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The eighth entry into the Dragon Quest series.

Dark times have fallen on the kingdom of Trodain. The villainous jester Dhoulmagus has stolen a powerful scepter from the kingdom, and used its power to curse its inhabitants: most of the inhabitants have been turned into humanoid plants, King Trode has been turned into a squat little troll, and the beautiful Princess Medea has been turned into a beautiful white horse.

The only one spared is a young guard, and he dutifully follows orders to hunt down Dhoulmagus, return the scepter to its rightful place, and break the curse over everyone.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King broke ground in several respects: it's the first Dragon Quest game on the Play Station 2, the first DQ game in three dimensions, the first released in Europe (not counting the spin-off Dragon Quest Monsters), and the first released as Dragon Quest in the United States (as Square Enix finally acquired the rights to the name). It's also the first in which party members are visible during battle sequences.

It's also notable in that it was the first Dragon Quest title to get at least some degree of moderate success in the West since the first game, for various reasons. Unlike its predecessors before it, Dragon Quest VIII did not suffer from Late Export for You, it was released a year after its original Japanese launch in 2004, the localization made several changes for the upcoming release to make it more palatable for a modern gaming audience (orchestral music, a UI update, voice acting), and perhaps the most significant factor: a demo of the highly-anticipated Final Fantasy XII was included alongside it in the initial run. It ultimately paid off in the end, as Dragon Quest VIII helped lay the groundwork for the series in the West and to this day is still recognized as one of the best RPGs to have come out of the 2000s.

In 2013, Dragon Quest VIII was released for smartphones in Japan. A North American release on iOS and Android followed in May 2014. It also received an upgraded port with new scenarios and the additions of the thief Red and Morrie the arena keeper as party members for the 3DS in August 2015 in Japan and 2017 in North America.

For tropes related to the Characters, go to the Dragon Quest VIII Character Sheet. New character trope examples should go there too.


This game has examples of:

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    A to D 
  • Acceptable Breaks from Reality: In the form of Leaked Experience. The original game did not have any reserve party members, but when this game added the mechanic, they receive the same amount of experience: even when you are in a dungeon (and cannot swap them out). Additionally, key items are automatically transferred over.
  • Actually Four Mooks: The 3DS remake does away with Random Encounters by replacing it with individually spawned multi-mook encounters like the 3D DS-era games.
  • Airplane Arms: King Trode of all people does this everywhere he runs. Contributes to his Ugly Cute status.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: Subverted when you reach Trian Gully, where monsters, humans, and elves lives together in peace and harmony, but otherwise played straight with many other monsters you meet, especially the ones from the World of Darkness.
  • Ambition Is Evil: A recurring theme of the game — be on the lookout for any significant characters more concerned with their own prestige or advancement than with their duties, for these folks are either dogged by misfortune or heap it on others.
    Trode: Dhoulmagus, you spineless clown! To attack one's own master is an unforgivable offence!
  • And I Must Scream: The poor residents of Trodain castle. Also, anyone possessed by Rhapthorne must feel like this, from Jessica's description.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: The smartphone and 3DS versions of the game came with a number of gameplay changes, many of which help speed up the flow of the game or fix annoying aspects.
    • These were first introduced in smartphone version:
      • The alchemy pot is instantaneous upon first acquiring it, no longer requiring the player to run around until items are completed. The player is also able to make multiples of the same item at once. These two additions were first introduced in Dragon Quest IX.
      • Skill points no longer have to be used as soon as they are acquired, which was added from IX, as well. This means that players no longer have to invest skill points in skills they weren't interested in and simply save them up for the ones they did want. The skill trees also shows the names of each skills and how many points are needed to unlock them.
      • A pop-up menu which allows quick access to some features, such as casting Zoom, summoning Baumren, and the Alchemy Pot, instead of having go individually go through the menus. This menu was placed on the touchscreen in the 3DS version.
      • Characters' attributes screen now shows how much experience they require to level up, no longer requiring the player to go to a church and do a "divination" to see how much more exp they need.
    • The 3DS version kept the changes from the smartphone version while also adding the following:
      • Changing from random encounters while walking to having monsters appear on the field, with the exception of traveling on the boat, yet another change which was introduced in IX. Infamous monsters are now marked with a special icon to distinguish them from regular enemies.
      • The characters' HP and MP are fully restored upon leveling up. This mainly helps alleviate the Early Game Hell where the player doesn't yet have a full party and doesn't have access to much healing nor items for the early dungeons.
      • Blue treasure chests, again making another reappearance from IX, now appear all over the world map and reset on a daily basis. They can randomly contain anything from extra gold to rare and valuable alchemy ingredients, which can be frustrating to get through normal gameplay.
      • A fast-forward mode in battle that speeds up battle animations.
      • Upon clearing the A rank in the Monster Arena, instead of being given no reward from Morrie, the player has the amount of monsters they can hold at once increased from 12 to 21, thus significantly conveniencing the testing out of various team combinations and allowing the player to easily the track the growth of a significantly larger amount of monsters. This is especially helpful with the many new infamous monsters the game has added, and the new Rank X that will leave the player scrambling to try any team they can think of in their attempt to beat it.
      • Morrie's skills as a playable character seem practically tailored for him to hunt metal slimes. Normally metal slimes run away from the player on the field, but his Monstrous Musk makes enemies chase after you. His club skillset is analogous to Yangus's axes, which includes an ability which always inflicts critical hits at reduced accuracy.
      • Equipment that there were only one of in the game that were required in alchemy to make another piece of equipment that you couldn't obtain otherwise, such as the Conqueror's Axe and the Metal King Spear, now each have another obtainable copy of them, absolving the conflict of players who did not want to sacrifice their one-of-a-kind equipment to obtain other one-of-a-kind equipment.
      • The Superboss of the game now drops a Seed of Skill every time he is fought and a Super Seed of Skill in his final form (which gives a whopping +10 extra skill points), meaning it's much easier for characters to max out their skill trees as opposed to other versions where you were lucky if he dropped one or were able to steal one.
      • All alchemy recipes you find now give the full recipe, instead of the majority giving only hints toward or omitting completely one or more ingredients or the end result.
  • Anyone Can Die: Not the core party, of course, but this game possibly has the largest side character body count in the entire series. To whit, all seven of the Sage Heirs are murdered, Empyrea's child is destroyed before he's even born, and the entire population of Neos is wiped out by the emergence of Rhapthorne's palace.
  • Apathetic Citizens: When compared to other games in the series, this one fits the description the most.
  • Arc Words: "Such a pity." Not merely Dhoulmagus' Catchphrase, but a symbol of Rhapthorne's disdain for futility. It actually ends up being used on accident by various heroes, including Morrie, who feels it fitting after witnessing Marta's home burned to the ground even though he's never actually heard it before.
  • Arranged Marriage: Princess Medea of Trodain has been betrothed from birth to Prince Charmles of Argonia because the current kings wish to fulfill a marriage that never happened between the previous generation of rulers. Ironically, even though their grandparents weren't able to Marry for Love as they wished, it becomes apparent that Medea's and Charmles' marriage would have no love lost between them in the slightest.

    It resolves in different ways depending on which ending you've chosen. In the standard ending, Medea becomes a Runaway Bride to elope with the hero, and in the original Golden Ending, the hero is revealed to be Argonian royalty in his own right, allowing them to properly fulfill their grandparents' promise. In the new alternate ending for the 3DS, if the player decides the hero loves Jessica instead, Medea pushes him to wed the sorceress despite her own feelings.
  • Artifact of Doom: The Sceptre of Trodain, which is locked up in a vault in what was once the castle, chained to every single wall in the room, in the dead center of a Magic Circle. Or, it was, until Dhoulmagus stole it and unleashed Hell. Its original name was the Godbird Sceptre, and it was used to seal away Rhapthorne, Lord of Darkness.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: When Baumren passes on after you put him to rest.
  • Ass Kicks You: Jessica's Hip Drop attack.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • Fire in the 'ole is a beautiful ability wherein Red literally takes a cannon and fires it. Problem is, Tension and Oomph don't affect it, so she would deal more damage with Fan Dango.
    • Golden Oldies. It's an absolutely hilarious attack that causes King Trode and a bunch of old men to appear out of nowhere and trample the enemies. Hilarious, but it requires 100 in Humanity - which hampers his combat skills to a degree.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Cash and Carrie. Within their quest to determine who will be the heir to their father's fortune, the other one will be attacked by a monster, but the first will go out of their way to save them and have a Disney Death. The quest ends with them deciding to split it and work together with the casino. As it turns out, that was the plan.
  • Bad "Bad Acting": When High Priest Rolo did his Heel–Face Turn and helped the party escape from the dungeon in Purgatory island, they devised a ruse to distract the guards to escape. This ruse is complete with purposefully stilted, wooden, and melodramatic acting with Yangus dancing the highlight of the scene.
    Jessica: He's going to die. Ah, help.
    High Priest Rolo: My gold rosary! I swallowed it. And now the pain is un-BEAR-rra-BLE!!
  • Battle Aura: Tension.
  • Battle Bikini: Jessica has several, and even changes outfits in-battle when they're worn.
  • Beastly Bloodsports: Mori's Monstrous Pit, where the player is given a starter set and is tasked with finding and recruiting stronger ones to battle in the arena.
  • Beauty Equals Goodness:
    • Played straight with Princess Medea (who is beautiful) and Prince Charmles (who's a squinting Beady-Eyed Loser too fat to wear anything properly).
    • Inverted with Yangus, who's a serious case of Stout Strength, but who had his Hidden Heart of Gold uncovered before the game begins.
    • It's played with by King Trode, whose reward for helping to save the world is to regain his human form... which is just as ugly as his monster form.
  • Black Magician Girl: Jessica. Forceful personality? Check. Action Girl? Check. Offensive caster? Check. However, unlike the typical Black Magician Girl, Jessica has a not-insubstantial physical attack.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Dhoulmagus initially stole the scepter so that he could become the world's strongest magician and get back at all the people who humiliated him. Rhapthorne, however, had other plans.
  • Bizarrchitecture: The Black Citadel, Rhapthorne's palace, starts out merely looking imposing and eventually degenerates into an almost Silent Hill level of architectural creepiness near the end.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: In a pub brawl, Yangus beats a guy over the head with a chair while someone is still sitting in it.
  • Bonus Dungeon: The Dragovian Trials. Also the Dragon Graveyard and the Trolls' Maze, since they're not relevant to the main story.
    • The 3DS version adds two more dungeons. The Altar of Wroth which can be unlocked after the Rhapthorne events in Neos. and Memories Lane which contains 14 Boss Fights of Bosses you fought before but are much more difficult, and one bonus boss. The final boss of the dungeon is Estark.
