My playthrough of Dragon Quest VIII

I'll create kind of a log of what I've done so far in this game and update after every session I play.

-Started out the game, laughed at the voice acting.
-Ran through town looking for this Rylus guy and got some treasure out of the barrels.
-Found out that they use British grammar and most of them have either British or Australian accents. I'm guessing there's no difference between Euro and NA version?
-Trained Hero and Yangus up to 5 before leaving for that cave to fight Geyser.
-Got up to 7 after defeating Geyser and headed to Alexandria.
-Lol'ed at being able to play as Munchie and his mouse roll.
-Trained Hero and Yangus up to 10 before going to Alexandria Tower. Hero majors in Swords and Yangus in Axes.
-Went through tedious tower and leveled up twice with Hero and Yangus. Expected a boss battle but didn't happen that way so I went back to Alexandria.
-Jessica's mother is a dick for kicking her out of the house over a small argument.
-Sea Monster almost killed Hero despite his Tankiness.
-Got Jessica and realized she sucks for now. Got her up to lv 11 and Hero and Yangus to 13 by the time I can use Alchemy. That's where I left off. Jessica is using Whips.
-Fuuuuuuu...I want a new sword for Hero, damn it. I still have the damned Bronze Sword since the first town.

Some other notes. The story isn't bad so far. The graphics are nice for its time and of course I love Akira Toriyama's art style. Also Trode is annoying as shit.

love this game haven't played in years but lol so far...

Oh, and also the soundtrack is refreshingly good.

Strider Zero wrote:

Oh, and also the soundtrack is refreshingly good.

...hmph...hmph...hmph..........I am calm...

Alright. Continuing on...

-Journied on with Jessica as my newest team mate. Got to the Abbey.
-Saw a lot of money based offerings and that kind of stuff that fills the mindset of this type of church. I'm guessing this is some sort of foreshadowing. This is more of a catholic and pagan fusion as far as religion goes.
-I knew Marcello was an ass hole as soon as I saw him, even if he stopped the guards from attacking me (They would have gotten fucked up anyway).
-Arrived at Simpleton and went into the bar to go look for some weapons and shit. Angelo was first seen here.
-The bar fight was hilarious. And my first impression of Angelo was that he was pretty cool looking and that he was some type of gentleman like lecher.
-I ended up switching to a spear with Hero for the time being. I'm really liking how it looks and attacks in battle. Armor upgraded.
-Made it back to the Abbey and went through that little part of the story. Of course I always have to take the long way (referring to getting to the Abbot).
-Went through the long journey and fought the boss. Yangus and Jessica actually died in this battle through dumb sequencing but Hero saved the day by kicking major ass. Yangus and Hero are 14 by now and Jessica has just turned lv 12.
-Of course now that I make it to the castle tower thing, the guards blocking the way to it are now unconscious. Go figure. It cost me a roundabout trip (but gained EXP).
-Marcello is indeed an ass hole when he arrests the party. I'm wondering why Dhoulmagus didn't just kill the Abbot sooner.
-At this part I'm thinking that Marcello is a traitor and is working with Dhoulmagus. Was also expecting Angelo to be a two timer to save his own ass. I was right.
-Went to go save the Abbot again only for him to die on us in one shot. Marcello is actually not a traitor as I thought. On the bright side, I get Angelo. And a world map.
-Angelo is fairly good but a shadow of Hero as he is 3 levels behind and not as well equipped. I'm not sure how I feel about him only able to use a Rapier as far as swords go. He also attacks awesome. Kinda reminds me of DMC3 Vergil.
-Headed back to Simpleton and saved. Hero is lv 15, Jessica is 12, Yangus is 15 and Angelo is 12.

Some side notes. Story is progressing nicely. I wish Hero wasn't a silent main character though, as I feel he has a lot more potential. And Trode is still annoying as shit.

And so the story continues.

-Leaving Simpleton, I traveled a long long way down a path across a bridge where a church is. They gave me a free night so fuck yeah. Along the way, Jessica and Angelo both leveled up to 13.
-I made it to Ascantha or whatever and it seems this King has been sulking. My thoughts are that this is a very recent death of the Queen. However, I find out that it's been TWO FULL YEARS and he hasn't spoken to anyone since then. Talk about one bad case of tunnel vision. I mean, I feel bad for the poor guy but really.
-Got a better sword in the city for Hero so I could finally switch back. Hero now has the highest attack and defense. Angelo got a nice bow and I'm using bows with him as his major.
-We meet the Irish maid, Emma, who's been trying for these two years to get the King to feel even slightly better. She wants me to high tail it back to that bridge which was very far away to get her grandmother to tell them of a fairy tale.
-So I take the nice little road back for training purposes and Jessica and Yangus level up to 14 and 16 respectively (in the same battle might I add).
-So this granny tells us about a fairy tale that has a slim chance of being true. But c'mon, we all know it's true otherwise we wouldn't have to go through all this shit for it.
-So I find out Hero and Angelo are close to leveling up so I leveled them up to 16 and 14 respectively. The church now only costs 10 gold which is fucking great compared to the shit offers given everywhere else close by. This is where I left off.

