Dragon Quest VIII speedrun (In progress)

BayouBillyBones

Edit history:

BayouBillyBones: 2014-02-20 10:54:59 am

2014-02-20 09:25:42 am

Life's short. Get a dog.

Still messing around with that TAS skip. I keep softlocking because of a lack of levels/chimera wings. I've been trying to get over to that lightning staff by dragon's graveyard so I can actually level up high enough to get zoom, but I keep getting wiped out by ocean enemies that block the way. There are four chimera up for grabs that are pretty accessible: in farebury, in waterfall, in alexandria, in port prospect. But even with those four, I don't think I'll be able to level up enough to get zoom without the staff.

My next attempt will be to try and play it safe and grind up with just those. After the second chimera, I should get heal which should give me a little more map time. Also, I will start looking into other available chimeras (I know peregrin quay has one, for instance.)

Still, pretty frustrating since it takes me at least an hour to pull off the skip each time and for some reason I can only pull it off on console (I'm thinking my emulator loads too fast to get fooled by it.)

(EDIT: 2 big problems I see down the road:
1.as far as I can tell there are no spears in any chest anywhere in this game, which makes leveling a big problem if you're not a TAS and can't guarantee crit any LMS you find.
2.Also, I will have to check, but Alexandria tower might still be locked withot bangerz there to open it, which means there would be no way to get that final orb.)

Still messing around with that TAS skip.  I keep softlocking because of a lack of levels/chimera wings.  I've been trying to get over to that lightning staff by dragon's graveyard so I can actually level up high enough to get zoom, but I keep getting wiped out by ocean enemies that block the way.  There are four chimera up for grabs that are pretty accessible: in farebury, in waterfall, in alexandria, in port prospect.  But even with those four, I don't think I'll be able to level up enough to get zoom without the staff.

My next attempt will be to try and play it safe and grind up with just those.  After the second chimera, I should get heal which should give me a little more map time.  Also, I will start looking into other available chimeras (I know peregrin quay has one, for instance.)

Still, pretty frustrating since it takes me at least an hour to pull off the skip each time and for some reason I can only pull it off on console (I'm thinking my emulator loads too fast to get fooled by it.)

(EDIT: 2 big problems I see down the road: 
1.as far as I can tell there are no spears in any chest anywhere in this game, which makes leveling a big problem if you're not a TAS and can't guarantee crit any LMS you find.  
2.Also, I will have to check, but Alexandria tower might still be locked withot bangerz there to open it, which means there would be no way to get that final orb.)

Dreamboum

Edit history:

Dreamboum: 2014-02-22 02:42:40 pm

Dreamboum: 2014-02-22 02:42:03 pm

2014-02-22 02:41:05 pm

I looked into the tension stuff, you indeed get the possibility to super tension. You can use it against Evil Jessica with Angelo and deal ~1000 damage with Falcon Slash. This also means others should have guaranteed tension for other parts, but I can't think of a use since every other boss after Evil Jessica have a dispel (except Gemon ?).

Dreamboum

2014-03-10 08:02:10 pm

Alright, I did my first run ! 14:00:56

It was horrible, I need more practice on a lot of stuff, but I should at least get it on low 13h as a goal.

BayouBillyBones

Edit history:

BayouBillyBones: 2014-03-15 04:44:19 pm

2014-03-14 02:16:20 pm

Life's short. Get a dog.

I was watching some of your attempts and you had one perfect first segment, hitting OKS at 2, hitting 6 just after Geyzer, etc. where you were back in Farebury at a low 38. Thank you for that as it convinced me to rethink my first segment plans. So far my best run on console was a mid 37 and I was grinding to get a 36.xx I just re-routed it and did an almost-best case scenario emulator test run which came out to a low 32.

Basically, I loot farebury as before, run from everything in waterfall and grab the sword, fighting geyzer at level 3 (consistent fight since I have so many herbs.) Then, intentional death back to farebury. I'll have to see how bad bad runs of it go when I do console attempts to see whether or not it will be useful to you. The biggest randomness come from getting your run block and getting that fight to kill you after you fight geyzer, you can lose a lot of time if you get a bad gang and have to walk forever to find a second. Also we would have to do some testing to see if it is worth it to do a few fights or even hammerhead to hit level 4 for better run chance, faster geyzer fight, and more consitent level 6 by the end of alexandria tower.

