Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

[timrpgland]

I'm not sure how many fans of Dragon Warrior/Quest there are here but this one is finally getting close to its US release date on the DS. July 11th was the last posting. I suspect we'll hear about VI's US release date sometime after that. Looking forward to it. Dragon Quest X is set for the Wii so they aren't staying handheld only.

This also gives me the chance to spam and promote my online rpg based on Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest. We're currently taking early beta applications at http://www.dragonwarriorland.com (http://www.dragonwarriorland.com/) and the message board just went public tonight. If anyone is interested in helping us test, head over there and send an email to apply for the beta.

[Pentegarn]

1) I can't wait for Dragon Quest 9

2) I hope hope hope they make Dragon Quest 6 for DS soon

3) I am pretty damn sure I want in on that beta

[timrpgland]

1.) Awesome. I played a bit of the jap version but didn't want to dive in much.

2.) Yeah. It seems to be taking kind of long. 4 and 5 were really well done for the DS and 6 I never got to finish cause the translation for the rom isn't complete and a lot of the jobs were messed up once you got farther into it so it's the one I haven't beaten yet. Replayed 8 recently to get back in the mood. 2 more Dragovian Trials to do but pretty much destroyed it the second time through.

3.) Thanks for signing up. Got your application. The site just went public as of that post so yeah other than here no real exposure yet. I'm friends with DQ Shrine so I'll get a writeup there and of course over at RPG Land and some various other outlets. Once we get the game out there a bit and get enough beta apps we'll roll with the 1st beta test. I'll be posting more information on the game in the coming days.

[timrpgland]

It's out and it's in my hand. Excellent

[Pentegarn]

Same here. I love that with the character customization you can essentially make winged DBZ characters if you want :lol

Of course, I went with the most non known character DBZ look I could get away with

[Pentegarn]

It's official, only people named Tim care about dragon quest :(

We need more Tims here so this thread can have some legs

[Phoenix Gamma]

Didn't like DQ4 or 5 on the DS. Or 8, for that matter, though the presentation in 8 was astounding. Great graphics and incredible music.

Would have tried DQ9 if P3P hadn't come out days before and Tales of Innocence's translation hadn't been finished a little before then. It's on the backburner, though P3P is halfway done and Tales games rarely hold my attention anymore.

Also, Toriyama's a fucking hack and must be stopped. I'll pay anyone who brings him to me, dead or alive.

[timrpgland]

Yeah, not a whole lot of DQ popularity here. That's ok. :(

Toriyama only bothers people because of DBZ. Hell, I used to watch DBZ but now think it's laughable. The association doesn't really influence my opinion of the artist. He's been doing Dragon Quest well for a long time and I can appreciate his style while laughing at DBZ similarities. Chrono Trigger was another game with good character design/art direction. Similar to not hating Amano for Kartia, etc.

I can definitely see how Toriyama will turn off some gamers while luring the crowd it's most likely trying to avoid.

All in all, Dragon Quest games offer some of the deepest traditional role playing experience around. Period. If you didn't like 4, 5 or 8 then there is something wrong with your appreciation for tradition. You'll probably not like any of them if that's the case. That's cool though. It's part of the reason why I like the series. Each entry keeps the right things to keep a series going while each game creates a unique experience. DQ9 would be most similar to DQ3. You create your own party. Everything is customizable. Job changing and so on.

Most of the games in the series take longer than your normal console rpg to complete. Most recent example is DQ8. Both times I played through the game I tallied over 100 hours each.

Versions (most japanese versions have been translated independently)
DQ1 - MSX, NES, GBC and SFamicom
DQ2 - MSX, NES, GBC and SFamicom
DQ3 - NES, GBC and SFamicom
DQ4 - NES, DS, PS j
DQ5 - SFamicom, PS j, PS2 j, DS
DQ6 - SFamicom, DS j (soon US)
DQ7 - PS
DQ8 - PS2
DQ9 - DS
DRAGON WARRIOR LAND - haha. Looking like August. Having some bugs with certain status spells/timers.

Notables:
The PS2 version of DQ5 is the best and translated by DQ Translations.

The SFamicom version, translated by the same team, is the best of 3.

My Fav list:
DQ8 - Narrative, not many characters, set classes but skill customization.
DQ3 - Create your party, job changing.
DQ5 - Narrative, set characters but also 50 or so recruitable monsters that each have their own set of abilities/class.
DQ4 - Narrative, set characters that play out in chapters. Eventually ending in a gathering of characters for the 5th chapter.
DQ7 - Narrative, not many characters but job/class advancement.
DQ1 - Narrative, not many characters, set classes.
DQ2 - Narrative, same. the first 2 kind of wanted to tie in (100 years apart) but soon realized it was better to do it subliminally.

