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[john tv]

Here you go. If you've got gameplay-related questions about the Japanese version of DQVIII, this is the place to ask them.

People like Bebpo, jonnyram, RedScarlet, myself, novery, etc. have played or or planning to play through it, so we wanted to start a thread to share info and help each other along.

One request: please avoid giving away spoilers as best you can. If you're not sure if something is a spoiler, use

Spoiler

spoiler tags

to be safe.

 

[Red Scarlet]

I know "where to go", "where blahblah is" "what does XX do", and that kind of stuff, but for what people are saying/what exactly is going on at X part of the game, someone else is going to have to explain there...

 

[Acosta]

Nice, I have put some hours to work on previews and I plan to play full force this week, count me in (will do my best taking on count my poor japanese).

Allow me a tip: level up before going to the first dungeon, don´t go directly or you will have problems, specially with the boss there.

 

[speedpop]

Allow me a tip: level up before going to the first dungeon, don´t go directly or you will have problems, specially with the boss there.

Isn't that supposed to be the #2 rule of every single RPG you ever play? "At least level up 3-5 levels than your starting level."

 

[909er]

I've played through it all the way till you get a ship, and I'm fully fluent in Japanese, so if anyone needs help, here I am.

 

[Acosta]

At least level up 3-5 levels than your starting level."

No, I don´t think so, some RPGs offer an accurate progression of your character, but in this one I have to spend a time just walking in the country to increase my specs because it´s easy to get crushed in the first dungeon. In fact, one useful thing it´s the ability of "whisp" from Yangus, that call monsters to have a combat, because that way you can have combats without waiting and near a village.

Doen´t look so hard as Shin Megami Tensei III, but you have to dedicate time to level your character.

 

[john tv]

OK, I started DQVIII last night. I'll probably only play it a bit at a time, since I've got other stuff I need to play (for work and for pleasure), but I already have two questions:

1. Do any of you who've played the game extensively have advice on how I should distribute my skill points? Give me some pointers so I don't go wasting stuff in the wrong areas as I build up my guys.

2. What's up with the

Spoiler

monsters roaming around in the overworld? I literally just started so I only ran into one so far (that dragon near the beginning, think it was a Battle Rex), but why are they even there? What's their purpose?

That's all for now. Thanks!

 

[Jonnyram]

1. Do any of you who've played the game extensively have advice on how I should distribute my skill points? Give me some pointers so I don't go wasting stuff in the wrong areas as I build up my guys.

Well, this is a hard question since it depends on your preferences, but most JP players seem to skill up the staff skill for the last 2 chars you get because it improves their MP Personally, I've been trying to max the last skill before the weapon skills because it's more general. But aside from that I've been boosting boomerang on the hero, and blunt + scythe on Yangus.

2. What's up with the

Spoiler

monsters roaming around in the overworld? I literally just started so I only ran into one so far (that dragon near the beginning, think it was a Battle Rex), but why are they even there? What's their purpose?

Have you heard of the Battle Road aspect of the game? That's what they're there for. You can

Spoiler

recruit them

later in the game

 

[john tv]

Well, this is a hard question since it depends on your preferences, but most JP players seem to skill up the staff skill for the last 2 chars you get because it improves their MP Personally, I've been trying to max the last skill before the weapon skills because it's more general. But aside from that I've been boosting boomerang on the hero, and blunt + scythe on Yangus.

Oh so wait, you can actually max out skills? I didn't realize that; that's good to know. Typically, I tend to use boomerangs as often as possible for the first 1/3 to 1/2 of any DQ game, and then I start switching over to the more powerful single-hit weapons. I guess I'll try to work on boomerang and sword first for the main character, and axe or club on Yangus for now.

I was thinking the skill system was more detailed than this; is there more to it than simply building up the five categories for each character after every level-up?

Have you heard of the Battle Road aspect of the game? That's what they're there for. You can

Spoiler

recruit them

later in the game

Ah OK, gotcha. I knew you could

Spoiler

recruit

but I figured it was similar to the previous DQ games. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Jonnyram]

I was thinking the skill system was more detailed than this; is there more to it than simply building up the five categories for each character after every level-up?

In terms of choices you can make, no. But you do get magic and other skills based on their character level, in addition to the magic/skills you get for these skill levels. It's pretty simple really.

 

[Red Scarlet]

1-This is what seems to work best for me when I play, and likely going to be the suggestion I make in my faq: This might be spoilers as I talk about certain abilities that I use with my play style.


Hero

Long version:

Spoiler

Sword:Has a couple of useful abilities, like Metal Cut for metals. Other than that, swords don't seem that great, because of Boomerangs.

Spear:Has a couple more useful abilities than sword, but they are more for specific battles/situations. The critical hit or miss ability is useful for the 2 higher metal monsters, and the unfocused stab which hits 3/4 times can be nice on bosses with a combo of Tension/Baikiruto.