Side notes. The Inn costs are significantly going up with each area. It's getting rather pricey, the latest one costing 40 gold. Now yes, I have almost 2,000 gold, but it adds up. My concern is that the later Inn costs will be over 1,000 each night. My cardinal rule for paying Inns in RPGs like this stays the same. Whenever I'm about to rest at an Inn after training, I always battle my Inn cost or higher's worth before entering. As an example, if I trained Hero to level 20 and the Inn cost was 50 gold, after Hero reached 20, I would fight until I got 50 gold or more from battles just to cover the Inn cost without losing any of my earned gold. It works.

Nice going so far congrats!

Thanks. Considering this is my first run I'd like to make a log and maybe look back on it if I end up actually buying the game in the future for a replay.

Strider Zero wrote:

Thanks. Considering this is my first run I'd like to make a log and maybe look back on it if I end up actually buying the game in the future for a replay.

@.@ pirated? friend's copy? Anyways go ahead and buy it it should still be cheap and worth it. I don't sell any of my games not worth it in the end incase I want to reply it and you won't get much money besides i'm a collector.

MulderYuffie wrote:

Strider Zero wrote:

Thanks. Considering this is my first run I'd like to make a log and maybe look back on it if I end up actually buying the game in the future for a replay.

@.@ pirated? friend's copy? Anyways go ahead and buy it it should still be cheap and worth it. I don't sell any of my games not worth it in the end incase I want to reply it and you won't get much money besides i'm a collector.

I'm borrowing it from a friend. I don't sell any of my games either unless they're so bad I know I won't play them again.

The plot thickens...kinda.

-Left that nice church and went through the wisher's peak which was semi annoying to navigate and enemies were fairly annoying seeing as how often I got 5 or 6 enemies in one shot.
-Was totally expecting another boss at the end but I was surprised just like at Alexandria's Tower.
-The part where King Pavan sees her late wife's memories was sad but a good part definitely. Way to smack the King back into reality.
-Leaving Ascantha, Trode complains about his hardships of being a monster...again. Yangus mentions his town is close...so why not?
-Ended up getting to Pickham (I think that's what the place is called). Along the way, Hero and Yangus got to level 17 and Jessica and Angelo up to 15. Despite the run down shit hole that this town is, it has a good bow for Angelo and lots of great armor for everyone. Also, Angelo now knows midheal which is awesome for only 1 MP more than heal.
-Gotta find this Brains guy, but Yangus never told us where the hell he is so I have to go around the city to find him despite that Yangus probably knows where he is right now.
-Inn cost is 48 gold. Again, the place is a run down shit hole. Wtf? Anyway, saved at the church.

Side notes. Jessica is actually rather useful with her whips now that she's hitting 18-20 on initial hit. Her spells still suck, but oh well. Hero is still the man. This recent armor upgrade made him even more tanky and this motherfucker takes hits like a champ already.

Moving right along...

-Looked around town and got some stuff and an alchemy recipe or two.
-Had a bit o' fun in the casino. Needless to say I got my ass kicked but I only lost 100 gold.
-Found Brains' place but no one was home. I couldn't help but wonder if Brains was really Nathan Drake.
-So Medea got stolen (lol) and got pawned and then sold again. So because of Trode's neglect, I have to run all over the damn place to get her back (and I can't even ride on her to get around faster for hell's sake).
-Got to see Jessica in the new dancer outfit. Nice.
-Had to go see a whore named Red and guess what? Go on another adventure to another cave like place. Wooh! So I'm stranded out in the middle of nowhere and have to go into this cave with limited MP. Most of the time I was faced with 5+ enemies each battle, all which hit a lot of my characters (except Hero). So I was forced to use up roughly 2/3 of my MP getting to the treasure.
-So I get to the treasure. Opening it thinking "Please no boss please no boss" and then sure enough, a boss comes. This is a poorly placed one IMO because they need to give you some spot in these caves to heal MP. I ended up using nearly all my MP on this boss and he ended up killing the ONE person I needed to get back to civilization quickly. Angelo. This boss has a "desperate attack" where he hits roughly 80 on any of your party members. I was dumbfounded by the stupidity of the attack.
-Forced to literally fight with no MP back to Pickham, I got there just in time.
-Went back to Brains and found out that I have to go back to Port Prospect and now head over to find a magic ship.
-Got to Port Prospect with Angelo's Zoom magic and saved. My levels are 18, 16, 18, 16. I'm sure you know who is who by now.

