... but the game looks awesome. Julia's been playing it for a week or so now and she's totally addicted, and I've been watching a little here and there. I'm pretty surprised. I bought it for her used a while ago, and the thing just looks and sounds much better than I'd have thought. The animation is very smooth and nice, the art design looks surprisingly great for the oft-generic Akira Toriyama, and Koichi Sugiyama's OST absolutely blows my mind with its ultra-heavy classical influence. The biggest surprise, however, may be the voice acting and localization, which is superb. The game is very comical and cartoony, featuring voice work that reflects this, but it's also got a nice dose of drama here and there. The actors did a wonderful job from what I've heard so far.
So yeah, if you're looking for a very old school, traditional RPG done well, you should check it out. The thing is super cheap now. I got it used for like 8 bucks or something.
Also, can anyone tell me what Level 5's involvement was? Did they actually develop it? I assume so since their name is on the credits along with Square-Enix, but of the two, only Squeenix does any publishing. Did they farm out the development? In any case, Level 5 has really impressed me with Jeanne d'Arc and Rogue Galaxy, so it would surprise me at all to know that they were behind DQ8.
EDIT - Check out
some of Sugiyama's work from DQIV played by an actual symphony (and conducted by him as well - wait for the initial fluff to pass). And
here's another.
