Even though this is an old game, there are plenty of people who haven’t played the original. The updates also change how you go about the game, so this will help even veteran players.
This guide will go over everything you need to get started in Dragon Quest VIII including:
Basics - Important things to know if you are new to this game or series. Attributes and Skills - What they are and why they are important. Extra Tips - Things to keep in mind when playing through the game.
Basics
Dragon Quest 8 is a traditional turn-based JRPG. This means that you and the enemy take turns fighting in battle. During your turn you can intimidate, attack, defend, use spells, use abilities, use items, psyche up, or run away.
Intimidate can stop the enemy from attacking, but it can also fail and uses up everyone’s turn.
Psyche Up will raise your Tension. This increases the damage of your next attack. You can do this multiple times, but after attacking once, Tension drops back to 0 and you deal normal damage.
Inns and Houses of the Goddess
Inns allow you to rest and recover all of your HP and MP. You can also choose to stay overnight, or rest until evening. Some monsters are events might only appear in a certain time of day, which makes this a good way to wait for them.
Houses of the Goddess offer a variety of features:
Confession - This is how you save your game so you can continue playing later. Make sure you come here early and often. You can do a quick save in the field, but this is only if you want to take a break. You will need to save at a house of the Goddess for a real save. Resurrection - Revives dead party members. Purification - Removes the Poison effect. Benediction - Removes the Curse effect.
Besides saving, you can cure those effects with the right items. If you don’t have them, the house of the Goddess is the only way.
Attributes and Skills
There are 4 main attributes in Dragon Quest 8:
Strength - This number is added to your weapon damage to determine how much physical damage you deal. Some skills may depend on Strength. Agility - Affects your turn priority. High Agility means you will most likely go first in battle. It also determines how likely you are to dodge a physical attack. Resilience - This is added to your equipment’s defense to determine how much damage you take from physical attacks.
Wisdom - This determines how strong spells are and how A. I. will react if you let them fight on their own. High Wisdom means that the A. I. will react to what the player does and the state of the enemies before deciding what to do.
Skills
Each character has their own set of skills they can put points into. These are mostly weapon skills, and unlock certain traits, spells, or abilities when raised to a certain level.
It is very important to think about what you put your skill point into, because you cannot change them later.
Every character has a unique skill, such as Courage for the Hero and Humanity for Yangus. Each character can also only use certain weapons and have skills for those weapon.
There will be a detailed guide on skills and skill allocation, but for now let me give you a few tips.
Put Points into Courage and Fisticuffs for the Hero at the beginning and use Boomerangs as your weapon. No need to put skill points into Boomerangs, it is only there so you can hit multiple enemies at once. Don’t put points into Clubs for Yangus. If you are like me, you probably started putting points in this since Yangus starts with a Club, and that’s okay. If you didn’t put too many points in, just switch to Humanity until 16 to get Nose for Treasure, then Axes until Helm Splitter.
Fisticuffs allows you get get Thin Air at 42 skill points, which allows you to attack multiple enemies, even without a Boomerang. This is why it is a good skill for most, if not all, to have.
Extra Tips
Investigate everywhere and talk to everyone. RPGs like this often have extra items you can find by exploring. You also might find new info, or are required to progress, by talking to people. Be sure to heal between battles if health is low. You never want to start a battle with low health, because you might die before you can heal. Plus it uses up a turn. Don’t forget you can Defend and Psyche Up. Sometimes it is better to raise your attack to take out an enemy quicker, than hitting them multiple times until they die. You can also save yourself from dying by defending at the right time. Some enemies only have enough MP to use powerful spells once.
That wraps up my Beginner Info and Tips for Dragon Quest 8. Let me know if you have any questions!
