Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King Hints

Babble Land
After you get the Godbird Soulstone, fly to the area overlooking the desert. Tere you will find a lot of metabbles, sometimes as many as eight in one battle. Unfortunately, there are some other powerful monsters in that same region, so you need to use caution when babble hunting.
Forge Metal King Shield
You require the Ruinous Shield, Orihalum, and Saints Ash for this armor. Purchase the Saints Ash from the Dragovian Village after clearing the game once (and do a game clear save, or you'll want to defenestrate yourself after your PS2). The Orihalum is earned by collecting medals and trading enough of them to the island princess north of Peregin Quay. The Ruinous Shield may be found in the air-only part of the island where the Doulmagus was killed (at the mirror puzzle).
Forge Liquid Metal Sword
Get the rusty sword from Trodain. Earn a slime crown by fighting metal slimes or King slimes. One slime crown is inside the well on the hilltop hut. The final ingredient, Orihalcum, is difficult to get with an external cheat device. The easiest source is to accrue 83 medallions and trade them to Minnie for the item. Drop all three ingredients into the alchemy pot for the rare Liquid Metal Sword.
Hint: Fighting Metal Slimes
The best way to kill Metal Slimes is to use attacks that inflict critical damage. The hero's Lightning thrust ability performs a critical attack on these enemies. Another method is to use Falcon Blades, which allows you to attack twice -- this theoretically doubles your chances of inflicting a critical blow.
Hint: Forge Thieves Key
Put the rusty sword and the iron nail (at Paraguay Quey) to make the Thieves' Key. This item lets you open any locked chest.
Hint: Level Up The Dingaling Method
After you're able to defeat the Jargons in the Maella Region in a couple of hits and the Dingalings only cause 1 to 2 HP of damage to you, you'll be able to get as much XP as you could possibly want.
All you have to do is run around (or Whistle) until you run into a Dingaling. Do not kill the Dingaling, you should kill all other monsters that assist a Dingaling and leave only one Dingaling on the field. Have Jessica, Hero, and Angelo (if applicable) defend and Yangus Psyche up.
When the Dingaling calls for backup, attack with Yangus for an easy kill. Keep doing this and the Dingaling will keep calling Jargons to help it, and you can kill them in one move. If the Dingaling calls for backup before Yangus psyches up enough, just have your weakest attacker assist him.
Hint: Forge Timbral of Tension
For this item, you require the Sun Crown, Magic Beasts Hide, and Tough Guy Tattoo. The first two items are the ones that are hard to find.
Bag the Sun Crown by finding the Skull Helmet in the second area of the Heavenly Dias, near a dragon skull. Combine it with an Urn of Saints' Ashes to make it. The Heavenly Dias is located by accessing the extra dungeons and Dragovian Sanctuary. Go to Chateau Felix and use the Godbird Stone to land on the platform to portal with the item.
Hint: Alternate Ending
After defeating Rhapthorne, a secret dungeon and town will become available. Finish that quest in the secret town to obtain Argon Ring. Defeat Rhapthorne another time while equipping this item to obtain a slightly different ending.
Hint: Faster Alchemy Pot
To do this all you have to have is the ability to protect yourself from weak enimies (your hero should have this ability for use outside of battle). Put the ingedients into the alchemy pot that you would like to use and cast the move. This works best in areas that have really weak monsters compared to your level. That way no monsters will attack you.
Once the move is cast, just walk around until you hear the ding or the move wears out. If the move wears out before your item is done, just recast it and continue walking around. You must walk around or this won't work. The amount of time it takes to create an item in the alchemy pot is measured by the amount of steps you take, not by the amount of time it takes. Also, walking in the world map takes less time to create an item than walking in a town or dungeon.
The alchemy pot speed is based on number of steps, not on time, and it goes twice as fast in fields/dungeons than in town, but the problem is that you get attacked by monsters, right? Except for ONE place on the map - the small field where the magic tree appears at night (near Baccarat and Chateau Felix). It's a field, but you never get attacked! So have your hero run against the rocks in the middle, and put something on your controller so it keeps going, and your items will be finished fast - promise, it worked for me!
Hint: More Yggsdrasil Leaves
During the bazarr in Argonia there is a shop that will sell Yggdrasil leaves, but they will only allow you to have one and won't sell another unless you have zero leaves. The game cannot detect items in your alchemy pot. So you can trick the game and stock more than one leaf. Buy a leaf and TEMPORARILY combine it in your alchemy pot with some magic water or some red and blue mold. Then you simply buy another leaf and abort the alchemy pot process and reclaim your first leaf.
Hint Alko Speed
For alchemical processes, the game measures the distance your buttwad hero travels. To speed up the concoction, do your alchemical mix and locate a house or space where your hero can walk against the wall or corner. Tilt the joystick off center to get your hero moving and keep it steady. You can use rubber bands, an eraser, paper clips, or just rest your PS2 controller on its "legs" and flip it so the sticks are kept off center to do this.
Now you can leave it and do something else (like your homework). When you come back, your mixture will be finished done. Most mixes takes only about 3 to 4 minutes real time using this method.