Levelwise I hit 4+5 after geyzer. Gold wise I have 87 + monster coin + swords (together they sell for 210) + club + pot lid (sells for 20) + two extra chimera wings + I never grabbed 20 gold in farebury, but SS probably would to get some "just in case" herbs. Attribute wise I used the seed of defense so later fights should be a little easier.

Next segment would start buying a boomerang, keeping club and fighting mobs on the way to alexandria/ alexandria tower/in alexandria tower to level from 5-6 to get evac. Should be pretty easy since they give so much EXP and fights are easier with Yangus swinging club and hero with boomerang. Also, SS might grab the 100 gold chest behind cowboy on the way to khalamari to get an extra encounter or two and be swimming in gold (possibly even use it to buy another scale shield to make Khalamari easier.)

EDIT: Did some more testing today. I did a no reset run from my 32.xx save file up to port prospect. I ran into some problems, but only 2 bunnies. Final time at port prospect was a low 1:08. At that point both characters were level 8, I had grabbed all the same seeds and had enough gold to buy an axe + had 203 gold to spare (which means we can probably skip the 100 gold chest behind cowboy.) So, the gold and exp lost in waterfall can be made up quickly enough around Alexandria that it shouldn't be an issue at all. Once I start grinding segment 1 attempts again I'll let you know what the range of times on segment 1 look like to see how SS viable it is.

I was watching some of your attempts and you had one perfect first segment, hitting OKS at 2, hitting 6 just after Geyzer, etc. where you were back in Farebury at a low 38.  Thank you for that as it convinced me to rethink my first segment plans.  So far my best run on console was a mid 37 and I was grinding to get a 36.xx  I just re-routed it and did an almost-best case scenario emulator test run which came out to a low 32.

Basically, I loot farebury as before, run from everything in waterfall and grab the sword, fighting geyzer at level 3 (consistent fight since I have so many herbs.)  Then, intentional death back to farebury. I'll have to see how bad bad runs of it go when I do console attempts to see whether or not it will be useful to you.  The biggest randomness come from getting your run block and getting that fight to kill you after you fight geyzer, you can lose a lot of time if you get a bad gang and have to walk forever to find a second.  Also we would have to do some testing to see if it is worth it to do a few fights or even hammerhead to hit level 4 for better run chance, faster geyzer fight, and more consitent level 6 by the end of alexandria tower.

Levelwise I hit 4+5 after geyzer.  Gold wise I have 87 + monster coin + swords (together they sell for 210) + club + pot lid (sells for 20) +  two extra chimera wings + I never grabbed 20 gold in farebury, but SS probably would to get some "just in case" herbs. Attribute wise I used the seed of defense so later fights should be a little easier.

Next segment would start buying a boomerang, keeping club and fighting mobs on the way to alexandria/ alexandria tower/in alexandria tower to level from 5-6 to get evac.  Should be pretty easy since they give so much EXP and fights are easier with Yangus swinging club and hero with boomerang.  Also, SS might grab the 100 gold chest behind cowboy on the way to khalamari to get an extra encounter or two and be swimming in gold (possibly even use it to buy another scale shield to make Khalamari easier.)

EDIT:  Did some more testing today.  I did a no reset run from my 32.xx save file up to port prospect.  I ran into some problems, but only 2 bunnies.  Final time at port prospect was a low 1:08.  At that point both characters were level 8, I had grabbed all the same seeds and had enough gold to buy an axe + had 203 gold to spare (which means we can probably skip the 100 gold chest behind cowboy.) So, the gold and exp lost in waterfall can be made up quickly enough around Alexandria that it shouldn't be an issue at all.  Once I start grinding segment 1 attempts again I'll let you know what the range of times on segment 1 look like to see how SS viable it is.

Dreamboum

2014-03-18 12:21:57 am

It should be really interesting to see how it plays out, I really have to make sure that Khalamari is somewhat consistent on my attempts so extra-money is always a good thing.

I still have to deal with that awful 14:00:56 time but my sum of best is already showing that I gained one hour overall so I think that a decent goal for a decent run would be a sub 12 hour or at least sub12h15.

BayouBillyBones

2014-03-18 10:45:58 pm

Life's short. Get a dog.

