[quote name='io']I wouldn't say that - it is hard at the very beginning because your chars are so weak, and then off and on for the first half as you might stray into areas with tougher monsters. Then it gets fairly easy and stays that way through the end unless you go for the optional stuff afterwards - THAT stuff is a real pain, but a good challenge too! I recommend it (and it is the only way to get the 'good' ending).[/quote]
I would agree DQVIII isn't all that hard, the beginning is indeed mildly challenging then the game moves to a easy/medium difficulty and then it ramps back up right near the end when monsters start getting the Wave of Ice (I believe is the name of the spell) which cancels all buffs and reduces all tension to zero that is annoying as hell but you learn to deal with it, the final boss only took me two tries to beat my first time. The extra dungeon is mildly harder and completing all of the Dragovian Trials is a major pain in the butt because that boss is literly cheap as hell, not only does he have wave of ice but he hits for critical damaged when he is in Dragon form like 1/2 the time, which was enough to kill people in one hit or injure them to extremely low health.
Overall though I'd say even at its toughest it isn't as hard as a bunch of other RPGs out there; you want hard go beat Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne and get the True Demon ending which requires you to face a plathora of special bosses almost all of which are cheap as hell; it would make DQVIII look like a cakewalk.
PeaceOut->
icebeast