Dragon Quest IX

Blog Post: Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

author13 — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 23:15:00 GMT

Dragon Quest IX was the first Dragon Quest or Dragon Warrior game that I had ever gotten. It was good enough that now I am searching all over for more Dragon Quest games. Sentinels of the Starry Skies is fantastic for many reasons, but there are a few drawbacks.

The story was very well made. You are a celestrian (this world's equivalent to an angel) and you have to travel around the world doing good deeds for other people. The only drawback I saw in the story was that there is not as many towns in DQIX as in DQIV or DQVI. But during the main story you can find certain people in the towns, down wells, or up on the tallest mountains that can offer you side quests. You have do run little errands for people and if it is causing to much trouble for you, you can always quit the quest. Of course, there are story based side quests which are often given to you by people who had something to do with the story such as the King of Stornway. You cannot quit these quests.

A key factor for me in the game was customization. It is getting harder to find a good RPG that has great customizing abilities. At the very beginning, you get to make your main character. You can choose body type, hair, hair color, eye shape, eye color, skin color and the name. And soon you will arrive at Stornway where you can go to Patty's Party Planning Place, which was in many other Dragon Quest games (however, Patty's is only in Stornway so you will end up returning to Stornway often to change party members). You can choose what your party members look like so you can have a ton of clones or a posse. The customizing doesn't stop at this. Throughout the game, you will receive clothing and weapons. You get to see the clothing on yourself and your party rather than always seeing the same set costume. You can't, however, see accessories.

There are very many monsters for you to find. DQIX stuck with the timeless DQ tradition of changing the colors and abilities to make stronger versions of the monsters. There are many monsters from previous games, but not all of them are. After the main story is over you can do a lot of things. You can do quests (some can only be accessed via wi-fi), continue with the post game story and search the deepest, darkest grottoes. Bosses in grottoes are recycled so you may find yourself fighting some bosses dozens of times. There are legacy bosses in special grottoes and they are bosses from previous DQ games.

During the game, you can get accolades. They serve no purpose but so you can show off to your friends and a couple of quests require you to get certain accolades. Accolades can be gotten by doing any number of things. Getting enough gold in the bank gets you an accolade. Performing alchemy enough times will get you one as well as simply defeating 1000 monsters.

I should probably address vocations. After awhile in the game, you can get to Alltrades Abbey. First, of course, you must defeat a boss. The head priest of Alltrades is Jack of Alltrades and he turned into a monster called Master of Nu'un. After you defeat him, you are able to change vocations. However, you loses all of your previous skills and are reduced back to level one. During the game you will encounter certain people who will give you quests. These quests will give you clothing and abilities for your vocation. Some will let you uses a new vocation that was not available from the start of the game. Every couple of level ups, yo will get skill points which let you upgrade your skills in your vocation and with the weapon you use. However, you do not get very many skill points at a time.

Overall I think that Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies was a fantastic game. It is a must have for any RPG fans. It lives up to previous DQ games easily. I played DQIV, DQVI and DQIX on the DsiXL so I hope that DQX will have a version for the DS. The game is not for everyone, but for those of you who like RPGs like Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy, this is the game for you.

Blog Post: Must Have RPG.

RatchetGuy — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 15:28:00 GMT

I love most RPGs but, this one blew me away. I can make my own character and I can make my own party members. I can even make my party members do what I want them to do. The story is great and when I first saw the game I didn't think the story was going to be great but, it was. There is also multiplayer where I can hop into a friend's game and help him beat monsters and stuff. It is a must have RPG for everyone with a DS, DSi, DS Lite, DSi XL, or 3DS.

Blog Post: Dragon Quest IX review

CommanderYoshi — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 18:46:00 GMT

This game is extremely good the music is great especially at the parts where people are dying. I think the could have been a little bit better but they are still great i am going through the game again currently i think that if you are considering to by this game you should go by it now. The biggest problem i have with this game is the disability of multiplayer online you cant really play with anyone but your friends but all in all its a really good game

Blog Post: An Epic RPG Franchise Limited By The Scope Of Its Changes

Phil Kollar — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 23:10:00 GMT

Taken in the context of the series, Dragon Quest IX is a strange game. It’s the first in the franchise to debut on a handheld, and it changes the classic formula in some significant ways. In many cases, these changes push the genre in interesting directions, but they never go far enough. The end result is an enjoyable Japanese RPG with mere hints of greatness.[Excerpt]

Dragon Quest has always had religious undertones -- you save the game by confessing at a church, after all -- but DQ IX embraces those themes. You play as this fantasy world’s equivalent of an angel, and your sole reason for existing is to do good acts for humans so that they’ll praise their maker, a being referred to as the Almighty. It’s a perfectly sensible and interesting setup to support the normal DQ structure: wandering from town to town solving other people’s problems. I like having a real explanation for why you’re doing everyone else’s dirty work, though the game doesn’t explore the spiritual side of its premise as much as I wanted.

Outside of the plot, Dragon Quest IX is full of unique and potentially groundbreaking features with lackluster implementation. A class system opens up around 10 hours in, allowing you to change jobs at any time; however, you’ll have to start over at level one with each job, leaving little incentive to switch. Luckily, the battle system is as fast and enjoyable as it’s ever been. Skill points allow you to specialize within your current class, but the small number of points offered per level limits the amount of customization available.

Random encounters have been stripped away -- you now run into monsters on the map to engage them in battle. This wise change helps eliminate the series’ infamous grinding from most of the short but well-designed dungeons. Save for a few end-game encounters, you won’t run into many opponents that require mindlessly gaining levels to succeed. The last few areas are a real challenge, though, so expect to die more often as the game progresses. Also, be prepared to fight some of the tougher battles multiple times as the game recycles certain bosses.

Though it’s still more accessible than the series has ever been, DQ IX clings to a few outdated conventions (Resurrect spells can fail? Really?). Questionable design choices are also apparent after a couple of story moments where you are separated from your party; the game does a poor job of communicating when you’re allowed to head back to an inn and re-recruit your allies. The fairly open structure of the game is a plus -- you’re often allowed to head off on your own and explore the world as much as you want -- but it’s disappointing that a few otherwise awesome set pieces become mildly frustrating due to the game being unclear about what it wants you to do.

Dragon Quest IX’s biggest thrills come from exploring its colorful world. Even when the core plot breaks down into JRPG clichés, I found myself eager to discover the next locale and see what vignette plays out. The high point of the world design comes with Swinedimples Academy, a take-off on Harry Potter that provides a clever change of pace and a self-contained story that had me smiling. Other areas fall a bit more in line with what you might expect from a JRPG, but they’re always basked in a light-hearted presentation that makes them more tongue-in-cheek and less of a chore.

Where DQ IX falls particularly short is in the failed promise of its multiplayer offerings. In addition to pulling in up to three other players at any time during the main story, you can wirelessly exchange treasure maps that spawn randomly generated dungeons full of powerful bosses and loot. These features would have extended the game’s life for me greatly if I could use them online, but they’re only available via local wireless. The 50-plus hour story and tons of sidequests are good; it’s just too bad about that icing on the cake.

File: Dragon Quest IX Trailer

Phil Kollar — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:51:00 GMT

Check out the adventure and new features in store in the Dragon Quest series' first main game to launch on a handheld.

File: Dragon Quest IX

Phil Kollar — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:41:00 GMT