#29 - Dragon Quest VIII: The Journey Of The Cursed King

Spare me the "grind for 6 hours to beat a boss and then grind for another 6 hours" jokes because they got old quite a while ago - I honestly enjoyed my time with Dragon Quest 8. It was a slow burner, true, but it does eventually open up, and when it does, you'll find yourself enjoying it too. Simple levelling up turns into skill trees you get to access every few level ups, there are plenty of items and secret monsters laying about in the overworld, and best of all is the monster arena.

It's hard to really explain why I love this game so much because really, there are moments where you have to grind and the story doesn't exactly scream "quality". At the same time, it brings me back into what I love about JRPGs - just the fact that I can get lost in a fantasy world for about 50+ hours, messing around with the monster arena while going through dungeons to take down monsters in an effort to save the princess/world or whatever. You may be about ready to go "DOUBLE STANDARDS" and all that jazz, but really, there are very few JRPGs that let you get lost in its world. Most JRPGs, including Dragon Quest IX, feel more game-y than Dragon Quest VIII does, and again, I find it hard to explain why. I guess after a little while, grinding could be reserved for while you going through the world unless you do as little fighting as possible, but that tends to happen in other JRPGs. Whatever... Another thing that made this game stick out to me was the plot twist. Without spoiling anything, it'll take you by surprise. Course, it probably won't now, but... I don't know. It's still one of my favorite twists.

Summary - One of the finer examples of an old school JRPG brought into the modern age.
Rating - 8.5/10

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