My All-Time Favorite RPG: Dragon Quest VIII
I grew up attached to the Dragon Quest games since I was little and they were still called Dragon Warrior in the states. I rented Dragon Warrior Monsters on the Game Boy and loved it for it's mechanics and unique monsters, but when I went to buy it, I accidentally bought Dragon Warrior 1&2 for Game Boy instead. After my initial confusion and annoyance I settled down with and played through both games on the cartridge to completion. I eventually bought Dragon Warrior Monsters and beat that as well. I was hooked. The classic RPG mechanics mixed with a fascinating world with very memorable monster designs, characters, and items really struck me. Seemingly everyone I knew was far more obsessed with the Final Fantasy games, most hadn't even heard of Dragon Warrior. Nothing against the Final Fantasy games (X and XII are the only ones I've played and I liked both to varying degrees, but that's not important here), but the classical medieval feel of the games drew me closer to Dragon Warrior. I played Dragon Warrior 3 and both versions of Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 on Game Boy and loved them all. I missed out on Dragon Quest IV-VI because of forces out of my control, but I jumped on Dragon Warrior VII when it came out on Playstation (Side Note: I am super pumped that the 3DS version of it is coming to North America).
However, by that time I had started to lose focus in many games and I never actually finished the game, although I quite enjoyed my time with it. However, when Dragon Quest VIII was released on PS2, everything fell back into place and I jumped headlong into it.The world was so colorful and well formed. It had such personality and instantly made an impression on me. From the clean simplicity of Farebury to the ramshackle, but cozy nature of Pickham, I absolutely loved the world design and it was such a great feeling to be so immersed in the worlds I had grown up adoring. The monsters popped with such life and all of the battle effects were amazing. The protagonist was silent as per usual, but there was some personality to be found in the stoicism. The rest of the party was superb: Yangus, Jessica, and Angelo worked off each other so well and all had their own compelling stories woven tightly into the game. I cared about them so much as I went on my journey. Not to be ignored are King Trode and Princess Medea who lend humor and grace to the game respectively. The rest of the cast of supporting characters brings the world to life and creates stories rife with both humor and real weight. I cried numerous times playing this game and I am not ashamed to admit it. I could go into a bunch of other details, but really I can summarize it as 'I love every single aspect of this game'.
In my original run I beat the game, but I never got the true ending because I messed up my leveling so badly that getting through the last challenge would have taken too much time, but I nonetheless loved the experience. Eleven years after its initial release (i.e. earlier this year), I replayed the game with renewed focus and wonder. Even after so long, it held up remarkably well. Given the stylized cartoon nature of the graphics, they held up extremely well and all of the game mechanics just fit like a glove. I played through the entire game and got the true ending,which was a delight. Looking at my save files next to each other, I had managed to get a significantly higher level than my first run and I did it all in much less time (even though I wasn't rushing at all). It was such a wonderful experience and I will be so happy to relive it again when the 3DS version is released stateside next year. I might even play through my PS2 version again in the meantime...
Excuse me, I have some slimes to go beat up.