Boomerang:I use this for non-boss fighting almost all the time, but after Super Powerful Throw, the other skills don't help that much, really. Attack Power +25 is alright, but kind've an expensive skill to buy for the Hero (he seems to get the fewest Skill Points out of everyone and has a couple of good abilities in most of his skills).

Barehanded:Makes the game easy after you get the shinkuuha for awhile, but really repetitive and boring. Other than bakuretsuken, not many of the abilities are worth the points.

Courage:Nothing in this skillset is really needed, but you get Ru-ra/Return quick, as well as Toherosu/Repel. But you can just go and buy items that cast those. I haven't gotten to 100 points in this skill yet, though.

What I am currently doing in this playthrough with the Hero is: Build up boomerang until Powerful Throw, then get the 3/4 hits ability with the spear, then Metal Slash for the sword if you plan on levelling up later on.

Short version: Usually Boomerang and then the lower level critical hit/miss for spears, then falcon slash for swords, then whatever I feel like after.


Yangus

Long Version:

Spoiler

Axe: Probably his best attacking skill to raise up. He gets a group-hitting attack that costs 0MP, an attack + lower an enemy's defense combo, and also a critical hit/miss attack for metals.

Hammer/Club: Seems to suck ass compared to Axes..at 91 points and none of the skills seem to do anything aside from a little more damage for an attack (except Gold Hammer), and no group-hitters learned.

Sickle: Gets a group hitter, but it costs MP. The Thief Cut ability is lame and maybe works 2x in the whole game, so it's not very useful.

Barehanded: Just like with the Hero, lame until shinkuuha and bakuretsuken, and too weak for later bosses at some times.

Empathy: Learns Whistle and Thief Nose (very handy for finding items) quick, and those are pretty much the only really good things to learn, aside from hoimi.

Short version: Axe seems to be the best weapon skill, and then Empathy to a certain extent.


Jessica

Long Version

Spoiler

Short Sword: Only learns 2 attacks, and they're not super useful. She does learn the ability to equip most regular swords early on with this ability, though.

Whip: The strongest one for her to get, IMO. After learning souryuudachi, she becomes my strongest fighter in the game (can kill some bosses in 1 attack with baikiruto+tension).
Other than souryuudachi, the other attacks kind've suck though.

Staff: Learns a couple of helpful spells, like magic barrier. Pretty crappy attack skills, though.

Barefisted: Crappy until shinkuuha, and by then she does about the same damage with whips.

Sex Appeal: Seems like everyone chooses this their first time through. The only really helpful skill it had for me the 2nd time was when badguys would waste their turn looking at her sometime. By the time you get Hustle Dance you should have a Sage Stone already.

Short version: Whip, then staff, and sex appeal to a point.


Kukule

Long Version

Spoiler

Sword: The only really good attacks are pretty much Metal Slash and Falcon Slash.

Bow: Fairy Arrow is ok to get some MP back, and the samidareuchi (3/4 hits) is an alternative to Falcon Slash. Most of the other attacks in the skillset are awful, though.

Staff: Haven't gotten to 100 in it yet, and haven't gotten a useful ability in it yet, either.

Barefisted: Gets my vote for worst skillset in the game. Not a single thing he gets in the skillset is good.

Charisma: Learns some pretty seemingly useless skills, except for the hinikuna warai which lowers a badguy's Tension. Nothing extraordinary here.

Short version: Max out Sword and/or Bow.


#2

Spoiler

Don't worry about those visible guys until you meet a guy named Mori. Then it'll all come to you.

Hopefully my long versions aren't too game-ruining..so you might just want to stick with the short versions.

 

[Red Scarlet]

but most JP players seem to skill up the staff skill for the last 2 chars you get because it improves their MP

Only when you learn the ability and have a staff equipped, and none of the staves are really good weapons (save 1 if you make it ASAP).

People who've gotten to level 99 say you get about 350 points for everyone. So by levelling, no you can't max out every skill to 100 each.

Spoiler

But you can get them to 500 if you are super patient for rare monster drops.

 

[john tv]

Aside from the actual skills you earn, does leveling up these skill categories do anything else? Like add status points or anything?

 

[Acosta]

If you are starting John, try to increase courage in hero until you get "rura", because it´s very annoying not having time to arrive to the nearest village to save in case you have to left the game.

For Yangus, Whisp it´s the first hability you have with "humanity" (the fifth hability, not sure if my translation it´s correct) and it´s pretty useful because it allow to call enemies so you can have a lot of combats in no time.

I don´t like to be slave of "what is best" in a RPG, so I use what i like and try to increase my hability on this. For example with hero I´m just giving points to sword and courage.

At this moment, I´m not far in the game, but that is because I use to walk a lot, this game have an impressive scenario. walking through a forest I arrived to a beatiful beach, it was so nice that I waited some minutes to see the sundown and the nights. A great feeling.

