Anyone Else Afraid to get Dragon Quest VIII B/C...

Yeah, word is that it's 70-80 hours doing story-only, and much much longer doing side-quests.

I picked it up but haven't yet popped it in because I'm not ready to get sucked in yet, but I did look through the booklet and it looks amazing.
 
I just finished the game last night. I beat it just shy of 80 hours and my main characters level was 45. I completly recommend the purchase of this game, though expect to put in a good chunk of time on it.
 
I've come to the point where I don't feel the need to beat an RPG to enjoy it. I've found with most RPGs towards the end the story really bogs down and the final dungeon becomes a multihour leveling up feast so why drag yourself through that when you're far more likely to remmember key plot revelations and fun levels than the often shoddy ending.

I suggest trying it out even if you don't plan on finishing it, I'm enjoying it so far and I hate every other dragon warror game I've ever played.
 
Well i really want to play this game, got it on launch and beat the FF12 demo the same day. I also want to play through Fire Emblem for cube and countless other games....but how do i fit 70 hours within everything in my life and the monstrocity known as Final Fantasy XI >.
 
I bought this game 2 days before xmas eve, and I already put in 35 hours into it. I spent maybe 15 hours basically leveling up and exploring the world. If you haven't pick this up, you should pick it up now because it is so fun.
 
How would you compare DQ8 to the Shadow Hearts games? I've recently beat both Shadow Hearts and find myself craving more... It's just that good!

I've tried to play Star Ocean 3 a few times, and I just don't think I like it... I dislike the combat in SO3, everything feels like it's on turbo, and well yea... I actually tried to play it again just the other day, and it's now back on the shelf.

I also have a TON of rpgs pre-ordered... Tales of Legendia, Shadow Hearts: From The New World, Grandia III (I love the grandia series!), Phantasy Star Universe, and Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and finally as soon as it's avilable for pre-order i'll be getting the final Xenosaga to complete my series (*sniff*KOS-MOS*sniff*) There is also a couple RPGs coming out that i'm highly interested in, such as Rogue Galaxy (Looks amazing).

I also just bought an Xbox 360 from the wal-mart new-years event (just leasurly walked in at 12:06am after celebrating the new years and was able to score the last Premium - they had 3 or 4 cores left though. Was dramatic walking out with it while the sky was being lit by the fireworks... I just imagined that famous song from 2001: A Space Odyssey playing as I walked back to my car), however I didn't buy anything with it nor have I even opened it because a co-worker said he'd pay $600-$700 dollars for one. So i'm going to offer it to him and see if he bites. If not, i'll enjoy it myself :D

Also my time has been consumed with Firefly and Serenity - I'm hooked, I want more... Stupid fox! Also a reminder that the sci-fi channel will be having a Firefly marathon on January 6th - tune in and watch it, heck don't watch it - just tune in! The more rattings the better ;) It's all I ask for!

So with all that out of the way, again, how would you compare it to the Shadow Hearts games?

-Vpr

p.s. - I've been putting Xenogears off for the same reason - length... I work in a call center and become extremly upset and it usually takes me a couple hours to cool off after work (11pm), by then I only have a couple more hours of staying up (Like 4am) before I have to go to sleep in order to be at work ontime the next day...
 
[quote name='wildnuts02']nobody warned me that DQ8 is "old school" hard. no saving in dungeons??? arghh :bomb: .....i'm about 3 hours in heh.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, but I remember that is only an issue at the very beginning. Later the dungeons don't seem as hard, plus you have various spells and items that make getting out and back again much easier (you can do half the dungeon, back out to save your items/experience/money, then reenter). Heck, even if you die, you only lose half your coins. So another approach is to enter with 0 money (either use a bank if you are far enough or just buy stuff), then you just lose half of what you acquire in the dungeon. I did this a couple of times early on - figured it was worth the expense not to have to fight through again.

I finally got through the Monster Arena Rank A - now there is Rank S to tackle - ugh, can get to the last battle, but can't win it. I used Talos, Archfiend, and Skeledies (or whatever he is called).

I'm at 75 hours or so and I think I'm near the end finally - I'm in the Black Citadel. I was able to back out of that and save last night. Looks like shops and whatnot are still around, so I can still use alchemy, do the monster arena, etc. THAT is a pretty tough dungeon. I needed to go to bed, but I wasn't going to make it much further anyway so it was a good time to retreat.

