[Late to the Party] Dragon Quest 8

[Jolinar]

Saw this for super-cheap at Wal-Mart and couldn't resist.

Any recommendations/suggestions/things to look out for before I start playing?

[clamdestine]

It's fun!

That's all I have to add.

[David J Prokopetz]

Any recommendations/suggestions/things to look out for before I start playing?Pick two skills per character and focus on them.

It takes 100 points to max out a skill, and - without using power-up items - every character can get a maximum of 350 points by level 100. You're probably not going to get to level 100 on your first play, so count on 200-250 points at most. That means two core skills, plus a third supporting skill (at half the rank of your core skills) if you feel like level-grinding a bit.

(Unless you have a specific concept in mind, I'd recommend Courage and either Swords or Spears for the hero; Courage is full of handy utility effects, and Spears will net you the highest single-target damage, while Swords has some nice high-level synergies with Courage. If you're going to pick up a supporting skill as well, don't get both - there's too much overlap in the abilities they grant. Boomerangs is probably the best supporting skill for a beginner.)

[Ragnarok_Engine]

I recommend hitting GameFAQs and printing out a couple of things:

The Character Advancement information, with what skills give you what abilities/spells, so you can plan character advancement.

The Alchemy FAQ, to cut down on the alchemy trial and error, and also know what useless-seeming items to hold on to.

The hidden chest and mini-medals lists, if you want to be a completist and not miss anything. :)

Possibly a Monster Arena Team FAQ, so you know where to find all the trainable monsters.

That's all you need strategy-wise, you don't need a guide for the main plot.

[thePill]

If you run into any major problems fighting bosses, there's almost nothing grinding a bit for xp won't fix.

[James Weatherby]

David P's advice is good. For a further breakdown I'll paste in what I said in another thread like this one we had a while back:


I've played through the game a couple times, and maxed levels for my characters (that was a LOT of metal slimes - ugh) and fiddled around with most of the skills. Here are my observations:

Hero:

Sword: There are nice skills here and when you have the points to fill it out - go for it, but . . .

Spear: is better overall. Spear has Lightning Thrust (which will allow you to kill Metal Slimes more effectively than Metal Slash in Swords) and it's last skill, Lightning Storm is one of the best hits all skills.

Boomerang: is good early in the game but it gets seriously outclassed later. If you are just using it to clean up trash you really can just use the boomerang without investing points in the skill and for tougher stuff you can pull out your power attacks from Sword or Spear.

Fisticuffs: For challenging yourself deliberately. It's a gimp set.

Courage: Excellent ability. Healing, AoE attack, teleportation etc. Its a grab bag of nothing but good stuff. 100 points in this.




Yangus:

Axe: great to a point. That point being 82. Good single and multitarget attacks fairly early on. Executioner is great for killing Metal Slimes. The Final skill is pretty much a waste of time.

Club: Sucks. Don't waste your time.

Scythe: Long term investment. Stainless Steel sickle is the only way to get additional chunks of Orichalcum outside the few pieces you find as you go through the game. As Orichalcum is needed for most of the best goodies this is a must have skill if you are an insane stat-monger completeist type (like me). Big Banga is also a great hits-all skill - once Yangus has leveled up enough to actually have the MP to cast it a few times.

Fisticuffs: See Hero

Humanity: Mediocre overall. Whistle at 4 points is vital if you like to level. Saves running around. Kabuff at 34 is nice. Kerplunk at 82 is ok, but not really worth all the points in junk you have to invest to get there. Underpants Dance and Golden Oldies are amusing but that's all.


Jessica:

Knife: Never bothered much with these. Maybe there's something there but overall seems like a weak set.

Whip: Very good stuff - up to a point. 68 points is all you need here. The last two abilities are underwhelming. Twin Dragon Lash at 23 is arguably the best physical attack in the game. Unlike most of the abilities that give you a multiple strike TDL actually increases the power of each hit over its base (instead of decreasing it), so you do more than double damage.

Staff: If you want to get the most mileage out of Jessica's magic Staff is the way to go. Max MP up, MP regen, and a Rez Spell at the end. Good stuff.

Fisticuffs: See Hero . . . EXCEPT if you are planning on maxing out your characters and are willing to devote 100 points to Fisticuffs you can unlock Magic Burst. This is (or can be, given you have the MP to fuel it) hands down the most brutal spell in the game. It converts ALL your MP into a massive explosion.

Sex Appeal: Cute but a waste of points. The auto-charm ability is far too random to really be of any practical use and the attacks are substandard at best.


Angelo:

Sword: Excellent. A Multiple hit attack, Metal Slash for leveling, and an excellent hits-all final ability.

Bow: I wasn't terribly impressed with this, but I never relied on it heavily. The MP gaining abilities sound nice on paper but arent so hot practically. The instakill abilities are far too random.

Staff: Ok. If you like to cast spells this is handy. Kathwack can be brutal, Oomph is very nice.

Fisticuffs: See Hero.

Charisma: 13 points for Sarcastic Snigger (very handy for some bosses) is all you really need here the rest is nothing to write home about.


I should add that the game is not so difficult that you have to min/max your skill points to play through it enjoyably. Put your points where you will enjoy them most. The only things that are really important are Clubs really do suck, Fisticuffs is there to increase your difficulty, and if you want to level up past 65 or so you MUST have metal slash (swords both Hero and Angelo), lightning thrust (spear) , and executioner (axe) since these are the only things that can reliably kill Metal Simes.

[David J Prokopetz]

Jessica:

Knife: Never bothered much with these. Maybe there's something there but overall seems like a weak set.It starts out looking like a pretty weak set, but if you train it up - I misremember if the breakpoint is in the mid-20s, or the mid-30s - she gains the ability to equip any sword in the game (apart from rapiers, which are Angelo exclusives, and one quest item that only the hero can use) and use the Knife skill set with them. She's surprisingly lethal with a high-end sword in her hands.

Interestingly, the skill bonus to attack power of the Knives skill is higher than that of the Swords skill, and Knives gets Critical Up at a lower level than Angelo's version of Swords does. While she'll still have trouble competing with the hero (everyone does), she can actually be a more effective swordsman (well, swordswoman) than Angelo at comparable levels. Her death attack is useless against bosses (of course), but a remarkable number of them are vulnerable to her poison attack.

[SPrintF]

Monster Teams are your friends. Summoning a monster team is very cost effective, once you've put a decent team together.

[James Weatherby]

Monster Teams are your friends. Summoning a monster team is very cost effective, once you've put a decent team together.


Yes. And getting a good team for the arena is fun too. The guy who runs the place is hysterical.

A good monster team can really save you a lot of hassle since as long as none of them die they get reset to full every time you summon them, and the really good ones can handle most battles in the main game except bosses, and even there they can help.

They do start to look a little feeble in the bonus area you access by beating the game, but they are still a hoot regardless.

[Heronymus]

I played this using Weatherby's guidelines above and had a blast of a time.

Plus, while there was plenty of angst, the main character didn't have any of it! Then again, he also didn't speak.

I very much enjoyed it, though I did run into a problem; after beating the game, but before I could save again, the game crashed, and I didn't feel like re-playing the boss fight.

But mostly, it was a lot of fun.