Dragon Quest VIII

I never used an faq and didn't fool around enough with alchemy to figure out how to create the timbrel of tension. I only died three times during the game (died twice on the dhoulmagus fight, once on the, uh, "flying boss" because I got careless) I played the game concurrently with a friend of mine who was always ~5 levels higher than me. I always tend to be under-leveled in rpgs (the first time I beat FF8, I was level 21 with my highest character when I got to disk 4). It's a mix of enjoying challenge and a hatred of level grinding, for me.

The main game is not that hard though. If you use some strategy and micro-manage wisely, it is not that hard to complete. The beginning *can be* a bit challenging, but it's nowhere near as bad as some of the hardest rpgs I've ever played. But the optional dungeon is a whole other story. I died a bunch in the optional dungeon after beating the game. I got to the 4th form of the optional boss ("steel" variation).
That fucker could kill two of my character in one attack before I even got around to my first turn. My party was around level 50 when I got there. My friend advised leveling up to 65 to get Hero's final special attack, and to create timbrels of tension, but I just said fuck that. A) I almost never ever use faqs for anything, I like the feeling of succeeding on my own. and B) Power Leveling makes me cry. Great, great, game though. DQ9 and FF4 remake are going to force me to get a DS.
 
[quote name='TahoeMax']Are you going after him for the first time? You should probably be okay at 47, if I remember correctly. The enemies on the way to him are hella hard no matter what, so don't be surprised if you get beaten senseless once in awhile. If you're going for the Ultimate Dragon to fill up the bestiary you'll need another 20 levels or so. Time to grind the metal king slimes if that's the case (and yeah, whatever area is the slimes-only area is the best place. Sooooo many metal kings and liquid metals there). It'll take awhile. I think I was 68 when I beat him.[/quote]

First time. Thx - I'll give it a go when I get some time. Right now I'm just power leveling in short bursts.
 
[quote name='sparklecopy']anyone have a ps3 .psv save file with all items maxed in the beginning? this game is way too hard.[/quote]


It's not hard, it just takes a lot of time. A game is only hard when there's nothing you can do about it.
 
[quote name='darkcecil32']I always tend to be under-leveled in rpgs (the first time I beat FF8, I was level 21 with my highest character when I got to disk 4).[/QUOTE]Don't think that's really the best example. In FF8, the monsters' levels raise according to the characters'.

Just sayin' :razz:
 
Yea i know, but It's pretty standard for me to be under-leveled in all rpgs. I thought that was only true of regular enemies, though. I thought the boss' stats/abilities were fixed (for FF8).

My roommate who thought the final "real" boss of FF10 was insanely easy on his game, tried 5 times to beat it with my characters/save file. He couldn't do it; couldn't even come close. It took me 3 tries, but I was able to beat him without doing any leveling. My friend loaded his save file and his characters were about 12 levels higher than mine.

It's just a quirk I have. I tend to blaze through with as few random battles as possible. I love hard boss fights, hate random battles. I hate the disruption of the flow of the game they cause and their alarming frequency. I'd rather have a gratuitous amount of cut-scenes and be "watching a movie", ala xenosaga, to extend the life of an rpg rather than fighting more and more tedious battles.

The old lunar games and chrono trigger and grandia are among my favorite rpgs because they allowed you to see the enemies on screen, even if sometimes avoiding a battle was still inevitable. But they did it the right way. There are other rpgs where you can see the enemies on screen, but many of those games still suck.
 
Pretty far off-topic, but I thought Dragon Quest fans would appreciate these figures from IV:

pa.107154.1.jpg


http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-92-77-g-49-en-70-2aoi.html

20% off. Ordered 3 myself.
 
I just picked up the ultimate key, so now I have to go around and spend 1-2 hours game time going back to areas to collect chests I couldn't open before.
 
[quote name='darkcecil32']Yea i know, but It's pretty standard for me to be under-leveled in all rpgs. I thought that was only true of regular enemies, though. I thought the boss' stats/abilities were fixed (for FF8).

My roommate who thought the final "real" boss of FF10 was insanely easy on his game, tried 5 times to beat it with my characters/save file. He couldn't do it; couldn't even come close. It took me 3 tries, but I was able to beat him without doing any leveling. My friend loaded his save file and his characters were about 12 levels higher than mine.

It's just a quirk I have. I tend to blaze through with as few random battles as possible. I love hard boss fights, hate random battles. I hate the disruption of the flow of the game they cause and their alarming frequency. I'd rather have a gratuitous amount of cut-scenes and be "watching a movie", ala xenosaga, to extend the life of an rpg rather than fighting more and more tedious battles.

The old lunar games and chrono trigger and grandia are among my favorite rpgs because they allowed you to see the enemies on screen, even if sometimes avoiding a battle was still inevitable. But they did it the right way. There are other rpgs where you can see the enemies on screen, but many of those games still suck.[/QUOTE]Nope. In FF8, most of the bosses' HP changes according to the level of the characters. I think the only exception is Ifrit, which makes sense considering how early on he's fought.

I thought the final boss in FFX was cheap myself, not because of whatever level I was at, but due to the permanent Auto-Life. It did take me a little while to figure out the trick to beating him, though.