I've done four console runs so far, the worst of which was a 34:30 which involved trying to die by a fire spirit who kept trying to cast fizz despite having no MP. So, my worst was still 4 minutes faster than a perfect run under the japanese strat. Fast enough to more than make up for the extra time in Alexandria and grab the 100 gold chest. There's another minute to save in skipping the loot of the church entirely (or 40 seconds to save if we just skip going inside for the pot lid and extra herb) but it means a less forgiving geyzer and more herb burn which might force an inn stay at Alexandria upon arrival for MP in a single segment run.

One note: I noticed from your google doc that you aren't taking the second slime crown in tryan gully. It's exclusive to the NA version which is why the japanese version doesn't take it. Not sure how it would change the route, whether you'd use it for gold and skip an alchemy or something earlier, or just have someone wear it for an easier rhapthorne.

I've done four console runs so far, the worst of which was a 34:30 which involved trying to die by a fire spirit who kept trying to cast fizz despite having no MP.   So, my worst was still 4 minutes faster than a perfect run under the japanese strat.  Fast enough to more than make up for the extra time in Alexandria and grab the 100 gold chest.  There's another minute to save in skipping the loot of the church entirely (or 40 seconds to save if we just skip going inside for the pot lid and extra herb) but it means a less forgiving geyzer and more herb burn which might force an inn stay at Alexandria upon arrival for MP in a single segment run.

One note: I noticed from your google doc that you aren't taking the second slime crown in tryan gully.  It's exclusive to the NA version which is why the japanese version doesn't take it.  Not sure how it would change the route, whether you'd use it for gold and skip an alchemy or something earlier, or just have someone wear it for an easier rhapthorne.

BayouBillyBones

2014-03-24 09:22:08 pm

Life's short. Get a dog.

Consolation prize for today's heartbreaking run. Here's a video showing off the TAS skip in the NA version:

Dreamboum

2014-03-25 10:53:48 pm

My game doesn't load the menu that fast, maybe that's why I can't attempt the tortured soul skip ? Anyway, thanks for the video, it was really fun to watch.

As for the Slime Crown, idk yet, maybe I can buy one shield in the Tryan Gully shop with it ? I'll have to look into it.

BayouBillyBones

2014-04-08 09:41:47 am

Life's short. Get a dog.

I've been grinding the first segment a bit. Route has change a few times, but is solid now, here's a 32:30 I just got with me explaining the route. My sum of best splits says that a 30:15 is possible, so it looks like I gotta get back to grinding:

Things I would change for a single segment:

1. grab the 20 gold inside the house for maximum herbs (you'll probably end up with 7 extra by the time you're walking to alexandria.) That should put you at exactly 0 gold remaining after buying 9 herbs for hero and yangus.

2. fight those three encounters (and detour into the forest for a better 3rd encounter) to level up to 2 before OKS (because he is a jerk.)

3. if not at level 3 after OKS, fight the smallest encounter possible in waterfall cave. OKS + 14 exp = level 3.

4. After taking the death train back to farebury, you can grab the herb and pot lid in the back of the church if you're worried about the initial encounters you will have in Alexandria.

Geyzer strategy

Basically: Hero psyches up everyturn, yangus attacks on mist turn and heals hero on every other turn except the attack after sizz when he heals himself.

If Geyzer hit yangus with the bad attack: next round yangus defends and hero heals him.

If Geyzer hits Yangus with a regular attack you didn't expect, Hero heals during the mist turn to catch up.

After 3 rounds of psyching to 50 and attacking, geyzer should be down to 30-40 health - however much random damage yangus did during mist turns.

How the next segment will start:

re-equip all equipment,
grab the pot lid and herb if you're scared, but you should be fine without them.
Everything else is normal, on the way to Alexandria try to avoid the woods as your level isn't high enough for holy water to guarantee no encounters there.
Fight the three encounters you get across the bridge, using herbs liberally. That should have you at level six and caught up on gold, or one encounter away (which you can get on the way to the tower.)

I've been grinding the first segment a bit.  Route has change a few times, but is solid now, here's a 32:30 I just got with me explaining the route.  My sum of best splits says that a 30:15 is possible, so it looks like I gotta get back to grinding:

http://youtu.be/pVDKG23xlk0

Things I would change for a single segment: 
[hidden]
1. grab the 20 gold inside the house for maximum herbs (you'll probably end up with 7 extra by the time you're walking to alexandria.)  That should put you at exactly 0 gold remaining after buying 9 herbs for hero and yangus.

2. fight those three encounters (and detour into the forest for a better 3rd encounter) to level up to 2 before OKS (because he is a jerk.)