So far, there are two places that have been destroyed in the game - so if you are trying to collect all the mini-medals and other items you need to beware of those. Once they are destroyed you can't get items from them any more. The first is Marta's Cottage about halfway through the game. The other is a much larger place. It happens just before you go to the Black Citadel, after you fight a human boss with a name that starts with M... You'll see this fight coming for a while, so just remember that something large gets destroyed. Just a bit of warning for those trying to collect everything.
 
i personally find the saves Way too easy... you learn Wrap out of dungons way too early and you get ZOOM very early in the game as well... so its very easy to get out of those places... What sucks is though is having to wrap out of them and then rewalk all the way though to get to that place you left.... it would been neat if you could left warp holes that you could reenter


Time frame to pop back in... Hopefully This weekend .. (havent played it since Dec 2 and only 17 hours in)
 
I got DQ8 a few days before Christmas, and now I'm 66 hours in. I haven't spent this much time in a game since...well, quite a while. *laughs*

I'm trying to become Rank S Champion but the last battle always gets me. :whistle2:( I have a team of "My Three Golems" and Talos/Cyborg/Roborg (I think those are their names). And neither team can get through the end. *sigh*
 
[quote name='Socheata']I got DQ8 a few days before Christmas, and now I'm 66 hours in. I haven't spent this much time in a game since...well, quite a while. *laughs*

I'm trying to become Rank S Champion but the last battle always gets me. :whistle2:( I have a team of "My Three Golems" and Talos/Cyborg/Roborg (I think those are their names). And neither team can get through the end. *sigh*[/QUOTE]

I didn't try the Golems, but I also couldn't get through with the robots. I had better luck (still not through but closer to the end) with a hodge-podge of Talos, Skeledoid, and Archfiend. I also tried putting a healer and metal slime in with Talos and that worked better than I thought but still not good enough. The healer (Octurion) ran out of MP before the final fight and was then pretty useless. I might try it again with Talos, Skeledoid and Octurion. If Octurion does a couple of full heals on Talos and Skeledoid throughout the 3 matches I might just make it.

I did use the 3 robot combo when I called in my team while fighting the big "M" near the end. They tore him apart :D.
 
[quote name='ecliptic66']i couldn't even bring myself to beat the demo i was so bored[/QUOTE]

That's how I felt when playing as well. But after starting from the beginning and playing for a few hours it grew on me immensely.

Unfortunatly it is so much of a time commitment and I want to finish a few games before I go back to playing it, like PoPolocrois which is loads of fun, surpisingly.
 
[quote name='BIG5']I've beaten it twice already. That's 175 hours of gameplay.[/QUOTE]

Why twice. Why not, you know,....once? Is there a new game plus or something
 
[quote name='Dr Mario Kart']Why twice. Why not, you know,....once? Is there a new game plus or something[/QUOte]
No Life is what I'm guessing.
 
As for the difficulty, fortunately the Death system in this game works well with it. Say you get halfway through a tough dungeon before getting wiped out. You'll keep all that experience for the next time you try. At least you're not going back to your last save, like in most other games.
 
[quote name='clockworkvictim']That's how I felt when playing as well. But after starting from the beginning and playing for a few hours it grew on me immensely.

Unfortunatly it is so much of a time commitment and I want to finish a few games before I go back to playing it, like PoPolocrois which is loads of fun, surpisingly.[/QUOTE]

Hey I just went out to buy that tonight - good to hear you like it!
 
I was going to get this last week, but no way can I get it because I will never finish DW7 if I start 8, must force my self to beat the super long and fairly hard game.
 
[quote name='Vegan']As for the difficulty, fortunately the Death system in this game works well with it. Say you get halfway through a tough dungeon before getting wiped out. You'll keep all that experience for the next time you try. At least you're not going back to your last save, like in most other games.[/QUOTE]

yeah when i think about it like that, it's much more reasonable.

i'm going to wait to go back like the other poster. must finish RE4 and Condemned and maybe Kameo before I go back to DQ8...
 
I'm mixed on this game. I'm about 25 hours in.. at first I was excited to come post on this website and tell all CAG'ers to grab it (especially since i found it, perchance, new at GC for $30 and I hadn't read about that here yet.. nice surprise).

I guess the best way I could describe, briefly, my experience thus far would be that the game experience is similar to the game music for me. At first I popped it in and I was blown away by the symphonic score (I'm really big on music in general, and game music is no exception :). Each piece I heard just sounded so well composed and emotional. In particular the abbey music. Nice.

