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Should I buy Dragon Quest VIII?

P

psycho_snake

I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
I need an RPG to play and Drqgon Quest VIII seems like the perfect choice, however after the last couple of RPG's that ive played, ive become very picy about buying them. Before i only used to buy FF games, then I decided that just be a little more adventurous and try and play other RPG's

Dragon Quest VIII looks really good, but I just want to make sure that I'll really enjoy it. Since it is made my SE its probably going to be quite similar to FF which suits me fine These are the things that im looking for.

A good combat system
No or very little dungeon crawling
Good dialogue and voice acting, although this isnt impritant if the rest of the game is very good
An entertaining story

As long as DQVIII has all these i'll definately buy the game
 
You'll definitely enjoy it.

Dungeons aren't too long and the game doesn't go nuts with cutscenes like Final Fantasy.

Just simple yet fun and addictive battle system, great art, fantastic animation, and a long quest.

I recommend it.
 
Actually, DQVIII has quite a bit of dungeon crawling, but it's masterfully handled. The only thing that might piss you off is that there's no save right before a boss. If you die at a boss, you have to tromp through the dungeon to get to him/her again.
 
Mmm, KH2. That's going to be fucking awesome.
 
Great game. One of, if not my favorite RPG of the gen next to the Shadow Hearts games. The dungeons....well there are a lot but none are especially tedious (although random battles happen @ near Shin Megami frequency). Which brings me to the level grinding, which is necessary. Thankfully, its rather addicting and the battle system is quick enough. Great music, good story, above-average voice acting, awesome world/quest.

Buy it! COR FUCKING BLIMEY!
 
Yeah...that's right ask GAF. You'll get a completely unbiased answer. (wasn't the DQ8 thread one of the biggest last year?). Heck I still haven't bought it but I know that I need to just by reading thread titles.
 
I'm enjoying the game but I'm not sure how well it fits your criteria. There's not too much dungeon crawling--most of the dungeons aren't that long--but there's not much in the way of story and the voice acting (IMO) is horrible.
 
Well if you cant save before a boss the dungeons better be short! How long does it usually take to get through a dungeon?
 
Wario64 said:
Depends if you like leveling. Do you like to level grind?
Click to expand...

Wha?! I've had to level grind in many games but this was one of the first that as the game played out I was consistently at a comfortable level to take on everyone with no worries.
 
Wario64 said:
Depends if you like leveling. Do you like to level grind?
Click to expand...
No, this is something I hate in RPG's. I hate having to fight in so many battles just to level up because the enemies dont provide enough experience.
 
psycho_snake said:
No, this is something I hate in RPG's. I hate having to fight in so many battles just to level up because the enemies dont provide enough experience.
Click to expand...

Avoid this game.
 
Personally, DQ VIII hasn't involved much leveling for me at all. The only small amount of grinding I did was at the start of the game, and after that I've been able to go straight through without any extra leveling *shrug*.

I'm trying to think of RPGs with good battle systems but little dungeon crawling. Chrono Cross comes to mind, although it's nothing recent...
 
Buy DQVIII, it does not require level grinding imo. I have come to hate random battles and level grinding in JRPGs but DQ is just fun to play and that is what counts!
 
So far wario is the only person who has said that DQVIII involves a lot of level grinding. If the levilling up is anything like FFX then i'll be fine. Between the two which game makes it easier to level up.
 
There aren't any spheres, thankfully. You basically just decide which weapon(s) you like the best, or if you want to upgrade the social skill.
 
psycho_snake said:
So far wario is the only person who has said that DQVIII involves a lot of level grinding. If the levilling up is anything like FFX then i'll be fine. Between the two which game makes it easier to level up.
Click to expand...

FFX by faaaar. Also once you get to a certain level in DQ8, leveling up becomes so tedious that you'll want to destroy the game. Fortunately, by this point you're already a high enough level to beat the game (38-45).
 
I thought that the spehere grid was quite good, but I do prfer just normal levelling up. How many battles do you need to do to go up to the next level?
 
To answer the original poster's question, yes.

