Dragon Quest VIII

1. axes instead of clubs
2. better distribution of skill points instead of just racing to 100 in a couple of them to see what happens
3. spears instead of swords
4. whips instead of staves
5. sabers instead of bows
6. more cheese
7. monster arena, as noted
8. more fastidious/obsessive-compulsive use of "nose for treasure"
9. actually follow through with minnie and dodgy dave

Finally playing this. Great soundtrack. Turns out the music composer is supposedly some rightwing japanese schmuck. I doodled blue slimes while having to sit thru cpr class today.

I want a slime controller. It's still only like $20 + shipping.

Does it still have the optional/compulsory free-roaming plains around the towns with nothing to do but fight piss-takingly lame baddies, through darkness or grass and on and on and on for no reward but some pittance of experience or gold? Is it all bad guys and levels and dungeons that are impossible to beat until you engage those endless tedious battles and up your levels? Is it all "you have encountered 3 GREEN SLIME. Do you attack, defend, run? You have defeated 3 GREEN SLIME. You gain 3 GOLD 3 EXP.) for hours and hours and hours?

DUEDS this is what I LOVE about Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior!

Tho admittedly VII has much better shit in it.

uh...VIII

shoulda gone w/Arabic numbers, they're hard to misspell

OMG I am loving this game. Just up to the DARK RUINS and have died at the hands of DHOULEMAGUESYUS.

I broke this out because I broke my collarbone and need to not move around much and boy howdy did it work. Only problem is via roomy seeing me play it he's decided he wants to REplay it and is on the fucking thing like 10 hours a day and I am not getting any playtime and I have to constantly remind him that I'm the one with the broken fucking collarbone and dude please just be fair.

I love ALCHEMY and MAKING GNARLY SHIT. For the longest time also I was certain Trode's voice was the guy who was Hoggle in Labyrinth. Alas.

Also BOUNCY BOOBS! This is the best game.

I've been trying to spread out my skill points between a variety of things but now I'm wishing I had dropped them all into one weapon each.

I'd be playing it right now instead of digging up old threads about it on ILX if I had my way.

Okay I am going to go lay a guilt trip on a motherfucker again.

Have fun with alchemy but be careful with the Slime Crowns, there's only like 2 in the game.

Also BOUNCY BOOBS!

you're talking about slimes, right?

I'm not even about to alchemyize the one slimecrown I've got; in fact I'm completely resisting the urges to get massive alchemy & skill lists online because I am enjoying so much doing it myself.

ALSO: I had been making crazy cheeses in the alchemy pot for like 10 hours of gametime before I realized exactly what to DO with them...and NOW I am REALLY enjoying the CHEESE IN BATTLE OPTION.

Also where are the best monsters for my team? Right now my best 3 are the goldman guy, an orc guy and a chicken guy with a sword.

I'm playing this again from scratch. It's still a blast.

important discovery: axes better than clubs

Scythes better than both, though.

I like the boomerang.

is the scythe really the best weapon for yangus? even in the endgame?

what should I do with the templar this time around? last time I had him with the bow & arrow, I dunno what should be his steez.

For scythes its only 70 points to Stainless Steel and 80 points to Attack +25. I can't remember what the modifier is for the ss attack (+30% maybe) but that's still a really good increase for an attack with 0 cost. With an axe you only get an Attack +20 boost that requires 82 points + the special moves cost 2/3 sp. Also, you can get the second-best scythe relatively early via the Monster Arena.

I think the best weapon for Yangus in the end game is the flail you get from Minnie but that takes a v. long time to get and you can stop leveling scythes after 80 points anyway.

I level staves for Angelo but maybe not actually the best? Level whatever you want him for e.g. I use him mostly for healing/defence so Staff of Antimagic (which you can get pre-Trodian) + the MP +20 skill works for me until after Baccart at least. If you need him for attack then swords is best since you can get an A+ rapier v. quickly as well. Bows are a good compromise of the other two esp. if you're leveling knives w/Jessica and thus cannot get Liquid Metal Swords for both.

I beat it a few weeks back and it took me close to 80 hours. If I do the whole trials thing at the end, about how much longer should it take?

20-40 more?

Re-reading my post above made me realise that even if I start a Chaos Wars thread I can't look like any more of loser than I already do. Still... update?

I was planning to move ahead this week but drinking and lurve got in the way. also a little bit of work, but eh.

real definition of loser = dude who is disappointed in himself, even for just a moment, because he let fucking and drinking get in the way of pre-planned video game progress

Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes;
it provokes the desire, but it takes
away the performance: therefore, much drink
may be said to be an equivocator with lechery:
it makes him, and it mars him; it sets
him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him,
and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and
not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him
in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.