But then I realized that there are only like four tunes (ok I'm exaggerating a bit here) but town music is town music.. there is "battle theme" and "boss battle theme" and a few others.

After about 20 hours of battling,and having a good time doing so, leveling up and whatnot I started feeling the been there before syndrome. I mean what the hell did I expect with a Dragon Warrior game, duh... but still. I hope it has some surprises for me as I'm gonna push through.

God-damned if it wasn't the third person who told me there was something in, yet another, "cave up north" that broke my spirit.
 
I used Talos, Skeledoid, and Octurion to beat Class S. OK, I got lucky when the final battle had my Skeledoid, with only 172 HP left, against Morrie's Skeledoid, and my boy hit him and put him to sleep for 3 rounds. If I don't get 3 rounds of free wailing, I go down easily.

I knew I would get bored with this game if I didn't know exactly what to do, so I bought the strategy guide. Of course, there is no real "walkthrough" in the guide, just vague hints as to who you should talk to. I use it more so to find out which monsters carry which valuable items, and for Alchemy and tresure hunting purposes.

I'll be happy to be done with this game over the weekend. Then it's time to dive into Wild ARMs 4!
 
[quote name='VanillaGorilla']I used Talos, Skeledoid, and Octurion to beat Class S. OK, I got lucky when the final battle had my Skeledoid, with only 172 HP left, against Morrie's Skeledoid, and my boy hit him and put him to sleep for 3 rounds. If I don't get 3 rounds of free wailing, I go down easily.

I knew I would get bored with this game if I didn't know exactly what to do, so I bought the strategy guide. Of course, there is no real "walkthrough" in the guide, just vague hints as to who you should talk to. I use it more so to find out which monsters carry which valuable items, and for Alchemy and tresure hunting purposes.

I'll be happy to be done with this game over the weekend. Then it's time to dive into Wild ARMs 4![/QUOTE]

Hey, I used the same 3 to win Rank S - except I had all 3 still standing at the end. However, that was on my third attempt. Luckily I had Octurion confused by the treasure chest thingie - which made him not waste his MP on multithrusts and healing people who were only half way down. In one of the previous fights Talos got confused and started pummeling on my other 2 guys - THAT was not good :D. In any case, it definitely takes some luck. Like I said in the other thread though, the prize is worth getting before the final battles - Angelo is still wearing it (I'm through the first "ending" and doing the bonus Dragovian stuff now. The dungeons there are TRULY challenging - had my party wiped out for the first time since early in the game by 6 invisible swordsmen).
 
You know what I don't get... why the wells in the towns are so important as to be on the maps, and let you climb down into them. Half of them are devoid of anything.

I also don't get why it seems like every shop and bar has a back door for no reason.
 
[quote name='Vegan']You know what I don't get... why the wells in the towns are so important as to be on the maps, and let you climb down into them. Half of them are devoid of anything.

I also don't get why it seems like every shop and bar has a back door for no reason.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I agree, I thought the wells would be more important than they turned out to be - but don't miss the one with the King Slime in it - he gives you a pretty cool item for early in the game. I assume the back doors are there just to let you move around the towns more easily.

I'm on the Dragovian bonus stuff now - this is much more substantial than I thought. You will definitely want to keep playing after you get the credits to play through this part - it has the most challenging dungeon areas since that first cave. And just when I thought I was done with this part, now I have some sort of trials to go through. Then I have to beat the baddie again and get the "true" ending. The Dragovian stuff reveals more info about the main character - though, to be sure, none of it was a big surprise as there were lots of clues throughout the game. There is one fairly decent surprise though, and it is not about the main character himself but one of the "sidekicks". I'll leave it at that.
 
One thing I though was cool, geographically, is that (and this is not a big spoiler unless you're REALLY anal),when you get to Trodain Castle in the game, you can see the bridge nearby where they encountered Yangus, and why the game started so "far" from where the adventure actually started. But to think that when the game starts, they've actually JUST met Yangus...
 
I've had trouble finding the time to even beat Shadow of the Colossus, and that game is 10-12 hours long at most, it seems. School isn't even in, and I didn't work all week, yet for some reason despite my horrible lack of time, I'm going to buy this game -_-;.
 
I just finished the game yesterday, clocking in at just under 82 hours. I finished the Rank S Monster Arena challenge as well (with Talos, Skeledoid, Octurion; first attempt). I've yet to start the game again after watching the ending, so I'll probably get to that later today.
 
