Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King Review

This is the entry that made the series legible outside Japan and it did it without compromising anything. The move to three dimensions gave Toriyama's art a world to live in, with a continuous overworld you cross on foot, weather and a day cycle that changes what appears, and towns built at a scale that makes them feel inhabited. Combat stayed strictly turn based and menu driven, which in 2004 looked archaic and now reads as confidence, and the tension system gives a simple ruleset a genuine risk and reward decision.

The party of four is small and completely realised, with Yangus and Jessica carrying most of the comedy and Angelo the sourness. Koichi Sugiyama's orchestral score and the fully voiced English dub with regional accents set a presentation bar the series kept. The costs are pace and grind. Random encounters are frequent, the mid game requires deliberate levelling, and the plot is a straightforward chase after a cursed jester. Enormously charming and quietly excellent.