Dragon Quest VIII/YMMV

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• Accidental Innuendo - To quote Morrie

Morrie: "You know what they say: You never know the depths of your own passion until you play with yourself."

• • It simply has to be on purpose with this guy, judging from many of his other lines:

Morrie: "You give my monstrous pit a good licking." Morrie: "You keep it up, and you will go far in my monstrous pit!"

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Marcello. Manipulative, self serving Jerkass, or Well-Intentioned Extremist?
  • Or he could be both.
• Complete Monster - Many regard Rhapthorne as the most evil Dragon Quest villain to date.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome - Comes mostly from the NPC characters, although your characters have one when they hit super high tension.
  • Marcello, Angelo's estranged brother. He fights off being possessed by Rhapthorne, the lord of darkness and the Big Bad of the game, by stabbing himself in the arm.
  • King Trode gets two, oddly enough. The first is during the Initiation in Argonia, where Charmles is abusing Medea. He tries to get Charmles to stop, and when he initially fails, says that Charmles can beat him instead of the horse-princess. The second is n the normal ending, where he disarms a guard wielding a halberd using nothing but a small twig. Then he knocks him out with one blow to the stomach.
  • The whole wedding sabotage scene in general, but at one point Trode is fighting off guards, with a twig.
• Crowning Moment of Funny - Say "no" in the But Thou Must! moment during the ending.
  • The reactions of Yangus and Angelo to King Trode's true form in the endings.
  • Trying to trade Medea to a NPC in Empycchu.
  • The bar fight when you first meet Angelo deserves some acknowledgment.
  • Yangus' "Golden Oldies" super attack definitely deserves mention. Calling out to King Trode (whom he refers to as "Grandad"), who then rallies a band of Elderly NPCs to charge your enemies.
  • Using a Chimaera Wing or Zoom spell while indoors.
  • Angelo's little tidbit when the party must go to Red to retrieve Medea. "So we're off to the bandit woman's house...Urgh! I just had this image of Yangus dressed up as a woman! Merciful Goddess! Purge this frightful vision from my tortured mind!"
  • The scene in Purgatory Island in which High Priest Rolo and the party devise a ruse to escape. The whole ruse is complete with purposefully stilted melodramatic acting and Yangus' dancing.
  • Don Mole. From the But Thou Must Not loops of "Can I hit ya one more time?" and the beleaguered looks on his underlings' faces to spoony James Brown speech to the mole that's knocked out from the music but still standing. When you fight him, his music is bad enough to not only daze and confuse your party, but is allies as well.
  • In the Cash/Carrie sidequest, when you're rudely awakened by Cash/Carrie (depends on who are you helping).
  • Also the first quest has this when Yangus asks Kalderasha what else did he see in the ball. And Kalderasha notices the scratch and something written near it by Geyzer...
  • Another But Thou Must! moment: try refusing Morrie's offer of a monster party, and he'll just YELL at you in Gratuitous Italian, asking you straight up if you're an imbecil.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming - the hero marrying Medea in the true ending.
  • A second one showed that when despite Marcello hating Angelo's guts, Angelo still saves his life all for those few moments of kindness.
  • Wrapping up the Cash and Carrie sidequest, where the two siblings finally put aside their petty feud to inherit the Golding fortune together. The portrait of Golding in the mansion even smiles. This troper found that cutscene particularly heartwarming.
• Crowning Music of Awesome - Quite a bit of the soundtrack.
  • Particularly, the song when you first gain the ability to fly. Especially as you recall that the embodiment of your flight is Empyrea's dead son whose spirit was shown just before you start flying.
  • No love for Remembrances? Crowning Music of Sadness for the entire game.
  • Apparently, the original versions of the game got synthesized music, whereas localizations got an orchestral soundtrack, and the theme that plays while fighting the final boss is probably the most awe inspiring orchestral you will ever listen to.
• Demonic Spiders - The monsters from the Dragovian's sanctuary area are awfully powerful.
• Draco in Leather Pants - Marcello, due to being Tall, Dark and Snarky.
• Ending Fatigue - A rather famous video game example of it.
• Ensemble Darkhorse - Yangus, popular enough to earn his own spin-off. Marcello qualifies, given his fangirls.
• Fan Nickname - Captain Douchebag for Marcello, as heard in a Let's Play of the game.
• Fan-Preferred Couple - A nice divide between Jessica/Angelo and Jessia/Hero.
• Magnificent Bastard: Marcello, for a while. Despite acting mostly for petty reasons, you almost have to respect him for becoming Lord High Priest in a matter of weeks, effectively playing politics with the entire Church and winning. Not to mention resisting Rhapthorne's possession, because he's just that focused. Not even one of your party members could do that.
• Memetic Badass - King Trode is a ninja.
• Moral Event Horizon - Rhapthorne was always evil, but when he murders an old woman in cold blood...that is when he crosses the line.
