Dragon Quest VIII

TVG · Post by **TVG** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 1:43 pm

clocked 100+ hrs on it before getting a bit bored, anyone that likes RPGs is seriously missing if he doesnt play this one. hell even if you dont like RPGs you might like it, its just that good.

DW3 on GBC was damn cool too, but there was some sort of glitch that leveled up all my charachters to 99 in the monopoly type thing in the casino, didnt really care since it was right before last boss.

im currently playing DQ5 (snes patch translation) its good stuff too, just need some patience dealing with the old school rudimentary menus...

DQ5 SPOILER: i just got the flying dragon, am i near the end of the game? (dont like to watch walktroughs)

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 3:29 pm

Yeah, I'm at 70+ hours and to the last dungeon, but still have a few more side quests to do; so of course I'm taking a break from it now. It has been one hell of a ride, definitely one of the best rpgs in recent times.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 2:16 am

Freakin' A! Now I'm past 80 hours and doing Dragon trials or whatever in an after game. It just keeps going and going...

Nice background story on the main character incidentally.

MadSteelDarkness · Post by **MadSteelDarkness** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 4:02 am

Heh. I'm up to 95 hours in and have all seven orbs, but haven't gotten around to finishing the last boss battle. I suppose I'll have to bite the bullet and finish this puppy.

TalkingOctopus · Post by **TalkingOctopus** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 4:56 am

I spent my entire winter vaction playing this game. I loved it. I even liked the orchestra soundtrack. It was the best RPG I have played recently. Much much better than FFX. I just finished it at the 65 hour mark, but it looks like there is some sort of new area that is unlocked after you beat it. I will have to check it out...

I do have a few complaints though. I felt like many of the skills/spells were useless and I relied on the same ones over and over again. Also, I didn't like how you couldn't experiment with other weapons. Once you start pouring points into a weapon you pretty much have to stick with it if you want to reach 100. I chose swords for the hero, hammers for Yangus, a bow for Angelo and a staff for Jessica. The sword and staff turned out to be really useful. However, the bow and hammer skills were worthless. I would have liked to switch to something else.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:36 am

TalkingOctopus wrote: I do have a few complaints though. I felt like many of the skills/spells were useless and I relied on the same ones over and over again. Also, I didn't like how you couldn't experiment with other weapons. Once you start pouring points into a weapon you pretty much have to stick with it if you want to reach 100. I chose swords for the hero, hammers for Yangus, a bow for Angelo and a staff for Jessica. The sword and staff turned out to be really useful. However, the bow and hammer skills were worthless. I would have liked to switch to something else.

Tis is pretty much true. In toning down the job system they created something too restrictive. I definitely made some mistakes early on with the skill points, then read some suggestions on-line and fixed the problem before things got too out of hand.

Only a few of the skills are really that important anyway--namely the stat bonuses, mp bonuses and things like Falcon slash and that double snake lash for the whip. I'm assuming each weapon probably has one or two important skills, the rest are useless.

Jon · Post by **Jon** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 5:51 pm

After about 75 solid hours I finally managed to put this beast down last weekend. I didn't complete the Dragovian Trial post game run (too many other games to tackle) but completed just about everything else the game had to offer. After giving it some thought I would have to put DQ VIII behind only SMT: Nocturne as my favorite RPG of this generation. You know an RPG is solid when you can play it exclusively for 70 plus hours and still not find the experience tedious. Great game.

P.S.

I put all my skill points into Jessicas staff skill and never once equipped her with one.

TVG · Post by **TVG** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 3:07 pm

how much does DW7 (us) cost? is it rare?

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 2:59 pm

Just saw this morning that this is on sale at Target for $34.88. Don't know if that's a good deal, but thought I'd mention it anyway.

TalkingOctopus · Post by **TalkingOctopus** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 6:13 pm

I got it at best buy for $35 the week after Christmas.

scrilla4rella · Post by **scrilla4rella** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 9:37 am

Had i for just a week or so. Awsome, Awsome game. Gee-whiz it's a world map':shock:'. I just got the the abbey and met the fourth character.

The cut scenes are really nice. The whole game basically craps all over Final Fantasy X and XI, IMO

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 1:37 pm

Considering FFXI is a MMORPG, I wouldn't say it's a fair comparison... but I agree.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:53 am

Sorry for being an idiot, but I still havn't caught up with all the new fangled acronyms. What's a MMORPG?

In fact, DQ 8 has got me on a little old school rpg kick; I'm currently working on Chrono Trigger (believe it or not, I never actually played it

)

Zach Keene · Post by **Zach Keene** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:34 am

Massively Multiplayer Online...

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 11:26 am

Zach Keene wrote:Massively Multiplayer Online...

