Grazza

I would say it's easily possible for an advanced species. Human technology is already beginning to read people brainwaves and literally build up images of what they are seeing. It's quite feasible that an alien could scan our brains and know exactly which brainwave means what. After all, any aliens that could travel to earth would be advanced beyond belief. Even if they couldn't read our minds (which I'm sure they could), they could have a database of every language on earth and have machines that translated everything instantly.

I got the impression the game is suggesting your Warrior becomes a Paladin, as it's unlocked via his "Courage" skill set. I'm going to turn my Warrior, Dave, into a Paladin eventually, but he's so tough I want to max-out his Courage first. Incidentally, each character's "special" (5th) skill set is the one to max-out, as they're the only one who has it. I'm thinking of turning my Mage into a Priest, and my Priest into a Mage, to pick up the transferable skills I haven't been investing in, such as Wands. You have to get to Level 99 to max-out two skill sets, but only Level 38 to max-out one, but I'm saving all this for post-game anyway. I'm assuming there will be some rock hard bosses! Maybe the Priest can become a Sage or something, and the Mage a Magic Knight? Do you need to leave it in a special mode for that, or do you just have to have your DS in sleep mode? Yeah, what a rip off! To be honest, the graphics aren't good enough to be sexy anyway! I'm hoping you can alchemise it into something better.

Good pictures and report, Retro Link. Glad you enjoyed it. Rez has given you the Golden Ticket list, but I always thought enthusiasts preferred Mitch Hawker's poll, as it has a very thorough (and supposedly fair/accurate system). Hey, I don't know, I'm nowhere near as keen on roller coasters as I used to be, but here it are the 2009 results: Wood 1. Voyage, Holiday World 2. El Toro, SFGAdv 3. T Express, Everland 4. Boulder Dash, Lake Compunce 5. Ravine Flyer II, Waldameer 6. Prowler, Worlds of Fun 7. Balder, Liseberg -8. Phoenix, Knoebels -8. Fireball, Happy Valley Song 10. Aska, Nara Dreamland 11. Thunderhead, Dollywood 12. Colossos, Heide Park Steel 1. Bizarro, SFNE 2. Eagle's Fortress, Everland 3. Expedition GeForce, Holiday Park 4. Diamondback, Kings Island 5. Goliath, Walibi World 6. Piraten, Djurs Sommerland 7. Nemesis, Alton Towers 8. Katun, Miribilandia 9. Kawasemi, Tobu Zoo 10. Millennium Force, Cedar Point 11. Pyrenees, Pargue Espana http://www.ushsho.com/bestrollercoasterpoll.htm By the way, I think there are some crossed wires in this thread. Bizarro at SFNE is an Intamin hyper coaster (it used to be called Superman: Ride of Steel). It's a huge coaster with no inversions. The B&M Floorless called Bizarro is at SFGAdv and used to be called Medusa, and whilst it's well-respected, it's S:ROS at SFNE that's always had the hype.

I watch The Sky at Night, but am very ignorant about astronomy. Has Venus been visible recently? I believe I've seen it on three different nights. What I'm seeing appears brighter and larger than stars (from my perspective), but is much smaller than the Moon. Also, do you believe there are aliens out there? There must be, surely? Intelligent ones too, I assume.

Thanks very much, I really had no idea about that.

On the plus side, the equipment you can buy in Gleeba is the best you'll encounter for quite some time. There is a new armour set for this game that sounded really good...

I find that, whilst I feel strong enough with what I've got, the pace of the game means that I can never afford full sets of armour and weapons. For instance, I might decide I want to build a team all wearing armour with good magic defence; but I don't want to grind, and so I beat the boss and am soon tempted with a newer set of armour. It remains a mish-mash.

No. Say I want my mage to pick up Shield skills, I might just turn her into a Warrior (or whatever) for a bit and put every skill point into that. I also believe I wouldn't have to max it out either, but that's only because the Mage has Shield skills anyway, if you see what I mean?

I've just been reading up on what I asked about earlier, and you can't level up your Mage again, because they regain their level and skill points if you turn them back into what they were before. Hmm, I'll have to plan it carefully if I want them to pick up certain skills.

I've read that if you take your character up to Level 99 (a daunting task if DQ VIII is anything to go by), you will have accumulated 200 skill points, enough to max-out two skills. My question is: if you switch your Mage, for example, to a Thief, and then back to a Mage, will you be able to get 200 more skill points to max out some other skills? I'm thinking of doing this: Stage 1 - I'm happy with the classes I chose, so I intend to complete the main story with them and max-out two skills each. Stage 2 - I'm thinking of changing them into Thieves, Martial Artists and other starting classes in order to pick up Omnivocational skills and traits that I missed out on. Stage 3 - I would then change them back to their native classes and max out two more skills. Stage 4 - Eventually, I would upgrade to the Prestige classes. Of course, this all depends on whether I find good places to level-up, and it's probably too much bother, but would that be possible? It's mainly that I choose one weapon to focus on, plus their speciality (eg. Litheness, Courage), but Shields are very tempting as well. And finally, a little story:

Excellent stuff, darksnowman! Your members are much better dressed than mine - I wish I'd made a female with pink hair now. But yes, you will soon find a better helmet than that bloomin' feather! Got a slight nitpick about the Alchemy - I actually think it makes it less fun having to use ingedients that you have to farm, such as Royal Soil. The appeal of Alchemy in VIII was that I could combine armour and weapons that I probably already had. In this game, though, I want to make certain items, and yet I know Royal Soil won't appear again for a few days.

