New Dragon Quest IX Footage

[Akira]

I got it. I'm about 5 hours in, and man is it a throw back. It's like Final Fantasy I. You make all your characters, give them jobs, everyone is silent. It's crazy. Aside from the skill system and dress up game of equipment management, it's basically Final Fantasy I in 3D. That goes for the story too, which is ass so far.

You should check out the Japanese Amazon site for this game. Amazon.co.jp

Most of the reviews are negative and over a third are one star. If you can read Japanese they are pretty funny. Mostly people are pissed about the annoying Shibuya-girl fairy character and the complete lack of personality in the controllable characters. It seems dumbed down, even by DQ standards. It's also hella easy. One guy made an excellent point when he said that if this were exactly the same game but just not named "Dragon Quest," it would be lucky to sell 20,000 copies, let alone 2.3 million.

The fact that the game only allows for one save slot was also a HUGE negative, and is friggin' annoying given that you will likely want to experiment with different classes. Honestly I think SE just figured that rabid DQ fans will gladly buy multiple copies of a DS game and they didn't want to spend any more time on development. Pretty cynical of them. I just don't buy the whole "OMG, technical limitations, too much data! We couldn't add more save slots!" It's really not that complicated of a game.

It's not bad so far just not special. I gave it 3 stars but I'm still early.

[ChevalierEagle]

I got it. I'm about 5 hours in, and man is it a throw back. It's like Final Fantasy I. You make all your characters, give them jobs, everyone is silent. It's crazy. Aside from the skill system and dress up game of equipment management, it's basically Final Fantasy I in 3D. That goes for the story too, which is ass so far.

You should check out the Japanese Amazon site for this game. Amazon.co.jp

Most of the reviews are negative and over a third are one star. If you can read Japanese they are pretty funny. Mostly people are pissed about the annoying Shibuya-girl fairy character and the complete lack of personality in the controllable characters. It seems dumbed down, even by DQ standards. It's also hella easy. One guy made an excellent point when he said that if this were exactly the same game but just not named "Dragon Quest," it would be lucky to sell 20,000 copies, let alone 2.3 million.

The fact that the game only allows for one save slot was also a HUGE negative, and is friggin' annoying given that you will likely want to experiment with different classes. Honestly I think SE just figured that rabid DQ fans will gladly buy multiple copies of a DS game and they didn't want to spend any more time on development. Pretty cynical of them. I just don't buy the whole "OMG, technical limitations, too much data! We couldn't add more save slots!" It's really not that complicated of a game.

It's not bad so far just not special. I gave it 3 stars but I'm still early.

One save slot? Shibuya-girl fairy? This is getting ugly.

[Draak]

Thanks for sharing your impressions, Akira.

I guess the fairy is the "ganguro" they were complaining about lol. From what you've described, DQIX seems to be a refined DQIII (character creation) mixed with the job system found in VI/VII. It's kinda disappointing to hear about it being easy though. According to Horii, it would be hardest DQ game.

[Eusis]

Maybe it picks up in difficulty later on? It would be kinda weird to advertise it being the hardest only for it to be a pushover, and it was way too late to tweak the difficulty to appease any backlash.

[Akira]

Maybe I'm grinding too much. Doesn't seem like it, but it's still early.

[jj984jj]

Amazon reviews? LMAO, I didn't think people would actually pay attention to those on here, they're mostly from 2ch trolls, there's also a lot of people making fun of Sandy and her "gal" way of speech. If it's any consolation Famitsu gave it the first 40/40 for a DQ game lol.

From what I've heard it sounds like a real DQ game for the DS, which means day 1 for me. One save doesn't bother me, it seems pretty common for DS games. I just finished Devil Survivor with one save. I'm a bit disappointed by what I've heard about the job system though, it's based on skills instead of spells. That and no random encounters were the selling points for me.

[ChevalierEagle]

Amazon reviews? LMAO, I didn't think people would actually pay attention to those on here, they're mostly from 2ch trolls, there's also a lot of people making fun of Sandy and her "gal" way of speech. If it's any consolation Famitsu gave it the first 40/40 for a DQ game lol.

From what I've heard it sounds like a real DQ game for the DS, which means day 1 for me. One save doesn't bother me, it seems pretty common for DS games. I just finished Devil Survivor with one save. I'm a bit disappointed by what I've heard about the job system though, it's based on skills instead of spells. That and no random encounters were the selling points for me.

Famitsu stopped being relevant years ago.

But really, just one save slot?

[jj984jj]

Famitsu stopped being relevant years ago.

But really, just one save slot?

That was sort of my point. And yes the game only has one save slot.

[ChevalierEagle]

That sucks....hard.

[ShadowLaguna]

Famitsu stopped being relevant years ago.

But really, just one save slot?

That was sort of my point. And yes the game only has one save slot.

LAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Aeolus]

From what I've been hearing they've included the ability to reincarnate at level 99 which would put you back to level 1 but with your stats intact. I can see how this game could become ridiculously easy (especially since levels are based on classes not on character). The reason why I bring this up is because in the previous DQ games you either can't or will have great difficulty in maxing out your character which is something I enjoy about the series compared to others like Final Fantasy (or to sum it up in five words NO Handing Out God Mods).

Classes themselves offer five skill sets that you invest skill points into like VIII but the big difference is that many skill sets are shared by many classes (for instance swords can be found in both the Warrior class and the Freelancer/Performer/whatever it's called class among other classes). Raise your skills in swords in one class and all classes that use swords will have the same level of Skill Points invested into it. The two exceptions are in Shields (in that, like fisticuffs in VIII, everyone has it) and the class specific skill (which is obviously class specific). There are twelve known classes in the game, six of them are basic, and six of them require unlocking through some sort of accomplishment.

There's also the fact that the game included Blue Chests which has random items and material respawn every so often (including rare stuff) which makes it far more easier to grind for material rather than having to steal or collect drops (both of which tend to be really unreliable in most DQ games). And of course there's the alchemy system which is back from VIII but without the cooking/random wandering time and instead requires a more complex list of ingredients to create an item making it harder to guess the recipe (though with a guide in hand that trade off suddenly becomes a whole lot more one-sided).

/rant

All that said, I'm not going to condemn it yet but the one save slot thing is really going to put a damper on my spirits every time I want to go on a Shield-Bearer run and realize that I've got to delete my uber party of uberness if I want to do so (or get a second copy).

[Ryos]

The one save slot crap is why I prefer games on the PSP.  One save slot makes the prospect of replaying a PITA.

[Losfer]

Who cares if you only get one save slot, stop being pussies.

[Lard]

Who wants to play the Die Sandy! game?

http://blog-imgs-41-origin.fc2.com/k/i/n/king75/sandy.html

[Prime Mover]

This doesn't sound good, but the one-save slot thing is really irrelivant, for the most part. MOST of the time, I only use one save for games, particularly for games that are not save-anywhere. Anyone who would not buy a game simply because it only allows for one save is being super-anal IMHO. Now, the rest of the stuff doesn't sound too appealing. The thing that made DQVIII and DQV for me were the character personalities. You're saying that your characters are silent? Does that mean they have no personalities? That's a game killer for me.

BTW: is it voice acted?