Ohhhh. No interest in those things...had my fill of them back in the day when they were still textbased and called muds or whatever.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 12:01 am

Sorry for double post; can I ask what some of you would suggest for great old school rpgs after dq8? I know this is a very gamefaqs kind of post, but I'll tell you I'm working on Chrono Trigger now with Final Fantasy IV and Dragon Warrior VII lined up after wards. There are certainly other great ones, and I have no real experience with the FF games at all, so I may not even like them. I am surprised the DQ series does so much for me (I've played part of VII before, but became overwhelmed). My real love with RPGs is with Wizardry 6/7/8, but I don't think there is much love for that...

it290 · Post by **it290** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 12:35 am

It's not exactly like Wizardry, but I heartily recommend Ambermoon for the Amiga. I've been playing the heck out of this game lately. It has fun combat, a large world, and cool (if sometimes confusing) dungeons. It's sorta Ultima-styled, with the overworld presented in a top-down view and the dungeons and towns in a Wolf3D-esque 3D view. It also has that distinctive Thalion music.

scrilla4rella · Post by **scrilla4rella** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:35 am

Agreed seth: best RPG of the generation. Too bad the pickings are so slim compared to the 32-bit AND even 16-bit era.

I was very enthusiastic about FFXI when the US relaese was approaching. I think that it took square about 2 years to bring to the US. I had very fond memories of Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast so I thought and FF game online would be great. I bought the PS2 modem and the $100 gamepak with the PS2 HDD. Played the game for over 80 hours.

What I hate about FFXI is how much square ripped of the model of other PC MMORPGs. Its like they just ripped out the FF item, jobs, monsters, etc and just tossed them in a MMORPG engine.

scrilla4rella · Post by **scrilla4rella** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:40 am

I would strongly recommend Phantasy Star II and IV for Genesis. PS II is probably more like the DQ series. Going to new parts of the map is bothe scary and exitting. The dungeons are almost all beasts. The sound effects used to drive me crazy in the battle system tho. Great tunes.

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:10 pm

CMoon wrote:I am surprised the DQ series does so much for me (I've played part of VII before, but became overwhelmed). My real love with RPGs is with Wizardry 6/7/8, but I don't think there is much love for that...

Well, Dragon Quest was originally made to be a much more approachable Wizardry (though it obviously branched off and became its own thing soon after), so it doesn't surprise me that it clicked with you.

Personally though, my PC RPG love was always Ultima with a little Might & Magic on the side.

Elder Scrolls too, though Morrowind was the first game in that series to have an acceptable amount of polish.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:24 pm

Ultima was great...

I wish I new how to program, I'd right my own damn rpg.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:57 pm

Alright, I finally "beat" it (first ending?). Pretty good, first RPG I've completed since Skies of Arcadia. Would it be worth continuing for another ending or whatever? Leveling up seems very chore-like at this stage.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 4:07 pm

I've played FFX a long time ago, and I realized it was crap. No overworld map? That meant the airship would have sucked. (In these RPGs, whenever I got the airship or similar flying device, I like to screw around with it a bit). Tidus was a whining annoying brat and the sphere grid, while interesting at first, was downright terrible.

As for FFXI, why did SquareEnix decide to waste a number on a MMORPG? They could have called it FFOnline and got the same results, and FFXII could be FFXI instead.

From the looks of these posts, DW8 sounds like an updated blast from the past.

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 8:42 pm

It is. Very much so.

And Rob, I'd say it's worth completing if you want the full plot, mostly because there's not too much more to do for that. If you want EVERYTHING there's still a lot to be done, but you don't need it.

GateofThunderforceIII · Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:52 pm

DANG I want to play this so bad, but I just finished Grandia 2 for the DC yesterday and it took MUCH longer to complete than I thought (35 hours). VERY GOOD game, Grandia 2 was, but I'm burnt out on RPGs at the moment. How long will DQ8 take to complete without doing any side quests?

Oh well, at least with not being tied up to any game, I can complete PS2 Shinobi (again), test drive Colin 05, and have some good times again with the good old DC (hurry up, Under Defeat!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

By the way, Grandia 2 and the Dreamcast (in VGA ---> component) made Tekken 5 look blurry even in Progressive Scan...but funny enough, Shinobi, which is not Prog Scan stayed looking SHARP...

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 12:24 am

GateofThunderforceIII wrote:How long will DQ8 take to complete without doing any side quests?

Really damn long, but peculiarly doesn't feel as long as some other RPGs I've endured (Grandia, Xenogears). Yes, it's longer than Xenogears and feels half as long. Look at the times people are posting. I took 60-70 hours without too much screwing around, although I did look for mini medals whenever I entered a new town (tedious). Maybe 40-50 hours minimum?

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:34 pm

GateofThunderforceIII wrote:How long will DQ8 take to complete without doing any side quests?

About five times longer than it'll feel. The game is gargantuan, but it'll probably still leave you wanting more.

For the record, most RPGs bore me by around the 20 hour mark. In this, I was still getting warmed up there.

sjewkestheloon · Post by **sjewkestheloon** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 10:49 am

just thought i'd resurrect this little duuzy to commemorate my purchase. played about three hours so far and seems pretty fun but i'll reserve ultimate judgement until i get a bit further in.

anyone else pick this up int he uk?

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 3:06 pm

Since I last posted I reached the 100 hour mark and got the true ending. What is it about this game? I wish there was a purpose to getting the Gospel Ring and I'd go for that, but what's the point (a special item to eliminate common battles when there's nothing left in the game to do)? Run around, revisiting places?

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Mon May 01, 2006 12:08 am

*SPOILERS*

************************************************************

************************************************************

************************************************************

Hah! I want a second loop where the entire world is enveloped in that dark world you enter through the portal. No real point but to get to use all your super-powered up crap instead of just fighting the dragon over and over at the end.

Damn, I have to go back to playing DW7 at some point.