Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, known in Europe as Dragon Quest: The Journey of the Cursed King and in Japan as Dragon Quest VIII Sora to Umi to Daichi to Norowareshi Himegimi (ドラゴンクエストVIII 空と海と大地と呪われし姫君, Dragon Quest VIII Sora to Umi to Daichi to Norowareshi Himegimi^? lit. "Dragon Quest VIII: The Sky, the Ocean, the Earth, and the Cursed Princess"), is a role-playing video game developed by Level-5 and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2 home video game console. It was first released in Japan, and was later released in North America and Europe. It is the eighth installment of the popular Dragon Quest series (formerly known as the Dragon Warrior series). It is the first English version of a Dragon Quest game to drop the Dragon Warrior title.

Dragon Quest VIII uses cel-shading textures for the characters and scenery.^[1] Notably, character design for the game was conducted by Akira Toriyama, of Dragon Ball fame. Dragon Quest VIII's battles are not limited to a first person perspective like its predecessors, but shows all characters in the player's party. It has enjoyed much success since its release, particularly in Japan. It is a Square Enix Ultimate Hits and a Sony Greatest Hits title. A survey conducted in 2006 by the magazine Famitsu earned the game the #4 spot as the best video game of all time after Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Quest III.^[2]