YES! I finished the game. I haven't complete/beat a game since last year xmas (JAK1). Man, this game is so addicted. I put in over 60+ hours, and I'm thinking of playing the bonus dungeons and beat the game again.

P.S. What's the recipe to make a sage stone? thanks
 
[quote name='postaboy']YES! I finished the game. I haven't complete/beat a game since last year xmas (JAK1). Man, this game is so addicted. I put in over 60+ hours, and I'm thinking of playing the bonus dungeons and beat the game again.

P.S. What's the recipe to make a sage stone? thanks[/QUOTE]

Just be prepared to spend some time on the bonus part - like I said, it is pretty substantial. It really should have just been part of the story. I finished the main quest at about 80 hours, and I'm up to 92 on the bonus part :D. There is a part at the end where you have to beat the boss 6 or 7 times to get all the cool items - and each time he gets harder. I've done 2 so far. I've had to spend some time levelling up. It seems that while my level was fine for the main baddie, I wasn't advanced enough for the bonus part. When "desperate attacks" kill each of my characters in one blow I know I need some more levelling.

As for the Sage's Stone, I have the recipe (not handy right now though - just check gamefaqs) but I also got one as part of the quest - not sure where, but it has been VERY useful during the Dragovian stuff. I have Jessica use that and the Timbrel of Tension (the Dragovian downstairs in the church will give you this recipe) to fight the boss and the monsters on the path leading to the boss for that matter. It psyches up each character in your group one level - it has allowed me to get a few 50 and 100 tension score hits against even the baddies that regularly flash your status effects away.

Update - only two more "trials" to go. I just finished the gold one, but thought the silver was much tougher. The gold doesn't eliminate your status effects OR do desperate attacks. After the silver I ran around for 2 hours trying to gain some levels - turns out it wasn't necessary. The last two tials allowed me to upgrade my alchemy pot and get the ultimate sword (a prize from the trial combined with the best sword from before). Still have two more prizes to get. These trials are TOUGH at level 45. I wouldn't recommend trying them much less than that.
 
Another update - the second-to-last Dragovian trial kicked my ass last night. He's nearly impossible to hit for much damage, tends to go first each turn, and has THREE attacks per turn - regularly kills 1 or 2 of my chars so I can't psych them up enough to do much damage. And he forces me to spend all of the Hero and Angelo's time healing and resurrecting. He slaughtered my 2 monster teams in 2 turns each (Talos, Skeledoid, and Pa Troll went down fast). The 3 robot team did a Stream Killer Attack on him, which hits most monsters for about 800 - it only got him for 4! I thought the trial before was fairly easy - this one is a HUGE step up in difficulty. I'm assuming he doesn't have as many HP as the others (one earlier one had 4000-5000 or so, but the one before seemed to have less). If he has anything over 1500, then I'll need to level up my characters from 46 to 70 or so :D. I managed to hit him psyched to 20 or 50 and only did about 115 damage...

So, does anyone know if you can finish the game and then go back and do the trials? Does it change the ending at all if you haven't finished all the trials? I might just do that so I can say I'm done (I've done the first ending but not the second). Then I can try the Dragovian stuff. I really wish I had put points into Yangus's Scythe skill - I JUST found out about stealing items. It sure would have been nice to use that recently. There is one last Dragovian item I want before the final battle, but I guess it is no big deal - should be fine without it as I got through the final boss way back at level 42, and now (after all the Dragovian stuff and spending 2 hours hunting metal slimes to gain 2 levels last night) they are at 48.
 
I need help with a recipe (Google and GameFAQs to no avail):

Red robe = Sage's robe + enchanted water + red grass.

I'm trying Sage's Robe + Magic Water + Rose-wort
I've also tried Holy Water.

What am I doing wrong?
 
[quote name='Vegan']I need help with a recipe (Google and GameFAQs to no avail):

Red robe = Sage's robe + enchanted water + red grass.

I'm trying Sage's Robe + Magic Water + Rose-wort
I've also tried Holy Water.

What am I doing wrong?[/QUOTE]


Red robe? You mean Crimson Robe?

Crimson Robe = Sage's robe + Magic water + Nook grass.
 
[quote name='Socheata']Red robe? You mean Crimson Robe?

Crimson Robe = Sage's robe + Magic water + Nook grass.[/QUOTE]

Yep, and Nook Grass ain't easy to get. I didn't get it until VERY late in the game. I think you can buy it once you are into the Dragovian stuff, but before that you have to get it from Marta's son - though he didn't offer it until about the 3rd or 4th time I visited him after I was done with that part.