3. if not at level 3 after OKS, fight the smallest encounter possible in waterfall cave.  OKS + 14 exp = level 3.

4. After taking the death train back to farebury, you can grab the herb and pot lid in the back of the church if you're worried about the initial encounters you will have in Alexandria.[/hidden]
Geyzer strategy
[hidden]Basically: Hero psyches up everyturn, yangus attacks on mist turn and heals hero on every other turn except the attack after sizz when he heals himself.

If Geyzer hit yangus with the bad attack: next round yangus defends and hero heals him.

If Geyzer hits Yangus with a regular attack you didn't expect, Hero heals during the mist turn to catch up.

After 3 rounds of psyching to 50 and attacking, geyzer should be down to 30-40 health - however much random damage yangus did during mist turns.[/hidden]

How the next segment will start:
[hidden] 
re-equip all equipment, 
grab the pot lid and herb if you're scared, but you should be fine without them.  
Everything else is normal, on the way to Alexandria try to avoid the woods as your level isn't high enough for holy water to guarantee no encounters there.
Fight the three encounters you get across the bridge, using herbs liberally.  That should have you at level six and caught up on gold, or one encounter away (which you can get on the way to the tower.)  [/hidden]

rawkdawg

2014-04-10 10:29:37 pm

If you actually want to run this game, you shouldn't focus on the first segment; think about the entire game.

R

2014-04-11 07:48:12 am

First segment is one of the toughest as you are quite weak at this point and the run can be easily ended. Probably why so much work has gone into the first segment. To be honest, if someone is working that hard per segment, if they have the motivation to finish then it would be an awesome run.

BayouBillyBones

2014-04-11 08:46:57 am

Life's short. Get a dog.

For those curious, the general plan for the later segments:

Basically, you want to get to MS, LMS, and KMS as fast as possible since once there they can break the game. For instance, one MS gives more experience than all the experience you will have gained through khalamari and that whole hour of the game.

I will sacrifice anything and everything for time in the first segment: gold I can get through alchemy or casino abuse if I get stuck. EXP will be coming from slimes.

My plan is to kill two MS before heading off to trodain. This will take Yangus to level 12, with 43 skill points which will be going into: 6 for helm splitter (legacy for making khalamari easier,) 4 ponts to whistle for slime hunting, and 33 points for padfoot to reduce random encounters on the way to trodain and in late game (LMS have 7-8 times the experience of a MS and they arrive alone in trodain so the quicker levels make getting to trodain as soon as possible worth it.) Luck manipulation good times.

Early points for hero = spears so he can kill MS.
Early points for jessica = she needs 9 into knives so I can get past trap box quickly at low level, then she starts toward magic burst (probably)

Once at Trodain, I come to a crossroads and need to do more research. Basically, the big question is what is the fastest way to get to the dragon graveyard for the 120-180k experience an encounter. Would the time saved from being able to one shot every boss from here to evil jessica with magic burst, plus the absence of random encounters for much of the rest of the game be worth the time lost grinding out the 15 LMS to get there. Most of the bosses are weak to poison knife, but there are a lot of them and a lot of walking (possible encounters) between trodain and the dragon graveyard.

But, this is all far in the distance. First, I have to grind out another 2 minutes in the first segment and get to work on quick levels and dead squid in the next two.

For those curious, the general plan for the later segments:

Basically, you want to get to MS, LMS, and KMS as fast as possible since once there they can break the game.  For instance, one MS gives more experience than all the experience you will have gained through khalamari and that whole hour of the game.

I will sacrifice anything and everything for time in the first segment: gold I can get through alchemy or casino abuse if I get stuck.  EXP will be coming from slimes.

My plan is to kill two MS before heading off to trodain.  This will take Yangus to level 12, with 43 skill points which will be going into: 6 for helm splitter (legacy for making khalamari easier,) 4 ponts to whistle for slime hunting, and 33 points for padfoot to reduce random encounters on the way to trodain and in late game (LMS have 7-8 times the experience of a MS and they arrive alone in trodain so the quicker levels make getting to trodain as soon as possible worth it.)  Luck manipulation good times.

