Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King[c] is a 2004 role-playing video game developed by Level-5 and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2.

Dragon Quest VIII follows the silent protagonist and his party of allies as they journey towards the goal of defeating the wicked Dhoulmagus, who cursed the kingdom of Trodain and its people.

Dragon Quest VIII was a critical and commercial success, later being released under the Sony Greatest Hits brand.

[12] The visual controls allow players to examine people and objects more closely than the top-down perspective of the game's predecessors.

Dragon Quest VIII also introduced the tension system, which allows the player to choose the "Psyche Up" command for a character during battle.

Defeating enemies grants experience points and gold to the party, which allows the player to purchase items and weapons at in-game shops.

In addition to this, Level-5 incorporated a secondary skill development system to allow players a chance to customize each character to their liking.

The guard, King Trode, and Princess Medea set out on a quest to track down Dhoulmagus and break the spell.

[12] They are joined by Yangus, a bandit whose life the hero saves from a collapsing bridge; Jessica, a mage seeking to avenge her brother; and Angelo, a Templar Knight with a penchant for flirting and gambling.

Jessica later returns, possessed by the staff and battles the remaining party members in an attempt to murder a young man.

Dragon Quest VIII focuses on four main characters, each joining the battle party early in the game.

The main protagonist of the game, an eighteen-year-old royal guard of Trodain and the only person present in the castle to escape Dhoulmagus' wrath unscathed, is a silent hero, and named by the player.

Yangus is a physically strong character and speaks with a Cockney accent in the English versions, and wields axes, clubs, and scythes.

Jessica Albert, the only woman to join the party, is a sorceress from the town of Alexandria who seeks to avenge her murdered brother, Alistair.

[13] He is a member of the Knights Templar and decides to battle against Dhoulmagus when the villain sets fire to his abbey and kills the abbot.

Other important non-player characters include Empyrea, a powerful god-like bird; Marcello, Angelo's illegitimate half-brother and the Captain of the Templars; Red, a female bandit and former colleague of Yangus' with whom she shares a rivalry; and Morrie, the proprietor of an underground monster-fighting arena.

Dhoulmagus is eventually revealed to be a pawn of Rhapthorne, a demonic lord and the game's true antagonist, who is manipulating the jester in an attempt to free himself from the scepter inside of which he has been imprisoned.

[19] Dragon Quest VIII was released in Japan on the morning of November 27, 2004, with a celebration at Starbucks in Shibuya, Tokyo, starting at 6:30 am.

Horii and Square Enix President Yoichi Wada both made appearances at the event, and several of the first buyers in line received a toy Slime.

[21] The game was released in North America on November 15, 2005, and shipped with a playable Final Fantasy XII demo disc.

[23] Unlike the original Japanese version, the North American and European localizations of the game mark a departure from previous Dragon Quest titles due to the inclusion of voice acting in certain parts of the adventure pertaining to the advancement of the storyline.

[14] Unlike some earlier games in the series, which were censored during localization for North America, Dragon Quest VIII had no such censorship.

[9] In an interview with Horii, he mentioned that the 2003 merger between Squaresoft and Enix (creating Square Enix) allowed the company to release more games in more localities, with producer Ryutaro Ichimura adding that "European tastes have changed because of the influence of anime and cartoons, so Europeans are more willing to receive this type of artwork.

[39] By September 2008, total worldwide shipments of Dragon Quest VIII surpassed 4.9 million copies,[40] of which over 430,000 were from the North American release.

[26] Critics were quick to praise the 3D cel shaded visuals, noting that it was the first game in the series to be fully three-dimensional.

[13][17][18] Nich Maragos of 1UP.com praised the game's British tinted localization, saying how the humor is often successful except for "a few puns that will, on occasion, make you want to die.

"[18] Parkin described the voice acting as "a mash up of Monty Python and The Princess Bride: fantasy farce driving the cute narrative in the ideal aural vehicle.

[62] The character would be voiced for the first time by Yuki Kaji who, according to director Masahiro Sakurai, said it was a dream of his to do voicework for both the Super Smash Bros. and Dragon Quest series.