You want to buy DQVIII.

It's engaging, but can be played in spurts. It's new, but has an amazing classic feel. The voice acting is terrific, the NPCs are all well-rounded, the side-quests aren't impossible without the book. You won't be disappointed.
 
Well, actually gaining levels is pretty slow in DQ VIII -- it takes a fair amount of experience / time to gain a level. But, you don't need to grind levels to advance in the game; the levels you gain just from playing through the areas seem sufficient to me. Still, if you're looking for a lot of quick level gains, you won't generally be seeing them...
 
psycho_snake said:
How many battles do you need to do to go up to the next level?
Click to expand...

Heh, I don't think there's any one answer for this. If you're smart and kill Metal Slimes with a decent strategy whenever you get a chance, it doesn't take terribly long up until level 35.
 
Amir0x said:
FFX by faaaar. Also once you get to a certain level in DQ8, leveling up becomes so tedious that you'll want to destroy the game. Fortunately, by this point you're already a high enough level to beat the game (38-45).
Click to expand...
Im beginning to lose interest in the game. Levelling up has ben the one thing which has prevented me from completeing some RPG's. I wish there was a wayt that I could find it enjoyable but I jusct cant. Judging from past experiences I will not finish DQVIII if there is level grinding.

This is the reason why I usually stick with FF games. They usuallty ahev the right balance when it comes to levelling up, they dont make it to easy and they dont make it too hard, it seems to be right in the middle.
 
Amir0x said:
Heh, I don't think there's any one answer for this. If you're smart and kill Metal Slimes with a decent strategy whenever you get a chance, it doesn't take terribly long up until level 35.
Click to expand...
There was something like this in ToS. in one part of the game there was this dragon that would give you kloads of experience so after a couple of encounteres with it you would level up. I managed to go up by 10 levels fighting that. the metal slimes seem to be same kind of thing, they sound like the enemy which gives you plenty of experience. Are they found in just one particular area?
 
psycho_snake said:
Im beginning to lose interest in the game. Levelling up has ben the one thing which has prevented me from completeing some RPG's. I wish there was a wayt that I could find it enjoyable but I jusct cant. Judging from past experiences I will not finish DQVIII if there is level grinding.

This is the reason why I usually stick with FF games. They usuallty ahev the right balance when it comes to levelling up, they dont make it to easy and they dont make it too hard, it seems to be right in the middle.
Click to expand...

The only point when you'll definitely level grind is RIGHT at the start to overcome the first dungeon (and you only need to get to level 5-8), and again right at the end if you want to tackle
the Dragon Gods
. There's also a possibility that toward the late middle of the game you might have to grind to beat
Dhoulmagus
if you're running a little under. I've noticed that stops some people.

Other than that, as GreenPanda suggested... you can get along pretty well just doing your typical fighting along your journey. Although I definitely grinded myself, if you make sure not to run much you'll do fine. Plus enemies have really great animations, so it's generally a joy to watch.

psycho_snake said:
here was something like this in ToS. in one part of the game there was this dragon that would give you kloads of experience so after a couple of encounteres with it you would level up. I managed to go up by 10 levels fighting that. the metal slimes seem to be same kind of thing, they sound like the enemy which gives you plenty of experience.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't remember those dragons from ToS but the thing about Metal Slimes is that they run away so fast. They have like 3 HP, but very little effects them. So you need to make sure you have Metal Slash and let Yangus cut loose with Executioner, in hopes of taking out one or two before they all run away. That's why I say it's important to have a good strategy. Later on when leveling up gets really slow, you can take on Liquid Metal Slimes or King Metal Slimes... and obviously, they're even more difficult to catch.
 
Amir0x said:
The only point when you'll definitely level grind is RIGHT at the start to overcome the first dungeon (and you only need to get to level 5-8), and again right at the end if you want to tackle
the Dragon Gods
. There's also a possibility that toward the late middle of the game you might have to grind to beat
Dhoulmagus
if you're running a little under. I've noticed that stops some people.