Early points for hero = spears so he can kill MS.  
Early points for jessica = she needs 9 into knives so I can get past trap box quickly at low level, then she starts toward magic burst (probably)

Once at Trodain, I come to a crossroads and need to do more research.  Basically, the big question is what is the fastest way to get to the dragon graveyard for the 120-180k experience an encounter.  Would the time saved from being able to one shot every boss from here to evil jessica with magic burst, plus the absence of random encounters for much of the rest of the game be worth the time lost grinding out the 15 LMS to get there.  Most of the bosses are weak to poison knife, but there are a lot of them and a lot of walking (possible encounters) between trodain and the dragon graveyard.

But, this is all far in the distance.  First, I have to grind out another 2 minutes in the first segment and get to work on quick levels and dead squid in the next two.

BayouBillyBones

Edit history:

BayouBillyBones: 2014-04-15 09:16:41 pm

BayouBillyBones: 2014-04-15 03:29:17 pm

BayouBillyBones: 2014-04-15 03:10:16 pm

BayouBillyBones: 2014-04-14 07:35:51 pm

2014-04-14 03:04:43 pm

Life's short. Get a dog.

Update on that TAS skip:

Japanese copy arrived this weekend. The skip is much easier on the Japanese version. Largely because the same button enters and exits the menu so you can mash your way to success.

If you manage to make it to the hilltop hut, you can save there as the NPCs seem to always be loaded. But, once I saved, I couldn't find the ship anymore so you might have to grab everything by boat before arriving. Once saving there, NPCs return to Farebury, so you can shop and won't soft lock. All the cutscenes are back in farebury, but you don't get yangus back, even after going through all of them.

No other cities have NPCs. But, you can respawn everyone in Jessica's house by sending munchie through the hole. I didn't manage to get bangerz to follow me, though. ~~So, still no headway on picking up the plot.~~ Strike that. Beating geyzer and taking the cutscenes brings back yangus and puts you back in the plot. Will look for later flags.

[Edit: making a list of places that I've ruled out:
High priest's residence: random marcello cut scene, but no NPCs
Land of the moles: nothing, and if you take the tunnel to Ascantha you are stuck in the fountain
Port Prospect: cut scene when leaving, no NPCs
Baccarat, Seaview Church, Chateau Felix, Neos, Alexandria, Ascantha, Peregrin Quay, Maella Abbey, wisher's peak, waterfall cave, waterfall hut,: nothing]

Update on that TAS skip:

Japanese copy arrived this weekend.  The skip is much easier on the Japanese version.  Largely because the same button enters and exits the menu so you can mash your way to success.

If you manage to make it to the hilltop hut, you can save there as the NPCs seem to always be loaded.  But, once I saved, I couldn't find the ship anymore so you might have to grab everything by boat before arriving.  Once saving there, NPCs return to Farebury, so you can shop and won't soft lock.  All the cutscenes are back in farebury, but you don't get yangus back, even after going through all of them.

No other cities have NPCs.  But, you can respawn everyone in Jessica's house by sending munchie through the hole.  I didn't manage to get bangerz to follow me, though.  [s]So, still no headway on picking up the plot.[/s]  Strike that.  Beating geyzer and taking the cutscenes brings back yangus and puts you back in the plot.  Will look for later flags.

[Edit: making a list of places that I've ruled out:
High priest's residence: random marcello cut scene, but no NPCs
Land of the moles: nothing, and if you take the tunnel to Ascantha you are stuck in the fountain
Port Prospect: cut scene when leaving,  no NPCs
Baccarat, Seaview Church, Chateau Felix, Neos, Alexandria, Ascantha, Peregrin Quay, Maella Abbey, wisher's peak, waterfall cave, waterfall hut,: nothing]

Krissehboy

2014-05-21 05:43:01 am

BayouBillyBones I would love to have a chat with you on these topics because breaking this game has something I have always been excited about, do you have a Skype?

BayouBillyBones

Edit history:

BayouBillyBones: 2014-05-23 09:54:42 pm

2014-05-22 07:14:28 pm

Life's short. Get a dog.

Quote from Krissehboy:

BayouBillyBones I would love to have a chat with you on these topics because breaking this game has something I have always been excited about, do you have a Skype?

Hi Krissehboy,

I have skype, but as my ridiculously infrequent streaming schedule suggests, I can be hard to find. So, the best way to reach me is probably to make an account so we can trade messages and swap notes.

