The evil Wizard/Jester Dhoulmagus came to the Kingdom of Trodain seeking a powerful magical scepter sealed beneath the Castle. Using the power of the scepter, Dhoulmagus destroyed the Castle of Trodain, placed a curse upon the Kingdom and its people, and turned King Trode and the Princess into beasts.

You play as the sole surviving castle guard, who journeys with the King, Princess and a reformed bandit named Yangus in search of the evil wizard and a way to break the curse. Along the way you will gain new allies, fight monsters, delve into deep dungeons, and perform heroic deeds.

Stylistically, this game is a blend of old and new. It is, at the core, a very traditional RPG; there is a lot of combat, and leveling up takes some work; you start out very weak, at 1st level, with no healing spells; there is strong differentiation between character classes; you heal at the inn, but can only save at a church; etc. On the surface there are a number of more modern refinements, however, including voice acting, 3D graphics, very complex enemies, animated menus and battle scenes, etc.

This game, the eighth in the series, is the first installment of Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior available for the PS2. It features a huge, lush world with full day and night cycles. Series artist and Dragonball/Z creator Akira Toriyama designed the game’s anime style, 3D, cell-shaded characters and monsters. Music was composed by Koichi Sugiyama.

The international version features several updates to the original Japanese version, including voice-acting, graphic menu, symphonic soundtracks, and flashier effects.

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Alternate Titles

"ドラゴンクエストＶＩＩＩ：空と海と大地と呪われし姫君" -- Japanese title
"勇者斗恶龙VIII" -- Chinese title (simplified)
"Dragon Quest VIII: Sora to Umi to Daichi to Norowareshi Himegimi" -- Japanese title
"Dragon Quest: The Journey of the Cursed King" -- UK title
"Dragon Quest: Reise des verwunschenen Königs" -- German title
"Dragon Quest: L'odysée du roi maudit" -- French title
"Dragon Quest: L'odissea del Re maledetto" -- Italian title
"Dragon Quest: El periplo del Rey Maldito" -- Spanish title
"DQVIII" -- Common abbreviation

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Part of the Following Groups

Merchant	Title	Platform	Price
	Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
	Dragon Quest VIII Journey of the Cursed King	PlayStation 2	$19.99
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User Reviews

Cor blimey! That there bloke really 'as a sense o' humour, like!	JazzOleg (53181)
A perfect continuation of the classic Dragon Quest series	Bregalad (597)
A perfect flawed experience, not unlike eating the best shit sandwich you’ll ever have	lasttoblame (346)
Dragon Quest Finally returns to NA!	Rich Hollands (7)
If only they made the turn-based combat better...	Indra Depari of 'da Clan Depari (12561)

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The Press Says

GamerDad	Dec 04, 2005		100
Game Chronicles	Dec 11, 2005	9.5 out of 10	95
Deaf Gamers	2006	9.4 out of 10	94
MAN!AC	May, 2006	93 out of 100	93
Gamer.co.il	May 28, 2006	9.1 out of 10	91
GamesAreFun.com (GAF)	Apr 03, 2006	9 out of 10	90
GameCell UK	2006	9 out of 10	90
Game Informer Magazine	Dec, 2005	8.75 out of 10	88
GamePro	Nov 17, 2005	4 out of 5	80
Netjak	Nov 15, 2005	7 out of 10	70

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Trivia

One of the reasons for the extreme popularity of Dragon Quest series, particularly during its early beginnings in Japan, was the high quality manga-like illustration work done in the game by Akira Toriyama, one of the most popular manga artists of all time. Toriyama is most widely known for his martial arts epic Dragon Ball but has also worked on games like Chrono Trigger and Tobal No.1.

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This entry to the MobyGames database was contributed by Edward Beezy (38) on Nov 18, 2005.