I actually liked Star Ocean 3's narrative and the battle system is fun, but it requires so much backtracking I wanted to beat myself in the head with a brick. I couldn't wait for the game to be over, and I have no motivation to do any of the bazillion post-game stuff or earn any battle trophies since there is no important New Game + features that carry over and ultimately no real reward for doing any of it anyway. It's all just for the sake of fun for those that love the game and that wasn't me, but it could be you. I know a fellow who has sunk over 700 hours into Star Ocean 3 after all :O_O:

Dragon Quest VIII was fun to me for about 40 hours then I got extremely bored and took a break from it that continues to this day. I'll probly pick it up again someday, but who knows. DQVIII is actually quite fun, and though the battle system seems dryer than sand sometimes it's well put together. But it does get repetitive, as all RPGs do, and the amount of narrative is significantly less than most RPGs being spit out today, so that's sort of missing to keep you interested. I literally went 15 hours without any of the 4 main characters even speaking (though cutscenes were happening so it's not like no story was present), and that bothers me because I'm a freak for character interaction and development.

Anyway, I don't regret buying either. DQVIII is superior on a technical level at least... A lot of love went into both games

As for the whining that DQVIII is too hard and that it requires too much leveling and gold hunting I have never once had a problem with any of those things if that means anything. I didn't really think the game was hard at all. The only thing that made it difficult in the slightest is that Enix is too afraid to put in a turn order because that would be drastic change and Japan would nuke itself if Dragon Quest changed that much.