Dragon Quest VIII advice

The Core Video Games Forum
1

I’ve decided to replay DQ8, currently I’m just past the Tower of Alexandra. I’ve decided to try a few new things this time around. One is the goal to never run from a fight, ever. This nearly got me killed in the Tower, as the Hero (named Hachi this time around) got KOed near the top by those bloody Imps and their cold breath. Yangus had to fight the rest of the way solo, luckily I had plently of Medical Herbs. He gained full level in the process too.

Anyway, I PLAN on doing some different weapon focuses this time around. I want to have the Hero focus on Spears with some points in Courage and a few in Boomerang, Yangus on Scythes and Humanity, Jessica will still be on Whips but I’ll sacrifice some Sex Appeal for Daggers, and Angelo will be mostly on Sword duty, with some Staff specialty.

For now, I’ve pumped all of the Hero’s and Yangus’s skill points into Courage and Humanity respectively, since they both still have starting weapons (except the Hero, he has the Copper Sword from the Waterfall cave). I can’t buy my first Spear and Scythe until I get to Port Prospect, which is just coming up. Some of the later Spear and Scythe techniques look pretty decent, which is mostly why I’m doing this.

I plan to only put about 16 points or so into Sex Appeal, which’ll get me the random charm attribute. I won’t bother trying for the stronger charm attribute since it requires way too many points, and I never really USED the other Sex Appeal abilities in my first playthrough, so I thought I might allow Jessica to be a bit more damaging, and make some use of those Daggers which were typically sold immediately in my first game.

Charisma I’m dropping entirely, since I found it to be mostly useless. Sacrastic Snigger had its moments, but not enough to put the points into. Last time I focused on Bows for Angelo, but this time I want him to focus on Swords. Mostly because since I’m not going the Sword route with the Hero, I want SOMEONE to have Metal Slash, obviously. I’ll also put points into Staffs, since having the extra MP, magic power, and spells will no doubt come in handy. Angelo was mostly on heal duty in my first play through anyway.

Dragon Quest games are always more interesting the second time through. I’m well prepared for everything this time, that’s for sure. Hell, this time I was Lv7 before I even fought Geyzer.

Anyway, how does this skill setup sound?

2

I’d actually swing Jessica into bare hands rather than dagger, her better bare hands skills are surprising and if you got MP restoring items to waste or a boss you can afford to unload upfront, Mega Magic is a world of pain.

Dagger just upgrades to sword at some point, and I found the skills to be rather average.

3

Madante/Mega Magic/Magic Burst eh? I didn’t even notice that. Looking at those Fisticuff skills I think I WILL go that route for Jess.

Saves me some extra gold buying weapons too.

4

Of course, not going to sex appeal makes you miss out on the Hustle, but MetaMagic is probably a decent replacement. Don’t discount swords either. The Uber Falcon Edge is awesome, and how can we forget the Uber Miracle Sword?

5

Magic Burst may not be as good as Twin Dragon Lash for bosses. With Oomph it can do a ton and it gives her mp for other things.

6

Except it’s a pain in the ass to use lategame because everyone and their mother has the ice wave debuffer power.

But I agree that with alot of powering up and Oomph it can be a boss-slayer move.

7

Yes, Twin Dragon Lash is far too powerful to overlook. Luckily it only needs 23 skill points to get. I’m still putting points in Whip, it’s just that all the points I would have used in Sex Appeal (save the first 16 to get the initial Charm) will be going into Fisticuffs. Whip won’t be getting QUITE as much attention, but I’m certainly getting Twin Dragon Lash. Especially since I can get the Gringham Whip as soon as the Baccarat Casino re-opens, which I’ll be doing this time (waited till near the end of the game last time.)

8

Spoony, I didn’t post anything before because I don’t have much in the way of an educated opinion - I’m still on my first playthrough in the bonus area. Your strategy sounds like fun though. :slight_smile: I’m curious about why you want to focus on Humanity, though; personally, I simply used Yangus as a powerhouse in my game and I don’t recall anything all that awesome about Humanity rewards. I could also have totally forgotten something in the time since I’ve played though.

Question for the audience - has anyone tried a Fisticuffs-only game (by this, I mean more of a no-weapons equipped thing)? How did it go?

9

With Yangus, most of his early skills in Humanity are quite useful, though I don’t plan on putting more than 32 or 42 points into it. I’ll either stop at Share Magic or Kabuff, since they can both come in handy. Anything past that, though, is a bit of a waste.

So I may decide to put some extra points into a second weapon, just so I have a back-up if I can’t find a stronger scythe for a long time.

As for a fisticuff-only game, with all four characters? Uh, good luck with that.

10

I had most of my Yangus points in scythe due to getting the B-rank scythe in the monster arena early (At least I think it was B rank) and I placed the rest of my points in axe afterwards, 0 in humanity.

YANGUS SMASH!

11

Yeah for Yangus, don’t put any more points past sacrifice, or whatever its called. But that is an interesting strategy Spoony.

12

Yeah, I put just enough points into Humanity to get Share Magic (Sacrifice, I guess) and that’ll be it. The rest’ll go into Scythe, with some in Axe as his back-up weapon (Helm Splitter has its uses, after all). I’ll probably also put three points into Jessica’s staff at some point so she learns accelerate, but that’s it.

Anyway, just now got Angelo, so the long treck to Ascantha begins. I might pop back into the Ruined Abbey first, though, to go slime hunting.

13

It’s not Share Magic. Humanity teaches him this move that kills him to fully heal and revive allies.

14

Ooohhh right. That spell is ‘Kerplunk’. Unfortunately it costs over 80 skill points to get to, and I don’t think I’ll be making the investment. I never used it in my first playthrough anyway.

15

Does anyone really use Kerplunk/Sacrifice? I never have, but maybe that’s because the one who knows it gets killed off before I’d really need to use it.

16

Actually Yangus has pretty good survivability due to his high HP. On my first play through there was more than one situation where he was the last one to die. I got maybe one or two uses out of Kerplunk. But still nothing worth 80+ skill points, and this time around I’ll be better prepared for those really bad situations.

Though if you ARE going the Humanity route with Yangus, then by all means get and use Kerplunk. And chuckle at the name every time you use it.

17

It’s funny you say that - in the bonus area, Yangus is the first to die in the boss battles for me, even though he has the most HP. I’m wondering how I’ve screwed up on his defense. :wink:

18

It’s not that you screwed up his defense,is more like the game makers decided to make the boss especialy to screw with every one who plays.

19

I saw a video where someone was fighting the boss of the bonus dungeon. They had Yangus defend the whole time and used Kerplunk when the party was in trouble.

20

I’m doing Fisticuffs right now. I “cheated” and left Hero and Yangus with their default weapon until they got the +5 in fisticuffs before I started though. THEN it was on. It’s not too bad, really. Multifists is a really good Yangus skill when used properly. And once he gets Thin Air, it’s over. Mind you, once Jessica gets Thin Air, it’s ALL over. I’m about to go fight Dhoulmagus, but so far, so good. It’s a bit fun to try, actually. And you save a LOT of money on not buying weapons. So far, Angelo is the only one who seems hindered by the fists-only style.