Also, update: killing geyzer after saving at hilltop gives you yangus back and appears to put you back on the plot, but you need to go through all of the same cutscenes to do it. But, once that's over all the locations in your zoom list seems to get stocked with NPCs, so you can do something like get baumren's bell before going to Alexandria. The problem is that you lose your ship once you save at hilltop, so any runs using this skip that aren't tool assisted will have to prioritize one or two locations. I was hoping to use this to do an early dragon's graveyard, but you still need to do all the ascantha stuff before you can meet with cash and carrie.

Also, after saving, but before doing all the cutscenes to get Yangus back, if you go into a town and wait for the nite/day change the NPCs will reappear, but only the ones on the street, not the ones inside buildings. So it seems like any action that would affect the NPCs reloads them, which explains why grabbing the slime crown works, it changes the giant slime to a bunch of npc slimes and the game loads the NPCs in the area as part of this change (thank god hilltop hut is so close.)

[quote="Krissehboy"]BayouBillyBones I would love to have a chat with you on these topics because breaking this game has something I have always been excited about, do you have a Skype?[/quote]

Hi Krissehboy,

I have skype, but as my ridiculously infrequent streaming schedule suggests, I can be hard to find.  So, the best way to reach me is probably to make an account so we can trade messages and swap notes.

Also, update: killing geyzer after saving at hilltop gives you yangus back and appears to put you back on the plot, but you need to go through all of the same cutscenes to do it.  But, once that's over all the locations in your zoom list seems to get stocked with NPCs, so you can do something like get baumren's bell before going to Alexandria.  The problem is that you lose your ship once you save at hilltop, so any runs using this skip that aren't tool assisted will have to prioritize one or two locations. I was hoping to use this to do an early dragon's graveyard, but you still need to do all the ascantha stuff before you can meet with cash and carrie.

Also, after saving, but before doing all the cutscenes to get Yangus back, if you go into a town and wait for the nite/day change the NPCs will reappear, but only the ones on the street, not the ones inside buildings.  So it seems like any action that would affect the NPCs reloads them, which explains why grabbing the slime crown works, it changes the giant slime to a bunch of npc slimes and the game loads the NPCs in the area as part of this change (thank god hilltop hut is so close.)

Krissehboy

2014-05-26 07:13:47 am

Intro skip glitch:

If you get to hill top hut and have pirate cove in your zoom list you can perform a major sequence break. Going to hilltop hut and climbing down the slime well spawns all the npcs in the entire game, and if you zoom to pirate cove
and evac ( I thought this would crash the game) it plays the cutscene where you obtain the boat for the first time with the water slowly lowering and then king toad tells you how to steer it. More to come this has been discovered as I type this

Krissehboy

2014-05-26 07:16:49 am

You must do that everytime however, as the boat doesn't appear to unlock afterwards but it still mean you can use the boat after you obtain yangus again, and all the npcs are back to there respective places.

BayouBillyBones

2014-05-26 07:43:12 am

Life's short. Get a dog.

Hi Krisseh,

Great find. That makes this much more feasable in a human run, as all you would have to get to would be pirate cove and hilltop hut without dying and they are fairly close to farebury.

Folllowups when you get a chance: does the slime crown scene do all NPCs in the map, or just those in your zoom list? Does saving have any effect besides just getting rid of your boat?

Also, for anyone else interested, here are the save states with the intro skip glitch active in the NA version:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nj02skgmr7m5nzl/SLUS-21207%20%28F4715852%29.04.p2s

https://www.dropbox.com/s/02aczdv2j610efr/SLUS-21207%20%28F4715852%29.05.p2s

Krissehboy

2014-05-26 07:56:30 am

I thought it did all npc on the map at first because in baccarat and other places there where but simpleton and arcadia there appears to be none. 5 hours tested so far tomorrow will be a day of more discoveries

BayouBillyBones

Edit history:

BayouBillyBones: 2014-05-26 06:08:22 pm

2014-05-26 03:50:33 pm

Life's short. Get a dog.

Quick update: using your ship return trick, after getting the band together I was able to go straight to baccarat, then pick up the story by going to NW island and ascantha. So it looks like we can skip everything between the abbey and baccarat (Ascantha, Pickham, trodain, mole hole, etc.) without losing the plot. So we can skip from 2 hours into the run to 6.5 hours into the run, not counting all the grinding we will have to make up. What will happen when it's time to pick up the sage stones remains to be seen.