Also, I'm kind of the opposite. The 30-minute long cutscenes in Xenosaga were tedious and made me hate the game. The only time I've ever been annoyed by the frequency of random battles is Skies of Arcadia (both the DC and the GC versions), but it's still one of my favorite RPGs, as that's it's only major flaw. As long as the combat is interesting and offers a good amount of variety, I'm happy, whether the enemies are immediately visible or not. If not, that's where I try and rush through to the end. Makes the game tougher and there's less leveling involved, but that's just because I want to be done with it. The more I like a game, the longer I tend to want to play it.

Anyway, veering too offtopic here. Back to Dragon Quest VIII!
 
Doing the trials now, I'm up to the dreaded Darksteel Dragon.

I'm at level 55, and debating whether I should powerlevel for level 65 and dragon soul or just march up and try and kill the fucker.

Plus PuzzleQuest is really eating into my DQ8 time :lol:
 
[quote name='camoor']Doing the trials now, I'm up to the dreaded Darksteel Dragon.

I'm at level 55, and debating whether I should powerlevel for level 65 and dragon soul or just march up and try and kill the fucker.

Plus PuzzleQuest is really eating into my DQ8 time :lol:[/quote]

That's right where i stopped playing. I said to hell with power leveling.
 
[quote name='camoor']Doing the trials now, I'm up to the dreaded Darksteel Dragon.

I'm at level 55, and debating whether I should powerlevel for level 65 and dragon soul or just march up and try and kill the fucker.

Plus PuzzleQuest is really eating into my DQ8 time :lol:[/quote]

It's all about the Executioner skill for Darksteel. I actually had dragon soul for him, but he's doable with just those critical skills.
 
I remember playing this. I was like 48. I tend to under level on RPGs as well, but only because I'm impatient and want the story :). That Timbral of Tension was so awesome, but it ate some decent stuff.

Back in the day there was some kid who only leveled jess and the monsters and had everybody else at a retardedly low level... it was sorta interesting.
 
[quote name='TahoeMax']It's all about the Executioner skill for Darksteel. I actually had dragon soul for him, but he's doable with just those critical skills.[/quote]

Yeah I finished the game completely Dragovian trials and all.

Playing some Xenosaga III today and realized two important things DQVIII was missing - intriguing story, cool battle animations, and mind-blowing cutscenes.

DQVIII was fun and all - I just don't think I'm going to revisit another DQ game because it's really not my style.
 
I just finished off captain crow and am off to find the god bird. the dungeons have stopped being to the point where I needed to go through them 2 or 3 times before I could successfully take on the boss. I'm ashamed to admit I thought 'Red' (yangus GF?) was hot.
 
Can anyone help me in finding a manual for this game? I was supposed to get a complete copy from Goozex, but it is missing the manual. I can't find it anywhere online, either to get a print copy or a digital one.

Any help is appreciated.
 
[quote name='mcelfour']Can anyone help me in finding a manual for this game? I was supposed to get a complete copy from Goozex, but it is missing the manual. I can't find it anywhere online, either to get a print copy or a digital one.

Any help is appreciated.[/QUOTE]

I'm not surprised. The manual is huge and doesn't fit into a regular PS2 DVD game case. The game originally came in a cardboard box/sleeve that had the manual outside the game case. (I don't know where to find a replacement, though, sorry :( )
 
[quote name='Backlash']I'm not surprised. The manual is huge and doesn't fit into a regular PS2 DVD game case.[/quote]
Fits just fine.

Well, maybe not, if you left the FFXII demo in there...but I don't know why anyone would do that.
 
I'm re-visiting this game again after playing through DQ IV on the DS.

I'm trying it another way by exploring the world map and all dungeons, casting spells when it's advantageous, and only fleeing from fights if I absolutely have to.

Makes the game much more fun.

I used to skip everything, didn't explore, zipped through dungeons, and grinded for cash for the best weapons. This is like playing it fresh all over again.

If you haven't played this game in awhile, try playing it this way. It's like playing it all over again for the first time.
 
The last time I went through I did everything I could to get the best monster team i could early in the game, then won in the arena until I could do the call team skill REALLY early. From that point my summoned monsters helped me get through everything about 5 levels sooner than I could have otherwise.
 
[quote name='TahoeMax']The last time I went through I did everything I could to get the best monster team i could early in the game, then won in the arena until I could do the call team skill REALLY early. From that point my summoned monsters helped me get through everything about 5 levels sooner than I could have otherwise.[/quote]
It was late in the game before I "discovered" that ability. At that point I didn't really need them. Still, it was fun calling out My Three Golems. :)
 
Ya, I hardly used it at all the first couple times I went through the game. The most recent time I specifically decided to abuse it. :)
 
One of the most fun things was trying to catch that liquid slime running around the castle.

I was used to seeing stuff walking slow as mollasses I was like - WTF is moving at 100mph tearing around :lol:

I wish you could have seen all the monsters on the field, that would have been way more fun then random encounters.
 
God I really want to finish this game, but my son deleted my saves on my PS3. No way I am gonna try and make up that 50 hours. LOL
 
[quote name='DrNo888']God I really want to finish this game, but my son deleted my saves on my PS3. No way I am gonna try and make up that 50 hours. LOL[/quote]

Couldnt you download a save and pickup where you lost?
 
[quote name='camoor']
I wish you could have seen all the monsters on the field, that would have been way more fun then random encounters.[/quote]

Except that with the encounter rate being what it is, the overworld would look as crowded as Comic Con.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top