    • On a smaller scale, the Puff Puff club. It has no relevance whatsoever on the plot and keeps no bonuses or notable items apart from a tiny medal.
  • Book Ends: The opening cinematic when you start up the game shows two birds flying over the heroes at the beginning of their journey. In the 3DS version, during the Jessica ending, those two birds soar past Jessica and the Hero.
  • Bowdlerise: The 3DS version. Surprisingly, this isn't because of Nintendo like some people think; it's due to the CERO guidelines for getting an All Ages rating becoming much stricter between 2004 and 2015.
    • Some of Jessica's fanservice outfits have been dialed back. For example: Jessica's Magic Bikini now has an actual knee-length swim skirt covering the bikini bottom in addition to the mini sarong. Red's outfit was changed to her wearing short-shorts under her bearskin pelt skirt instead of her original bikini-style briefs. Funnily enough, the 3DS version of Jessica's Bunny Outfit shows more skin by changing the original strapless corset teddy into a strapless bra and short shorts.
    • Dominico was positively vicious in how he treated his manservant David in the original, but in the 3DS version David isn't forced to eat dog food.
    • Marcello's attempt at warding off the Scepter's influence after first picking it up was changed from stabbing himself in the arm to throwing the dagger away and using magic to suppress it.
  • Bragging Rights Reward:
    • The Gospel Ring. It eliminates random encounters when equipped, but the only way to get it is to defeat every enemy in the game at least once, including Rhapthorne and the final trial of the Lord of the Dragovians. So, by the time you get it, there's nothing left to do. However, the 3DS version allows you to obtain it by defeating most of the game's monsters, not counting the ones added into the 3DS version. In other words, it becomes more useful for what remains of the game.
    • The Lord's Bracer in the 3DS version is obtained by Completing Memories Lanes and defeating Estark. At that point, it's worth is reduced since there's nothing to use it on. Though... 
  • Brainwashed and Crazy:
    • Khalamari, a giant squid living in the depths off the coast of Port Prospect, is driven mad by merely encountering Dhoulmagus and having a conversation with him. He takes it out on anything that passes over his head, including entire ships.
    • It turns out this is a common affliction, consuming anyone who gains hold of the Scepter — Rhapthorne immediately begins taking over their mind.
  • Break the Haughty: The haughty in this game exist to be broken. Dominico, who abuses his absolutely loyal manservant David? Broken. King Trode, whose egotism makes him think the quest is All About Me? Broken. Various officials of the Corrupt Church? Broken.
  • Brick Joke: During Dhoulmagus's past, he mentions he had to teach himself what little magic he does know to make up for Rylus not teaching him any, though he dismisses them as parlor tricks. Said "parlor tricks" actually entertain Trode to allow Dhoulmagus to stay the night in his castle, as well as blind one of the guards so Dhoulmagus can knock him out. Overlaps with Not Completely Useless.
  • Brutal Bonus Level: The 3DS version adds two.
    • The Monster Arena has an extra level, Rank X. Every monster has around 800 HP, they all will dish out well over a hundred damage with their attacks, about half of them can crit, others can inflict statuses that will end your run if they proc, and the final match will exploit the hell out of your monster's targeting AI, to get them stuck in an endless loop of repeatedly targeting a monster that can be endlessly revived when it dies. There's an extremely shallow pool of monsters remotely viable for the rank, that will pretty much require the hero to be at postgame levels for his monsters to be strong enough to win, and even then it's a huge gamble on if so many things will go right for you to win it. Trying to clear the X Rank is RNG hell.
    • Memories Lane, which is a Boss Rush "training ground" you can gain access to by beating the Superboss of the Dragovian Sanctuary. Not only will you have to fight all your favorite bosses with souped up stats, many of them will have extra skills, more inventive ways to cripple you, go more often in a single turn, and increased critical hit rates, and the difficulty curve is huge — you can probably squeak past the first few bosses while your levels are in the fifties, but many aren't able to handle the last few until they're in the nineties.
  • But Now I Must Go: Empyrea, a.k.a. Ramia, leaves after the party dispatches the Big Bad for good, with a heartfelt thanks.
  • But Thou Must!: Obligatory, with the most entertaining occurring in the normal ending: Say no when Medea asks the hero to run away with her and King Trode will give him a very powerful Death Glare.
  • The Cameo: Torneko and Ragnar from Dragon Quest IV are the first two opponents in the Monster Arena's S Rank battles.
  • The Casanova:
    • Morrie, who seems to have cobbled together a happy polyamorous relationship with his curvy blonde companions Marrie, Mirrie, Murrie, and Merrie.
    • Angelo. The "Lady of Skills" even flirts with him when you ask about his Charisma.
  • Can't Drop the Hero: Unusually for Dragon Quest, this trope is played straight in the 3DS version. In that version, the hero must be in the active party at all times and cannot be switched out.
  • Catchphrase:
    • Yangus' "COR BLIMEY!" whenever something (usually King Trode) startles him.
    • Dhoulmagus' "Such a pity." The latter turns out to be Rhapthorne's catchphrase, not Dhoulmagus' — whoever he's possessing via the staff will say it.
  • Central Theme: The major conflict of the game is between observing your obligations and pursuing personal happiness. Continually, the game presents you with contrasts between people who faithfully follow their duties, and those who most assuredly don't. A few examples:
    • Medea regretfully but determinedly contributes as the party's beast of burden even as Trode wanders back and forth between self-aggrandizing and feeling sorry for himself (conversely, Trode is at his best when he dotes on Medea).
    • Dhoulmagus disobeyed his master in his search for personal power, and ultimately killed him. Which wouldn't have happened if Dhoulmagus were more patient a student and Rylus less careless a master.
    • Valentina entreats the party to help restore her beloved father, Farebury's local drunk Kalderasha, to his true calling.
    • Jessica pursues vengeance for Alistair even to the point of defying her mother's attempts to honor shallow tradition.
    • There's a whole Corrupt Church filled with the political wrangling of priests and orders whose failure to observe their proper pieties enables tragedy.
    • Angelo continually disgraces the order with his selfishness and vice, even as his brother Marcello's ambition and abrasiveness cause more harm and obstruction than good; Marcello is so ambitious, as a matter of fact, that he gets to be the direct instrument of the church's tragedy.
    • Royal maid Emma continues to devotedly serve King Pavan of Ascantha even as he suffers through a two-year Heroic BSoD.
    • King Clavius is the only member of the Argonian royal family to try and observe his duties to his parents and his people even as his brother Eltrio abandoned the throne and his son Charmles intends to abuse it.
    • David devotedly serves and defends his arrogant master Dominico in spite of incredible degradation and abuse.
    • The (original) Golden Ending allows the historically thwarted Argonian wedding vow to be properly fulfilled when the hero and Medea are lawfully wed.
    • It's not simply being the youngest member of a bloodline that makes you a sage's heir, it's being dutiful. Alistair was notably the most dutiful member of the family even to the point of observing an obligation to improve his magic and swordplay for its own sake; Marek, who abandoned the family obligation to guard the ruins to pursue his own career, essentially led the sage's bloodline to die out even before his mother was murdered.
    • Downplayed with Castle Trodain, which is implied to have neglected its history and thus forgotten; King Trode, for example, hasn't got much of a clue about what the scepter actually is, only that it's a great treasure (it's not) and it has major hocus-pocus (it does).
  • Chekhov's Gun: Quite a few, but one doesn't pay off until the good ending: the Argonian Heart you obtain while performing the initiation rite with for Charmles. Once the hero's discovered his history, it pays off in a BIG and very satisfying fashion.
  • Chokepoint Geography:
    • The bridge between Trodain and Farebury is broken before the events of the story, so the kingdom of Trodain can only be approached from the west.
    • Subverted with the door to Moonshadow Land; the official (but legendary) doorway is atop Wisher's Peak, but the technical requirements are met by a window in Trodain Castle's library.
  • Chosen One: Averted. Notable in that Dragon Quest games tend to be Chosen One narratives. The Hero in VIII is a part of the story due to sheer coincidence, and his mysterious past is so unrelated to the story that it only gets revealed post-game. If anything, it gets Played With, as any of the characters with any sort of noble bearing have such nobility stripped from them by curses, disownment, or sheer bad fortune, and a theme of the game is that how one acts is more important than where one comes from.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: The church in this game still keeps dungeons in its abbeys for converting heretics, and the party is kept in a cell at one point to await torture in one the next morning. Angelo's comments make pretty clear that Marcello has a decent amount of practice as an inquisitor.
  • Combat Medic: Despite the fact that his outfit -a red version of the normally blue Carolean battle suit- and hair color are reminiscent of another character archetype from another series, Angelo fits, and in his case, it is more justified than the typical cleric character in that he was raised in an abbey.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The battles in the game are of the old school "enter your commands at the start of the round and watch them execute" variety. The computer has no such limitation and will take its turn at the moment, rather than at the round start like the player. This results in situations such as the enemy curing itself of a status effect that was just inflicted that turn, dispelling freshly cast buffs, healing and reviving freshly killed allies, etc. Naturally, the player is unable to perform such clairvoyant acts and must wait until the next round. The twist comes in the fact that, if you put your own allies on AI, they can now perform these acts. This makes the computer a far more effective healer than the player, since they can cure injuries instantly and efficiently instead of being forced to wait, or wasting MP curing everybody regardless of full health in preparation for incoming damage.
    • The player can even exploit the computer reviving allies for powerleveling.
    • In the Monster Arena, the monsters of some opponents have abilities their species don't have in the game and that the equivalent special monster you can recruit don't have either. For example, Morrie's Liquid Metal Slime can cast Kaboom, while Metabble, the Liquid Metal Slime you can recruit, is limited to the much less effective Sizzle and Kasizzle. Additionally, opponents can have monsters with stats that well exceed what the equivalent special monster you can recruit is capable of at their capped level. For another example, Jewelbag, the Goodybag you can recruit, is one of the weaker monsters you can get and isn't remotely viable in the higher ranks even with its maximum stats. However Torneko in his S rank battle and especially Cash & Carrie in the 3DS' X rank have a Goodybag that can hold its own against appropriate monsters for those ranks.
    • Another Monster Arena one; the monsters on your team are all considered to be in one group regardless of composition, even though different species can't be in the same group together normally. However the teams you fight in the arena have all their monsters considered to be in their own individual groups. This means moves that affect only a group of enemies like the Sizz spells and Thwack will affect your entire team when used by opponents, while when your monsters use group-affecting skills, they'll only be able to target one of the opposing team's monsters at a time with them.
