Board 8 > Tangy plays Dragon Quest VIII

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welp here we go, starting off my first Dragon Quest game. Haven't played very much yet since it's getting late, but I do have some initial impressions

First off it's actually giving off some Dark Cloud vibes with its art style and soundtrack. Probably due to Level 5 working on this game, but I don't mind at all gives me a good wave of nostalgia.

Speaking of the music, what little I've heard is great. Really looking forward to some of the songs we'll encounter later, voice acting is just the right amount of silly so I'm expecting to get a couple of good laughs out of it.

As far as random things go, slimes are officially adorable, that horse blocking the rocks was great and I feel like I'm going to get annoyed with constantly running to churches just to save, but we'll see where it goes.

I know it's not much but I'll definitely be playing more over the next couple of days.
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Tag
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If you see a big dinosaur carrying an axe walking around, don't try to fight it. You're not ready yet.
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PS2 or 3DS version?
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oi, guv!
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mnkboy907 posted...

PS2 or 3DS version?

Also, hype!
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Excellent

Tag
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Yeah, the version matters. Especially when it comes to the music.
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If you are going to be annoyed with constantly going to churches (and this is annoying, I speak from experience, the church save music that plays as you are saving makes the experience twice as long then it needs to be), then don't go to church constantly. Go once every three times you past by a church or when someone dies/gets cursed.

The penalty of death is going back to the last church you saved at, and losing half your money that you didn't store in the banks. IIRC, you keep your story progress. These aren't big losses, unless you are going to Argonia the first time, then you might want to save there since its a long trek from the coast to Argonia the first you are going there. The game isn't so hard that you die constantly either as long as you go to the inn.

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mnkboy907 posted...

PS2 or 3DS version?

PS2, I generally avoid playing remakes unless I've already beaten the original. Too many bad remakes have made me generally wary about them.
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Oh, I mostly asked because on the 3DS games you can actually save anywhere by trying to go online and check for DLC.

Actually come to think of it I don't remember if that's in VIII or only VII so maybe it was a moot point anyway.
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So we met up with Valentina and set out into the great open world in search of a waterfall dungeon. Also Valentina's father had a surprisingly mellow reaction to see his daughter with some guy when he got home.

So starting off putting the waterfall in a clear view when you exit the town is some really good game design, but I stupidly decided to explore the map to grind a bit and just explore. My character ends up dying pretty quickly and I have to run back to town as Yangus praying not to die. So I think I'm gonna do some grinding for a bit.

On a related note I absolutely love how a dead party member turns into a coffin that will even move as one when returning to town. Some funny stuff
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Reached level 4 in the dungeon, but swiftly got my ass handed to me, gonna invest in some more medicinal herbs. Thank god the penalty for death is pretty minor
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BetrayedTangy posted...

On a related note I absolutely love how a dead party member turns into a coffin that will even move as one when returning to town. Some funny stuff

The things we take for granted as Dragon Quest fans
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So I reached the first boss and he wrecked me. Is there something I'm missing or are these games usually this hard? I expected a difficulty similar to that of FF, but it feels a lot harder than any of those games.
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I forget what exactly you have access to that early, but something to keep in mind is that buffs and debuffs are very helpful for bosses.
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At this point you might just need to grind a little. You dont have access to enough skills/spells at the moment for there to be much strategy.
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tag
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Yeah I've only learned Heal and Squelch, didn't help that Yangus got two shotted before I could heal him
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Yea you'll have to grind and get some decent gear

While definitely mainstreamed a bit (for the ps2 era)

DQ is definitely an old school RPG.

Grinding to get better gear to take on stronger enemies to get stronger gear is one of its main points
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that first boss is considered the hardest by many people just due to the low level you are when you face it.
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DQ can be a bit harder than other RPGs, although it's mostly because you're expected to put more thought into your gameplay than other RPGs. You need to be more aware of your equipment, you need to use status effects and the defend command when necessary (including in normal random battles), and you need to make use of the advantages the game gives you. You can't really sleepwalk through the series with mindless attacks interspersed with healing like most games in the genre.

That said, the beginning of DQ8 is harder than the beginning of the rest of the games in the series. I've gone into detail why before, but the summary is that most games have you go through two dungeons before you fight your first boss, so you normally go through one dungeon, make it to a town and get a chance to improve your equipment and heal up, then go through another dungeon and fight your first boss. This was the first game in the main series where you fight the first boss in the first dungeon, which means unless you play very well you'll be really outclassed and have few resources. It's a lot easier if you spend time exploring the world map beforehand, or partially go through the dungeon and return to town in the middle of it. This is really the only time in the game I'd consider it really helpful at least, the rest of the game I think is much easier.
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Been pretty busy with work and friends lately. Will likely pick this back up Tuesday
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Grinded up to about level 7 and beat the boss.

We returned the crystal ball to Kalderasha which is leading to our next objective.

I gotta say the humor in this game is really spot on. I love how they took what would normally be a generic boss enemy and actually gave him motivation.
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Woah was not expecting time to pass as i head to the checkpoint. That's pretty cool that they have that transition there for plot moments rather than just using an in game clock.

Also hot damn crossed the bridge and nearly died again. Time for some more grinding lol, hey at least this game has some killer battle music to jam out to while it's going on.
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BetrayedTangy posted...

So we met up with Valentina and set out into the great open world in search of a waterfall dungeon. Also Valentina's father had a surprisingly mellow reaction to see his daughter with some guy when he got home.

So starting off putting the waterfall in a clear view when you exit the town is some really good game design, but I stupidly decided to explore the map to grind a bit and just explore. My character ends up dying pretty quickly and I have to run back to town as Yangus praying not to die. So I think I'm gonna do some grinding for a bit.

On a related note I absolutely love how a dead party member turns into a coffin that will even move as one when returning to town. Some funny stuff

I forgot how much I enjoy the intro to this game... I don't really want to play it again but its the most fun I've had with a DQ game.