Trodain isn't too bad of a loss from a grinding perspective, as we can use royal hunting ground adjacent or southwest isle to level instead. We will be losing the magic key, though. Still, it should be an hour or two off the run just from the plot and walking skipped, even if we don't save time on grinding (I think we will save time on grinding,) find a way to get the party together without following the plot (I think we will find away to get the party together without following the plot,) or find a later place to connect to the plot (I don't think we will find a later point to connect to the plot.)

Also, I think if we set up in the beginning we should be able to pull off the same captain crow skip that the japanese version gets to do.

(Edit: just tested, and you can go straight from the hilltop hut to the plot in baccarat, NW isle, and argonia but no luck getting the rest of the party (the in engine cutscenes even have just hero despite everyone else refering to the party as "these travelers.")

Quick update: using your ship return trick, after getting the band together I was able to go straight to baccarat, then pick up the story by going to NW island and ascantha.  So it looks like we can skip everything between the abbey and baccarat (Ascantha, Pickham, trodain, mole hole, etc.) without losing the plot.  So we can skip from 2 hours into the run to 6.5 hours into the run, not counting all the grinding we will have to make up.  What will happen when it's time to pick up the sage stones remains to be seen.

Trodain isn't too bad of a loss from a grinding perspective, as we can use royal hunting ground adjacent or southwest isle to level instead.  We will be losing the magic key, though.  Still, it should be an hour or two off the run just from the plot and walking skipped, even if we don't save time on grinding (I think we will save time on grinding,) find a way to get the party together without following the plot (I think we will find  away to get the party together without following the plot,) or find a later place to connect to the plot (I don't think we will find a later point to connect to the plot.)

Also, I think if we set up in the beginning we should be able to pull off the same captain crow skip that the japanese version gets to do.

(Edit: just tested, and you can go straight from the hilltop hut to the plot in baccarat, NW isle, and argonia but no luck getting the rest of the party (the in engine cutscenes even have just hero despite everyone else refering to the party as "these travelers.")

Krissehboy

2014-05-27 03:34:32 am

Just to clarify there is some odd things that getting the slime crown does, it changes certain things in the game. Prior to doing it you can enter baccarat casino and actually play the games if you had tokens to begin with. But after you activate the cutscene you can not, same goes for the golding mansion you can enter the locked gate, Maella abbey prior to getting angelo you can explore past the usually guarded door. This is only useful for early item obtaining however, you can get some nice things (gold ring and shimmering dress) in baccarat that you can't get after performing the glitch so keep that in mind.

Krissehboy

2014-05-27 03:36:24 am

also you can get one of the end game orbs in farebury, multiple times if you faint and head back to the same spot. Its odd that it is available, its seen in the japanese TAS but the one in the golding mansion isn't available, if it was it would allow skipping to the end of the game right at the start if after collecting all 7 a certain trigger happened.

Krissehboy

2014-05-29 09:41:26 am

Dragon quest 8 is now available on IOS and Android with english translation. I live in Australia and it costs $30 lol.

It unfortunately doesn't have the symphonic soundtrack or voice acting so its like if the English was the same as Japanese except for the translation.

BayouBillyBones

Edit history:

BayouBillyBones: 2014-05-31 01:01:49 pm

BayouBillyBones: 2014-05-29 10:07:12 pm

BayouBillyBones: 2014-05-29 10:06:56 pm

2014-05-29 10:21:30 am

Life's short. Get a dog.

If it's just a straight translation of the japanese ios release, expect the emulation to be borked: ridiculous loading, etc. But the japanese version did have a new UI over the old, so touch controls shouldn't be too terrible. The good news is that if this does well enough we might see some of the other DQ ios releases: their plan was to ios 1-8 in japan, hopefully it's now "ios 1-8 japan and then send to the west."

Will let you know my thoughts once it's done downloading and I get to play around with it tonight a bit.

[Edit: played it on the newest Ipad. Loading doesn't seem bad at all, but the cutscenes are choppy as the emulation seems to breakdown when loading video, but in the game it's not a problem. They have done some weird stuff, though. You can tell it's been optimized for phones, you have to play vertical so everything is oddly zoomed in. Also, controls take some practice before they go from terrible to barely useable. The filters are good, though, so the game looks gorgeous.

You can't run and menu cycle, so no chance at the major skips unless there is controller support added. The UI helps in some ways (remembers your actions and suggests actions) and hurts in others (makes you confirm your parties actions before doing them.) Also, two rebalances I noticed: you start with a world map and MUCH more gold. As in, they added a zero. So, you can buy a boomerang before leaving farebury and have money left over to buy herbs for everyone. Will progress and see what else is different.