    • Another bit of cheating the computer can do is using powerful high-damage attacks like fire-breathing as often as it likes for no penalty. This is especially grating early on, when the weakest breath attack does 30 to 40 damage to everyone and your characters' max HP scores are barely twice that at best. Get into a fight with three or more enemies that can use such attacks, and you can easily get a full-party defeat without any chance of even trying to heal up from it.
    • Easily the worst example, however, are the bell-like enemies. Their favorite tactic is to call in reinforcements, which, in the case of the ones in the arctic area, is more of themselves...who then get a free turn to call in more, until you're facing a full octave of them... at which point the 8th one will perform a technique that kills your entire party. (Just to rub salt on the wound? The animation for this technique is the 8 bells playing the "Game Over" dirge.)
    • In the 3DS version in Memories Lane, the later bosses either have extremely high chances to do critical hits or some of their attacks do double the damage of what they should regularly do.
  • Continuing is Painful. While you don't have to reload the game, losing half your gold is nothing to laugh about. That is, until you find a bank and start selling excess armor and weapons.
    • And of course, only the hero is revived after a party wipe. You've got to shell out the money to resurrect the rest of them. And the higher the level of a dead party member, the more expensive it gets to revive them.
  • Corrupt Church: The Church of the Goddess is disastrously corrupt. Despite two of the major clergy (the Lord High Priest and Abbot Francisco) being benevolent, selfless true believers, the structure of the church is thoroughly rotten: demanding money from the faithful in return for absolution, rising through the ranks based chiefly on bribery (to the chagrin of those who would rather rise through blood), and using the church's martial arm to further personal aims. This results in the party's quest being stymied at several points. In one of the 3DS consult conversations, Angelo lampshades it by saying it's the church that produced him.
  • Covert Pervert: King Trode. Go on, hit the select button after changing Jessica's outfit, especially regarding the bunny suit and the divine bustier. See Dirty Old Man below.
  • Crapsack World: The world is a dystopia in this rendition of the Dragon Quest series.
  • Crutch Character:
    • For the Monster Arena, Potbelly, the Potty Dragon. He is available to be recruited as soon as the player gains access to the Monster Arena, having no prerequisites before he can appear and being located on the peninsula southwest of Trodain. With having HP over 500, attack approaching 200, and over 100 defense for his base stats, he is by a large margin the strongest monster you can immediately recruit at the earliest point you can gain access to the Monster Arena. He additionally has a flame breath attack that hits the entire enemy party for up to 40 damage each, which when combined with his very high base stats, allows him to crush the first three ranks of the Monster Arena. The power of his flame breath however will quickly grow obsolete as you go up in the ranks, which when combined with his non-damaging sand attack that usually fails to affect enemies, leads to him wasting a lot of turns in later ranks. Then with HP growth during the Hero's level ups that is merely decent at best, low attack growth, and low defense growth, his statistical prowess declines sharply in later ranks, while he gets surpassed by other monsters like Hackzilla and is unable to match the powerhouses you get later in the game.
      • Snap Case, the Man-Eater Chest you find near Trodain, is also one. He has pretty good base stats across the board, especially in attack, while also possessing highly valuable abilities in being able to attack twice a turn and critical hit. But with awful HP growth, and poor growth in the rest of his stats, he'll become really frail by the later ranks standards while his offensive prowess will become steadily less impressive.
      • Similar to Snap Case is Capers. His damage output and speed make him easily one of the strongest monsters you can obtain before you get a ship and he's even a strong contender afterwards, but his lack of HP paired with his damage output falling off later makes him unsuitable for higher ranks.
      • Brickman looks like he'll be this; he's one of the strongest monsters you can initially get at the point you gain access to the Monster Arena, with only the aforementioned Potbelly and Hackzilla having greater base stats. In stark contrast though to Hackzilla who has awesome growth rates alongside the hero's levelups to keep him one of the strongest monsters throughout the game, the player will notice that Brickman doesn't get any stronger at all when they level up, and that he starts lagging behind by E rank. This is subverted however when the hero's level reaches the 20s; from that point on Brickman starts "levelling up" with growths that are on par with Hackzilla's, allowing him to become viable again in the later ranks. He can additionally form the "My Three Golems" team alongside Goldman and Stoneman, where they can fuse into a super Golem named Mazin, and are capable of beating the S rank.
    • For "crutch weapons", there's the Hero's Boomerangs. They're nigh-essential in the early game, when you have just two characters against encounters of up to 8 enemies, while lacking attacks that hit multiple enemies at once. The first Boomerang and its upgraded Reinforced Boomerang additionally have comparatively high attack power for the early point of the game. But after the upgrade to the Reinforced Boomerang, the gaps between when you can get a stronger Boomerang becomes very long, and then the stepup in power between upgrades isn't much. To emphasize how weak Boomerangs become by the endgame, the strongest Boomerang you get before the postgame, the Flametang Boomerang, has a paltry attack power of 63, when other weapons will have something around 100; most glaringly this is less than half the power of the Gringham Whip, a weapon that too can hit all enemies at once. Then with the Boomerang skills, the only worthwhile one you'll get is Super Throw; the second hit on Crosscutter Throw deals barely any additional damage while still costing MP to use, Power Throw is rarely worth using over just a normal attack while still costing MP, Firebird Throw and Starburst throw will deal less overall damage than a regular throw and Super Throw respectively in most cases by the time you get them, and Gigathrow deals marginally more damage than Gigaslash, while only hitting a single enemy and being completely inferior to Gigagash, the move you'll get if you 100 both Swords and Courage. Then with the Boomerang's declining attack power and the relatively weak skills, Boomerangs will be by far the Hero's weakest weapon against bosses, the hardest part of the later game.
  • Curse: The premise is that everyone in the kingdom of Trodain except the main character has been cursed by the villainous Dhoulmagus. King Trode is now a little troll-like creature, Princess Medea is a horse, and everyone else is a plant. The main character escaped the curse because a memory wiping curse that was cast on him when he was younger had the beneficial side effect of rendering him immune to other curses.
  • Cursed Item: There is some Gameplay and Story Integration regarding the hero and cursed items. Ostensibly, the hero was immune to curses and the Curse status effect because he was hit with a powerful Dragovian curse as a child that nullifies any other curse on him. For this reason, the hero can equip and remove cursed equipment without penalty.
  • Cursed with Awesome: In the epilogue, it's revealed that the main character had his memory wiped as a child... with the side effect being that he was given immunity to curses. This shows up in gameplay as well, as he cannot be afflicted by the Cursed status ailment, and can easily remove cursed equipment.
  • Cute, but Cacophonic: Don Mole, the fifth boss. A journal in Castle Argonia continues the Running Gag of how awful he is by telling that his music causes birds to fall from the sky and causes deer and rabbits to writhe on the ground in agony foaming at the mouth.
    Angelo: It sounds like a monstrous dragon howling, or a hellish demon screaming, or a...a...really horrible thing making a REALLY horrible racket.
  • Cutscene Incompetence: Despite having all their weapons and armor, as well as a key that can open any door on the planet, the party and High Priest Rolo get captured and sent to Purgatory Island extremely easily.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: For some bizarre reason, nobody ever bothers to defend themselves against the Knights Templar, even though they're just a bunch of foot soldiers.
  • Darker and Edgier: Probably the darkest game in the Dragon Quest series, at least until Dragon Quest X and Dragon Quest XI.
  • Deadpan Snarker: You wouldn't know it by listening to just his voiced dialogue, but if you take the time to listen to Angelo every now and again while speaking to the party, it's pretty obvious he is one.
  • Degraded Boss: The Red Horn and Blue Fang can be found as regular enemies after finishing the Black Citadel, where all the dark monsters are released upon the world, on the unmarked island as rare encounters. They have the same stats and abilities, except with their HP being substantially reduced to about a fifth of what their boss version possessed, and giving less than a fifth of the experience. Since the unmarked island is well out of the way and the player won't have a reason to ever go back there at this point in the game (outside of clearing a postgame Codex challenge on the 3DS version), most players are unlikely to ever encounter them in their degraded boss form, but the monster log gives a hint about this with their "available locations" section listing the Unnamed Isle, as well as indicating that they have random item drops.
  • Delusions of Eloquence: Yangus, trying to make himself sound proper. To his credit, the words he's trying to use are quite appropriate more often than not, it's just obvious he doesn't call on such knowledge very often. Must be a side effect of hanging out with Brains.
  • Developer's Foresight: After you meet Red, she'll send the party to retrieve a tear-shaped gem in order to get Princess Medea back. However, it's possible to go to the dungeon, clear it and obtain the tear before talking to Red (with no in-game indication that this is an option). If you do, a cutscene will play after you leave Red's shack where Yangus admits to Trode that he played up his response. Knowing Red as well as he does, Yangus knows if she found out that the party already got the tear, she'd just send them after something else.
  • Demonic Possession: Rhapthorne does this to anyone holding his staff.
  • Our Demons Are Different: One of the first things to be seen in the Dark Ruins is an imposing statue of a bewinged goatlike demon, distinctly modeled after the classic Baphomet. Cameron's Codex in the 3DS version indicates it to depict a former incarnation of Rhapthorne, Lord of Darkness, which lends a little extra meaning to fight with Dhoulmagus after he goes One-Winged Angel.
  • Dirty Coward: Prince Charmles. You'd want to punt him for it, but he'd run away before you could.
  • Dirty Old Man:
    • King Trode. Equip Jessica with any of her Battle Bikinis, and his comments on the status summary screen change from general tips and commentary to openly admiring her. Equip part of her Bunny Girl outfit, and he practically screams at you to hurry up and find the rest of it already!
    • One of the villagers in Alexandria in the village's church at night:
      Dear Goddess, hear the plea of a poor old man. Please let the Alexandra's Day pilgrimage go ahead this year. It fills my heart with joy, seein' the beautiful angles of the statues of Alexandra.
      ...And the voluptuous curves o' the statuesque Miss Jessica!
  • Disc-One Final Boss: Dhoulmagus.
  • Disc-One Nuke:
    • When Yangus' Fisticuffs skill reaches 42 points he will learn Thin Air, which hits every enemy, dealing about 45 points of damage each. What makes it so useful is that the soonest point Yangus can master this ability is level 12!
    • Once Jessica gets the Gringham Whip, her Twin Dragon Lash becomes the second most damaging spammable attack against a single target in the gamenote . You only need to invest 23 points to get Jessica's Whip skill to get the latter and the Gringham Whip could be Save Scummed for the moment you have access to the Baccarat Casino, trivializing bosses from that point on until near the end. There's a reason why one of the changes done in the 3DS version was to Nerf Twin Dragon Lash.