DQ6 is pending simply because I've only been able to complete 90% of the game due to translation.

DQ9 is pending because I haven't finished it yet. It's similar to 3 in job/character creation. Also uses skill customization. I'm sad that it's only local multiplayer cause the character customization is awesome. A mix of 3 and 8 mainly. No voice acting hurts the narrative big time when compared to 8 along with the lack of set characters.

[Phoenix Gamma]

He just draws the same faces and bodies. Only difference between a DBZ and a DQ character is if they have a weapon or shoot lasers out of their hands. He hasn't drawn anything new or different in over two decades.

And you can't say "if you don't like X game something's wrong with you".

There's tradition... and there's nine iterations of the same monsters and the same combat and the same attacks. It's stuck in it's own tradition that it hasn't evolved until DQ9, which was nice enough to include things like visible enemy encounters; an innovation delivered to us over a decade ago. If you can tolerate ancient NES RPGs, then you can tolerate DQ. But if you want new experiences, new stories, and new combat, there's better alternatives.

Final Fantasy manages to juggle tradition while making whole new games.

[timrpgland]

It's called the artist's style. It's fine if you don't like it. Most artists have a style that they stick to.

And, yes, you can easily say if you don't like old school console rpg formulas that are ever present in the Dragon Quest series then you don't quite appreciate the tradition of them. You basically said it there yourself while stating Final Fantasy... which is one of the worst examples of a series being a series known to man.

There isn't better alternatives. There are just alternatives. To each their own when it comes to what you like. I like how you defend a point by basically stating you don't like it again... :(

[Pentegarn]

Final Fantasy manages to juggle tradition while making whole new games.

Putting aside Toriyama for a moment (I will speak on him in a bit), the only tradition FF seems to juggle is making games with characters I don't care about and trying to RPG outside the box (which is not necessarily a good thing.

I haven't cared about a character in a FF game since Locke from FF6. Basically, FF coasts on it's success with 4 and 6 and sheeple gobble up sequel after sequel despite bringing us annoying angsty whiney protagonists time after time.

Look at it this way, if I said "This game involves an unlikely hero struggling with his own emotions striking back against the evil threatening to consume the world." Who am I talking about? The correct answer is it doesn't matter they have all been like that since FF7 came on the scene.

But Pent, what about the innovative gameplay?

Let's just look at that for a moment.

FF7 - Materia slotted into weapons determines characters skills while still using traditional menu based combat. Leveling largely only increases hp, mp, and to hit score

FF8 - Junctioning Guardian Forces determines characters skills while still using traditional menu based combat. Leveling largely only increases hp, mp, and to hit score

FF9 - Equipment taught skills/abilities which must be allocated into a limited number of points determines characters skills while still using traditional menu based combat. Leveling largely only increases hp, mp, and to hit score

FF10 - Sphere grids determines characters skills while still using traditional menu based combat. Leveling largely only increases hp, mp, and to hit score

FF12 - License Board determines characters skills while still using traditional menu based combat. Leveling largely only increases hp, mp, and to hit score

I see a pattern here. They don't really do anything new, they just took a basic formula and changed what drives said formula.

Moving on to Toriyama.

I am personally surprised DBZ still has any sort of following. Nothing new has come out in years, yet the show has been re-released some 4 + times now and people still gobble it up like it is new and original. That is less Toriyama's fault and more Funimation's and those who keep paying for the same product over and over.

Besides, Dragonball was way more entertaining than DBZ ever was.

Dragon Quest gives me exactly what I am looking for. Fun customizable old school RPG goodness. Ironically, FF as a series only gave me masturful customization to match DQ3's once, and it wasn't even a series game, it was FF Tactics.

[Dr. Boogie]

It should be noted that Toriyama called himself out on drawing the same face with different hairstyles in one of his own mangas.

[Pentegarn]

When did he do that?

I would love to see that just for the :lol

[Phoenix Gamma]

It's called the artist's style. It's fine if you don't like it. Most artists have a style that they stick to.Actually most artists grow and refine their style and experiment with new ideas so that they don't stagnate. I say this as an illustrator, and as someone whose seen other artists grow and evolve :X

And, yes, you can easily say if you don't like old school console rpg formulas that are ever present in the Dragon Quest series then you don't quite appreciate the tradition of them. You basically said it there yourself while stating Final Fantasy... which is one of the worst examples of a series being a series known to man.Yea, it's so horrible. No one buys them. Wait fuck.

