Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

Dragon Quest VIII is the eighth installment of the popular Dragon Quest series of role playing games from Square Enix and Sony Computer Entertainment. It was developed by Level 5, who have also worked on the Dark Cloud series for the Sony PlayStation 2. It's full Japanese title is Dragon Quest VIII: Sora to Daichi to Norowareshi Himegimi. Yuji Horii still oversaw the project, while Akira Toriyama continued designing the monsters and characters, and Koichi Sugiyama resumed his role as composer.

Dragon Quest VIII sports graphics similar to those of Dark Cloud 2 in that it has cel-shaded textures on the characters and scenery. Dragon Quest VIII's battles are not limited to a first person perspective like its predecessors. Instead, it contains some third person views as in the recent 3D Final Fantasy games.

The main Dragon Quest VIII supporting cast of characters are a whip-carrying woman named Jessica, a scar-faced fighter named Yangus, a green monster-like person named Torode, and Kukule, a swordfighter with silver hair.

Released for the PlayStation 2 on November 27, 2004 in Japan, Dragon Quest VIII went on to sell over three million copies within its first week, making it the fastest selling Japanese PlayStation 2 title ever.

Square Enix localized the game for North American release, and it was released there on November 15. In 2003, Square Enix registered the Dragon Quest trademark in the US, and this was the first game in the series to be released with the Dragon Quest name in North America (as Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King).

A Japanese-exclusive title was created under the name Dragon Quest: Shounen Yangus no Fushigi na Daibouken.