    • A sufficiently determined and informed player can complete the Monster Arena before facing off against Dhoulmagus and obtain the Hero Spear, the strongest spear in terms of pure attack power you can get before post-game that also comes with the nifty effect of healing the Hero when he uses certain attacks.
  • After you've beaten Rank D in the Monster Arena, Talos becomes this. He comes straight out of the gate with a whopping 800 HP and extraordinarily high attack and defence values, making him a worthwhile contender all the way up to the final ranks!
  • Distracted by the Sexy:
    • This is actually an ability of Jessica. Put skill points in her Sex Appeal and monsters will start missing turns just to ogle her. Her own allies, Chivalrous Pervert Angelo included, are immune. Dragon Quest IX has a similar effect through the "Style" stat, but it affects all playable characters and isn't limited to only sexy outfits.
    • Both games also feature active abilities to affect opponents in this fashion (learnable by both your characters and foes) - the Puff-Puff attack in DQ8 and the Sultry Dance in DQ9. Entertainingly, a foe that tries to use the former move on Jessica will get demoralized because Jessica is more voluptuous, and they miss a turn instead.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The scene where Prince Charmless tries to ride Medea is either a metaphor for spousal abuse or rape, depending on how you interpret it.
  • Doorstopper: One book that the Hero can pick up is so heavy the game notes that its weight tires out his arms rather than giving an excerpt of its contents.
  • Doting Parent: King Trode clearly cares more for his daughter than anything else in the world.
  • Double-Meaning Title: The title of the game, "Journey of the Cursed King" makes sense on face value as you're leading around King Trode in his cursed state. However... when you find out that not only is the Hero "cursed" due to the origins of his curse immunity, but also could've been the next King of Argonia if his father hadn't left? The title of the game can easily refer to the Hero as well.
  • Dramatic Wind: Morrie's scarf constantly billows in the wind, both inside and outside the Monster Arena.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: After beating the game for the first time, the last scene shows where the Bonus Dungeon lies. The next time you load up that file, talking to your party reveals they all had a strange dream about that area.
    • In the first city you visit, you meet Valentina, who seems to have this very power.
  • Drowning My Sorrows:
    • The once-great Fortuneteller Kalderasha is found in a pub, drinking hard. He eventually gets better and returns to his profession, thanks to the party and Valentina.
    • Yangus suggests they take a side-trip to Pickham so that the King can get a drink for once. King Trode immediately hits the pub once you arrive.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: When Prince Charmles greets the party at his wedding, he casually states that since they are peasants, they won't be allowed in the church. This is despite the fact that 1) they had recently saved the world, 2) if it wasn't for them, he would have been disinherited for failing to complete the Argonian Rite of Succession, and 3) The Hero had been promoted to Captain of King Trode's, his father-in-law-to-be's Royal Guard, making his exclusion from the wedding a serious insult to his bride's family.
    • Also not to mention that a few people in the church, such as King Pavan, Lord High Priest Rolo, Carrie and Cash, owners of a massive casino, as well as King Clavius himself are good personal friends of the party, meaning they have some damn good connections. Not to mention the wealth and status of Jessica and Hero respectively. Jessica being a lady of a rich family, and Hero being the Championne and heir to the Monster Arena, essentially the most secret and prestigious of clubs to the richest of the rich. Way to show how much of an ass you are in front of the world's richest and most influential people, Charmless.
  • The Dying Walk: Marcello walks into the horizon after you defeat him in battle. In the PS2 version, he's never seen again, though the 3DS remake has him help the party defeat Juggerwroth.
    E to I 
  • Early Game Hell: Don't event think about entering the first dungeon or even going outside at night before you've gotten a few levels and some stronger equipment.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Let's see... in order to get the best ending, you have to beat the final boss, go through the difficult Bonus Dungeon, defeat the Superboss at the end, and beat the final boss all over again; the Hero has more than earned the right to marry the Princess Medea.
    • In the 3DS version, right after getting Jessica back from Rhapthorne's possession, go back to Alexandria and talk to Jessica's mom Rosalind and she will give you the late Alistair's Armor. In addition you will need to stay in the inn in Alexandria to trigger another cutscene between the Hero and Jessica. Doing these objectives unlocks the Jessica ending when you have the Argon Ring in possession.
  • Eek, a Mouse!!: Prince Charmles and lizards. Also a maid in Albert Mansion in Alexandria.
  • Enormous Engagement Ring: The party accompanies the prince of Argonia on a rite to slay an Argonian lizard and bring back its crystal "heart" to be made into an engagement ring. The prince is disappointed to discover how small they are and insists the party get a big one before returning home. Naturally, it is by far the largest such crystal anyone's seen.
  • Entitled Bastard: Prince Charmles is an almost textbook example. He has to undergo a trial to prove that he's worthy, which is to get an Argonian Lizard's jewel-like heart. He not only treats your party like shit the entire time and make them undergo the trial, but then they discover that he flat out BUYS one from the black market, rather than using the one the heroes had earned, making all their hard work go for naught. Naturally, he is surprised when this comes back to bite him.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: High Priest Rolo. He explains that the only obstacle to the position of Lord High Priest was time: not the incumbent himself.
  • Everyone Can See It:
    • After going to the Mystical Spring several times and letting Medea drink from it so she can briefly talk to the Hero as a human, Jessica will mention in one conversation how obvious it is that Medea has a thing for him.
    • The servants at Castle Trodain lament at how miserable the Hero will be when Medea gets married to Charmles and mention that the two are very close.
  • Evil Overlooker: The cover for the 3DS version of Dragon Quest VIII features Dhoulmagus sinisterly overlooking the good guys (and a couple of Slimes), who are charging headlong into battle.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Dhoulmagus
  • Evil Weapon: The staff that Dhoulmagus stole allows Rhapthorne to possess the wielder.
  • Expy: That mysterious, softly-spoken man with blue hair is named Ishmahri. Not Seymour.
    • Also, at one point Rhapthorne possesses Marcello, transforming him into... Magus from Chrono Trigger.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: You always fail to protect Rhapthorne's targets.
  • Fairytale Wedding Dress
  • Fast-Forward Mechanic: You can stay at an inn until either sunset or sunrise, in case you wish to interact with NPCs who only appear during the day or night.
  • Fauns and Satyrs: Satyrs, Pan Pipers, and Silenuses make their debut to the series, using their flutes as weapons and perform various skills with it, such as Counting Sheep, and Cursed Verse.
  • Fanservice: Jessica, but also many other female characters around you. And, of course, the infamous "Puff Puff" Club, in Argonia.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture: In the English release, the Dragovian characters have Chinese-styled names perhaps as a reference to the Chinese worship of dragons.
  • Fiery Redhead: Jessica. And how, when she's mad. Literally too, given her penchant for throwing fireballs when angered.
  • Forced Transformation: Dhoulmagus used the scepter to transform King Trode and Medea into a goblin and a horse, respectively. The entire Kingdom of Trodain suffered a substantially worse fate; the residents were all forced to become unmoving plants.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • When other party members avoid being Cursed, the game states that they jumped out of the way. When it fails on the Hero (which it always does), the game instead declares, "But the curse dissipates before it reaches (Hero)!" The fact he isn't affected by curses turns out to play a major role in the Playable Epilogue.
    • Everything Munchie, who is occasionally mentioned by other characters to be a very special mouse. Considering that he can use Breath Weapons that would put a dragon to shame by eating certain types of cheese, it's a fair assessment. He's actually a member of an ancient species of Dragon-folk in disguise.
    • Right after murdering Abbot Francisco, Dhoulmagus briefly speaks in a voice very different from his own, hinting at his Demonic Possession.
    • When you witness the full flashback of Dhoulmagus stealing the staff, it's in a sepia-tone filter with no color. Yet you can still see Dhoulmagus' hair change color from a darker black to a pale white, clearly indicating wielding the staff changes the person's appearance. This of course is meant to hint at Rhapthorne possessing someone.
    • The Dark Ruins is full of it.
      • Monsters use it as a shrine to worship some mysterious Dark Lord. i.e. Rhapthorne.
      • There's a big ol' statue in the ruins' "foyer" of a be-winged demonnote . The statue deliberately anticipates not one but two One-Winged Angel boss fights, Dhoulmagus' and Leopold's.
      • There are murals that depict Rhapthorne being sealed inside the sceptre by Empyrea and the sages, foreshadowing the plot of the game's second half. The significance of this story doesn't become clear until after Dhoulmagus is defeated.
    • Check out King Clavius' reaction when the party walks into his throne room. One of them, the Hero, looks identical to the king's missing brother. That's because the Hero is actually the king's nephew, unbeknownst to them both. This information isn't even revealed in the main storyline; the player has to wait until the playable epilogue.
  • Free Rotating Camera
  • Freudian Excuse: Marcello's life was effectively ruined by Angelo's birth, and he's more than a bit bitter over it. He also has to deal with the fact that, since he was born a commoner, he's not exactly popular with the Church's higher ups despite his status as Templar Captain and later, leader of the Templars, period. Whether or not this justifies his later actions is debatable.
  • Fusion Dance:
    • In the Monster Arena, certain team combinations will result in the three monsters fusing into one extra-strong creature. Regardless of the result, the fusion only lasts until the end of battle.
    • King Slimes are the result of several Slimes fused together with a magic crown, as shown when you help one trapped in a well by pulling its crown out.
    • There are three groups of 4 monsters each which can fuse during battle in a parody of Combining Mecha (Mum, Boh, Jam, and Boe into Mumboh-Jumboe, Jab, Ber, Wok, and Kee into Jabberwokee, and Head of State, Body Politic, Right Wing, and Left Wing into Democrobot.
  • Gaiden Game: Yangus stars in one.
  • Game-Breaking Bug: In the English release of the 3DS version, if you use Goldman and Jewelbag together on a monster team, it will make a special team called "The Treasure Hunters", where they gain access to a deathmove called Good as Gold, which when used nets you extra gold equal to half the damage they inflict with the attack. However whenever they use it, if the monster they target does not die from the move, the game will crash immediately after damage is dealt, with the game freezing up and sending the player to the Home menu while forcing a reset.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration: The Hero survives Dhoulmagus cursing the entirety of Trodain castle. In battle, he's completely immune to the Curse status condition. It's revealed it's because he's already under a curse that blocks out others.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Multiple times:
    • Zig-zagged with Red and Morrie in the 3DS version:
      • On one hand, Red joins after a certain part in the game: and she actually will appear in some story events, such as when the party escapes from prison and she appears alongside Trode. Red and Morrie do actually appear in the consultation screens, and will appear in full party shots.
