A good and very lengthy old school RPG that does not take a lot of risks.
Gameplay: 8
Dragon Quest 8 is made by Square Enix, so it is made very well and all the menus and maps are easy to navigate. There puzzles in DQ8 are relatively infrequent, but pretty entertaining. What I did not like about the gameplay in DQ8 is the encounter rate, it is ridiculous. Every few steps you'll get into another fight, guaranteed. This is especially annoying since the world in DQ 8 is very big and takes a lot to explore. Therefore, you will spend most of your time in this game in the little old school battle screen, so hopefully you like the battlesystem. This is also magnified by the length of all the dungeons and the number of fetch quests.
This game is the old school DQ style where you appear only looking at your enemies. However, it thankfully does show your characters when you attack unlike the older versions. You have 4 characters in your party, and only 4, so no choosing your party in this game. That is not a problem though because everybody is useful in there own way. Aside from spells and skills characters learn from leveling up, each character also has a variety of weapons they can use that teach them different skills depending on how many skill points they put into that weapon skill at each level up. So this does create a choice as to what to do because you will not have enough points to be good with all the weapons and other specialty areas. Another speciaty area would be something like "Charisma" or "Sex Appeal," which can also teach your character skills. There is also the option to increase tension, which will make you next attack, magic, or skill more powerful for most of the moves in the game. Overall, the battlesystem is simple and intuitive with enough strategy to make it entertaning. I might have enjoyed it more if I was not so bitter about all of the battles and annoying enemies.
Graphics: 9
The graphics in this game are almost flawless as far as the PS2 cell shading is concerned. The characters, environments, and special effects were all well done. The problem was I personally just was not a very big fan of them. The graphics are sometimes a little bit to cutesy and get repetitive. That's is my own issue though, and from a non-biast point of view they are way above average.
Sound: 9
Similar to the graphics category, the sound is very good all around the board. The voice acting in this game was even good. The only thing I marked the sound down for was the battle music. By the end of the game it drove me crazy. It is kind of catchy at first, by it gets old real quick. And with the number of battles in this game that can be a problem.
Value: 9
This game is long and there are a ton of sidequests and challenges. The side stuff is generally pretty fun, but really time consuming for anyone that wants to do it. My only problem is one that I have had with a few games that have recently been coming out. That is that not much happens for the amount of time you put into the game, and in my book that is just cause in docking a point in the value section. My time is valuable to me.
Tilt: 8
The story in Dragon Quest 8 is pretty straight forward and typical for rpgs. You can probably guess what is going to happen after watching the intro. A pleasent surprise for me is that it was more mature than I had expected. The best part about it was the humor though, and this was do to the characters. Yangus was a character put in primarily for comic relief and he does a pretty good job entertaining you throughout the game, mainly through his enteractions with the cursed king. Despite all that an 8 is the highest score I could give tilt in this game due to my frustrations. This game is not as difficult as it has been made out to be, but you have to be willing to put some time in on it to succeed. The grind of getting through just the story in this game becomes more of a chore than fun sometimes. A word of suggestion though, once you finish the game make sure to do the optional dragon gate side quest made available. This adds to the story a lot and gives you another/better ending, I feel that they should not have made this part of the game optional.
Conclusion
If you read my review and go into this game prepared for the grind it probably won't seem as bad to you as it did to me. This really is a good game that executes well on all forefronts. It is more mature than I expected and very funny at times. If you are not a fan of tedious rpgs I would look elsewhere, but if your up to it you should enjoy the experience.