Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (spoilers ONLY in tags)

[LocoColt04]

You know, I realize that I haven't been lurking or posting frequently over the past three weeks, but that is in large part thanks to the game mentioned in the title. What surprises me, however, is that out of all of the DS-owning Square-Enix-loving members here, NOBODY has made a thread for this game!

HOLY CRAP WHY NOT

If you have a DS, and you have friends who have a DS, and you have ever played any DQ game and even remotely enjoyed it, and you have $35 to spare, you have to buy this game and then tell your friends to get it too.

It's seriously built like a micro-MMO. It's 1-4 players (after a certain point early in the story) and you'll eventually have access to treasure maps, which run like instances. Yes, you heard me, instances in your DS game. You can share items and maps and major awesome legacy boss battles. A lot of the amazing equipment comes late in the game, like... even post-game in a lot of cases. After beating the end boss (which I still haven't done), you gain access to 64 extra quests (over time, not all at once), not to mention all of the fresh downloadable content that's up on a DAILY BASIS.



So, for those of you who have it, let's talk.

The story so far... (the recap from pressing the Y button):

Upon making an offering of the fyggs, Lucas heard the voice of Celestria, daughter of Zenus, the Almighty Himself. She explained the She turned Herself into Yggdrasil to show Her father that there was good in mortal hearts, and has asked Lucas to protect the mortals from the evil Gittish Empire.

[Rocky]

tl;dr, is this game worth getting a DS for? More importantly, is it worth selling my SMT collection for it? (P3/P4/DDS/Nocturne)

real talk.

[SuperSabin]

tl;dr, is this game worth getting a DS for? More importantly, is it worth selling my SMT collection for it? (P3/P4/DDS/Nocturne)

real talk.

Rocky, it is definitely worth getting a DS for. I don't own the game yet but from what I heard, it is amazing. Just think: massive world to explore, fully customizable characters, several job classes, loads of quests, multiplayer questing up to 4 players (if you know other people who own the game and live nearby them), and last but not least, downloadable content. If thats not worth getting a DS for than idk what is (except for Chrono Trigger)

[ZantetsukeN]

Has anyone in the UK got it? Because in all the shops in my town that should have it, don't. It's still up for pre-order or 'coming soon' but it says on the case 23rd July, and it was the same story yesterday. I'm confused :/

I really want it!

[LocoColt04]

It's definitely worth getting a DS, but not worth selling your MegaTen games.

I also find it hard to justify purchasing a system for a single title, so I'm a little up in the air. There are, however, a ton of other games on the DS that I know you'd enjoy.

DQIX was due out in Europe on the 23rd as stated, so if there are some delays, I honestly haven't heard about it. Australia's got nine more days and they will have a localized version of their own, which doesn't happen often!

[Dodie16]

Originally Posted by LocoColt04
I also find it hard to justify purchasing a system for a single title...

I bought my PSP just so I could play Crisis Core... Haha... Thank goodness BBS is coming out soon so I'll use it more.

For the topic at hand: I got this game a couple of days ago. I've been meaning to try out a DQ game, but I couldn't decide whether I wanted to try V, VIII, or IX first. Then, my parents just give this game to me, so my decision was pretty much made for me. This is my very first DQ game, so I don't really know what to expect. It's kind of exciting.

Anyway, I haven't played too much of it yet, but I enjoy what I see so far, particularly the monster designs. They make me smile. I'm pretty much at the start of my adventure, and I gotta go

SPOILER!!:

fix some path to the village because debris from the "earthquake" blocked the way.

So.... I'm not very far at all. Gonna plug in some more hours soon though.

[Unknown Entity]

I've got it, and I must say it's the only Dragon Quest game that I fully got into. I've not gotten too far, but I'm on that island with the waterfall, and the dungeon is that tower. I'm a little too weak to defeat that boss though - almost had it... ><

The only thing I'm not really liking is the customisation features. I find that I'm STILL having to mix and match certain outfits because the stores don't have FULL outfits. Even in the next town you visit, you can't buy what you were looking for... but then they usually have a new and better set to buy. Maybe that's just my OCD kicking in, but my character looks a little funky wearing parts for three different outfits (read [funky]: and not in a good way). ^^;;

Rocky, seriously: get a DS. There are so many games I've enjoyed playing on it, like Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker (think a Dragon Quest version of Pokemon, except without balls), Professor Layton, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Etrian Odyssey, Sonic, Mario Brothers, Brain Training, etc. I only bought a DS because a few friends were hyping over Pokemon HeartGold, and I wanted to see what the fuss was about... and my step dad made the mistake of lending me his for a week... >>;

[SuperSabin]

I just bought the game today and I instantly got hooked. Already clocked a few hours of battling and I now have a level 10 skilled swordsman and i'm just now heading into the woods to investigate a road block (i think thats what it was).