Other than that, as GreenPanda suggested... you can get along pretty well just doing your typical fighting along your journey. Although I definitely grinded myself, if you make sure not to run much you'll do fine. Plus enemies have really great animations, so it's generally a joy to watch.
Click to expand...
Animations wont interest me for long enough. I'll be amazed by it for the first few hours, after that i probably couldnt care less. the same thing happened in ToS. Tales of Symphonia's battle system made levelling up fun, but only for a couple of hours.

When I play RPG's I usually try to goup a level in just about every area so that I make sure that Im strong enough to get through the game nd kill the bosses. I do hate it because it becomes so tedious, but I can cope with it as long as the game has a gripping story. Will this tactic work well in DQVIII?
 
Amir0x said:
Yeah, I don't remember those dragons from ToS but the thing about Metal Slimes is that they run away so fast. They have like 3 HP, but very little effects them. So you need to make sure you have Metal Slash and let Yangus cut loose with Executioner, in hopes of taking out one or two before they all run away. That's why I say it's important to have a good strategy. Later on when leveling up gets really slow, you can take on Liquid Metal Slimes or King Metal Slimes... and obviously, they're even more difficult to catch.
Click to expand...
The dragons were in the earth temple where you meet gnome. They were quite strong, but if you kill them they used to give you 600-800 experience, so you could go upto the next level after 5-8 battles.
 
Maybe you should rent it.

If you want to avoid level grinding like Wario says there is a lot of, try my walkthrough out. It goes through with suggestions/stuff to make that you can go through the game without grinding at all pretty much.

Metal monsters give you a ton of experience compared to other monsters in their accompanying area.
 
I'm 75+ hours in DQVIII, and I can tell you first hand it is a wonderful game all the way around. And I'm one of those elitist RPG whores that only plays Final Fantasy games. And I thought KOTOR sucked and is for people that don't know how to play real RPG's!

That's how much I like DQVIII.

If I were to score it on a How Gay Am I For DQVIII scale of 1-10:
Graphics = 9.0
(Anamorphic 16X9, No 480p, and HDD Loader has spoiled me)
Sound = 9.5
(Some.. of.. the.. actors.. talk.. really.. slow)
Gameplay = 9.0
(Some parts can get frustrating or tedious, some battles are too long, I'm being an ass about nitpicky stuff)
Story = 8.5
(Funny, Rewarding, Simple, but not an after-thought)
Value = 10
(I'm 75+ hours in and not quite finished yet, plus you get the FFXII demo)

The game is very funny in a good way that doesn't seem forced or stupid.
I love the crazy skills some of the players have, especially Jessica's.
The only thing about the game is the first 10 hours or so can be a little slow, atleast until you get all the party members rounded up.

Not once did I feel like I was level grinding.
Just use your head and learn to look for chests to get good items.
Learn to buy and sell...(Save your money for really good items, don't spend $3,000 on sword A+ when it only adds +9 points of damage.)
Buy things that are useful!!!
Find two skills you like and level them, not 3 or 4.
For instance, maybe Humanity & Axe. Nothing else.
 
There are no rentals in Dubai. If there is a game I want to play, I have to buy it and if I dont like the game I cant trade them in.
 
Hey that sounds like me!

Hmm, well if you are expecting an FF-ish story, then you'll be disappointed.

You don't really have to level grind much if you know what you're doing, which is what no one does the first time they play. You could ask for help or try my thing out if you doubt you'll play through the game more than once and want to just go through it.

They did increase how much gold some monsters drop (Goodybags and Gold Golems; the latter which drop over 3x the gold they did in the JP version). If you don't go and buy every single upgrade you come across you should be alright for money.

But I don't really know what to say either way in buy/don't buy.
It's not much like current-day FF games.

A good combat system
Depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for combo attacks and stuff like that, there isn't anything like that in here. Battles don't take long to go through. There can be some hard battles if your party is unprepared, but that doesn't happen often.

No or very little dungeon crawling
The dungeons aren't very big. The battle encounter rate is pretty low compared to a lot of other games. You can find a map for each dungeon relatively soon for most of them. There are very few puzzles.