 

[Jonnyram]

Only when you learn the ability and have a staff equipped, and none of the staves are really good weapons (save 1 if you make it ASAP).

I think that's the point though, since you're mostly going to want to be using magic with both of them At least that's how it works if you level the right stats. I guess it depends how you want to play - if you just want to use weapons and as little magic as possible, I can understand your guide. But I prefer to mix in the magic and special skills. Jessica's magic is awesome, especially when you build tension up to 50 or 100.

 

[Red Scarlet]

I use magic with her for boss fights and once I get the all-badguy hitting spells quite a lot later on, but not so much as to keep a staff equipped, really. Free group hitting > MP-costing group hitting in most cases, IMO.

400+ damage for 6mp and no tension with her whip > however much MP merazo-ma costs and building up tension.

It's all about the io/bang spells for her with me, though. Ionazun with +100 Tension is really nice in later areas.

John: you get stat ups as well as battle skills. But for all of them, including barefisted, it is only when you have that weapon type equipped (so keep 1 of each that you are giving points to).

 

[Jonnyram]

400+ damage for 6mp and no tension with her whip > however much MP merazo-ma costs and building up tension.

My whip's not so far along. What level is yours at, and is that 400+ on each enemy?

 

[Red Scarlet]

As soon as you get souryuudachi, she can kill most enemies with ease (single). She does way more than my other characters, damagewise. It hits twice, so it can hit two enemies in a group, but it's better for a single enemy. Both hits get boosted by Tension (baikiruto only strengthens the first), but at level 15, being able to do 400+ by using that attack with Tension is nice. You get souryuudachi at 23 SP for whip. She easily does more untensioned damage than anyone else for pretty much the whole game with that attack when I play.

It's not my max that I've done, but in this playthrough the most I've done in 1 attack is 4,365 damage with souryuudachi + 100 tension + baikiruto (and 0 defense on the boss). The most I've done with any other character was in the low 2,000's.

What whip do you have? You can get the 2nd one almost right after the first, and IIRC it's her strongest weapon she can get for awhile (unless you have her learn to equip swords).

Spells with 100 tension on all enemies does more than whips with 100 tension easily, though.

 

[Bebpo]

For the main guy I just went with Sword + Courage. You get all the good sword attacks for each type of enemy + Courage actually has some good spells (there's one around 70 points that basically makes the final boss fights a lot more manageable).

Though for fast metal slime leveling, it would be better to go with Spear + Courage.

 

[Red Scarlet]

hagure metals and Metal Kings, yeah, but if you have a Falcon Sword and use Metal Slash, you can kill Metal Slimes in 1 turn if it does 2+2.

Spoiler

I know you get some uber attack if you max out sword + courage, but I haven't done that yet. Is the 70 point thing the megante spell?

 

[Bebpo]

well the mega-spell thing for courage near the end is

Spoiler

A heal spell that heals the entire party to full HP for 30mp. This is really helpful when the bonus bosses are doing 90% damage on several characters per turn.

 

[Jonnyram]

Spoiler

A heal spell that heals the entire party to full HP for 30mp. This is really helpful when the bonus bosses are doing 90% damage on several characters per turn.

It's great when you get the skill to

Spoiler

use less MP on casting magic

too

 

[Red Scarlet]

Spoiler

Oh, behomazun. That might be helpful for me, even though behomara- can fully heal you since it uses Tension, that takes a round or 2 to get built up.

End of game spoiler:

Spoiler

I can't beat the black dragon part of the bonus boss; I do 40 damage tops to it and get owned HP wise (but I was ~level 44 when I was fighting it), so that spell might help me out (I'm getting sword and courage to 100 this time through)

 

[duckroll]

Just came in here to say:

Kukule (is it just me or does anyone else always think of COCKLES on GAF when thinking of him?) is the WORST party member ever. I hate him. Seriously. Wish there was a way to kill him off and clone Jessica instead.

Now back to the game.

 

[Red Scarlet]

I think of Trunks or Terry...he's good as a healer in the game.

 

[dog$]

Since nobody addressed this yet

Aside from the actual skills you earn, does leveling up these skill categories do anything else? Like add status points or anything?

The most basic types of bonuses are +X attack power to the weapon type as long as you use it in battle. Approximately every other skill "group" (they're not clearly cut by 10 points, but you'll know when you reach them by telling you what title you've become when you have enough), you'll get another +5 stacked onto the bonus.

There are more than a few exceptions, most notably with Hero's yusha skill.

 

[Red Scarlet]

John: you get stat ups as well as battle skills. But for all of them, including barefisted, it is only when you have that weapon type equipped (so keep 1 of each that you are giving points to).

But yeah, the stuff learned from the bottom skillset for each character can be used/is put in effect regardless of what weapon you have equipped. I should've been clearer there.