      • On the other, Morrie is optional and seems to contribute very little to plot scenes (less than Red). A particularly notable case of Gameplay and Story Segregation happens when the party is put into jail where, even if you have Red and Morrie in the active party, they will be mysteriously swapped out with the two in reserve. Yangus does, however, explain that Red and Morrie snuck away, but it does seem weird regardless.
    • Particularly whenever there's a storyline death. Party members die all the time... all you need to do is cast Kazing, or drag them to a church. This may be justifiable early-game when the player does not have access to Kazing or the church, but it does not quite explain why nobody else used them.
  • A God I Am Not: The Godbird Empyrea states this of herself in the ending when King Trode asks if it's proper to tell a goddess to take care, saying these are merely titles humans bestowed upon her. This is also when Empyrea takes the time to reveal that her true name is Ramia, the very same one from DQIII.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Whenever a character is actually killed onscreen.
  • Gotta Kill 'Em All: Rhapthorne's goal, as the deaths of the descendants of the Seven Sages is required to release the Sealed Evil in a Can. Suffice to say, he succeeds.
  • Green-Skinned Space Babe: Not really "Space", but Raja the female Elf in Tryan Gully fits this trope well.
  • Grimy Water: There are a few areas (such as a segment in the Black Citadel) where the player can walk through what appears to be purple water. Doing so slowly damages the entire party.
  • Guide Dang It!: 90% of the Alchemy Pot formulas.
    • The playable epilogue's effect on the endgame, as well as the recipes for the most powerful weapons and armor in the game. Made all the more infuriating by the fact that the official Prima guide deliberately omits all of this information. If you get all your info from the Guide, you'll never know who the Dragovians are at all.
    • Fortunately the Piggyback guide has every part of the game covered, with the last part of the book sealed up so you don't look at any spoilers.
    • Photo Quests 131, 138-142 of Cameron's Codex in the 3DS version.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: The Hero, who is half human, half Dragovian.
  • Handsome Lech: Angelo.
  • Happily Adopted: Valentina. Cash and Carrie as well.
  • Heel–Face Turn: High Priest Rolo starts the game as a corrupt Fat Bastard trying to become the new Lord High Priest. After being betrayed by Marcello, he starts to see the errors of his ways and ends up sacrificing himself to allow the heroes to flee Purgatory Island. However, luckily for him, he gets a Redemption Earns Life and becomes the new Lord High Priest as well as a better person.
  • Heel Realization: After David is killed in Arcadia, Dominico realizes that the servant that he'd so horribly belittled and abused was the descendant of the sage that his family had sworn to protect for generations, and that he'd lost sight of this because of the power that the Sage gave his ancestors for this purpose.
  • Helpful Mook: In battle, Puppeteers can buff your party's tension with Exciting Tale. Out of battle, several NPCs are monsters that are more than happy to talk to you.
  • Heroes Fight Barehanded: You can have a barehanded hero and armed party members, but in this way you miss the chance of using powerful and useful weapons. You can however learn how to cast Razor Wind.
  • Hot-Blooded: Morrie. Incredibly so.
  • How We Got Here: Jessica asks how Yangus, a former bandit, ended up becoming the hero's staunch ally. Yangus and Trode provide the details.
  • Hybrid All Along: The post game reveals that the protagonist is half Dragovian, a powerful species of were-dragon. This is ultimately expressed by his ultimate Heroism skill "Dragon Soul," though he never turns into a dragon himself. Incidentally it was the Dragovians' unwillingness to tolerate the union of a human and a Dragovian or the resultant offspring that allowed the hero to be in a position both to ultimately thwart the Big Bad and save the Dragovians themselves in the post game when their leader loses his mind.
  • Hypocrite:
    • King Trode has a rather dramatic soft-spot for dutiful young women... and he happens to be a complete Narcissist.
    • Marcello welcomes a young orphaned Angelo into the monastery — and then promptly revokes the welcome and goes against everything he claims his order stands for the moment he learns that the orphan is the half-brother that he was disinherited in favor of.
  • Identical Grandson: The Hero is an identical son to his father, if the pictures shown while Chen Mui tells his grandson of his past are any indication.
    • When you first meet King Clavius, he bolts from his throne and clears out his eyes when he sees the Hero. The King then tells his minister that he looks like someone he knew, but must be mistaken.
  • Improbable Weapon User: A rare inversion of this. Your party uses the standard-fare swords, staves, bows, axes, and clubs as their weapons of choice, along with the usual magic. The enemies, on the other hand, use odd and downright goofy weapons such as puppets, hornpipes, stampeding sheep, sloppy kisses, and dance moves.
  • Infinity +1 Sword: Take two swords: One is a legendary blade passed down through a hidden society of dragon people for eons, the other is a pinnacle of metal forging with Orichalcum and a symbol of slime royalty. Mix the two together and you get the most powerful weapon in the GAME, and the name is just as epic as it sounds: The Dragovian King Sword. Now go forth, and obliterate thine enemies with it.
  • In Medias Res: The game starts after the hero has been traveling for some time and has already met up with Yangus. Given the actual distance between Trodain and Farebury, not much.
  • In-Series Nickname: Princes Charmles of Argonia. Just about everyone (except his dad, of course) calls him "Charmless" behind his back, even Princess Medea, though she corrects herself.
    • Yangus's nickname for the protagonist is "Guv".
  • Interface Spoiler: The enemy log contains a few of these.
    • If you view the full list of enemies, you'll notice there are many empty spaces still remaining by the time you reach Dhoulmagus...
    • The enemies you encounter in the World of Darkness while you're on the Godbird's Isle have other locations listed in their entries, all of which are places you've visited previously. It's not hard to figure out that the dark creatures will eventually be unleashed on your home world somehow.
  • Interspecies Romance: The Hero's parents.
  • I Owe You My Life: Yangus's reason for following the Hero.
  • It Always Rains at Funerals: At Abbott Fransisco's, anyways.
  • Item Crafting: The alchemy pot. You receive it after sleeping in inns a few times after the first dungeon, and it gets upgraded after events in Pickham so it can mix three items now. In the PS2 version you have to walk around to wait until the concoction is ready, but in later version it's instantaneous. You can also find recipes for it by reading books, but most of them are vague or incomplete in the PS2 version.
    J to N 
  • Jerkass: Strong overlap between this and the Ambition Is Evil theme. Kalderasha, Marcello, Prince Charmles, Cash and Carrie, "The Great" Dominico, High Priest Rolo, etc. All these characters are jerks to varying degrees and it causes varying degrees of misery in turn.
  • Jiggle Physics: Jessica. She has enormous boobs, which jiggle and bounce, as well as several different character models of her in skimpy clothing, and even a skill set called "Sex Appeal". Many NPCs, including women, make note of her generous assets.
    • They even bother to model the effects of gravity on her chest when she's lying on her side and as she sits up instead of just on special moves in combat. Someone spent waaaay too much effort on this.
    • A family of humanoid female enemies have this too, with jiggling boobs when attacked. Their Puff-Puff attack involved their boobs, causing the male party members to lose one or more turns in lust. They can even do this to Jessica, with hilarious results...
      "Jessica laughs triumphantly, having won the battle of the bulges."
    • In a non-female example, Don Mole is a morbidly obese anthropomorphic mole...so much so that his rolls of fat jiggle even during his idle stance. When he attacks, it is essentially a tidal wave of blubber.
    • This is even worse during the final battle. The Final Boss has so many rolls of fat that just jiggle, even when he's doing nothing!
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Marcello, whose bitterness and resentment go From Bad to Worse once the death of his Morality Chain leaves him to his own devices, and he becomes consumed with ambition. He starts out as a Knight Templar when the heroes meet him, then quickly turns to resorting to bribery to climb the political ladder of the church and practically starving the monks at Maella Abbey in favor of his Templars. And then goes From Bad to Worse, with him crossing the Moral Event Horizon and killing the Lord High Priest, who is a relatively defenseless old man. Granted, the game hints at Marcello being somewhat under Rhapthorne's influence, and even Angelo says he doesn't believe Marcello would resort to murder.
  • Just a Stupid Accent: All over the place. While most are variants of British accents, a few others are out there. After all, the game was localized in the UK to give it a medieval European theme used by the rest of the series.
    • Dominico's accent seems to be from Birmingham. (It's harder to tell, since he's also seems to be affecting a more exotic Eastern European accent that almost constantly decays).
    • American accents can be found in Baccarat and the Monster Arena announcer. Cash and Carrie take this one step further with Valspeak, like, what-EVER.
    • Every bartender with spoken lines will speak with a French accent.
    • Also Morrie, who uses a lot of Gratuitous Italian.
    • Marta & Marek speak with a Russian accent. Marta's dog Boris even barks in Russian. ("Gav gav!")
    • Kalderasha and Valentina seem to have a Romanian-like accent(?)
  • Just Add Water: The alchemy pot.
  • Kick the Dog: Charmles just had to go for the biggest gem during his initiation, didn't he? No matter the cost. Funny you should mention "cost"...
    • Poor David. The way Dominico abuses him when the party first arrives in Arcadia is bad enough. He even treats his pet dog Sir Leopold much better than David. When he makes him get on his knees to eat dog food after accusing David of poisoning it, it's enough for most players to pass Dominico off as a Jerkass, until David is killed by the now-possessed Sir Leopold, causing Dominico to break down emotionally at his murder and then realizing that he was not the heir to a sage. After wallowing in self-pity, he mellows out dramatically and urges the party to kill his once-beloved pet dog to atone for his ignorance. He also awakens some of Jessica's potential as a magician, enabling her to cast Kacrackle and Kasizzle.
  • King Mook:
    • The 3DS remake introduces a handful of special monsters that only appear after you've defeated 30 of a normal monster variant — the slime example would be a giant glob of cream and gelatin called the Creme Caraslime.
    • The King Slime, King Cureslime, and Metal King Slime once again qualify, but doubles as an Elite Mook.
    • Downplayed with Khalamari, who is the biggest, nastiest squid in the sea (and has a unique design to boot) in a game that has numerous squid monsters, including squidlings called Khalamari Kids and Squid Kids, the latter of which are the juvenile versions of King Squids.
    • Inverted with Geyzer, who is technically the only boss in the Merman class and further distinguished by living in a waterfall rather than the ocean... but he's also only the first boss, amounts to little more than a Palette Swap with a scar, and would lose terribly in a fight against other Mermen.
  • Knight Templar: Marcello, who leads, ironically, the Knights Templar. Under his leadership, the rest of his Templars definitely qualify too, and the tradition probably goes back aways if the current and old abbey's dungeons are any indicator.