OK, I was enjoying this game, and all, but then two things happened to make me love it: 1) I met and defeated my first two Metal Medleys, the first with an incredibly lucky critical hit from my Mage (who generally misses everything). 2) I am now free to explore the world map as I please. Now it's really become Dragon Quest and it's sending my endorphins crazy!

I'm reluctant to use any apart from Seeds of Skill, because I don't know if I lose the benefits when I change vocations. Also, it may make sense to give Seeds of Wisdom to the Mage, Seeds of Magic to the Priest etc, but it depends what the post-game content is like. If it's anything like DQVIII, I'd probably end up giving them all to the Hero. It has a very difficult boss. I'm not going to attempt it again until both my spear users know Thunder Thrust.

I haven't got it yet, but I do indeed flip straight to the back. Can never resist seeing what the latest Lego Technic is or whether they've brought back ZOIDS!

The most important thing in Dragon Quest is probably critical hits and the 2nd-most important thing is agility. If you've got any characters that can get a permanent agility boost (ie. by maxing out a skill - does this apply to the Thief or Martial Artist?), it might be worth doing that before you change classes. This is what I'm aiming for:

Tall women are attractive too, as long as they have slim waists. Large-ish breasts (B or C cup help as well!)

Personally, I was more turned-off by Minstrel, Thief and Martial Artist, although I'm thinking of training up a Thief just for item aquisition. Priests are great because not only do they heal and buff, they can use spears. Why do I love spears so much? Because spears and axes are the best weapons in Dragon Quest for critical hits (they have special, 50% chance moves). Metal Slash with the sword is OK for Metal Slimes, but anything with higher HP won't stay around long enough for you to keep using that. And what if there is a boss with metal skin? Magic won't work, Metal Slash won't be enough. The tried and tested method is a critical hit, because they ignore defence. Yeah, that is a bit inappropriate before you've got Kabuff. Also, the version of Insulate I've got at the moment only insulates one person at a time.

I'm a lanky-ish (but fairly muscular) 6'2", 6'3" in boots and would like to be 6'5"!

Well, let's think this through. It seems normal for me, even if out of prejudice, to have No.3 a mage and No.4 a healer. You, No.1, start as a Minstrel, so it makes sense to stick with that a bit, although I would like to upgrade to a spear-user after a while. That means No.2 is your general fighter, and it's a matter of personal preference whether they're a Warrior or Martial Artist. I chose Warrior, although really I intend them to end up as an axe-user. Hope that helps (probably doesn't!)

Whoa! I was very, very impressed with this. I've read every one of Conan Doyle's short stories + Hound of the Baskervilles, and this just nailed the relationship between Holmes and Watson. It's beautifully lit, sublimely acted, masterfully written and the main actor is like a young Alan Rickman. I bet he's the next Doctor Who. Speaking of which, what is up with that programme? Sherlock showed what Steven Moffat's capable of and it made this year's series of Doctor Who look a bit pale and half-hearted. But no, excellent stuff.

My mage keeps getting attacked too... I've put her 3rd in line. It sounds like I'm using the most mundane names out of everyone here - I've called my party members Gra, Dave, Kate and Nigel! I'm Gra, Dave is a "best mate" name, Kate I have no idea about and Nigel is my idea of a friendly, "support bloke"! They are Minstrel, Warrior, Mage and Priest.

Brilliant. Not at all. I did wonder if I'd accidentally offend gay people with the procreation comment. What I meant is that people who want to procreate have that to concern themselves with, and anyone who does not intend to procreate (for whatever reason) should just chill out and enjoy themselves. There's no "should" or "shouldn't" with breeding, it's entirely up to individuals (well, mating pairs!) Of course (as Ville suggests), there's a lot more humanity can aim for, such as art and science. It all depends on what the individual wants. This is one reason I don't understand homophobes - it's totally and utterly illogical to me. I've tried to explain this to my homophobic aquaintances as well, but oh well, some people have to hate! That's a different matter though. In short though, we must aim for what we want and accept there are many mysteries. We don't understand everything. We might have a "soul", spirits might be real or we might jump to another dimension! Who knows? And hopefully this will cheer people up: many futurologists seriously predict an "elixir of life", so we may end up living to 1000 anyway!