There isn't better alternatives. There are just alternatives. To each their own when it comes to what you like. I like how you defend a point by basically stating you don't like it again...And you just stating there's something wrong with me again. Hooray for fallacies! :lol
If you like it, man, then that's your thing. I just don't see how they can appeal to people. We'll see if they can finally penetrate the US market this time, though judging by the series' track record here, it probably won't reach the sales they had in Japan

I see a pattern here. They don't really do anything new, they just took a basic formula and changed what drives said formulaWhich is a fair assessment, but to be fair, that's more than I can say for DQ1-8.

[Dr. Boogie]

When did he do that?

I would love to see that just for the :lol

He did it in an issue of Dr. Slump back in 1980. Here's the scene in question (reads from right to left):

http://www.i-mockery.com/drboogie/drslump1.jpg

http://www.i-mockery.com/drboogie/drslump2.jpg

[timrpgland]

Nice.


Gamma, I didn't ever say there was anything wrong with you, I'm sure there is but I didn't say that. When it comes down to it you agree with me but are taking it as an attack against you so you can't agree. If you didn't say it I wouldn't have commented on it.

[Pentegarn]

He really only does have about 8 different faces to choose from.

I never knew Arale was from another manga, I always thought she was made for that trippy episode of Dragonball where Goku and General Blue end up in Penguin Village. Which I quickly discovered through a couple googles was actually a crossover.

[timrpgland]

Yeah, Dragon Quest definitely doesn't have the US popularity like it does in Japan. I'm just glad they keep releasing them. I don't see it getting much better in the US but they are definitely marketing it a bit better in the US these days and 8 did well so we'll see.

I like a lot of game series and rpgs going back to decades of gaming. Dragon Quest just continues to fill the nostalgic rpg gaming void while mixing in different elements in each game. It's just a satisfying game experience imo. They all have a huge open world "hey go for it" style that is rarely accepted these days in that type of game.

[Grislygus]

tim, gamma, it's a bunch of japanese rpgs. Settle down

[OxBlood]

The one thing I don´t like about oldschool JRPGs is that you get everything just from leveling.
I´m not a big fan of "you´ll get Heal2 at level 16", I wanna customize my stuff and modify my loadout according to the situation I´m in, one of the reasons I prefer FF7s Materia System over about anything else the series has done since then...
And I am aware that you get certain Materias at certain points of the story wich is kind of like normal leveling but it still makes a difference to me.

[Pentegarn]

The one thing I don´t like about oldschool JRPGs is that you get everything just from leveling.
I´m not a big fan of "you´ll get Heal2 at level 16", I wanna customize my stuff and modify my loadout according to the situation I´m in, one of the reasons I prefer FF7s Materia System over about anything else the series has done since then...
And I am aware that you get certain Materias at certain points of the story wich is kind of like normal leveling but it still makes a difference to me.

But DQ9 (and DQ3 for that matter) is completely customizable. You want a wizard with a shield and boomerang? You can make it. You want a warrior who can steal? Done. You want a ranger that can buff everyone and cast nukes. Go for it. A martial artist who can heal? No problem. And any combination you can think of in between. The world is your customizable oyster. And you can easily change what you need on the fly. And if you like the materia system, you should like this. In essence, it is the same time sink, just different ways to do the same thing.

[Pentegarn]

tim, gamma, it's a bunch of japanese rpgs. Settle down

I don't want to live in a world where jrpgs aren't worth fighting for :lol

[timrpgland]

I like arguing :(

[kahljorn]

I like watching Dragon Ball Kai sometimes :(

[Pentegarn]

It does have one thing going for it.

It gets to the point. No 20+ episodes devoted to a single fight

[Phoenix Gamma]

BUT SEASON 20 HAD THE BEST FIGHT EVER.

OKAY SEASON 20 WAS JUST ONE FIGHT BUT IT HAD THAT THING WITH THE SUPER SAYIAN AND THE HADOUKENS AND SHIT.

[Pentegarn]

You forgot to mention the power levels, it had the power levels too :lol

[Grislygus]

just saw the commercial for this with seth green

christ

[Pentegarn]

I :lol 'd when the warrior threw people put of the way at the concert though

[Pentegarn]

Just saw another Seth Green spot where a kid is choosing his date outfit, Seth mentions a fur poncho, and the kid shows up to the date wearing one.

