Dragon Quest is a legendary series in videogames. While it lacks the popularity of Final Fantasy in the West, it is unparralleled in Japan. Anyone who recalls that infamous law in Japan can attest to the incredible fanbase the series has. But the question that has been on everyone’s lips ever since the announcement of Dragon Quest IX being a handheld game, the question of whether or not Dragon Quest can still be Dragon Quest on the DS… Well over three million people have bought the game so far – do you want to know the answer?

Developer: Level-5
Publisher: Square Enix
Date of Release: July 11th, 2009
Platform: DS

Genre: Roleplaying
Players: 1~4 (local multiplayer)

The opening plot of Dragon Quest IX is a strange one – you’re a Guardian Angel, charged with the duty of fixing up the every day lives of people in a small village. By protecting them, or performing tasks to cheer them up, you receive a special item from them that must be given to the tree high atop the City of Angels. The plot moves along very nicely, albeit nothing happens that would surprise anyone who has been playing RPGs for the last decade or two. Thankfully, the charming graphics and the unique opening story make for a refreshing change in the world of RPGs. Things only get better from then on, as well. You’ll end up meeting a great variety of characters along the way, with guest characters joining you to battle through certain areas. The only real downside is that the fairy that follows you around, called Sandy, has an annoying way of speaking that has caused many players of the game to be turned off. But if you don’t understand Japanese very well, you won’t notice.

A look at the character creation screen.

Graphically speaking, the game is remarkably impressive. Important characters are all beautifully rendered in the same style of Akira Toriyama, One thing easily noticed, however, is that all NPCs are drawn with 2D sprites. That feels a little cheap, considering how beautiful and 3D the rest of the game is. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since the sprites are very detailed – to the point where you won’t even notice they’re 2D unless you hold down B – but it’s somewhat safe to say that it’s a bit of a let down. Considering that this workaround evidently allows for much more detail in other areas, however, it really isn’t much of a problem. The cutscenes that litter the game offer beautiful scenery normally unavailable and they break up the normal camera angles very nicely. The graphics in battle are quite different to those normally found within Dragon Quest games. While you select actions in a purely first person perspective, the actions are then carried out with sweeping camera angles and whatnot that animate the battle in a much more enjoyable way.

The new-look battle screens of the game.

One of the areas wherein Dragon Quest IX shines is in the sub- and side-quests. The sidequests are generally very basic in nature, such as defeating a certain amount of enemies in a certain way or place, but they can be quite rewarding in their diversity and the treasure given for completion. As there are well over a hundred of these sidequests, you can generally find a new batch to complete every time you enter a new town or city. The other subquests, however, have far more depth. These crop up every time you grab a new treasure map – affording you a randomly generated, multi-levelled dungeon to conquer. They always have powerful bosses at the end of the dungeon and the treasure for defeating them is always very valuable. In the unlikely situation that you don’t get treasure, however, you’ll be given the treasure map to an even longer dungeon to explore – at the end of which is treasure far more valuable than existing anywhere else. A word of warning, however… The bosses within these randomly generated dungeons are significantly harder to defeat than the bosses within the storyline. One of the most touted things about these treasure maps is that they’re tradeable with other players of the game, meaning you and your friends can explore each other’s hidden dungeons as many times as you like.

X marks the spot, as they say.

Customisation of characters is pretty interesting and very deep. There is a sizeable variety of skills available for mastery, and each Skill Set is quite different. Each class has access to five different Skill Sets, generally four weapon types and the classes own Skill Set. These come with a variety of power-ups, whether in the form of new attacks, boosts to existing attacks or boost to actual stats themselves. Thankfully, even when changing class, you retain all your currently completed Skill Sets – so you’re more than welcome to experiment with various Jobs. In short, you’ll find there is a lot of variety available for people… Offering much appreciated replay value beyond the first playthrough. If customising the skills and abilities of your team isn’t enough for you, however, one of the most obvious and prolific things of Dragon Quest IX is the ability to change the appearance of your characters. Any clothing or armour they wear will show on their person both in the world map and in battle. If you’re anything like me, you’ll soon forsake functionality for appearance and end up fighting bosses in style rather than the armour.

What you equip shows up, so do try to look smart.

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This game, however, is not import friendly. Many non-Japanese speakers will find the first half an hour remarkably long winded as they attempt to progress purely through trial and error. Thankfully, for those with a little patience, there are various quick translation guides on various forums – such as one on GBATemp that fully translates the game’s menus and a bulletpoint guide on Ameblo.jp that tells you where you need to go – that cover basically everything outside of the storyline itself.

The Save Factor – This game is well worth anyone’s money. The freeform approach to playing the game, while limiting you to a single save slot, allows for a lot of replayability. If that wasn’t enough, the world map is very sizeable and character customisation is equally large. There’s very little reason to not find a lot to do in this game. All in all, it’s well worth $70 of anyone’s money.

(special thanks to Adriasang for the pictures)

Wintrale ds, Games, Handheld, import, Review