Alternate post: My girlfriend accused me of continuing to play videogames while she talking to me. It's true. Now we're not drinking or fucking. What do I do?

yeah jessica has some bazooms

tell her your frequent erections are for her to do with as she pleases and if she wants more than that then good fuckin' luck on the circuit

I heard those were Pavan's last, heartbroken words to Sasha in the Japanese version of the game.

about 40 hours in on playthrough #2 (this time it's for keeps!) and a few thoughts

1. the knowledge to build and operate an alchemy pot has got to be some close-hold black helicopter shit because there's no way you could let people play with these things willy-nilly and expect a barter economy to survive - clearly king trode, despite his ignorance of the scepter's significance, has been keeping good notes on THIS (and who can blame him, it basically prints money, or should I say moon's mercy)

1a. interestingly, however, the fortune-teller's trade is a common one, and valued at jack of all shit in the epoch our adventure occupies; compare and contrast with the 21st century where the "knowledge worker" and "creative" class rule the roost and people who make things are regarded as either the globe's poo-poo or at best a troop of rustic craftsmen who just couldn't deal with a real career; in the age of equities trading it's the motherfuckers with the crystal balls who run the show and not some lil' dude with a pot in his wagon

2. the party structure, even given the addition of the monster team (Donkey Force Alpha, if you must ask, maxed out the 18 character limit, that's right) argues for small elite units in military operations and takes a very clear stance against conscription; sure the world is full of tough guys and bad-asses and all manner of talented privateers, but any mission worth doing demands a far more discriminate bunch of revenge-bent lunatics highly motivated individuals

2a. in contrast to 1a, we see this actually playing out in modern times, where asymmetric warfare has become the rule and laggardly divisions of draftees are the exception

3. I'm certainly not the first to point this out but it is quite disappointing that the simple switch from fishnet stockings to the much more effective ruby of protection as an accessory means having to give up the bunny girl costume altogether. That shit doesn't even make any sense.

4. Man I'm happy I read the gameFAQs this time around, jesus

oh and 5. is Jessica adopted or is it just me

or perhaps she has the same problem as Angelo/Marcello, right place, wrong parent? Actually that goes for the Hero as well I suppose, man these kids are all fucked up

this shit is so much more enjoyable to think about than my job or the economy, unfortunately it keeps me up just as late (but less drunk)

That is the best thing I've ever read, Tombot.

5. Marcello's speech to the gathered boojwahzee on Neos is great; the whole game's plotline (bloodline? lol!) is rooted in the business of family descent, and then he just stands in front of everyone and goes off on how meritocracy is the way of the future also PS. fuk u if u disagree

5a. Sounds vaguely acceptable at first but then you realize he's actually a proto-fascist or a pretty boy bolshevik, especially the part where he calls out the Goddess as just another false idol. It's a nicely done moment because at this point you've been to Tyran Gully and dealt with all sorts of discrimination yourselves, this fuckwit up on the dais may be ahead of the curve on a couple of points but one more putsch and he's going to be gassing the fatties and belt-sanding the nuts off every male who doesn't enlist in the Templars. Compared to Marcello that Charmles looks harmless, amirite.

5b. The bit after DQ9/11 happens and Angelo saves him almost out of spite is money. "You know I REALLY don't care," in the Jude Law voice and everything. I basically never gave two shits about Angelo outside of casting Multiheal until he said that.

6. Pickham is an interesting social experiment, a bit sci-fi really. Why does every city have to have its own accompanying slums? Why not just have one city that's all the slums at once? The dregs of every major area wind up sleeping on the dusty floors in a den of thieves and fighting over scraps. Plus you put it just far enough out of the way that they don't bother anyone else, except to consume the occasional gambling addict who can't afford to sail to Baccarat anymore. The whole Swordsman's Labyrinth fetch-quest could practically be a John Carpenter film by way of Sam Raimi.

7. Are Slimes the Jews of monsterdom?

Angelo is kind of dreamy.

Oh my god to what new lows can a lady sink?

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f105/ELEmblem/puff/102206057.jpg

Oh right. :(

Wikipedia, re 'Dragon Warrior': Regarding the Japanese version, in the town that the hero first buys keys, a woman offers to provide "puff-puff" to the Hero. This was changed in the American release as the woman asks if the hero would like to purchase tomatoes.

1. Tomatoes!
2. So puff-puffs have been around a while.

How many times have you played this thing through, Tombot?

Also DQ IV redo coming out for DS soon, wootles.

I feel diminished and saddened that I spent all my time playing considering the stastical ramifications of an extra point of attack power and )not joking( calculating damage modifiers instead of wondering at the larger philosophical and sociological ramifications of DQ8.

Corollary: I spent hours trying to gauge what monster team was most effective in the S-level battle only to find that, to my chagrin, my team looked exactly like the one in the GameFAQs FAQ.

this is only my second playthrough, and much improved from my first. I've been going through it like butter this time, aided in no small part by bothering to follow up on the side quests.

My FIRST go at the S Rank, one of My Three Golems stuck the liquid metal slime with a critical hit coming right out of the gate, after that it was mop-up by Mazin.

Yeah, I used the Golems to beat S as well. Best team may actually be the two metal slimes + cureslime.

two metal slimes + cureslime aren't going to put 1200+ damage up in a single round, though, are they

I dropped off playing this not too long after Tittys McGee's heelturn and started playing Rogue Galaxy instead. I wonder what Level 5's been up to, aside from the Prof Layton series.

Pretty sure Magic Burst does 1000+ damage. Not the best for the arena but they're hard to kill and Hev has 999 defence.

Wasn't someone on another thread asking about this?

Hero = Jim Thorpe

I'm done for now, on to FF12.

I figure slimes are cute to make up for their lack of strength. They are cute enough that adventurers like me don't want to kill them. It's an evolutionary advantage.

I have, I think, an hour left on this game, from like a year ago, and I've never finished it. (Last I battled was some weird vadge/flame boss?)

Should I go finish this up? Somehow I'm scared to!

yeah you have to finish it so you can start over again and give everybody different skills

or did you get pretty much everything on the first play-through? (my three golems, jessica's best gear, the underpants dance, etc)