I :lol'd again

[OxBlood]

About 9hrs in and really enjoying it. Even though there´s A LOT of battles, at least I can see the enemies in the field. Big plus. That and the Mp-stealing Wands make the game very relaxed imo. Okay, the fact that you can´t die is also a plus :)

[Pentegarn]

You can die, but you really can cushion the penalties for doing so with the bank.

Have you started putting points in wands for your casters. If not you should it gives you virtually infinite MP once you master wands

[OxBlood]

I only have a Priest with me right now but he puts all his stuff in wands, I love that MP-regen-shit :) Haven´t missed a mage yet but I don´t know what he can do aside from normal elemental magic so I don´t know what I´m missing out on :D

I don´t see this "run-back-to-where-you-were-defeated" as real dying, it´s very relaxed I think. As you said, the bank is really useful there.

One question...is there a way to respec you mainchar later on? I mean what if I spent a lot of points in a useless skill or something like that?

[Pentegarn]

Once you get back to the celestial home base you are sent back down, and you have to save Abbot Jack. Once you save Abbot Jack, class changes are open to you

EDIT: what besides a priest did you go with? I went Priest, Mage, Thief

[OxBlood]

I got to that part yesterday but what I mean is, what if I mis-skill (is that a word?) my MC, I mean there´s not gonna be enough levels to get everything is there?

I went with myself as the minstrel in the beginning, priest, warrior and thief (though the thief didn´t really get anything outstanding yet, skilled her in Knifes almost exclusively). Changed my profession to martial artist a while ago and it´s okay I guess. The warrior and the thief were doing the majority of the damage, now I´m in second place with the martial artist. Up till now the reviews are right: it´s really very, VERY easy so far. I did die on the first boss though because I sorted my healing items from my pockets to my bag and had none in the fight :D

Looking forward to the other 4 (?) classes and a mage later on maybe...right now "Attack" is all I need with the occasional heal in between...

[Pentegarn]

Most stuff (other than each classes exclusive line like Aquisitiveness for thieves and Faith for priests) can be attained in multiple classes. You get (I believe) enough points per class you level to 99 to get 2 skills to 100. I focus on the class exclusive skills first because the stat bonuses they give carry over to any class you play

[OxBlood]

I read up on that and you are right. You get 200 Skillpoints from Level 1-99 BUT you can reset your class when you hit 99 and keep your skills, so you can start again at Level 1 but already have a skill at 100 and gain 200 Point all over again.

Switched to Thief now to get the class-skills and found a nice place to farm Metal-Medleys (those Metal Slimestacks)...pretty effectiv but I still need a skill that can crit most of the time...but the only weapon skills my guys know are spear and knife...a well.

[Pentegarn]

Your martial artist should handle that problem for you. They are made mostly of crits :lol

[OxBlood]

Goddamnit. Couldn´t really sleep tonight and somehow my game-clock tells me that I poured almost 25 hours into the game since friday afternoon. What the fuck. 5 in the morning and I don´t have anything better to do than posting this stuff :lol

Got me Lightning-Spear or something like that, one of those crit-or-miss-skills, works quite good on the Metal medleys. If the lazy fuckers show up that is. Unlocked Ranger and Paladin as well...just plain fun somehow.

[timrpgland]

I've been working on the Gladiator class.

I think the DQVC is pretty neat and the familiar characters that sometimes stay in the Royal Suite.

[OxBlood]

The Gladiator Quest is getting on my nerves...I´m supposed to put the Metalslime to sleep I guess but it never works...

[Pentegarn]

I thought that quest was have your wizard get the kill when he puts up a ward?

I did it by having the first round be all regular attacks except the wizard who dropped a ward. The following round the wizard attacked while everyone else defends.

Took 4 fights with metal slimes to finish it

[OxBlood]

That´s the Armamentalis Quest I think (never heard that word before...armamentalist)

The Gladiator wants you to reach maximum Tension and then finish off a...fuck...a normal Slime, not a Metal slime, thanks for reminding me of my own stupidity Pentegarn :D

Off to the fields I go...

