Dragon Quest IX

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Dragon Quest IX

North American box art for Dragon Quest IX.

Publisher(s) Square Enix (Japan)
Square Enix, Inc. (NA)
Square Enix Ltd. (EU)
Developer(s) Level-5
Designer(s) Yūji Horii
Artist(s) Akira Toriyama
Composer(s) Koichi Sugiyama
Released July 11, 2009 (Japan)
July 11, 2010 (NA)
July 23, 2010 (EU)
Price ¥5980
US$34.99
€TBA
Genre handheld role-playing game
Mode single-player, multi-player
Platform Nintendo DS
Series Dragon Quest
Rating CERO: A
ESRB: TBA
Media Nintendo DS Game Card
Input Nintendo DS

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies[1] (ドラゴンクエストIX 星空の守り人, Doragon Kuesuto Nain Hoshizora no Mamoribito, lit. "Dragon Quest IX: Defenders of the Starry Sky") is a video game for the Nintendo DS released on July 11, 2009 in Japan. It is the ninth installment in the acclaimed Dragon Quest series by Yuji Horii, developed by Level-5 and published by Square Enix. The game was primarily designed around multiplayer and to be able to sell well overseas, particularly the United States and Europe. The basic plot involves an ex-angel who has fallen to earth becoming a human.

Dragon Quest IX marks several firsts for the main series: it is the first to be initially launched for a handheld system; first to have no random encounters (except when sailing); and the first to be designed primarily with the intent of being a multiplayer video game. In addition it is the first Japanese Dragon Quest title to use a graphical menu system.[28] Dragon Quest IX was designed to be harder than any previous game in the series, including spinoff titles.

The sales of Dragon Quest IX set new records in Japan; these sales helped boost Nintendo's earnings and have impacted future plannings by the company. The game has been generally well received by critics, but has had more mixed commentary from the general public in Japan.

Gameplay

Dragon Quest IX continues the Dragon Quest tradition of turn-based combat,[2] but is much harder than its previous titles.[3] Unlike previous games, the player will have much more control over their characters appearance. While Dragon Warrior III and IV allowed players to change the hero to a heroine, Dragon Quest IX allows them to go much further by defining things like hair styles and skin tone.[4] The game allows players to have a cooperative wireless multiplayer experience with up to four players; it does not, however, feature multiplayer capabilities via Nintendo Wi-Fi.[5]

Both the main character and additional party members can be created using Dragon Quest IX's character creation system. This includes gender, hair style and color, eye shape and color, body type, skin tone, and profession. The main character starts with a unique profession. The professions for additional party members available from the beginning are soldier, warrior, magic user, priest, thief, and traveling performer though additional professions are available later. Professions determine usable equipment and stats during leveling. In addition to automatic stat bonuses upon leveling, each character earns spendable points to unlock additional skills and bonuses based on their profession. Professions can be changed in game after completing appropriate tasks. Customizing a character continues into the main game with weapons and armor, now visible during battles and while exploring the world map and towns. Weapons and armor slots include one weapon, a shield, a helmet, body armor, leg armor, gloves, boots, and accessories (rings or amulets, for example).

Battle is conducted from a combination of first and third-person perspectives. The character plans his attack from a first person perspective, selecting which opponents to target (including the ability to target specific monsters in a single group) and then switches to a moving third-person view to watch the main character's party and the monsters battle for the round. Combat includes a combo system available both to players and monsters. When two or more identical attacks are performed consecutively on the same opponent the attack damage increases by a multiplier. A two-hit combo receives a 1.2x multiplier, a three-hit combo a 1.5x multiplier, and a four-hit combo a 2.0x multiplier. Experience points earned from battle are divided amongst all party members, but scaled for level. Higher level characters receive more experience points than lower level characters.

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; some are interlocking, others unlock stages in fellow quests.[6] 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.[7]

The game includes only one save slot.[3][8]

Plot

Dragon Quest IX begins in a kingdom where angels, including the main protagonist, reside. These angels have been trying for some time to move into the God's Land. However, before they can leave, they require a fruit called the Goddess fruit. The fruit is very rare and the "World Tree" it grows on must be empowered with "Star Auras, which are obtained by helping people in the mortal world."[7]

The main character begins as a guardian angel who has just undertaken protection of a human village. By helping and protecting his town and earning their thanks, the main character obtains enough Star Auras for the World Tree to produce the Goddess Fruit. Just as the celestial train that will take the angels to the kingdom of God arrives, the kingdom of angels is attacked from below by a mysterious and powerful force. The force scatters the assembled angels and knocks the Goddess Fruit, the celestial train, and the main character down to the mortal world.

The main character awakens without wings or a halo and finds he has been rescued from the base of the waterfall in the town he formerly protected. As he comes to he learns a little about his fall and the great earthquake that happened at the same time. Having lost most of his angel's powers, but not his memory or the ability to see deceased and magical spirits, he travels about trying to find a way back to the kingdom of angels. During an adventure to reconnect his 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, Sandy. Sandy promises to help the main character return to the kingdom of angels if he can prove he is one.

By helping humans, the main character gathers Star Auras though he can no longer see them. His ability to aid and protect the humans convinces Sandy who, restoring power to the celestial train with the Star Auras, helps the main character return to the kingdom of angels. Upon his return, the main character discovers that the Goddess Fruit has also fallen to the human world and that many angels have been dispatched to find them, though no one has yet returned. His prayers to become an angel again are unanswered but a vision is presented to the main character as he 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 Goddess Fruit.

As the main character travels the human world in search of the Goddess Fruit 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 Goddess Fruit one by one.

