In my book, Level-5 is a name synonymous with brilliance as it relates to game design. The talented development studio has already created two of the best games on the PS2 to date in Dark Cloud and its sequel, Dark Cloud 2 (known as Dark Chronicle in Europe), and they're set to blow us all away once again with the upcoming hit-in-the-making, Rogue Galaxy. Before getting to that, however, fabled RPG juggernaut Square Enix has brought to us Level-5's latest masterpiece, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King for the PS2, and once again I am flabbergasted at Level-5's excellence in creating a wonderful fantasy world that gamers can sink into for countless days, weeks and months to come.

To RPG fans, the Dragon Quest name is of the highest regard, although here in the US, where it has been known as Dragon Warrior up until now, the series hasn't done nearly as well as it has in Japan, where each new game's release has basically become a national holiday. With series creator Yuji Horii at the helm, Dragon Quest VIII continues the old-school style of its predecessors while also bringing it up to speed with today's technology for the first time, with a few new-school touches that take it over the top of any console RPG in recent memory. First and foremost, the Journey of the Cursed King delivers a narrative piece that is a flawless combination of epic and lighthearted notes, unlike the high frequency of melodramatic RPGs that come out nowadays. You are the star of the show, taking the role of a voiceless, no-named adventurer as he works along with a band of unlikely companions to defeat an evil jester named Dhoulmagus. Having taken a magical scepter of unthinkable power from its sealed location within Trodain castle, Dhoulmagus sent a curse of thorns ravaging over the kingdom and transformed King Trode and his beautiful daughter, Princess Medea, into a troll-like hideous beast and a horse respectively. Oddly, a lone royal guardsman of the castle was untouched by the curse and it is he who assumes the lead hero role of this epic quest to stop their enemy's continuing plots and schemes, as well as lifting his terrible curse.

Differently from many traditional console RPGs, DQVIII is a deceptively open-ended experience that doesn't clearly present a straightforward path for completing the game. Though getting through the story alone is in fact linear, the open structure combined with an absolutely sprawling virtual world makes for an experience that gives you the feeling of freely-exploring a virtual world, even though there really is only one way to go to actually accomplish the main goal - you just have to figure out the way to go, because it usually isn't spelled out for you. While this is a great formula more often than not, there are times when figuring out your next course of action can get a little fuzzy and confusing. The world map doesn't help much either, since you can only zoom in and out, but not freely pan around to check out nearby locations that will possibly advance the storyline. On the other hand, you seriously do become engrossed in this massive fantasy world, and with a plethora of side quests and other optional activities, there is some form of non-linearity to discover, not to mention fifty hours of content to get through at the very least.

In spite of the occasional moment of not knowing what to do or where to go next, moving around and taking in this massive world is a joy. Whether traveling in the main game world or within the numerous towns and dungeons scattered throughout, travel is just like any other RPG. Without the greatest of maps, exploring such a large overall environment can be daunting at times, but fortunately it doesn't take long until special items and/or spells enable you to quickly and easily zip back and forth between any area you've already uncovered, which certainly alleviates what little tedium there is. Towns are comprised of the usual inns, taverns, equipment shops and so on, along with many NPCs to chatter with and various bookshelves, pots and cabinets to scour for hidden goodies.

Churches can be found in towns and they're one of the most important buildings, as they offer the only save points, in addition to providing the only way to resurrect deceased party members for a major portion of the game early on, both facts of which can be more than a little frustrating at times. A lack of save points in dungeons leads to a lot of dying at a boss and having to slog through everything again, although thankfully whenever your party is completely eliminated you are simply whisked back to the last church with all progress intact, save for half your gold being taken away. Gold is already rather difficult to come by, so you'll come to find that this is quite a stiff penalty - once access to banks opens up it's definitely best to start using them to store any currently unneeded abundance of gold, or you'll be struggling even more to keep party members up to date with the latest and greatest equipment.

While running to and fro on your epic journey to rescue the kingdom from Dhoulmagus, random encounters pop up in typical form to keep your travels busy with peril, which is quite lofty, just like all the previous Dragon Quests, as any random battle could very well be your last. DQVIII runs on a fairly standard turn-based combat engine, with your max of up to four party members on one side and the opposing forces on the other. Typical options to attack, use items, perform special abilities, cast spells, defend and flee, among others, present themselves, and once selected the corresponding actions flow quite rapidly for a pleasantly brisk combat experience. You'll definitely need to strategize use of these options to escape every last battle unscathed, as well. Basic enemies almost always outnumber your party and as such there's rarely ever a 'gimme' on the battlefield. For casual gamers, the grinding wear and tear of every single battle being so difficult may become a bit much after a while, and may even feel somewhat cheap at times; however, hardcore RPGers will feel right at home and love every second of this hefty challenge. I'd go as far as saying that this is as difficult as Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, and, quite frankly, even more so at times. Thankfully, the random encounter rate is pretty low (unlike Nocturne), so the ratio of combat to the other gameplay aspects is evenly balanced.

