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Dragon Quest IX: RIGHT NOW in North America. Go Buy It!

Xenogears of BoreXenogears of Bore Registered User regular
edited July 2010 in Games and Technology
DRAGON QUEST IX

RELEASE DATE (JAPAN): July 11th, 2009
RELEASE DATE (US): JULY 11th, 2010 one year to the day, what a coincidence! GO BUY IT RIGHT NOW! DRIVE ALL NIGHT IF YOU HAVE TO!
RELEASE DATE (EU): No one cares (A few weeks.

WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABOUT DQ IX?

It's Dragon Quest. The best Selling PSX game in Japan is Dragon Quest VII. The best selling PS2 game in Japan? DQ VIII. The best selling game in the series? Dragon Quest NINE. That's not the only thing unique about the game. It's the first main line DQ game to be on a handheld in its first release. It is the first multiplayer game in the series. It is the first game without random encounters (for the most part) all enemies are on screen ala Chrono Trigger/Cross. That being said, a lot of the game will be familar and loved by fans of Dragon Quest in the west, all ten of them. Turn based first person viewpoint. Classic spells, enemies, bad puns, classes, and even some interesting equipment cameos. Even the job system and character recruitment are more or less amalgamated from DQ III, VI/VII, and VIII.

Watch the videos here, including the creepy Seth Green Commercials!

http://dqnine.com/#/video/

BASICS:

40 Hour Main Game: Classic heart warming DQ storyline. Guaranteed to charm your pants off.

Dedicated Quest System: Inspired by games such as Oblivion and Diablo II (Seriously) the Quests in this game will keep you coming back for months or years after. Quests are obtained from NPCs, from real life friends, and from the Online Store. No real cash involved, just hop online and download. Unlike certain sale items though Quest Maps never become unavailable if they are on the online store. Maps from friends/randoms strangers though? Randomly generated holes in the ground filled with loot and monsters, sometimes unique loot and monsters.

Make Your Character(s): You pick the name and appearance of your main hero. When you unlock Patty's Pub you can then recruit more members which you also create. Name, Sex, Face, Hair, Body, Class. See the video link posted above for more details. It's fairly in depth for a DS character creator. Later on in the game you can change the class of your characters, so feel free to experiment.

1-4 Players: You can play almost the entire game besides the very beginning of the game with up to 4 players locally. Only the host can open certain chests and complete important story quests, but people who import characters can gain levels, equipment, gold, whatever. You don't even have to hang out with your fellow players, you can go do whatever you want. If you are near a player when they engage in combat you can join in, and the host can summon you if he or she needs help. Speaking about Loot:

ARMOR and WEAPONS ARE DISPLAYED ON YOUR CHARACTERS AT ALL TIMES: Change your sword, it shows up on your avatar. Change your headband, armor, legs, shield, boots. Real time character change, the future is now. There are 8 slots for equipment instead of the usual five.

syuzin01.jpgsyuzin02.jpgsyuzin04.jpg




01kyara02.jpg01kyara05.jpg01kyara03.jpg[/quote]

I ONLY PLAYED DQ I, II, IV, V, OR VIII? PLEASE TELL ME MORE ABOUT THIS CLASS SYSTEM?

Well, its pretty simple. You pick a class to start out with between warrior, priest, mage, minstrel, martial artist and thief ala DQ III! In fact the exact same beginning choices in the SFC/GBC version if you trade goof off for the superior minstrel! Classes can be changed by visiting the [strike]Dharma Temple[/strike] ALLTRADES ABBEY later on, also much like DQ III. However they merged this with the multi skill system from DQ VIII, where each level you are given a set number of points into one of the skills (Warrior has sword, spear, dagger, shield and courage.) It should be fairly intuitive when you start playing it.

BEHOLD, CLASS PICTURES!

Behold Your Starting Classes!

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WARRIOR: Meat Shields No Cast Good! Smash with Weapon! Heal Stick Heal Us Good or We Smash! Lady Warriors Expose Much Skin to Lure Enemies In!

CLASS SKILLS: Sword, Spear, Knife, Shield, Bravery

MAGE: Cast offensive and some buff spells. Usually have weak weapons that add to MP pools or casting stats, or give free casts of lower level spells. Standard glass cannons.

CLASS SKILLS: Wand, Knife, Whip, Shield, Magic

PRIEST: Heals, buffs, more heals, an elemental spell, heals, resurrections, heals. You've played a healstick before, you know what is going on here.

CLASS SKILLS: Spear, Wand, Staff, Shield, Faith

MARTIAL ARTIST: The path of the true martial artist. Goofy theme weapons, unarmed strikes. Super Power ups through tension. Critical Hits. Sometimes takes a ton of damage though due to gimmicky armor. Snickt, Snickt Bub.

