Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (PlayStation 2, 2005)

The story of this game is top notch and the gameplay is perfect. The story starts out with an evil wizard stealing a staff from your palace and places a curse on your palace and you are the only one who survives unharmed. I know that is a vague description but I dont want to ruin too much of the story for you. The story takes off from there as you meet interesting and deep characters fighting in a good battle system and exploring a HUGE world. The battle system works alot like Dragon Warrior 7. You start off in a first person view and then you pick your actions. But the main difference from 7 is that once you pick your action you get to see your character in action making for some beautiful moves. The only real problem I have with this game is that some players may find it too difficult while I never had that problem I know some people who did. If you are looking for an RPG with old school flare with new school graphics then check out Dragon Quest 8.