Character building and enhancement are key elements in DQVIII, following the time-tested convention of having to fight around and level up quite extensively in order to get past the increasingly tougher dungeons and bosses. When you need to fight for well over five hours just to be adequate enough to tackle a boss, you know you've got one tough old-school game on your hands. As characters level up, their stats automatically increase, but for personal customization certain allotments of special attribute points are also awarded that allow you to manually improve the unique Skill Traits for each of the four main characters. The character you play has traits for Swords, Spears, Boomerangs, Fisticuffs and Courage, while a character like Jessica specializes in Knives, Whips, Staves, Fisticuffs and Sex Appeal. By pumping earned attribute points into these traits any which way you like, characters learn new spells and abilities or obtain damage bonuses with certain weapons at set intervals within each trait. It's a very simple process but it's left open to your decision-making and is quite in-depth to boot.

Managing character equipment is vital as well, and, as stated earlier, keeping updated with the best weapons and armor can be a difficult task due to gold being tough to come by. Each character can equip a weapon, shield, armor, hat and accessory piece, all of which can be purchased, found via treasure hunting or crafted using the game's Alchemy Pot item-creation feature. Bookshelves contained within various buildings and towns are oftentimes home to alchemy recipes, which you can then attempt to combine within a special Alchemy Pot that Trode whips up for the team. Simply winging it is an option, but if a recipe won't work then the pot spits the ingredients back out and asks you to try again. Keeping track of all the character stats, equipment and item creation options is also impressively streamlined, thanks to a clean menu system that's easy to navigate. Small touches, such as a Heal All command that automatically heals your whole party in the most efficient way possible, point towards just how well put together this game is.

Level-5 has already proven its cel-shaded artistry with Dark Chronicle (and the once-gorgeous True Fantasy Online, which is sadly no more as we all know), but with DQVIII they have taken their graphical mastery to unprecedented new heights. The cel-shaded presentation is absolutely stunning, easily surpassing previous leaders in this graphic style, such as Wind Waker and the Sly Cooper series, and is so vibrant in color and rich with detail that you're eyes will be in retinal heaven every time you play. A real-time day/night cycle also shines through, with NPCs, random encounters and all other environmental happenings adapting to accurately reflect the passing time. There's no doubt about it; the world of DQVIII is by far one of the richest, most engrossing game worlds to explore. With Akira Toriyama, legendary comic artist of Dragon Ball fame, heading the game's character designs, it should come as no shock that the characters too jump out of the screen with tremendous sparkle and uniqueness. Familiar Dragon Quest creatures will also stand out to fans in their shiny new 3D cel-shaded skin, while the huge cast of all-new characters instantly becomes unforgettable. I truthfully can't say enough about how utterly beautiful this game is, so I'll just end with that so as to not ramble on and on like I most assuredly could.

The audio in DQVIII goes above and beyond even the astonishing visuals in amplifying this epic fantasy adventure. Composed by Koichi Sugiyama and performed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the game's sweeping soundtrack is absolute perfection, tugging at all of the right emotional strings to keep you captivated (and humming along) at every turn. Full voiceovers have also been implemented in the North American and European builds of the game, and as I'm sure you can already guess the acting is top-notch all the way around. A limited few characters are backed by some pretty hokey acting, but overall there are nothing but fine acting performances to recall.

By all RPG standards, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King closely follows the long-time genre conventions with very little attempt to innovate or revolutionize, and because of that there are a few tiny quirks that some gamers may take issue with. That may come across as disappointing at first, but once you actually experience the game you'll get over any minor grievances and fully realize that, in its elegant simplicity and old-school flair, DQVIII comes together as a gleaming RPG jewel that exemplifies superb game design, narrative work and presentation all in one sweeping stroke. Square-Enix, Level-5 and the rest of the incredible talent behind this title have all truly outdone themselves, making this game a definitive must buy that comes stamped with my highest recommendation.

Reviewed by Matt Litten for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).