Nintendo Okie

Dragon Quest, known as Dragon Warrior in the United States until recently, was the game that started my love of RPG’s. I can remember hours and hours sitting in front of my TV and the Overworld theme from Dragon Warrior still comes back to me every once in a while. It was a sad day for me when the series left Nintendo for the Playstation because I did not own one at the time, but it’s back now with the release of Dragon Quest IX: Sentinel of the Starry Skies on the DS and I can say the franchise hasn’t aged a day.

What’s Old is Old, but also Fun and New

The gameplay of Dragon Quest hasn’t changed much since the very beginning of the franchise. Battles are still a turn based affair where each side takes turns performing an action. This can be attacking, casting a spell, healing a friend or using items. Square Enix hasn’t changed that formula for the game. You’re still fighting the same enemies you were fighting in the beginning, even if some of them have received a visual overhaul. While many of the mechanics are the same there have been some changes that improve that formula just a bit. The first is that the battles are just static I choose an attack and enemies lose HP. Battle sequences are now animated and featured a very cinematic presentation. Characters move around to position themselves to attack enemies, who do the same. It gives the battles a bit more energy and they feel fresh just because you can watch them happen in near real time.

Combat is No Longer Random

One thing that has bugged RPG fans for a long time now is random battles. When these games were first being created it made sense because of the hardware limitations of those systems. It wasn’t possible to put large amounts of objects on the screen at time without significantly slowing the system down. Now enemies appear on the screen and you can choose when to fight, most of the time. Every once in a while you’ll encounter an enemy that really wants to fight and will chase you. You can’t get away from those enemies because they’re faster than you. Developers Level-5 didn’t completely get rid of those traditional random battles though. While you’re sailing the world’s oceans you will be attacked at random points and it reminds me why I hate random battles so much.

There’s More to Do Than I can Say

There is a ton of content, a literal ton of content in the game. Aside from the dozens of hours of the main story there are dozens of side quests that can be used to enhance the main story. Some of these will give items as rewards; others will allow you to change jobs. The vocation you choose determines how you interact with the world and combat. Warriors will be able to go in full force against enemies, dish out a lot of damage and soak up a lot of damage. Priests will be able to focus more on healing your party.

You decide what your entire party will look like. From the very beginning you’re able to create your characters appearance and name. When you gain the ability to hire a party you have the choice of selecting from a list of pre-made characters or you can fully create and customize the look and vocations of your party members. This takes away some of the story aspects of the game, but allows the rest of the world to have more character than previously allowed.

When you’re done with the content in the game you can access new quests every week available for download through the Wi-Fi Connection to keep the experience going. These can be used after you’ve finished the game to extend the life of the title or you can use these quests to gain experience to make going through the story just a bit easier.

Deep and Engaging

The story starts off slowly, like most RPG’s. You’re introduced to the world and a number of different characters. Then all heck breaks loose. You begin the game as a member of a race of angelic beings who are tasked with protecting the human realm below. Then, Things go terribly wrong. You’re home is attacked. You’re thrown from your heavenly place and wake up to find you’ve lost your wings and your halo, though you do still have some of your abilities, such as being able to see dead people. It’s these people that you need to help along the way to returning to your world. There was never a moment that the story felt dull, overused or repetitive and I was constantly finding opportunities to play the game to find out what was going to happen. It’s many times very easy for a story this long to fall apart, but Dragon Quest IX never does.

Conclusion

There is very little negative to be said about this latest release in the Dragon Quest franchise. The story is great, the game play while kept very familiar has been updated just enough to feel fresh. There’s an old saying that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s exactly what the developers have done with this game. They’ve even included the option to play local multi-player with friends. You can go into their world and help them with their story. Any experience and items you gain can be brought back to your game to help you in your quest. The game is fresh from beginning to end and any RPG fan should hate to miss this adventure.

Final Score: 5/5 Excellent

Review copy of the game provided by GolinHarris
Completed main quest, and about a dozen side quests. Downloaded one additional weekly quest. Was not able to try out local multi-player.
Total Play Time: 46 hours