  • It should be noted that said old woman was one of his badass archnemeses and not only fought, but even harmed him.
  • And that's not even going into Gemon destroying Empyrea's unborn son with himself, which Rhapthorne is implied to have ordered if Gemon was ever defeated.
  • It could have also been when Rhapthorne kills David, who's even more defenseless than Marta since all his family's magic went to Dominico's.
  • Let's not forget what Marcello pulls once he gains control of Rhapthorne's power for a while...
• Nightmare Fuel - It's hard not to get chills at the cursed Castle Trodain. Or seeing a giant shirtless Rhapthorne for that matter.
  • Forget that. I screamed when I first saw a Capsichum, one of the first enemies in the game. The "monster" in question is two gigantic, anthropomorphic bell peppers, impaled together on a kebab skewer. They're incredibly disturbing.
  • The cut-scene where Rhapthorne breaks free of the statue of the Goddess on Neos is rather terrifying--particularly the glowing eyes.
• Rescued From the Scrappy Heap - King Trode is snobby and demanding, and comes across as a whiny, useless plot device early in the game. However, as the story progresses, it becomes clear that he is not a total buffoon, but a compassionate (if fairly egotistical) monarch who wants to preserve what little dignity he has left. He also builds (and later upgrades) the Alchemy Pot for you, which is absolutely essential for getting higher level items. And of course, there's his showing of ninja skills during one of the endings.
• The Scrappy - Charmles is literally hated by everyone who encounters him except his father. Yes, that includes everyone who has played the game and gotten far enough to see him.
  • Actually, his father does seem quite aware his son is a severe wuss and a Jerkass, and strongly implies he would love to see the boy man up and assume some responsibility. In either ending, I won't spoil it, but King Argonia gets a Crowning Moment of Awesome for taking this to its logical conclusion.
  • Also, for those who have played Dragon Quest V and Dragon Quest VI, Charmles is an unsympathetic Expy of Prince Harry (V) and Prince Howard (VI). Unlike those two, who actually grew some balls and became honorable and mature, Charmles...doesn't.
• Tear Jerker - Late in the game, you try to rescue the legendary bird Empyrea's egg from monsters. One of them pulls a Taking You with Me after his defeat...on the egg. Empyrea's grief at losing her baby hits hard; the fact that her chick's spirit chooses to become a party power-up doesn't help the sense of guilt much...
  • It does however make his theme song that much more endearing.
  • Also, don't forget Angelo's backstory. While not one of the most emotional ones in the series, his father never told him that he had a half brother who was cast out of the house once Angelo was born - but Marcello at least found a good home in the Abbey where he studied hard. Unfortunately, Angelo as a very young boy came to the abbey looking for a place to call home after his father died and left him with nothing to his name sans a few possessions he could carry. Still crying from the loss of his family, the first person Angelo met in the Abbey was Marcello who kindly said that everyone in the Abbey would be his family...until that is, Angelo introduced himself and Marcello instantly became a Magnificent Bastard, angrily telling him to leave and accusing him of trying to steal his life from him. Sure, Angelo wasn't exactly well-behaved in the Abbey, but if one thinks about it from his point of view....
  • Was this troper the only one who cried when David died?
  • NO. You were not.
  • In fact, most of the deaths that occur in the game count as this. The saddest to this troper is Marta, because the English VA playing her son did such an incredible job turning a stereotypical Russian guy into a bawling, tragic mess as he weeps over her body...
• That One Boss - The game averts this, because there isn't just "one" boss that gives you that feeling of frustration and despair; there are MANY. Dhoulmagus is the crowd favorite for this title, though. He has two forms - his first, where he splits into three copies of himself, and the second, where he assumes a demon form that is somehow even stronger than the combined might of the three from the previous fight. This troper had three MP left on his healer when he was finally able to put Dhoulmagus to bed. Three.
  • Other fun battles include the I-was-just-testing-you boss, Empyria the God Bird, and Captain Crow the ghost pirate, who vastly prefers attacking when he has maximum tension. Did I mention all these bosses can go twice in one turn, and can remove every single buff on your party at will (the latter being an obnoxiously common boss ability in this game)?
  • Empyria also has ways to make her easier. For one, half the reason she's so tough is because she has extremely high defense, but somewhat low HP. Critical attacks ignore defense, so the auto-critical skills of Eight and Yangus can make the battle a VERY quick one if you're lucky enough.
  • Let's just say that any boss past the Giant Argon Lizard is a That One Boss.
• Unfortunate Implications - Don't tell me you didn't raise an eyebrow when you saw the 'priest' in Tryan Gully.
  • Well, in this world Our Demons Are Different, and they aren't all evil. You can even meet a good Archdemon monster inside the inn.