Good dialogue and voice acting, although this isnt impritant if the rest of the game is very good
Most people appear to enjoy the voice acting for the most part. If you don't like it, the voice acting can be disabled. The dialogue has a lot of European dialects. I dunno if it's good.

An entertaining story
Depends on what you find entertaining. If you found Skies of Arcadia entertaining, I guess this is somewhat like that. A lot of the things the party says when you talk to them can be funny, though.
 
MidgarBlowedUp said:
I'm 75+ hours in DQVIII, and I can tell you first hand it is a wonderful game all the way around. And I'm one of those elitist RPG whores that only plays Final Fantasy games. And I thought KOTOR sucked and is for people that don't know how to play real RPG's!

That's how much I like DQVIII.

If I were to score it on a How Gay Am I For DQVIII scale of 1-10:
Graphics = 9.0
(Anamorphic 16X9, No 480p, and HDD Loader has spoiled me)
Sound = 9.5
(Some.. of.. the.. actors.. talk.. really.. slow)
Gameplay = 9.0
(Some parts can get frustrating or tedious, some battles are too long, I'm being an ass about nitpicky stuff)
Story = 8.5
(Funny, Rewarding, Simple, but not an after-thought)
Value = 10
(I'm 75+ hours in and not quite finished yet, plus you get the FFXII demo)

The game is very funny in a good way that doesn't seem forced or stupid.
I love the crazy skills some of the players have, especially Jessica's.
The only thing about the game is the first 10 hours or so can be a little slow, atleast until you get all the party members rounded up.
Click to expand...
Well since this is coming from a person who just plays FF games like myself, Hopefully I enjoy it as mcuh as you do. I guess I could get past the tedious task of levelling up. Ive done it before in so I could do it again.
 
I added to the previous post.

If you want to avoid grinding for experience or money, just post in the official topic and someone will offer suggestions (maybe more people than me!).
 
Red Scarlet said:
Hey that sounds like me!

Hmm, well if you are expecting an FF-ish story, then you'll be disappointed.

You don't really have to level grind much if you know what you're doing, which is what no one does the first time they play. You could ask for help or try my thing out if you doubt you'll play through the game more than once and want to just go through it.

They did increase how much gold some monsters drop (Goodybags and Gold Golems; the latter which drop over 3x the gold they did in the JP version). If you don't go and buy every single upgrade you come across you should be alright for money.

But I don't really know what to say either way in buy/don't buy.
It's not much like current-day FF games.

A good combat system
Depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for combo attacks and stuff like that, there isn't anything like that in here. Battles don't take long to go through. There can be some hard battles if your party is unprepared, but that doesn't happen often.

No or very little dungeon crawling
The dungeons aren't very big. The battle encounter rate is pretty low compared to a lot of other games. You can find a map for each dungeon relatively soon for most of them. There are very few puzzles.

Good dialogue and voice acting, although this isnt impritant if the rest of the game is very good
Most people appear to enjoy the voice acting for the most part. If you don't like it, the voice acting can be disabled. The dialogue has a lot of European dialects. I dunno if it's good.

An entertaining story
Depends on what you find entertaining. If you found Skies of Arcadia entertaining, I guess this is somewhat like that. A lot of the things the party says when you talk to them can be funny, though.
Click to expand...


Agreed.
Good summation.



One thing that helped me in battle was to learn to balance your magic. I mean... be conservative, but not too conservative. I would use Jessica to cast Omph, then use Yangus and Angelo to cast the defense spell while VIII was psyching up. Also, if you ever feel the need to level grind, just go to a not to hard location and let Yangus whistle.

And MP in DQVIII just like in FF is the one single thing that can make or break you in battle. Throughout the game I made sure to "cook" up some MP replenishing items as they can come in handy in a big fight.
 
How's what possible?

I don't recommend games to people because I like weird stuff and have bizarro tastes in what I play a lot. I've learned that not many people share the same quirky things I do, so why try to get other people do the same when they more than likely won't. Plus I hate trying to explain stuff to people because I am so weird.