Development

Dragon Quest IX was primarily designed around the idea of attracting a wider overseas market by "giving the game a more action-oriented premise than previous games in the series.[9] Shinji Hatano, General Manager for Nintendo's Marketing Division, believes that Dragon Quest IX, which he says is a quality title, not only could, but should, sell more copies in the United States and Europe.[10] In addition to the overseas market, the entire game is designed around the multi-player aspect. Minor aspects like of party talk which was in previous titles and only a few pre-defined non-player characters and more significant things like the quest system which can often be taken multiple times and are presumably designed around getting friends to help with specific missions. Other changes, like the lack of random battles also are structured toward this goal, but on a more tangential level.[4]

In mid-2006, Dragon Quest series composer Kōichi Sugiyama confirmed that Dragon Quest IX was in development. He said, "I'm not sure when Dragon Quest IX will be released, but it seems that progress is continually being made. I'm personally excited."[11] On December 12, 2006, during a press conference celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Dragon Quest franchise, Square Enix announced that Dragon Quest IX would be released exclusively for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console,[citation needed] making it the first main Dragon Quest title to debut on a handheld.

The Japanese release of Dragon Quest IX was subsequently delayed from 2007 to 2008. The company cited the need for more time to make a better game as reason for the delay.[12] At the 2008 Tokyo Game Show, a new trailer was shown at the Square Enix booth which showed a glimpse of the changes made to the gameplay and graphics. At the end of the video, a confirmation of the release date (set for March 2009) was unveiled. Square Enix released another new trailer for the game, showing various aspects of the storyline, boss battles, along with cutscenes; the end of the trailer showed a then-correct release date for March 28, 2009, along with a price point of ¥5,980, which still stands.[13]

On February 12, 2009, after having delayed the release of its quarterly financial by a week, Square Enix announced the game would be delayed once again to a Japanese release on July 11 of the same year. The game's release delay worried Final Fantasy fans, who were told by Square Enix president Yoichi Wada that Dragon Quest IX's delay may affect Final Fantasy XIII's release, stating that he "[could] not say there [would not] be an effect."[14]

Dragon Quest IX was designed to be the hardest Dragon Quest game yet. The rationale is that the developers said, "people can always find out information on the internet — like that's part of the game experience." In addition, the game has only one save slot.[3] Ryutaro Ichimura, producer of Dragon Quest IX, clarified the reason explaining that there is not enough space on the system given the amount of freedom the game allows. Instead, the extra slot is used for a backup in case of battery failure.[8]

Also included in the game was the chance to re-experience boss battles from previous Dragon Quest titles such as fighting Baramos from Dragon Warrior III and Dhoulmagus from Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King[citation needed].

Release

Dragon Quest IX shipped with over 2 million pre-order sales.[15][16] While the official release date for Dragon Quest IX is July 11, 2009,[14] some retailers had already shipped orders; one such dealer asked its customers to not play the game until the official release date.[17] In spite the large number of pre-orders and additional release shipments by Square Enix, lines still formed for the release.[15][16] Within a two-day period, the title had sold 2,318,932 copies out of an estimated three million copies that had been shipped. Some analysts say that three million may be too conservative and expect five million copies sold in Japan alone with large overseas sales expectations that could break previous Dragon Quest sales records.[16][18][19] The sale was the largest post-2000 debut week sale which broken the record previously held by the former title, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King and with over 4 million copies shipped Dragon Quest IX is as of September 25, 2009 on track for becoming the most popular and best-selling Nintendo DS game ever.[16][20][21] Shortly before the official release a malware ROM claiming to be the Dragon Quest IX ROM was released on 2chan. Instead of the actual game, it was a hentai slideshow that bricks the Nintendo DS.[22]

Months since its Japanese release, Square Enix has trademarked the name Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, as well as corresponding titles for the four other main languages of Western Europe (French, German, Italian and Spanish), confirming that the title will be released there.[1] It also registered the English trademark in the United States confirming its North American release around the same time.

At the Nintendo Media Summit on February 24, 2010, Nintendo announced that it will not only co-market Dragon Quest IX, it will publish it in North America. No release date has yet been given.[29]

Impact

Nintendo expected a boost in its DSi sales with the simultaneously timed launch of the red DSi in Japan,[16] and reports show an increase of 152% in Nintendo DS sales during the first weeks of Dragon Quest IX.[19] Square-Enix expected not to fare as well despite the record sales. After a last minute delay in the release date from March 28, 2009 to July 11, 2009 Square-Enix dropped its expected yearly earnings by 17 percent and profits by 62.5 percent. The company hoped to bolster the worldwide appeal of the series with the redesign of the game.[9]

The saturation of Dragon Quest IX in Japan has, as of October 30, 2009, increased the number of Passing-By Connections because the number of people carrying a DS on them outside home increased. According to Shigeru Miyamoto, General Manager for Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis & Development Division, this development has lead Nintendo to figure out more ways of creating something unique for this.[23]

Reception

On January 1, 2009, Dragon Quest IX was the most anticipated game in Japan according to a monthly poll conducted by Famitsu magazine. It displaced Final Fantasy XIII from the top spot after 15 months.[24]

Since the day of the game's launch, it has largely received mixed to highly negative responses from fans on the Internet, particularly towards Sandy the gyaru-ish fairy.[25] Kotaku Night Editor Brian Ashcraft stated that "this could very well [have] be[en] an organized effort...to slam" the game.[26]

Days after the game's release, Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has scored the game with 40/40, the tenth game to achieve a perfect score.[27] Jeremy Parish, editor for 1UP, gave the game an overall positive preview. He noted the game's design toward the local multi-player aspect, though had yet to try it. Instead his preview focused on the single-player gameplay. While he enjoyed it and felt it still stayed true to the heart of a Dragon Quest game, he noted that hardcore fans may still not like the amount and type of changes, though he did not give specifics. Parish also noted the that while the graphics quality was not up to the same level as the previous title it still was quality work.[4]

Notes


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