History YMMV / DragonquestVIII

** In the 3DS version, players can manipulate enemy spawns by turning the camera away and then back to the spawn location, which, when done from far enough away, will de-spawn any monster that was there and spawn a new one in its place. In any dungeon that includes {{Metal Slime}}s, this can be used to force them to appear, turning an otherwise normal dungeon into a PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling.

* WinBackTheCrowd: After the resounding failure of ''Dragon Quest VII'' (in the west), Dragon Quest VIII was released to massive sales and critical acclaim and successfully renewed interest in the franchise in the west.
** To a lesser extent in Japan as well due to the ''VII's'' infamously SlowPacedBeginning and very vignette-focused plot with ''VIII'' starting things off far quicker and focusing more on the party.

* FridgeBrilliance: During [[spoiler:Marcello's ascension to the Lord High Priest]], he gives a speech talking about the unfairness of birthrights, the useless nobility who trod upon others, etc... then he gets to [[spoiler:speaking about "a Goddess who does nothing",]] and the player realises that [[spoiler:the death of Abbot Francisco, after he'd expressed confidence that the Goddess would save him,]] just may have hit him harder than it appears. May also count as HiddenDepths.
** The Hero's immunity to curses, [[spoiler:at least once you start to realise how it affects gameplay]].
** The guards of the prison island, in a world where almost everyone has a British accent, have Australian accents.
** The subtitle. [[spoiler:Trode might be ''a'' cursed king, but he's [[PlayableEpilogue not the only one.]]]]
** Memory Lane's difficulty works from a story and gameplay perspective. It makes sense that all of them are hard to defeat because it's how the party remembers them. In addition, the dungeon serves to challenge the player further since they're good enough to easily take down the [[BonusBoss Dragovian Lord's]] various [[PaletteSwap forms.]]
** Sir Leopold in Memoriam's weakness to poison makes sense once you remember that Dominico accused David of poisoning Sir Leopold earlier in the game.
** [[spoiler: Estark's]] appearance in Memories Lane as the final opponent actually has a good reason. Aside from being a regular superboss in the series, he also fits the "memories" theme of Memories Lane because [[{{Irony}}he doesn't actually remember anything about his past]] in a dungeon where all the bosses are memories of various bosses fought in the main story.
* FridgeHorror: [[spoiler:Prince Charmles is the Hero's cousin! They are actually related ''by blood''!!!]] [[BigNo AAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!]]
** It's a good thing that the game didn't allow The Hero to pick up the sceptre containing [[spoiler: Rhapthorne]] otherwise the world would be dealing with a ''very'' powerful threat.
** How did [[spoiler: Estark]] make it to Memories Lane? Was he an enemy of the Dragovians who had to be sealed away aeons ago and what would happen if he escaped?
* FridgeLogic: Red and Morrie's absence from Purgatory island is given a HandWave by Yangus explaining that they managed to escape. However, technically there should be a bounty on their heads.

* RetroactiveRecognition: David, one of the heirs of the Seven Sages, is voiced by Gerran Howell, who would later be more recognized as the voice of [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Tora]], [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2TornaTheGoldenCountry Milton]], and [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3 Joran/J]].

* HarsherInHindsight: Many people in places Dhoulmagus attacks end up repeating his {{Catchphrase}}, "Such a pity". [[spoiler: It turns out this is something ''much'' [[DemonicPossession more sinister]] than just GotMeDoingIt...]]
** While Eight and his allies manage to save the Lord of Dragovians from himself after he took on a full dragon appearance at the expense of his people, [[VideoGame/DragonQuestX 2 games later]], the God of the Dragon Race, Nadraga, wanted to have the Dragons rule over the other races, but would later try to destroy Astolia as well as his own race after being revived.
* HilariousInHindsight: In the [=US=] version, when reaching max tension with the hero, the form he would take appeared to be a pink haired Super Saiyan. Flash forward 12-13 years later, and [[Anime/DragonBallSuper Super Saiyan Rose]] debuts.