I still can't get past that penultimate Dragovian trial. I finally made some Elevating Shoes and went to hunt metal slimes. I think I need to level up considerably before I can handle that trial. On another site someone was saying you wouldn't be able to handle the trials at Level 50. Well, I got through the first 4 with some difficulty at Levels 43-46 or so. I had to use tons of items (like the leaves and Elfin Elixir), which I've done wthout through the rest of the game. But now that isn't enough. Maybe I'll try to get to 55 or so and try it again. In one levelling battle I managed to kill a Liquid Metal and King Metal - got 40,000 exp. for that. Still at level 50 now though. The Elevating Shoes *seem* to help, but not that much. I'm not sure exactly what they do - maybe cut the exp. needed to level up in half?
 
[quote name='io']Yep, and Nook Grass ain't easy to get. I didn't get it until VERY late in the game. I think you can buy it once you are into the Dragovian stuff, but before that you have to get it from Marta's son - though he didn't offer it until about the 3rd or 4th time I visited him after I was done with that part.[/QUOTE]

I see, thanks.
 
[quote name='Vegan']How do I get nook grass? I've talked to the herb son, I've tried picking the garden, to no avail.[/QUOTE]

I talked to him at Marta's grave and he didn't give it to me. Then I talked to him in his house and he didn't. Finally, I talked to him AGAIN at Marta's grave and I think that's when he did give it to me. I'm not sure what triggered it, but it may have been because I beat Sir Leopold? Unfortunately, that happens pretty late in the game. I'm not positive that is the trigger though.
 
[quote name='Moxio']Well I finally got this damn game. 80 hours of my life? Check![/QUOTE]

I just passed 100 the other day :D. But I did beat it for the first ending at around 80. You *could* stop there, but once you've invested so much time you'll just have to get the better ending (which I haven't gotten to yet, though I could at any time - trying to complete those trials, which are optional, first).
 
Yeah I just passed 80 and I'm not even in the home stretch yet. I've never spent this much time on a game before. But you know what? I'm loving it, and I'm still not burned out on it.

And I haven't even TOUCHED the casino yet.
 
[quote name='Vegan']Yeah I just passed 80 and I'm not even in the home stretch yet. I've never spent this much time on a game before. But you know what? I'm loving it, and I'm still not burned out on it.

And I haven't even TOUCHED the casino yet.[/QUOTE]

Ooohh, I *finally* hit Baccarat a few days ago because I needed a few items from the casinos. I took someone else's advice and skipped the Roulette strategy and just went for the 100 token slot machine. I went from 1000 tokens (make sure you help with the monsters at night in Baccarat and then extort them for some tokens) to 80,000 in about an hour. I just kept pumping 500 into the slot machine and then saving if I won a 10,000 or 20,000 jackpot. I hit one 50,000 even. Sure, the odds aren't good on slots, BUT you have the advantage of being able to reset and reload - and I only had to do that once, actually.

Now I'm trying to go for that 200,000 token whip for Jessica :D.
 
See, I'm such a stickler for fairness, I consider the save/reset trick to be cheating the system. ;)

PS - Can Jessica do ANYTHING without her boobs bouncing? I'm not complaining, just an observation.
 
[quote name='Vegan']PS - Can Jessica do ANYTHING without her boobs bouncing? I'm not complaining, just an observation.[/QUOTE]

No. And that's a good "no". ;)
 
[quote name='Vegan']See, I'm such a stickler for fairness, I consider the save/reset trick to be cheating the system. ;)

PS - Can Jessica do ANYTHING without her boobs bouncing? I'm not complaining, just an observation.[/QUOTE]

What's the save/reset rick?
 
And also, sry for double post, but what skills do you recommend for the characters? (EX. sword for Hero, club for Yangus, whip for Jessica, etc.)
 
Later on in the game, you WILL want Hero and Angelo to have Metal Slash available for swords, when the ONLY way to level up any further is to go hunt King Metal Slimes. Anything that lets you hit twice is great, like Falcon Slash for Swords and Twin Dragon Slash for whips.

I actually don't devote just one weapon to each character. I have two that everyone keeps on hand, and I'll change it according to the situation. I typically have Hero use the boomerang because I like hitting multiple enemies; but if I'm in a fight with only one enemy to hit, I can do tons and tons more damage with a sword. Another example with Yangus: his current axe is stronger than his current sickle, but I have the Grim Reaper skill which allows him to hit multiple targets with the sickle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top