DQ8 is the first new Dragon Quest game I have really enjoyed since playing part 4 on my NES so long ago.
This one has the charm and playability of the originals that 5-7 didn't have with me (I do like the remake of 5 though). The poorly implemented (IMO) job/class system from 6 and 7 are tossed out, as well as the "play through 20+ mini worlds before getting to the real world" that SaGa/FF Legend did better.
The new Skill system I enjoy a lot better than how the jobs/classes in 6 and 7 were. It allows for a lot less frustrating customization of characters (but not as much as there was in 6 and 7). You don't have to randomly hope you are fighting monsters that count anymore, and it is actually ok to level up again with this system.
There's only 4 characters, so once again the storyline/character depth isn't much when compared to other games out there, but this is Dragon Quest..story never has been that big of a thing with these games (to me).
I have FF10 International, and I like this game as much/more than that, and my opinion of X2 doesn't really matter (got sick of it writing a guide for it). I'm on my 4th time through this game (go deciding to start writing a guide for it halfway through the 3rd playthrough).
While playing this game at school, a number of people came in and watched and were just amazed at how it looks, especially when compared to just about every other game in this series. But thankfully, it doesn't take away from the game; it still plays like the other Dragon Quest games (well, more like the remakes and such), where the triangle (X on the SNES) button is used for opening doors/breaking pots/searching anyway.
Umm..don't know what else to say, except I am really glad I did decide to take a chance at getting this, hoping it wasn't like 7. The game exceeded my expectations, and it's been a long, long time since I've gotten a game and played through it more than twice in a row.
The US version is speculated to be released in November..yay go another $50 to buy a version I'll play once. If you have some more questions, I'll try to find this topic when I wake up. Hope what I said somewhat helped.
My av is off of the game, but of course due to space limitations here is not as fluid as it is in the actual game.
http://www.metroid2002.com/redscarlet/sexybeam.gif would be a little better representation. How a game looks really doesn't matter to me, I still play lots of ugly games (go NES/SNES). But this is pretty much aside from Dragon Quest 3/5 remakes the first attempt at making one of these games look really nice, and I think they did a really great job without losing the feel of how the game has played.
I mean the one that is just south of that on the other side of the mountain range. I got off my ship there and walked around but there was nothing, no dungeons or anything.