* ThatOneAttack: The "wave of ice/Disruptive wave" boss ability. It's on over half of the bosses after Dhoulmagus, and it clears every buff on your party, meaning that if you just spent the last several turns buffing up your party, raising tension, etc, those turns were just completely wasted. It doesn't deal damage, so it's not particularly dangerous, but it certainly is incredibly annoying.

* NightmareRetardant: For a world-threatening DimensionLord slash EvilOverlord and the intense, creepy menace he creates throughout the game, Rhapthorne looks far from impressive, to say the least. His first form looks like a child-faced firefly imp, and his true form like [[{{Gonk}} Gonk-y]] lardball, wider than he is tall, with pudgy little arms, a silly looking grin and a ballon-like and an end-piece succion pad slash butthole at the bottom, making it look like a mix between a inflatable balloon and Jabba the Hutt.

* TierInducedScrappy: Just about everyone has at least one useless or underperforming skill besides Fisticuffs (which are, ironically, only really good on Yangus).
** For Eight, it’s boomerangs that disappoint. Following usual Dragon Quest tradition, boomerangs are fantastic early game due to serving as crowd control when your options for that otherwise don’t exist, but drop off later. While some skills rectify this, boomerangs run into a different problem: they’re ''only'' good for crowd control, lacking the utility and multi-hit moves both swords and spears do.
** Yangus deserves special mention due to the fact that Axes are essentially his only ''good'' skill tree due to the abilities being good ''and'' Axes being the most available weapons for him. Sure, he gets a rather hilarious attack if he maxes out Humanity, but to a lot, his low MP really doesn't justify investing so much, especially when he can learn some very useful axe abilities instead.
** Jessica has knives, which on top of being bad, mesh horribly with her. Knives give the following buffs: some ailment {{Useless Useful Spell}}s (rather than any of the myriad good ones the series has), attack output up, and the ability to use swords. Their power isn’t all that big a deal either, as Twin Dragon Lash is a powerhouse by itself. Even staves are better, as they give her legitimately useful status spells like Kasap and Bounce.
** Angelo himself has staves, though for the opposite reason as Jessica: they give him offensive spells when he could put his MP to better use healing the party. On top of that, they have to compare to his other options of swords and bows, which have utility and MP sustain, respectively, on top of both having power.

** After defeating Dhoulmagus for the first time, the camera shot after he turns OneWingedAngel makes it look like he has giant bird feet rather than something imposing and demonic.

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:[[AncientEvil Rhapthorne]], while the characters aren't initially aware of it, [[BigBad is present from the beginning to the end]], actively causing all the calamities in the game. His most heinous acts include turning the residents of the castle Trodian into [[AndIMustScream immobile plant people]]; killing Marta in cold blood, after forcing her to come out by holding her son Martuk hostage; and ordering the murder of an unborn child of the Godbird Empryea. He also did most of his work by performing GrandTheftMe, which trapped the victims of that into [[AndIMustScream mental torture]].]]

** Also in the Puff-Puff Club, if you have Jessica or Red (in the 3DS version) as the first character. The puff-puff girl has no problem whatsoever to give a nice [[MarshmallowHell "Puff Puff"]] to them and even call her [[EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench "cherié" and "mademoiselle"]]. Still, Jessica [[NotDistractedByTheSexy doesn't look amused]]. [[spoiler:Yet if you talk to her after getting a puff puff, she says [[BuxomIsBetter she'd love to have a "pair" like that]]. Keep in mind that ''[[JigglePhysics Jessica]]'' is the one saying this!]] Red meanwhile nervously sweatdrops.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Despite Angelo's introduction setting up some sexual tension between him and Jessica, the game largely ignores any opportunity to develop that romance in favor of focusing on Angelo's drama with his half-brother Marcello. The game belatedly remembers to return to the Angelo and Jessica dynamic during the party in the epilogue, where one picture features Angelo aiming to flirt with other women and Jessica aiming a fireball at him.

* GameBreaker: The roulette wheel in the casino is hilariously broken. Betting the maximum amount of tokens on every possible space you can bet on leads to you earning more tokens than you spent, no matter where the ball lands. Doing this for just a few minutes will earn enough tokens to buy the DiscOneNuke weapons and armour from the casino's store with ease.