Developer: Level-5
Platform: Nintendo DS
Release Year: 2009
Stephen's Rating: 6/10
Basic Plot
The player character is a Celestrian, a being designed to look over mortal people. You are given the job of watching over the people of Angel Falls. By completing good deeds the player is able to obtain "benevolence" and gives this to the World Tree in the hope of obtaining a "fygg" which will allow all Celestrians to move to the Realm of the Almighty. Yes, it's freaking complicated already.
To cut a long story short, just as you obtain a fygg the Observatory is attacked. You end up losing your powers and become mortal, and spend the rest of the game trying to find fyggs and find out who attacked the World Tree in the first place.
Gameplay
Dragon Quest IX is a role playing adventure game similar in style to the early Final Fantasy series. Apparently in Japan the series is huge, but has had little limelight in America and Europe.
The graphics are 3D rendered but are basic enough for the Nintendo DS console to handle smoothly. Overall the visual aesthetic is nice to look at.
You have a primary character who is a Celestian who loses his powers, and party members of which there are many to choose from (but you can only take 3 with you at any one time, and it is highly recommended you pick 3 and stick with them to save re-levelling up characters).
Characters could be cosmetically customised during the game, altering traits such as gender, skin tone, hair colour, and body shape. The weapons and armour you equipped were also visible on your character which is always a bonus for me.
Each character had a vocation (character class) which determined a lot about their abilities. Near the beginning of the game you obtain access to 6 vocations, and there are another 6 which are unlockable by completing different quests. Some of these quests are difficult to achieve. The vocations included:
- Minstrel; Starting character, jack of all trades - basically the Freelancer from Final Fantasy.
- Warrior
- Mage
- Priest
- Martial Artist
- Thief
- Armamentalist
- Ranger
- Gladiator
- Sage
- Paladin
- Luminary
Moving around as well as battles is identical to what you'd expect from a Final Fantasy game. Fighting is turn based. After all commands have been issued both you and your opponent's moves will play out based on which characters have the best speed.
The game was designed so you could play the campaign with up to 4 player co-operative multiplayer. I never played this, but I imagine it would be a lot of fun. Nintendo Wifi wasn't supported, only local wireless.
The campaign is huge and is said to take 100 hours on average, but for a completionist like me that could be well over 300 hours.
Positives
This is a really well made RPG. The mechanics are nice, the visuals and sound are also pleasant.
Negatives
The story is too convoluted. Especially considering you have to read all the dialogue. I put the game down for about a week, came back to it, and was COMPLETELY lost.
I also found some of the quests very frustrating. One of the quests involved doing a particular move on a particular unit without it fleeing (to obtain a new class) and I spent literally hours trying to do it without any success.
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