The game is a parody of classic RPGs which were popular among the players back in the day. Breath of Death VIII is a 2D adventure in the best traditions of role-playing games of the late 80's, early 90's from the American studio Zeboyd Games. The studio consists of only two people: Robert Boyd and William Stiernberg. The title is a reference to the number parts of Final Fantasy, in fact, the previous 6 of the Breath of Death parts do not exist.

The player follows the adventures of Dem the Skeleton Knight, Lita the Vampire Techie and Erik the Zombie Prince. Each can be customized using upgrades from the branching skill-tree.

The developers wanted to abandon the most annoying element in the classic RPGs - turn-based combat and endless random encounters. Therefore, the game uses a hybrid combo system that takes into account several important parameters: the character is chosen and how many moves have already been made. Also, the number of random enemy-encounters in one location is limited to a certain number.