  • Large Ham: Morrie. Rhapthorne engages in this too once he gets his physical form back, to somewhat hilarious effect in his first form.
  • Laser Blade: Angelo's best sword, The Shamshir of Light, looks like it's just a dagger when its put away. Yet in battle, it's actually just a hilt for a light blue lightsaber with a curve on the end just like a Shamshir would have.
  • Last Lousy Point: In the 3DS version, photoquests 138-142 in Cameron's Codex, which only become available near the end of the game. Ignoring all the Guide Dang It!, RNG, and other frustrating aspects involved in these photoquests, you can only do one of them each day. So if you know what to do and with probably plenty of Save Scumming involved, it'll still take at minimum five real days to complete them all, whereas a determined player with enough time on their hands could feasibly finish the main game and complete all the postgame content before they're able to complete all five of these photoquests.
  • Later-Installment Weirdness: Of a sorts - since this game, Dragon Quest has been known for its use of monsters and locations named after puns and accents, thanks mostly to Nintendo (Who has essentially published the entire series outside of Japan). VIII did introduce the puns and accents, but they are much less pronounced than in "later" installments including the DS remakes.
  • Level Grinding: Pretty much a requirement early on. You will die on the way to the first dungeon if you aren't at least level five.
  • Level-Up Fill-Up: Added in the 3DS remake. Gaining a level completely restores your HP and MP.
  • Like Brother and Sister: If you visit the Mystical Spring near the end of the game, Medea will tell the Hero he's like a brother to her. This is after she told him she sees him as a man.
    • This is one possible interpretation of the scene added in 3DS remake where Jessica temporarily envisions the Hero as her brother.
  • Love Dodecahedron: The Hero and Princess Medea are in love with each other, but Medea is betrothed to Prince Charmles. In the 3DS version, Jessica is also in love with the Hero and it's possible to reciprocate. However, she's engaged to Lorenzo and seems to have a thing for Angelo as well.
  • Living Memory: All the bosses in Memory Lane except for Estark are memories formed from the party. They're also much harder than anything that came before.
  • Luck-Based Mission: The Monster Arena, to an extent. Though you can recruit and place which monsters you want on your team, and you can get your monsters stronger whenever you level up the hero, you can't control their actions. You have to just sit back and watch. You can get monsters strong enough to just overpower the earlier ranks to victory, but as soon as B Rank rolls around, you're going to start needing the RNG's blessing to win, where just one instance of one of your monsters holding the Idiot Ball can be enough to doom your run in the higher ranks.
  • Magikarp Power: Among the special monsters you can recruit, there are three Slimes, three Drackies, and in the 3DS version, three Moles, that are all very weak individually with no real special abilities, being nigh-useless for serious use in the Arena and for your field teams. However put them on the same team together with the rest of their respective trios, and they can fuse together into a super monster far stronger than any individual monster in the game, that can each potentially beat the arena's S rank with some luck.
  • Malaproper: Geyzer, who suffers mild brain damage after getting bashed in the head with a crystal ball.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Rhapthorne, controlling whoever touches his scepter to release him.
    • All but one strong-willed Templar, and even then he manages to take over eventually.
    • This was actually well-planned by the original trailer for the game. It hypes up Dhoulmagus as this epic big evil for the team to defeat, when really it's only the halfway point of the entire game.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Marcello.
  • Marathon Boss: The game features a Final Boss where before you could even attack, you had to use a special item seven times by all four party members. Moreover, you're being attacked the whole time, and have to heal every other turn. Then comes the absurdly large health meter — and this boss has a habit of healing himself regularly, stretching it out even further.
  • Marshmallow Hell: The Puff Puff attack, which Jessica and some female monsters can do in battle to distract the opponent. Curiously, when done by Jessica, she turns her back to the enemy. Oh, there is also the secret Puff Puff Club near Argonia, accessible only with the legendary key. There your characters can get a Puff Puff for free. (Yes, even Jessica).
  • Match Maker Quest: Prince Charmles' initiation quest is not only meant to prove his worthiness for the throne of Argonia, but his worthiness to wed his betrothed, Princess Medea of Trodain. Conversely, Princess Medea's "prize" is to be able to wed the little creep.
  • Mascot Mook: If it appeared in a previous game, expect it to appear again here.
  • Metal Slime: Well, yeah. Ironically, the Metal Slime isn't even the true Metal Slime of the game; that honor goes to its upgraded versions, the Liquid Metal Slime and the King Metal Slime.
  • Minigame Zone: The two casinos and the monster arena.
  • Mons: There's a monster arena where you get to fight monsters you pick up with names like Slime Shady.
  • Monster Arena: A literal one, since only monsters are allowed to fight in it, though you can also spar with your main parry against your own monster team.
  • Monster Clown: Dhoulmagus after obtaining the scepter. The 3DS remake reveals he only dressed up as one to gain access to Castle Trodain to steal the scepter. Rhapthorne even allows him to keep the outfit since it suits him perfectly!
  • Monster Town: Trian Gully.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Jessica, especially when the player equips her with various Battle Bikinis. Red, to a lesser extent.
  • Muggle in Mage Custody: David, a servant to the magician Dominico whom the player's party meets in the town of Arcadia. David shows nothing but gratitude towards his master for taking him in when he was alone and starving, even though Dominico constantly bullies and humiliates him and wonders even to himself why he keeps David around. It turns out that David is actually descended from a great sage who transferred his powers to Dominico's family in exchange for them protecting his descendants. So while David himself is a muggle, he's still linked to Dominico by magic, even though neither is initially aware of it.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The Hell Gladiator, a four-armed zombie with a different weapon in each hand, returns from Dragon Quest VI with its Underground Monkey, the Zombie Gladiator in tow. The game also introduces the Servant of Darkness, first appearing as a boss alongside 2 Dancing Flames when escaping from the Black Citadel after Rhapthorne's first defeat and then appearing as a normal enemy in the Heavenly Dias, as well as Dragon Quest X.
  • Multiple Endings: The original game had two potential endings: one in which the hero rescues Medea from her wedding and the two end up Maybe Ever After and a second which the Hero gets married to Medea. The 3DS remake adds two additional endings which are variants of the originals, where the hero ends up with Jessica instead.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Dominico. Once he learns the truth behind himself and David, he immediately changes his tone.
  • Never Smile at a Crocodile: Some areas are infested with Heligators, Darkodiles, and Crocodogs, as in giant, floating half-mutt half crocodile monsters.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, HeroMarcello tries to pull this on the party late in the game. Keyword being "tries". It rings hollow, however, given he had been the one stupid enough to use the Artifact of Doom carrying the devil's spirit to try and create a better world and arrogant enough to think he could fight him off indefinitely. Given a mere confrontation was all it took to weaken his will sufficiently, as evident from the possession's trademark Voice of the Legion it's clear his downfall was a matter of "when" not a question of "if".
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: One of the abilities that the puppeteer enemies around Ascantha can use is an "Exciting Story". It's so exciting that it raises the whole party's tension by one level, allowing you to finish them off faster! Irritatingly, Moppet the infamous monster can use the same ability during battle.
  • Nintendo Hard: There's a reason why there are a large amount of side quests.
  • No-Nonsense Nemesis: Rhapthorne doesn't screw around when it comes to killing the people holding the seal on him. More than one are killed in front of the heroes' eyes.
  • Not Completely Useless:
    • The Skull Helm is a Cursed Item exclusive to Yangus which, if worn, will reduce his attack power to zero. While the most obvious appeal of this helmet is its use as an alchemy ingredient in the sun crown recipe, it has a second use—if Yangus is trained to use Steal Sickle, the lack of attack means he can use it without killing an enemy, making it much easier to grind for Rare Random Drops.
    • The 3DS version has a candy cane as a downloadable weapon for Yangus, which always does 1 damage and also makes it easier for Yangus to farm items with Steal Sickle. As a bonus, it isn't cursed, so there's no need to visit a church to remove it.
    O to R 
  • Official Couple: The Hero and Medea have loved each other since their childhood years but were never able to act upon it due to their own respective duties getting in the way. In the good ending, the Hero runs away with Medea on her wedding day to Charmles and in the best ending, they get married instead.
  • One Curse Limit: Why the castle's curse did not affect the Hero and why he cannot be cursed in battle. The one he already has blocks the others.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: the main type of dragons you find around the world are either made of Thorns, or very large Dinosaurs which can attack with poleaxe or use Booze-Based Buff, or simply chomp you whole. Averted with the Dragovian Lord, who can turn into 8 different badass Dragons.
  • Outlaw Town: Pickham.
  • Pandering to the Base: The 3DS remake allows a bonus alternate ending where the hero can marry Jessica instead of Medea because fans preferred her.
  • Panthera Awesome: Great Sabrecats are a staple monster of the Dragon Quest series, but can also be befriended in a few of them. This time around, the reward for a certain sidequest is a bell that summons a sabrecat for your character to ride on, multiplying your movement speed on the world map tenfold (obtained by achieving the Ghostly Goals of Baumren in a rather moving subplot with his former master, Felix).
  • Party in My Pocket: Oddly enough, this is the only main Dragon Quest game not to display party members All in a Row (not counting the first game, which only had one character to show). This might have been because this was the first Dragon Quest game in full 3D without a top-down perspective: Having all four characters on-screen (plus Medea and Trode) would make it impossible to see where you are going. Not to mention it would increase the loading time between areas. Although you can still occasionally hear Medea clop around/whinny behind you.
  • Peninsula of Power Leveling: There's a small hill that can only be accessed via use of the Godbird, but it's full of Metal Slimes of all types, including King Metal Slimes. Spending some time here is a good way to level up late in the game.
    • The small island in the southwest (that doesn't appear on the map) can be reached as soon as you obtain the ship, and is chock-full of liquid metal slimes that makes it quite a hotspot to do some grinding at an early level.
  • Photo Mode: The 3DS version adds Camera Mode with a full-blown sidequest tasking the player with taking photos of various landmarks and monsters. Doing so can yield some pretty valuable rewards, like exclusive items and equipment. Some of the later photos can verge on That One Sidequest, however.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: Medea's wedding dress.
  • Pirate Girl: Red, a Dark Action Girl thief who gets herself involved with the legend of Captain Crow.
  • Playboy Bunny: Jessica can dress as one in battle with the right gear.
  • Pokémon Speak: Don Mole's underlings after you beat him say nothing but "dig" and "dug." Odd not only because you can understand them fine, but there's no indication any of them were speaking this way before the fight.
    • King Maximillian speaks in nothing but grunts, harrumphs, and coughs from his sick bed. The voice actor seemed to being having fun.
  • Polar Opposite Twins: Marcello and Angelo.