[Pentegarn]

Yes you have to put them to sleep and kill the slime with a dragon cut at max tension

[OxBlood]

Well that was easy once I whacked the right slimes :D

Armamentalist and Ranger are unlocked as well...seems like I have all the Jobs I can unlock right now...now to continue the story...I want to get to this fabled spot with the liquid metal slimes :)

[Pentegarn]

You want Metal Kings and Plat Metal kings, that's where the real xp is

[OxBlood]

Gah, my Bag detached the Game from the DS while I carried it around...and I just had the fucking knife-quest done...pretty logical too: A flower stole a knife. How do you get it back? Easy, put the flower to sleep and then kill it with a toxic knife-attack.
Gardening for Berserkers.

[timrpgland]

I also recently unlocked the Paladin class. Haven't messed with it yet.

[OxBlood]

Paladin´s alright so far but honestly? No encounter in the whole 28hrs needed anything else than 3 warriors/thiefs and one priest. Just melee everything to death and heal afterwards, worked very well so far. There´s nice details like accelerate or sleep but you don´t really need it. And I like that about the game. It´s simple and fun and you can use about anything you want to fight.

The priest and thief are the only guys that never changed class up till now. The main learns all kinds of shit and the warrior went Monk, Paladin and Gladiator for some of the skills but that´s it basically.

[Pentegarn]

I might make my main an Armamentalist once he hits 99 in minstrel. I want him to have both swords and litheness mastered before I move on

[OxBlood]

Aha! The Bowhole, finally I have access to an unlimited and easy to spawn supply of Liquid Metal Slimes. Vanish is great too, makes traveling even less annoying...the only enemies that really got on my nerves were these stupid flower-monsters that follow you until you have to fight them...

Got Knifes to 100, swords is soon to follow but my MC-Warrior has 0 points in courage...hm

[OxBlood]

And done. 47hrs of great entertainment, definetely worth my time. Now maybe some more post-game stuff or do I play something different...hm.

[Pentegarn]

There's a class you can open up post game, plus treasure maps are repeatable for booku loot

[Pentegarn]

Speaking of treasure maps. Game Stops are giving a free downloadable map today between 1-4 pm

[OxBlood]

Not where I live :D

The situation in DQ9 now adresses my old problem...Post-game-stuff. I know what it´s there for and I like it, but I can´t help to think that it´s kinda strange to go kill stuff after the final boss is dead. You know what I mean? The menacing threat is destroyed, the world is safe, there´s no need to go on playing. It´s really a simple detail that triggers this lack of motivation in me. Had the whole stuff been there JUST before the final boss, I would´ve done more of it, I´m sure about that.

Anyway, I WILL play the game some more here and there but 7hrs straight in a row...nah, not anymore.

[Pentegarn]

Best Buys (in the States) giving out free downloadable maps this Saturday between noon-4 at these locations
(http://images.bestbuy.com/BestBuy_US//en_US/images/abn/2010/tg/cat/35370_DQIX.pdf?h=488)

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

I think Target has some bundle if you buy a DS and DQIX you get a free copy of spirit tracks with it. Almost want to get a DS now but I just had to buy a 360.

[Pentegarn]

I find the DS far more useful in day to day life (i.e. I take it to work with me and kill dead time with it)

[Phoenix Gamma]

I just beat the demon witch lady thing in Brigadoom or whatever. When does the story get good? :(

[OxBlood]

The story stays like that basically, there´s more sinister evil guys at work later on but it doesn´t build any kind of tension or something like that.

Do Dragon Quest stories do that normally? I can´t tell since this is the first one I actually finished...

[Pentegarn]

4 was the best story wise I thought. 2 was decent too. But these were also good for their time.

[timrpgland]

I pretty much explain the story types in my earlier post. 9 has a very limited narrative.

[Durin]

These games generally don't have complicated/deep stories. VII would be the one with most story in it (My personal favorite, though IX here may be overtaking it), and 1 being the one with the least (You are the descendent of Erdrick, and must go forth and save the princess Gwaelin and slay the Dragonlord). These games are built on tradition (and with the Square-Enix localization team, puns). But I like having simple stories, at least sometimes. If all I had were super serious stories in my games, thatd suck.

Personally I like fighting the legacy bosses that you get access to in the post-game, though some of that is probably due to the nostalgia, since I've played and beaten the other games in this series except #6, which has yet to hit the States.

[OxBlood]

I actually liked that the game kept it simple, it was a nice and streamlined experience, no overly complex characters that bring the story to a halt or something...that´s what AT2 is doing but that´s it´s main pull I think...

[Phoenix Gamma]

I spent a few hours grinding, beat some poison boss, then the game told me to take a hike back two towns to the train. I was pissed already, but then it froze on me before I made it to the church.

Welp, I'm done. I've seen what the game has to offer anyways.