CLASS SKILLS: Claw, Staff, Fan, Fisticuffs, Battle Spirit

THIEF: Dashing rogue/roguettes. Quick on their feet, deft with their fingers. Use lighter weapons, lightning quick strikes.

CLASS SKILLS: Knife, Sword, Claw, Fisticuffs, Thievery

MINSTREL: Entertainers, Goof-offs. Dancers. Bards. They have a long and storied history with RPGs. Usually interesting characters in DQ games with what one would consider eclectic at best. At least you don't need to be one to become a Sage anymore. Oh and they aren't useless anymore!

CLASS SKILLS: Sword, Whip, Fan, Shield, Acrobatics

HOW DO CLASSES WORK?

When you make a character you pick a class. As you level you gain skill points you can put into one of 5 skills. Sometimes you also gain spells which are seperate from skills and are only available when you are a member of that class. After a certain point in the game you gain access to Alltrades Abbey, where the Jack of Alltrades will allow you to change your class. You start at level one in the new class but retain any levels gained in the previous class. So a level 5 Mage who becomes a Cleric will be level 1 again, but if he goes back to Mage at a later time he/she will be level 5 again.

CLASS SKILLS???

Each Class has 5 skills. As you level, you put points into said skill trees. If you reach a certain level you learn either new skills (attack everyone, cast something, you know the idea) or a passive buff (+ to MP, + to attack power with that weapon) If you reach 100 with a weapon skill you can use that weapon with any class. Any overlapping skills between classes you keep the points in. A level 10 thief with swords 15 turns into a Warrior, he still has swords 15. Reaching 100 in any skill also allows you to do a quest that gives you an ultra power for said skill.


ADVANCED JOBS?
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Beast Master, Paladin, Magic Knight, Ranger.


MYSTERY JOBS

Sage and Superstar. Latter one is available only after beating the game. All advanced jobs are earned via quests.

I HEARD THIS WAS A 4 PLAYER ACTION RPG?

It was, but they changed that almost two years ago. It still seems to have some sort of local co-op, a series first. Probably will do something similar to FF:CC in which you can move your character temporarily to someone elses game and go questing with them. Speaking about Quests this game has quite a few of optional quests to pad out the story, a series first. Also confirmed that there are downloadable quests for people who can't get enough.

SOUNDS GREAT, WHEN IS IT COMING OUT IN ENGLISH/OTHER LESS AWESOME NON JAPANESE LANGUAGES?

Out right now...if you can find someone to sell it that's open 24/7. 10 more hours east coast, 13 west, maybe earlier. GO BUY IT.

3DS CODE: 3093-7068-3576
Xenogears of Bore on
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Posts

  • OlivawOlivaw good name, isn't it? the foot of mt fujiRegistered User regular
    edited June 2009
    I'm still sort of sad that they changed it from an action RPG

    Oh well

    I'll still buy it

    Olivaw on
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  • earthwormadamearthwormadam ancient crust Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Wow, that theme brings so many great NES memories back. The game looks pretty damn good too. They did a really good job of retaining the style of the monster design, even with so few polys.

    earthwormadam on
  • angrylinuxgeekangrylinuxgeek Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    I generally don't enjoy JRPGs but the budget involved here really makes me excited for whatever this game turns out to be.

    angrylinuxgeek on
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  • DarmakDarmak RAGE vympyvvhyc vyctyvyRegistered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Man, this looks really good and all but I hate the character design (love the monster design though). Seriously, all the humans look fucking retarded.

    Darmak on
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  • BlackjackBlackjack Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Yeah, this is going to be amazing. One of those rare cases where you can truly say 'if you don't like this, you are wrong'

    Blackjack on
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    3DS: 1607-3034-6970
  • LunkerLunker Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    I think you mean:
    RELEASE DATE (JAPAN): July 11th, 2009
    RELEASE DATE (US): LOL
    RELEASE DATE (EU): ROFL

    I've been loosely keeping tabs on the game, but it's still way too far out for me to get hyped about it. It'll still be a Day 1 purchase for me regardless, though.

    Lunker on
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  • XagarathXagarath Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    I will be buying this when I can.
    But yes, pity the action approach was dropped.

    Xagarath on
  • LunkerLunker Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Xagarath wrote: »
    I will be buying this when I can.
    But yes, pity the action approach was dropped.

    I'm of two minds on the whole affair. I wouldn't mind seeing them spice up the formula with something new, but on the other hand DQ is the one series where I really don't care if the gameplay stays almost exactly the same year-in and year-out. Even then, it's hard to really tell by the trailer, but it looks like character and enemy position on the battlefield actually might change tactics, plus you can actually see monsters on the battlefield now—pretty hefty changes to the classic DQ battle formula.

    Lunker on
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  • BlackjackBlackjack Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    I can't remember. Do you only make the main character, or are you creating the entire party like in DQ3?