Side notes. I'm finding the enemies in this game rather dumb and ridiculously strong. The game is flawed in the sense that there are no heal points almost anywhere but in cities and occasional Inns around. Save points as well. I haven't had a game over yet, but I've been close a few times. Gotta start training more. Also, the music is really really repetitive even for an RPG. It was refreshing in the beginning, but now it's gotten rather stale. Most RPGs mix it up a lot in comparison. There are about 2-3 city themes rehashed in a cycle and 1 or 2 map themes. It's not killing the game, but I can forsee a problem with it in the future.

Yeah, I went obscure when I did my only run through. I had Hero with Spears, Yangus with Scythes, Jessica with Knives and Sex Appeal (lots of it XD) and Angelo with Staves.

Nice commentary so far, and I agree about the save/heal points.

Wtf, you've played DQ8? How come you never told me?

Rented it from Hollywood Video some years ago before they went out of business. Great game.

Strider Zero wrote:

Ryu wrote:

Rented it from Hollywood Video some years ago before they went out of business. Great game.

Last i checked my hollywood video is still in business used to frequent there many years ago when they still rented out N64 games.

MulderYuffie wrote:

Strider Zero wrote:

Ryu wrote:

Rented it from Hollywood Video some years ago before they went out of business. Great game.

Last i checked my hollywood video is still in business used to frequent there many years ago when they still rented out N64 games.

They went bankrupt last year.

Strider Zero wrote:

MulderYuffie wrote:

Strider Zero wrote:

Ryu wrote:

Rented it from Hollywood Video some years ago before they went out of business. Great game.

Last i checked my hollywood video is still in business used to frequent there many years ago when they still rented out N64 games.

They went bankrupt last year.

alright last i knew is they went out of business and came back gee I must not be up with the times lol. We have like 5 rental places in town one i've recently used is Family video pretty good place.

MulderYuffie wrote:

Strider Zero wrote:

MulderYuffie wrote:

Strider Zero wrote:

Ryu wrote:

Rented it from Hollywood Video some years ago before they went out of business. Great game.

Last i checked my hollywood video is still in business used to frequent there many years ago when they still rented out N64 games.

They went bankrupt last year.

alright last i knew is they went out of business and came back gee I must not be up with the times lol. We have like 5 rental places in town one i've recently used is Family video pretty good place.

We have none in the area except Blockbuster about 25 minutes away...go figure. I should go over there sometime and see what they have.

Strider Zero wrote:

MulderYuffie wrote:

Strider Zero wrote:

MulderYuffie wrote:

Strider Zero wrote:

Ryu wrote:

Rented it from Hollywood Video some years ago before they went out of business. Great game.

Last i checked my hollywood video is still in business used to frequent there many years ago when they still rented out N64 games.

They went bankrupt last year.

alright last i knew is they went out of business and came back gee I must not be up with the times lol. We have like 5 rental places in town one i've recently used is Family video pretty good place.

We have none in the area except Blockbuster about 25 minutes away...go figure. I should go over there sometime and see what they have.

With how often i use amazon I am better off buying games new/used there instead of renting them. It's worth it to me in the long run.

A little bit shorter of a log this time around.

-Trained by running around like a wacko in the mountainous area where the magic ship is. Also trained near the West Trodain Church.
-After some hours, Hero and Yangus are now 20 and Jessica and Angelo are 18.
-Falcon Slash is so awesome and Jessica now hits a lot with Crackle. Wooh.
-Ran over to Trodain and saw the flashback and all.
-Enemies inside Trodain Castle are all sweepers. Go figure. The Dragonthorns give me a reason to use Dragon Slash for once.
-Started to get my ass kicked again, so I think I'm going to train a bit longer at the castle but for now I headed back to the West Trodain Church. Saved and finished.

Side notes. I've been tiptoeing around abilities as I thought they might have stupid side effects like you can only use them a certain amount, but now I'm using them all I can. I love Hero's Falcon Slash and now Dragon Slash. I used Flame Slash a couple times in the past when it hit a little more than regular. Hero hits around the same as Yangus normally but his Falcon Slash makes him effectively a lot better.

Well due to my PS3 shit, I now have to restart DQ8. Don't know when I'll do it.

fun while it lasted huh?

Yeah, but it didn't keep me as hooked as FFVII or X or the other higher end RPGs.