Next big difference I found: no walking for the alchemy pot. You put the ingredients in and two seconds later your item is ready. That's pretty huge.

In case anyone was thinking of running this version: checking benchmarks, IGT had me at 42 minutes back in farebury after geyzer and at level 6, you'd expect 38-40 in a good run on the ps2 version. So, the extra gold, etc. almost balances out the time lost to garbage controls.]

If it's just a straight translation of the japanese ios release, expect the emulation to be borked: ridiculous loading, etc.  But the japanese version did have a new UI over the old, so touch controls shouldn't be too terrible. The good news is that if this does well enough we might see some of the other DQ ios releases: their plan was to ios 1-8 in japan, hopefully it's now "ios 1-8 japan and then send to the west."

Will let you know my thoughts once it's done downloading and I get to play around with it tonight a bit.

[Edit: played it on the newest Ipad.  Loading doesn't seem bad at all, but the cutscenes are choppy as the emulation seems to breakdown when loading video, but in the game  it's not a problem.  They have done some weird stuff, though.  You can tell it's been optimized for phones, you have to play vertical so everything is oddly zoomed in.  Also, controls take some practice before they go from terrible to barely useable.  The filters are good, though, so the game looks gorgeous.

You can't run and menu cycle, so no chance at the major skips unless there is controller support added.  The UI helps in some ways (remembers your actions and suggests actions) and hurts in others (makes you confirm your parties actions before doing them.)  Also, two rebalances I noticed: you start with a world map and MUCH more gold.  As in, they added a zero.  So, you can buy a boomerang before leaving farebury and have money left over to buy herbs for everyone.  Will progress and see what else is different.

Next big difference I found: no walking for the alchemy pot.  You put the ingredients in and two seconds later your item is ready.  That's pretty huge.

In case anyone was thinking of running this version: checking benchmarks, IGT had me at 42 minutes back in farebury after geyzer and at level 6, you'd expect 38-40 in a good run on the ps2 version.  So, the extra gold, etc. almost balances out the time lost to garbage controls.]

Krissehboy

Edit history:

Krissehboy: 2014-06-01 11:38:55 pm

Krissehboy: 2014-06-01 11:25:38 pm

2014-06-01 11:09:05 pm

Just when I thought I had found all that was to be discovered. If you defeat the Giant Argon Lizard and get the Magic Mirror, every NPC in the game appears to spawn up until that point. I headed to simpleton to see Angelo in the bar, Pickham had all of its npcs even in the casino. I don't know what this means for the sequence breaking but up until this point we where very low on cash, now in a run we could do some casino abuse to get us geared up.

[Edit: Doing so also brings back the boat for permanent use without having to evac from Pirates Cove all the time. By doing this you can do Angelos sidequest to obtain him and wait untill after Dhalmagus to obtain Jessica because it would technically be a waste getting her for one fight when you lose her when she becomes Evil Jessica. But doing so would technically get you the alchemy pot. It is all a matter of is the glitch actually worth it with this amount of back tracking?]

[Edit: Doing Angelos cutscene because you get thrown in jail your character are taken out of the party and when you get out they get put back, Jessica is now back in the party without doing any Alexandria stuff and shortly after Angelo joins the party after you witness the death of the Abott, No alchemy pot though.]

Just when I thought I had found all that was to be discovered. If you defeat the Giant Argon Lizard and get the Magic Mirror, every NPC in the game appears to spawn up until that point. I headed to simpleton to see Angelo in the bar, Pickham had all of its npcs even in the casino. I don't know what this means for the sequence breaking but up until this point we where very low on cash, now in a run we could do some casino abuse to get us geared up.

[Edit: Doing so also brings back the boat for permanent use without having to evac from Pirates Cove all the time. By doing this you can do Angelos sidequest to obtain him and wait untill after Dhalmagus to obtain Jessica because it would technically be a waste getting her for one fight when you lose her when she becomes Evil Jessica. But doing so would technically get you the alchemy pot. It is all a matter of is the glitch actually worth it with this amount of back tracking?]

[Edit: Doing Angelos cutscene because you get thrown in jail your character are taken out of the party and when you get out they get put back, [b]Jessica is now back in the party[/b] without doing any Alexandria stuff and shortly after Angelo joins the party after you witness the death of the Abott, No alchemy pot though.]