Dragon Quest IX: Difference between revisions

'''''Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies''''' (''Hoshizora no Mamoribito'', ''ドラゴンクエストIX 星空の守り人'') is the ninth installment of the main [[Dragon Quest (series)|Dragon Quest]] series, and the first to be initially released on a handheld console. The game was released on July 11, 2009 in Japan.  It will be released in July 2010 in both North America and Europe.

==Plot==

Dragon Quest IX begins in the Observatory, the floating kingdom of the Celestrians, including the main protagonist, reside. The main character begins as the guardian who has just undertaken protection of Angel Falls, a human village. The Celestrians have been trying for some time to move into the God's Land. However, before they can leave, they require a fruit called the fygg. The fruit is very rare and Yggdrasil the "World Tree" it grows on must be empowered with benevolessence, which are obtained by helping people in the mortal world, known as the Protectorate.

By helping and protecting his/her town and earning their thanks, the main character obtains enough benevolessence for the World Tree to produce the fyggs. Just as the Starflight Express that will take the angels to the kingdom of God arrives, the Protectorate is attacked from below by a mysterious and powerful force. The force scatters the assembled angels and knocks the fyggs, the Starflight Express, and the main character down to the Protectorate.

The main character awakens without wings or a halo and finds he/she has been rescued from the base of the waterfall in Angel Falls. As he/she comes to he learns a little about his/her fall and the great earthquake that happened at the same time. Having lost most of his/her Celestrian's powers, but not his/her memory or the ability to see deceased and magical spirits, he/she travels about trying to find a way back to the Observatory. During an adventure to reconnect his/her village to the nearby castle after landslides caused by the great earthquake, the main character finds the broken down celestial train and its faerie driver, Stella. Stella promises to help the main character return to the kingdom of angels if he/she can prove he is one.

By helping humans, the main character gathers benevolessence though he/she can no longer see them. His/her ability to aid and protect the humans convinces Stella who, restoring power to the Starflight Express with the benevolessence, helps the main character return to the Observatory. Upon his/her return, the main character discovers that the fyggs have also fallen to the human world and that many Celestrian have been dispatched to find them, though no one has yet returned. His/her prayers to become a Celestrian again are unanswered but a vision is presented to the main character as he/she stands before the World Tree. Taking the vision as a sign, the main character is charged with returning to the human world to help collect the Fyggs.

As the main character travels the Protectorate in search of the fyggs he finds that the fruit have the ability to grant those who eat it any wish. Unfortunately, the wishes are not always fulfilled in the way they were expected and those who eat the fruit succumb to strange and demented ways. It is the hero's mission to travel from land to land, finding and battling those possessed by the Goddess Fruit's power. As he defeats their twisted form, the main character sets the possessed free and regains the fyggs one by one. After the hero collects all the fyggs, he/she return to the starflight express with Stella and head for the observatory. During the ride, Aquila enters the Starflight Express, and ask the hero for the fyggs. He/she refuses to give him the fyggs and Aquila battles you. You cannot strike him because Celestrians can't attack their superior and nearly kills you. The main character soon falls out of the starflight express and awakes in Wormwood Creek. He/she soon enter Wormwood Forest and meet Serena, who wants you to find a serene necklace she hid under the Guardian Statue. The main character soon finds the necklace and after retrieving Eventually, the hero learns that a Celestrian named Corvus is responsible for the attack on Yggdrasil and the Starflight Express, and defeats him.

==Gameplay==

Dragon Quest IX continues the Dragon Quest tradition of turn-based combat, with a few modern twists. The game allows players to have a cooperative wireless multiplayer experience with up to four players.

The game includes a quest system. Quests serve as side-stories helping non-player characters around the game's world. Multiple quests can be performed simultaneously with some even interlocking and unlocking various stages in fellow quests. Early quests include gathering magical spring water, slaying monsters and stealing for a fellow thief. Unlike previous Dragon Quest installments, Dragon Quest IX contains many open ended mini-quests. Upon completion of the quests, a "Quest List log," serving as an in-game achievement list.