    • Cash and Carrie view themselves as this way, but the player can see that they are similar.
  • Poor Communication Kills: In the 3DS version, the optional event of seeing Dhoulmagus' past is an example of this trope. It is revealed that Master Rylus was a harsh teacher to Dhoulmagus and did not teach him any magic, which prompted Dhoulmagus to seek magic on his own (and hence the sceptre incident). In reality, Master Rylus was working on the medicine that would help release Dhoulmagus' hidden magical talent and only told Dhoulmagus about it after he got possessed by Rhapthorne.
  • Power Dyes Your Hair: In the American and European versions, when the main character builds his tension high enough, his hair becomes lighter and spiky. Which obviously begs comparison to another of Akira Toriyama'a works...
  • Powerful, but Inaccurate: The Hero's Spear skills Thunder/Lightning Thrust and Yangus' Axe skills Hatchet Man and Executioner, which have a higher miss rate, but also a higher critical hit rate, than their standard attacks. These are very useful when fighting Metal Slimes, since critical hits ignore Defense and will always One-Hit Kill them. And everything has a very high miss rate against Metal Slimes, so the inaccuracy of the attacks isn't that important. Angelo also has the Bow skills Needle Shot/Rain, which either deal 1 damage (functionally equivalent to a miss) or a One-Hit Kill (if he "hits a vital area"), but their low hit rate plus Contractual Boss Immunity to instant death makes them Useless Useful Spells.
  • Pretentious Pronunciation: Prince Charmles is quick to insist that his name is pronounced "Sharm-LAY", particularly whenever he's called "Prince Charmless". It's actually just "Charm-ulls".
  • Pretty in Mink
  • Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: High Priest Rolo is not the one doing the asskicking, but he does get a good line in Purgatory Island.
    Rolo: Take a little nap, you half-wit nurses!
  • Prince Charmless: To no surprise, Charmles. It's even his in-game nickname! And the first one to call him that? King Trode!
    • The Trope Namer as well.
  • Pyromaniac: Jessica in cutscenes. The first thing she does when she meets the Hero (and mistakes him for Alistair's killer) is to sling fireballs at him.
  • Random Encounters: Played straight, peppered with some optional non-random encounters all over the world.
  • Rare Candy: The stat-boosting seeds. (Tip: Save them for later, they're excellent Alchemy ingredients.)
  • Recurring Boss: Though gameplay-wise, he is always quite different, you have to fight Rhapthorne so many times you almost start to feel bad for him. Nearly every story boss post-Dhoulmagus is him in some form, with only a few exceptions. He stops seeming like such a terrible threat about the third or fourth time you beat him down, but at least he's persistent.
    • For those keeping count: Dhoulmagus' first form, then his second. That's two. Then Jessica. Then Sir Leopold the Flying Dog. Marcello is pretty clearly under the influence of the staff when you fight him, though unlike the rest he's not completely controlled. Then you fight Rhapthorne's "true form" in his castle. THEN, you fight his final final final form. Counting both phases of the final battle, you have to beat Rhapthorne eight times.
  • Regional Bonus:
    • Amazingly, despite its popularity there contrasted with its unpopular status elsewhere, Japan did not get (until the 3DS version) a version with voice acting.
    • Japan also does not get the visually enhanced interface and the symphonic score that the Westerners got.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Literally in the form of two guardian bosses (Red Horn and Blue Fang)at the bottom of the Dragon Graveyard
  • Relax-o-Vision: Jessica's Puff-Puff attack. Subverted when the hero goes to a massage parlor and gets one. He closes his eyes and doesn't see the masseuse merely rubs two slimes against him. At least, it's a "warm and soft pair".
    • Also on Purgatory Island, when the whole party, including Yangus with a Slasher Smile, ambush the two guards from behind and clobber them..
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Most monsters. Thanks to Toriyama's sense of whimsy, the monsters that aren't this are at worst Ugly Cute instead.
    • Sometimes subverted; for instance, the Sea Dragon looks quite strong and menacing.
  • Rising Cost Of Health Insurance: Priests get progressively more expensive as you level. Thankfully, you can eventually learn to use resurrection spells yourself.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Geyzer, who wants to get even with whoever hit him on the head with a crystal ball and slurred his speech.
  • Royal Brat: Why Charmles is The Scrappy. Medea was apparently one in her youth, but she's long-since outgrown it.
  • Running Gag: King Trode will pop up and make a comment when the team least expects to see him, always prompting a "COR BLIMEY!" from Yangus. Lampshaded late in the game, when Trode shows up at Tryan Gully, and Yangus starts to say his line, but then stops and says he's getting sick of that old bit.
    • Near the very end of the game, it even gets subverted: after you have defeated the Big Bad, you're flying away on Empyrea and Yangus looks around, expecting Trode to show up on the back of a giant bird, then laughs at his gullibility.
    • In the normal ending, this is played straight, this time by Princess Medea when she sees her father at the reins of the horses pulling the stagecoach which she took to get to Savella for the marriage to Prince Charmles, after the Hero and the party crashed said wedding to whisk Medea away from a lifetime of unhappiness.
    S to Z 
  • Saharan Shipwreck: The party actually uses one of these as their main transportation, after using magic to get it back to sea. Strangely for a fantastic setting, it's pretty clearly stated to be a receding coastline issue — they get it back to sea by using magic to "get the area to remember when there was ocean there".
  • Scenery Censor: A non-naughty version. Flashbacks to the night of Dhoulmagus stealing the scepter are carefully framed to prevent you from getting a good look at Medea and Trode's faces, sometimes in the most contrived ways.
  • Scenery Porn: This is one of the nicest looking games on the PS2.
    • Stand on top of that mountain next to Farebury, look to the castle WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY in the distance across the trees and hills, and see if your pants don't shrink.
    • Have you ever seen the sunrise or sunset while on the boat or on a beach? Oh man.
  • Schizo Tech: In the 3DS version, the Nitid Tutu which makes Jessica look like a Magic Idol Singer comes with a headset.
  • Schizophrenic Difficulty: The early game isn't a cakewalk, since it's not too afraid to throw 5-6 enemies at you at once who can take out over half your health if they attack the same character at once, and enemies who can use breath attacks to take out half your health at once. Once you get Jessica and later Angelo, it gets far easier. But then you get a difficulty leap when you fight Dhoulmagus, and until you beat Evil Jessica, the game will start ramping up the difficulty. But once that's done, the rest of it becomes far easier to beat.
  • Schmuck Bait: Engaging in combat with the Axoraptor lurking just outside Farebury is a very bad idea at a low level. Fortunately if it chases you down, you can always flee from it with no fear of getting attacked.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If your level is high enough, certain infamous monsters will run away from you instead of towards you when they see you in the field.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Rhapthorne
  • Sealed Evil in a Six Pack: The Big Bad. His soul is sealed inside the Sceptre of Trodain, and requires the death of seven people to break. His body is sealed in the statue of the Goddess in Neos.
  • Secret Level: The Troll Maze. Finding it is one huge Guide Dang It!, and the dungeon itself is something of a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment (Trolls living inside a mirror want to eat Argonia's chancellor? What?), but it's only about ten minutes in length and you don't get anything particularly valuable from doing it, so it's not that big a deal.
  • Secret Test of Character: Interestingly, a key one plays out that isn't for The Hero, but for Prince Charmles. Who fails.
  • Shadow Discretion Shot: We're treated to one each time Dhoulmagus runs someone through with his scepter.
  • Ship Tease:
    • Angelo flirts with Jessica quite a bit. He is also the one in cutscenes to shield her from danger or help her down places. At one point when Angelo is shown to be hitting on an NPC during the feast at the restored Trodain Castle in the wake of Rhapthorne's defeat, Jessica can be seen lining up a Frizz spell to pelt Angelo with (much to the alarm of the children she was just showing it off to), so it's not entirely one-sided.
    • Medea eagerly wishes to return to the Mystical Spring for all the opportunities it affords her to talk to the hero (and clearly enjoys their dream-conversations for the same reason). Jessica even thinks so in a Consultation conversation.
    • Yangus and Red have a fair amount of history that involves a few smouldering traces of romance (case in point: Yangus' long-unfulfilled promise to obtain the Venus' Tear for her).
    • King Pavan and Emma, after the former awakens from his Heroic BSoD — after he recovers, he gives Emma some much deserved time-off... but he tells her this while meeting with her in secret at night away from the castle. A local guard is spying on them with this very much in mind.
    • The 3DS remake adds some scenes between The Hero and Jessica. In fact, get them all, and they get married.
  • Shout-Out: If the main hero can reach maximum tension, his bandanna comes off, his hair gets a couple shades lighter (though pinkish purple instead of blond) and gets incredibly spiky. Of course, Akira Toriyama did do the character designs, so the fact that the hero can go Super Saiyan should surprise nobody.
    • Given that he was not only designed by Akira Toriyama but also looks a lot like teenaged Gohan, it's a nice nod to Dragon Ball fans either way.
    • On that note, his ultimate move, Dragon Soul, looks suspiciously similar to Super Saiyan 3 Goku's Dragon Fist, except green and performed in a diving motion. These last few references were not in the Japanese original but added to North American and European versions.
      • Another Hero-Dragon Ball correlation: he and Gohan are both half-human. Both characters' non-human racial traits allow transformations into a large beast.
    • Another Dragon Ball Shout-Out near the end of the game involves collecting seven orbs needed to break the shield around Rhapthorne's final form.
      • Also a Mythology Gag. The same goal of collecting magic orbs appeared in Dragon Quest III and were needed to awaken Ramia.
      • Alexandria, Jessica's ancestor and one of the original sages, is also wearing the traditional Sage outfit from Dragon Quest III when her spirit speaks to the party.
    • Last but not least, his whole outfit is the same outfit Tapion wears, except for the bandanna. Which is similar to the one Gohan wears in his "Great Saiyaman" guise.
    • Jessica can learn an attack called Pink Typhoon, whose name is the same as the Japanese name of Angela's Love Typhoon attack in Trials of Mana.
    • Back to Dragon Ball, during Jessica's first appearance, her stance while charging up her fireball attack is reminiscent of that of the Kamehameha.
    • A mustachioed man with a thick Italian accent that wears red and green is definitely a Super Mario Bros. reference. One of the NPCs in the Monster Arena actually refers to Morrie's Harem as the "Super Morrie-o Sisters".
      • The Monster Arena ring announcer is a straight-up Expy (right down to the voice) of Michael Buffer, the ring announcer best known in boxing matches and WCW wrestling matches for the trademarked catchphrase "LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!" The Monster Arena announcer says "LET'S GET IT ON!" before every round.
