Dragon Quest VIII

- Fisticuffs is really weak in the beginning, I would not specialize in it first play through.

- If you get Sword and Courage both to 100 on the Hero, you get a really, really good move. The only other weapon skill you might want to consider leveling up on the Hero is Boomerang, because that can really expedite the random battles.

- For Yangus, just be sure to get Humanity up - he can transfer MP and backup heal. I wouldn't max it because the last few skills suck. None of his weapons are really hands down better than the others - Axe is generally the most useful, but there are a lot of situations where you'd rather have a club than an axe (vs. demons, for instance). I'd shy away from Scythe though, unless you want to steal things - you get a super move that does a lot of damage but is extremely mp inefficient, and I don't remember zombies being either all that common or being all that difficult.

- I'd recommend Staff for Jessica and Angelo - once you max staff you pretty much will be using magic only. The weapon skill doesn't really matter for either - I'd go Whip with Jessica. The problem with Angelo is that his best weapon skill is probably Sword but he's not as good at Swords as hero so his equip will always end up being second-rate.

- Basically, you will be OK as long as you specialize in the good skill paths - it's obvious what to do with the hero (if you don't take courage you're a lunatic) and if you don't give the casters Staff you're kicking yourself in the balls, but the other skills are more flexible.

- The Gingham Whip for Jessica is a pretty badass weapon and I was routinely doing more damage with it than any of her spells.

- Infamous Monsters will drop coins that you can sell for money (and only sell, they have no other use). Later on you can have these monsters participate in the classic monster arena (later in the game).

- You can't really screw up skills. I know another poster said fisticuffs are pretty bad, but if you unlock the Thin Air skill in fisticuffs, it's one of the best spammable skills in the game for taking out the trash. The in-game explanation on skills is awful, so without a guide you will never really know what you are getting. If you don't use a skill guide, then just pick a particular skill spec and max out and spread out your remainder however you see fit. Your average game will net you about ~175-200 skill points unless you grinded like a fiend. Use skill seeds on Angelo if you want equality, he has an awful skill level rate for some bizarre reason.

- Don't be afraid to optimize your party for trash clearing. You will spend A LOT more time clearing out trash than bosses in this game. Don't think that because you have 0 points in Boomerang, that you can't use Boomerangs. Use them, they speed up trash clearing considerably. Same with whips.

- Use the alchemy pot as much as possible. You can get a lot of great gear out of this that will make things easier than it must be. It's pretty much trial and error to find good stuff, or just use a guide to save yourself the time of randomly clicking shit through the cumbersome alchemy interface.

- Grind at night. You get better rewards and things just fly by faster. Honestly, you shouldn't have to grind that much except for the earliest part of the game, and this is because you have such a small party. The first dungeon may kick your ass, don't sweat it - happens to a lot of people. Just take your wipe, lose half of your very miniscule gold pile, and go back and try again.

- Put Hero and Yangus' points into Fisticuffs until they get Thin Air (42). You don't get much really great benefit for a while, and will still want to use weapons most of the time early on, but it's worth it for the one ability. After that, head down one of their weapons--which is mostly a factor of which ones you like the most, but Spears and Axes respectively let you power level best on metal slimes later on and both are pretty good weapons. Their spell lines are garbage--BUT, you want to get Yangus to 4 Humanity at some point, probably before or around the cockblock boss, so you can learn Whistle to level up with a bit less tedium. You can also take Hero's Courage to 8 early on, if traveling bugs you, to learn Zoom, but Angelo learns it on his own, so it's up to you if you want to wait to learn that.

- For Jessica, you probably want to dump full on into Staves, and then Sex Appeal after that, her weapons are kinda garbage, but if you want to do one, do whips, but you won't really need much crowd control once Hero/Yangus get Thin Air. You get a lot more mileage out of Staves, though, including a really nice free heal--she's gonna be a caster even if you insist on grabbing whips.

- Angelo's only useful line is bows, and they're also his best weapons bar none. The 100 skill is useless, though, so just go to 88, and after that, just go up Charisma, since there's not much else to do.

- There's a mid-game boss fight that is a really really awful difficulty spike. You'll probably get to it around 23-24 and it's not really feasible to beat until around 30. Suck it up, it's not terribly hard, and there's a full restorative spring right by him. Put your money in the bank before you fight him, though, and if you beat his first form, suck the loss up, because if you go back you'll only have to fight the second form.

- For the Hero, max out either swords/spears(I prefer swords because of the combined swords/courage skill) and courage(Omniheal is a lifesaver and you really, really want his reduced MP costs). Putting points into fisticuffs for him is a waste; you only need one character with Thin Air. Extra points should go into Boomerangs. You'll still want to use boomerangs for random battles even if you never put a single point into the Boomerangs skill.

- For Yangus, put your first six points into Axes to get Helm Splitter(this is vital for bosses). Then put 42 points into Fisticuffs for Thin Air(for most of the game this skill will instantly end most random battles -- for this reason I also like to give Yangus the seeds that up your max MP). From there you'll probably want to put most of your points into Axes(at least until you get Executioner). Getting 42 points in Humanity is useful for Kabuff because your other casters will usually be too busy to use it(also, Share Magic is great for giving your casters a little extra MP in a tight spot). Yangus's best weapon doesn't use any of his weapons skills so don't worry too much about that.

- For Jessica, put your first 57 points into Staves(for infinite free self-Midheal + the MP bonuses you get along the way). Then your next 78 points should go into Sex Appeal(you want Sex Appeal maxed out eventually and if you keep putting your points into Staves before getting 78 in Sex Appeal you're going to hit the skill cap), then you're able to max out Staves for Kazing(you really, really want this on Jessica). Then max out Sex Appeal because Hustle Dance becomes pretty vital, especially in the postgame. Somewhere along the line you're going to want to put at least 23 points in Whips because Twin Dragon Lash is the strongest single target attack in the game.

- For Angelo, arguments can be made for any of his weapons skills(personally I found Swords to be most useful) but you definitely want to get his Charisma to at least 52 for Chilling Chuckle.