Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (2004)

by Armor Project, Bird Studio, LEVEL-5, Square Enix Product Development Division 9, Square Enix
Genres:Role-playing (RPG), Adventure, Strategy
Themes:Action, Fantasy
Game modes:Single player
Story:Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is the eighth installment in the Dragon Quest series, developed by Level-5 and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It was also later released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2015. It is a traditional Japanese-style role-playing game with random enemy encounters, simple turn-based combat mechanics, and management of a party consisting of four characters, each belonging to a clearly defined class. Unlike its predecessors in the series and most Japanese RPGs in general, the game features a continuous world with fairly vast landscapes and integrated towns and dungeons, as opposed to world map traveling and locations represented by icons. The game features full camera rotation and optional first-person view. Like in the previous Dragon Quest games, many objects can be interacted with; for example, barrels can be physically lifted, carried, and broken, to reveal items hidden within.Show more
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Stories about this game (11)
What’s your memory of Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King?Share your favorite moments and see what others remember about this game.
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user avatar@Mendax1989user avatar@Mendax1989
January 29, 2025
Best PS2 JRPG. Great Gameplay. Great Story. Amazing graphic style. Fun to play. Akira Toriyama characters. Great soundtrack. One of the best games ever made, not available to buy.
user avatar@Farfek27user avatar@Farfek27
January 29, 2025
My favorite RPG on the PS2 and one of the best ever made!! There is no way to buy it on modern consoles and its a real pity... Amazing style, memorable characters and beautiful music!!
user avatar@NHASAuser avatar@NHASA
February 06, 2025
Not only one of the best RPGs of all time, Dragon Quest VIII can be considered one of the best games of all time! DQ VIII has all ingredients for an unforgetable game! The amazing story by Dragon Quest's creator Yuji Horii, the art of legendary Akira Toriyama and the epic soundtrack by the music master Koichi Sugiyama... All of this packed on an amazing adventure with delicious cel-shading graphics that lets you involved in that amazing world for incontable hours, and when you are in the last boss, the tears of joy and sadness (because you know that your are saving that world but that awesome story is coming to an end) are rolling by your face, and you know that moment will be marked in your mind and heart for the rest of your life... So, this is the reason that Dragon Quest VIII: The Sky, the Sea, the Earth and the Cursed Princess (I like the japanese subtitle more) is a must play for all publics! So i think that GoG could do a partnership with Square-Enix to bring back not only Dragon Quest VIII but all DQ games that didn't come yet! So that's it!!!
user avatar@adtr009user avatar@adtr009
February 06, 2025
One is the Best JRPG. Awesome Gameplay. Great Story. Amazing graphic style. Fun to play. Akira Toriyama art style One of the best games ever made, not available to buy anywhere have to add it!!!!!
user avatar@Risaxuser avatar@Risax
March 17, 2025
The first Dragon Quest game I ever played. And as a kid who grew up with Dragon Ball Z and who loved fantasy, of course I fell in love with it. I would love the chance to play it again.
I had a great time, I loved it and I spent many hours enjoying it without wanting it to end... unfortunately the PS2 disc was ruined (because I played so much or because I was a kid and didn't know how to take care of it). I would love to be able to play it, but I didn't see it anywhere.
user avatar@aienmfnauser avatar@aienmfna
April 05, 2025
One of the greatest JRPGs ever released with, unfortunately, no way to properly play it on modern systems (unless you play the 3ds or the landscape mobile port). It really is criminal that such a cornerstone of Playstation 2 JRPGs has never ben properly rereleased on modern consoles, or even on PC
Basically my first entry into the Dragon Quest series. I could've entered it sooner, but being a very young child back in the 80s wasn't doing me any favors toward getting into RPGs. This game has great music design, art style and traditional combat that any JRPG fan would enjoy. But most notably, the quirky humor that comes along with the modern Dragon Quest games shines bright with this one. I really hope that the DS version ends up being the basis of the port to PC. I enjoy its extra ending and changes to the overall feel to the game.
user avatar@MarioDS01user avatar@MarioDS01
April 13, 2025
Definitely one of my favorite RPGs and my favorite from the Dragon Quest series and not surprisingly many others as well. The 3DS version would be the best to preserve and become widely available. Not much needed in changes, maybe the ability to have optional dialogue, cutscenes, quests with Jessica, maybe another love interest with the main character, maybe an anthro monster or a succubat with an interesting story and/or quests. Even without it, still an excellent game and love the new true ending with Jessica.
I have replayed this game about once a year maybe more since it came out!! This is possibly my favorite game of all time!! The stories the characters the Yangus!!! Oy guv I was pickin me nos....er some flowers when I saw it!! This game got me through my divorce my best friends passing away, my brother passing, I mean this is pure comfort food for me!! I love the soundtrack the cast the monsters all of it!! I love dragon quest been playing since dragon warrior on nes but this is my all time favorite and this game has been with me through a lot of things. I know it sounds dumb but it's always been there for me when I need to escape and just find my happiness!!! Also again Yangus!!
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