    • Hilariously enough, several recruitable monsters are jokes and references:
      • A Slime named Slime Shady.
      • A Berserker named Bushwacker whose nickname is Bush-W.
      • A dinosaur named Hackzilla.
      • In the 3DS version we have a "Teen Fox" whose nickname is Michael J., a spitnik named Ray Churls, a Wight Priest named Barry Wight, and a Chimera named Flappacino.
      • Some monsters take their names from the previous Dragon Warrior localizations, such as the Metal Slime and Liquid Metal Slime going by "Metaly" and "Metabble".
    • Don Mole is a very cheesy James Brown riff.
    • A book in Pickham refers to the town as a "wretched hive of scum and villainy."
    • To one of Level-5's past projects: One of Jessica's alternate outfits was used in Dark Chronicle.
  • Sibling Rivalry: Cash and Carrie. These two also fall under Sibling Seniority Squabble and, eventually, Brother–Sister Team. Their Punny Names are also meaningful, since they run a casino.
  • Significant Anagram: Munchie's name is an anagram of his actual identity: Chen Mui, the Hero's grandfather.
  • Silent Protagonist: The Hero, as per Dragon Quest tradition. A couple of cutscenes occasionally depict him "explaining" things to other characters, but the only words the player ever really hears out of him are "Yes" and "No".
  • Single Line of Descent: Played with. While the descendants of the Seven Sages must die for the Big Bad to be released from his can, it must be seven specific people who inherit that portion of the "can"—meaning that in a couple cases there are other descendants in the family in question, but they are useless to the Big Bad's plan. Examples: Alistair vs. Jessica, Marta vs. her son.
  • So Near, Yet So Far: As soon as you enter the Swordsman's Labyrinth you can spot the chest containing the treasure required to progress the game, but you can't get it until you have walked around the whole dungeon, beaten all puzzles and killed the guardian monster.
  • Someone to Remember Him By: Xia, a girl from the Dragovian Tribe, visited the human world and fell in love with the human prince of Argonia, Eltrio. The girl's father disapproved of their courting, and took his daughter away, back to the Dragovian Village. Eltrio searched all over the world for his lost love, eventually dying just before he could reach the village. The girl was heartbroken, but soon after she received word of his demise, she discovered she was pregnant with his child, The Hero.
  • Spare to the Throne: It's a similar situation with King Argonia, an Unexpected Successor who had to step up after his elder brother disappeared while pursuing his lost love. While he has shaped up to be a good ruler, his own son is none other than Prince Charmles, causing his father no end of grief over how horrible he would be once it's time for him to hand down the crown. In the Golden Ending, he's presented with his brother's son at a rather awkward time for a family reunion, and it's heavily implied he cedes the right to rule after him to this new arrival, giving his own son the shaft.
  • Spoiled Brat:
    • It's another negative character trope; it must be Charmles.
    • Also Cash and Carrie, but they become better after their sidequest is through.
  • Spoiled Sweet: Cash and Carrie post Character Development, when they learn that they really do love each other and decide to not only split their father's fortune, but to work together and make the casino live on.
  • Speech Impediment: Another Charmles trope. He talks like Elmer Fudd, except higher-pitched and more abrasive.
  • Standard Female Grab Area: How Angelo drags Jessica away from a bar brawl before she can start throwing fireballs in the inn.
  • Stealth Insult: King Clavius to Prince Charmles after he presents his (fraudulently obtained) Argon heart:
    "Very well. Then I congratulate you. I accept this Argon heart as proof of your true character."
  • Sticks to the Back: The Hero's and Yangus's weapons.
  • Stout Strength: Most prominently Yangus, but a number of monsters as well.
  • Stripperific:
    • When you first meet her, Jessica wears a fairly respectable outfit, but her Adventurer Outfit has an Impossibly-Low Neckline and she has massive breastsnote . All her other visible costumes show at least as much or even more skin.
      • Hell, her final outfit is an actual corset with stockings and garter belts.
      • There is a bit of irony here, though; her alternate outfits, while usually showing a significant amount of skin, tend to be far more modest with her chest than her default outfit.
      • Lampshaded when Jessica will sometimes ask you if you think her outfit is too revealing if you talk to her.
    • Also the Female Warriors you see around in some places, a bright example of Chainmail Bikini
    • Red is a mixture of this and Rummage Sale Reject.
  • Taking You with Me:
    • Gemon, one of Rhapthorne's minions, destroys Empyrea's egg with his death explosion. It gets better... kind of.
    • The Kamikazee spell, which deals significant damage to your enemies in exchange for your death. Certain monsters have similar skills.
  • Team Pet: Munchie, a very odd little mouse who attends the hero, and has been for at least a decade, according to Medea.
  • Technicolor Blade: Some swords and weapons are unusually colored. For example, the Dragon Buster sword is red.
  • Transflormation: This has happened to nearly all the inhabitants of Trodain at the beginning of the game.
  • Tsundere: Jessica, as per Toriyama's requirement that every project he works on has at least one. She even has the appropriate pigtails. When first introduced, it looks like she'll be heavy on the tsuntsun, but deredere is actually her default personality. It's only when Angelo gets to womanizing or an enemy hurts someone innocent that she goes full tsun.
  • Uncle Pennybags:
    • Morrie, the owner of the Monster Arena MONSTROUS PIT and one of the wealthiest men in the world... ragazzo.
    • Mr. Golding, though you only hear about him posthumously.
  • Updated Re-release: The 3DS version, which adds Red and Morrie as playable charactes, two new dungeons, a new Monster Arena rank, more recruitable monsters, new equipment and alternate outfits, an alternate ending, and all the features mentioned under Anti-Frustration Features.
  • Unexpected Successor: The current ruler of Argonia, King Clavius, only took the throne because his brother disappeared. Also, if his brother's son is discovered, he in turn replaces Prince Charmles as heir.
  • Unexplained Recovery: It's not explained in the ending just how the new Lord High Priest Rolo survived. An interpretation for this is late in the game, as the party escapes from Purgatory Island after being imprisoned with Rolo for one month after being wrongfully accused by Marcello for killing the Lord High Priest. They could not raise the cage lift without using the nearby lever to activate it. Rolo elected to stay behind and activate the lift. The two guards whom were knocked out so they could make their escape cornered Rolo, who accepted his fate. As the party gets off the lift when it reached the top, the chain snaps, sending the lift plummeting into the shaft. Note that Rolo and the two guards were standing in the vicinity of where the lift was. This still does not explain how Rolo got out, but it's something.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
    • Dhoulmagus really shouldn't have taken away the staff that held Rhapthorne from its protective circle.
    • For that matter, his master really should have just bloody told him.
  • Useless Useful Spell: Any of Yangus's weapon skills that are not Axe-related. The Hammer's extremely specialized skills immediately come to mind. Even when Morrie gets his clubs, they act like Yangus's axe-weapons.
  • Victory Through Intimidation: The "Intimidate" command. It can be used before inputting commands for your characters, where you use your party's turns trying to scare your opponents. If you're a sufficiently higher level than your enemies, they'll just run away. If they're not, they'll ignore it, or attack you with no chance for you to retaliate.
  • Video Game 3D Leap: Dragon Quest VII, which used a Sprite/Polygon Mix, was a minor leap in comparison; VIII brought the true presentation upgrade.
  • Voice of the Legion: As the Scepter grows in power, a secondary voice begins to underlie the owner's. It's Rhapthorne's voice, underlying both Dhoulmagus' and Jessica's words with his own. When the scepter falls into Sir Leopold's clutches, however, only Rhapthorne speaks as a disembodied voice.
  • Wacky Wayside Tribe: The Moles led by Don Mole, who only exist to pad the game a ittle by stealing the Moon Harp.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss: Hope you've grinded and upgraded your equipment before you get on the ship in Port Prospect, because Khalamari will be there to make damn sure you're serious about this game before you get to go any further.
  • The Wandering You: This game has an enormous world to explore filled with useful but ultimately nonessential treasures, which seem to be placed around only to get you to explore and fight more creatures.
  • Wham Line:
    Jessica: Such a pity...
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Did Prince Charmles ever mature into a decent ruler? If not, did Clavius disinherit him in favor of the Hero?
  • What You Are in the Dark: Prince Charmles hires the Hero and his friends to acquire an Argon Heart in order to pass a rite of passage, but not only expresses dissatisfaction at the ones they bring, but unfairly buys one from a bazaar. What he doesn't know is that his father King Clavius was watching his actions through a telescope the entire time. When the young prince steps forward to present the Argon Heart, King Clavius gives his unsuspecting son a last chance to come clean by saying he won't blame him if he got help, as opposed to if cheated by buying his prize off someone else. To his dismay and disappointment, Charmles continues to cover up his dishonesty, proving to his father that in the dark, his son can't even be bothered to do the right thing on his own terms. This quote actually seals it:
    Clavius: Very well. Then I congratulate you. I accept this Argon Heart as proof of your true character.
  • Who's Laughing Now?: This was Dhoulmagus' original motivation for stealing the scepter. Rhapthorne, however, had other plans for him...
  • The Wonka: Morrie. When we first meet him, he's standing on a roof staring off into space, then he arbitrarily chooses you because he sees promise. It turns out half the people in the Monster Arena fall into this category, those who didn't buy their way in. He's not a total weirdo, but he garbles phrases ("I shall be waiting with bad breath"), refers to the arena by an extremely interesting name, and is generally similar to the Trope Namer.
  • You Are the Translated Foreign Word: Averted. Although it is what Morrie always refers to Hero as, we are never told what "Ragazzo" translates as (it's Italian for boy). Then again, his voice actor apparently wasn't told either, so it makes little difference.
  • You Can't Thwart Stage One: No matter what you do, you can't prevent Rapthorne's return nor save any of his victims. An especially harsh display of this trope, as it involves several huge Player Punches, notably the deaths of Abbot Francisco, David and Marta.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Hey, you defeated Dhoulmagus, great job! Wait... why are Trode and Medea still cursed?
    • If you hadn't been paying attention to the world map and seeing how much was still unexplored, you'd probably think it really was the Final Boss battle at first. You've just made your way through what gives a very good impression of The Very Definitely Final Dungeon and fought through a multi-form extremely difficult Boss Battle, after all. Even if you have been looking at the map, the fake final boss is so well-done that it would be easy to forget you've got half the game left to play.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Dragon Quest VIII Journey Of The Cursed King

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Dhoulmagus

After being defeated in his monster form, granted to him by Rhapthorne's power, he futilely states that his goal of murdering people (Revealed to be the descendants of the Seven Sages who sealed away Rhapthorne in the Godbird Spectre) cannot end now.

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