[SRJJJB]

Holy craps Sabin I was only level 2 when I arrive at the road block!

Apart from that the game is addictive and I can see why it was so popular. I wish their was a online co-op but for now I'll stick with the addicting single player.

To add I like to question the king's decision to choose me as the hero to defeat the knight. I mean seriously. I'm wearing peasant clothing and wielding a fan as a weapon!

[Zidane77]

I've only played VIII on PS2 and i thought it sucked.
Was there better games before VIII or is IX the only good one?

[SuperSabin]

I've only played VIII on PS2 and i thought it sucked.
Was there better games before VIII or is IX the only good one?

Yeah there were better ones. The nes and snes era DQs were the good ones. Dragon Quest IX has way more appeal than 8 had. If you want to play a decent dragon quest game: V is good, VI is really good, and the other good ones are 2, 3, and 4

[Zargabaath]

Yeah there were better ones. The nes and snes era DQs were the good ones. Dragon Quest IX has way more appeal than 8 had. If you want to play a decent dragon quest game: V is good, VI is really good, and the other good ones are 2, 3, and 4

I think it is important to figure out why Zidane77 didn't like DQ VIII; if it has anything to do with the core nature of the game then Zidane77 may not like any of the DQ games. Dragon Quest games stay are very traditional RPGs and the series stays very close to its core; in comparison FF changes and re-invents itself.

I've only played VIII on PS2 and i thought it sucked.
Was there better games before VIII or is IX the only good one?

First off, what did you not like in Dragon Quest VIII?

I can't offer much info on DQ IX because I haven't put much time into the game; I've been in a mecha mode watching Gundam and finishing Xenogears. I have beaten, besides Dragon Quest VIII, Dragon Quest - Dragon Quest V. I have liked all of them; out of those I would say DQ V had the best story - very touching. Dragon Quest V also had some good gameplay with recruiting monsters to join the party; though some of the success rates for recruitment are brutal. The DS version of DQ V also has the TnT boards which are some pretty fun mini-games.

Dragon Quest IV is broken into chapters that tells the story of one or some of the supporting cast to the main hero whom is introduced till chapter 5 the final chapter. In chapter 5 the stories from the previous 4 come together to show and are the player gets to see how each of those chapters affected the story. In the DS version there is a prologue and a bonus chapter added. In the bonus chapter there is a new party member to be gained along with a super boss.

Dragon Quest III is similar to Dragon Quest IX in party composition: there is the main hero and then there are the people the player recruits in the tavern. One of the differences in Dragon Quest IX is that the player is allowed to customize the appearance of their recruit. Dragon Quest III was the first game in the series that had attack animations for the monsters, before that the monsters would flash or blink when they took damage and when they attacked it would only be shown through the text box.

There is one thing I should mention about Dragon Quest games: before Dragon Quest VIII the player could not see their party members in battle as battles were shown from a first person perspective. The games were very menu driven and there were not attack animation of the character themselves. All that would be seen are the weapon animations.

Dragon Quest II has three characters that follow basic RPG archetypes: warrior, mage, and warrior/mage blend. The characters aren't that developed and story is pretty basic - it a NES game afterall, and the plot boils down to collecting 5 crests to create a charm to fight against the evil of the world.

Dragon Quest has 1 playable character - the hero. All battles are 1v1. This is the most simplest Dragon Quest game and its simplicity was what made the first game in the eventual series, popular.

[Zidane77]

Okay i appreciate the info
What i didn't like about VIII was mostly how boring the battle mode was compared to other RPG games, it was okay at first but as soon as i got that gambling character in the red suit at the bar, shortly after that i lost interest in the story.

So very few cut-scenes and thing happening, mostly running around in the universe just fighting( which can be acceptable with better battle mode). It was not horrible but it didn't suit my taste so i sold it.
I am ok with a lot of battlemodes that are inperfect like FFV, cause it had something else that was good, the characters,music and storyline, which i thought was lacking more in DQVIII.

[Aadria]

Okay, I just got this game because of this thread (and because I got it for free.) So far, I'm impressed. Not very far in the story but very much addicted. Unfortunately, spending the last 3 hours playing managed to destroy my DS's battery. Sad day.

[Josh_R]

I have yet to get this game. It is on my list though. From what I have heard from my friends that it, it is worth the buy. Not sure when I will go and buy it, but I will.

[LocoColt04]

Though it's certainly not everyone's cup of tea, my 186 hours of playtime will tell you that if you do enjoy, you should prepare for a few weeks of your life to be thrown into the game.

Of that 186 hours, roughly half of it was spent in multiplayer.

Also, this offers up one of a couple explanations as to where I've been the past two weeks.