Adding to that idea that the PS2's library really was second-to-none, another gorgeous JRPG was Dragon Quest - a franchise so popular and addictive its rumoured to be forbidden from release during the week in Japan - as the last time it did the country suffered a minor national economic hiccup thanks to literally everybody and their granny taking time off to play it. It's not hard to see why either, as a combination of Akira Toriyama's beautiful character designs brought the loveable aesthetic of Dragonball Z to the table, whilst developer Level 5 supplied the perfect turn-based gameplay to supplement the want and need to explore a gorgeously-realised world packed with bustling cities and creature-filled dungeons. Playing as your own custom-named character (always a small, yet oh-so-important point) you ended up falling into a wondrous tale of princesses, loggerhead-barbarian teammates and frog-legged kings, there was even a catch-'em-all Pokémon-style minigame involved that saw you battling the world's enemy creatures against other warriors. The amount of content within the game was absolutely staggering, and although more recent instalments in the series would go down Final Fantasy's route of having 'real time' combat, DQ VIII's turn-based gameplay cements it as one of the genre's finest offerings.