Buy it if you want.
 
Red Scarlet said:
A good combat system
Depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for combo attacks and stuff like that, there isn't anything like that in here. Battles don't take long to go through. There can be some hard battles if your party is unprepared, but that doesn't happen often.

No or very little dungeon crawling
The dungeons aren't very big. The battle encounter rate is pretty low compared to a lot of other games. You can find a map for each dungeon relatively soon for most of them. There are very few puzzles.

Good dialogue and voice acting, although this isnt impritant if the rest of the game is very good
Most people appear to enjoy the voice acting for the most part. If you don't like it, the voice acting can be disabled. The dialogue has a lot of European dialects. I dunno if it's good.

An entertaining story
Depends on what you find entertaining. If you found Skies of Arcadia entertaining, I guess this is somewhat like that. A lot of the things the party says when you talk to them can be funny, though.
Click to expand...
That does sound like I will enjoy it. Im sure I can handle the tedious levelling up.

As for the story, I have not played skeis of arcadia entertaining so I cant really say if i will enjoy DQVIII story. can you compare the story to Final Fantasy X, DDS or tales of symphonia?
 
psycho_snake said:
that does sound like i will enjoy it. Im sure I can handle the tedious levelling up.

As for the story, I have not played skeis of arcadia entertaining so I cant really say if i will enjoy DQVIII story. can you compare the story to Final Fantasy X, DDS or tales of symphonia?
Click to expand...

DQ8 story is way more lighthearted than FFX, ToS and especially DDS. Most everything is filled with little jokes. The thing is, the story is extremely simplistic and so are the characters... but they've got some fairly funny dialogue to speak and it's all developed pretty well.
 
If you don't want to tediously level up, you don't really have to if you don't want to!
Just ask and people can help you out with stuff.

Umm, I've only played FF10 out of those, and I don't play RPG's for their storyline. I liked 10's though, but I dunno about this game. I've never played a game in the DQ series for the storyline. I have no idea if it's good or bad. It's not omgserious or anything. See if Midgar can help you out there, I cannot.

I never said I was normal, Midgar. :lol
I miss rotating avs. :/
 
Red Scarlet said:
If you don't want to tediously level up, you don't really have to if you don't want to!
Click to expand...
in most cases, if you do not level up you will enbd up finding the game very difficult. Ive played many RPG's and have not finished them because my characters were not strong enough.
 
psycho_snake said:
Can you compare the story to Final Fantasy X, DDS or tales of symphonia?
Click to expand...

It's a semi serious plot told in a light hearted way.
It isn't the drama queen FFX was, and it isn't the giggle fest FFX-2 was.
Don't expect, sob sob I love you drama, but don't expect giggle vomit either.

I never said I was normal, Midgar.
Click to expand...

haha, I'm sorry, I wasn't reading that earlier comment correctly. It's almost 5am here so my reading comprehension is out the window. I just meant that your tastes can't be any stranger that anyone else's here at GAF.
 
The dialoges are quite charming (Yangus and King Trode FTW), but the story itself is pretty boring, IMO. I even think it's one of the most unoriginal plots out there.
 
psycho_snake said:
in most cases, if you do not level up you will enbd up finding the game very difficult. Ive played many RPG's and have not finished them because my characters were not strong enough.
Click to expand...

You can make items/weapons/armor in the game. Some of it is a fine replacement of levelling up (like making armor that gives you +95 defense compared to current +30 armor).
 
IMO if you can put up with the tediousness of maxing out your materia in FF7 or drawing a gazillion spells in FF8, you won't have any problems with DQ8.

Now if you want a real DQ level grinder, go play the NES version of Dragon Warrior I or II. Of course, in DQ 1 you max out at level 30 (and the Dragon Lord can still pwn you easily). But actually getting to level 30? Hooooly schnikes.

Nathan
 
2 isn't that bad, especially the NES version. The NES 1 is horrible, though yeah..like days.
6 and 7 fell into that category when I played them, too. And with 6, it was fighting slimes!
 
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