Dragon Quest 8- my first impression

So I decided to try out Dragon Quest 8 late last night...
I remember back in the days of NES when I would tinker for hours on Dragon Warrior. Apparently, the old crow told me that the series later turned into Dragon Quest. I'd never played those games. I guess somehow I must have skipped over em in the transitions to other consoles.
Nonetheless, I tried the game out and can say for the most part I am really pleased with it.
I love the cell shadeing graphics style. Anj says it looks like you are playing a cartoon.. but I think that's part of what makes it look so cool. It reminds me of how Dragon Lair for PC looked. Of course, more modern and mixed with a DZ look to it. The screenshots shown are from actual gameplay. Courtesy of ign.com of course =)
One thing that I cannot stand is that there is no jump button. I know that probably sounds picky. It just drives me nuts walking in places and seeing these counters and things but no ability to jump up on em.
I am only in the first parts of the game however... I started extremely late last night, so only got a bit of touch and go. One thing I can definately say though.. is that if you could actually get an accurate perception of something just by the looks of it, I would have to say that this should seriously be good.
More info as it comes though.