Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, known in Europe as Dragon Quest: The Journey of the Cursed King and in Japan as Dragon Quest VIII: Sora to Umi to Daichi to Norowareshi Himegimi (lit. "Dragon Quest VIII: The Sky, the Ocean, the Earth, and the Cursed Princess"), is a role-playing game developed by Level-5 and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2 home video game console. It is the eighth installment of the popular Dragon Quest series (formerly known as the Dragon Warrior series). It is the first English version of a Dragon Quest game to drop the Dragon Warrior title.
Dragon Quest VIII uses cel-shading textures for the characters and scenery, and unlike the previous installments battles are not limited to a first person perspective, instead showing all characters in the player's party. It has enjoyed much success since its release, particularly in Japan where it sold more than 3 million copies in its first week on sale.
A survey conducted in 2006 by the magazine Famitsu earned the game the #4 spot as the best video game of all time after Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Quest III.
