose any of the charm.
I registered over 100 hours playing DQ8. And while I tend to be slow and thorough, I could very well imagine other players logging similar time with the game. And while I will not be playing it again anytime soon, its only because I have stacks of games I haven't beat yet that I intend to. In fact, I have two friends who are now playing the game a second time through, back to back with beating it.
Maybe I'm just a sucker for classics. But if you still own a Nintendo, or play emulator RPGs, then chances are this game is going to be right up your alley.