    Blackjack on
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    3DS: 1607-3034-6970
  • Xenogears of BoreXenogears of Bore Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    You create everyone, I believe, just like DQ III. Maybe even more than four also like DQ III.

    Xenogears of Bore on
    3DS CODE: 3093-7068-3576
  • BlackjackBlackjack Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    You create everyone, I believe, just like DQ III. Maybe even more than four also like DQ III.
    Cool. I gained a new appreciation for DQ3 recently so I am all for that.

    (naturally, right after I posted the question I saw that the answer was in the OP and I had just missed it the first time)

    Blackjack on
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    3DS: 1607-3034-6970
  • UncleSporkyUncleSporky Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Oh man that looks fantastic. I can't believe they have the storage for that much customization and monster types. All those apparently new monsters too, that fit in pretty well with the old ones.

    Whether you like the character designs or not, I also like how no matter how you dress them they fit right in as DQ characters. Possibly because clown suits are commonplace in this world. :P

    UncleSporky on
    Switch Friend Code: SW - 5443 - 2358 - 9118 || 3DS Friend Code: 0989 - 1731 - 9504 || NNID: unclesporky
  • DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    JRPGS WITH MAIN CHARACTER VISUAL CUSTOMIZATION?!

    What is this world coming to.

    DarkPrimus on
  • Xenogears of BoreXenogears of Bore Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    The excuse was that it was originally an Action RPG.

    Xenogears of Bore on
    3DS CODE: 3093-7068-3576
  • PurpleMonkeyPurpleMonkey Why so derp? Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    I was always quite intrigued to see a turn based RPG with separate players controlling each party member so that part of the game has me quite interested

    Also I'm not that bothered about them dropping the action but that's just largely down to the fact that I've never really cared for action RPGs

    PurpleMonkey on
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  • Jubal77Jubal77 Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    I think the DS remakes are fun but I still find it sucky that this franchise did not get the full console treatment. Isnt this series as popular, if not more, than FF in Japan? I need moar splenderiffical RPGs on the PS3/360. Last Remnant and Star Ocean just are not cutting it...

    Jubal77 on
  • Xenogears of BoreXenogears of Bore Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Good News Jubal, the next Dragon Quest game is confirmed in development, and on a console no less!

    Dragon Quest X on the Wii!

    MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

    Xenogears of Bore on
    3DS CODE: 3093-7068-3576
  • Jubal77Jubal77 Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Good News Jubal, the next Dragon Quest game is confirmed in development, and on a console no less!

    Dragon Quest X on the Wii!

    MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

    Sweet cause Swords was sooo awesome!

    /wrists

    Jubal77 on
  • Xenogears of BoreXenogears of Bore Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Swords was awesome, I agree, but this is a mainline Dragon Quest game and not a punch out esque spinoff.

    Xenogears of Bore on
    3DS CODE: 3093-7068-3576
  • Jubal77Jubal77 Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Id be interested to check it out of course as I allow Squarenix to eat my soul, and pocket book, on a regular basis.

    I want Sakaguchi to come back and make another IX type FF.

    Edit: Sorry FF reference in the DQ thread my bad.
    I want another DQ like IV as well. Great story with awesome characters.

    Jubal77 on
  • VeganVegan Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Jubal77 wrote: »
    I think the DS remakes are fun but I still find it sucky that this franchise did not get the full console treatment. Isnt this series as popular, if not more, than FF in Japan? I need moar splenderiffical RPGs on the PS3/360. Last Remnant and Star Ocean just are not cutting it...

    Yes, and you know what the most widespread game system is, by far, in Japan? Probably here, too.
    nintendo-ds-lite.jpg

    Vegan on
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  • MC MysteryMC Mystery Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    I am drooling. Literally. For this game.

    MC Mystery on
    Your sig is too tall. -Thanatos
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  • SaddlerSaddler Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    I'm for it. But a lot of visual character customization in a handheld RPG is almost silly, though. It's not like it's going to be really noticeable most of the time.

    Saddler on
  • MinionOfCthulhuMinionOfCthulhu Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Saddler wrote: »
    I'm for it. But a lot of visual character customization in a handheld RPG is almost silly, though. It's not like it's going to be really noticeable most of the time.

    I am guessing most stuff will be easily seen during play (crazy hair and stuff), but faces won't matter unless you're in a cutscene. I do appreciate all the effort though. And thank goodness you can see every piece of equipment on a person. When's the last time you saw that? Hell, most of the time the only thing that changes on a character is the weapon.

    MinionOfCthulhu on
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  • jothkijothki Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Saddler wrote: »
    I'm for it. But a lot of visual character customization in a handheld RPG is almost silly, though. It's not like it's going to be really noticeable most of the time.

    I am guessing most stuff will be easily seen during play (crazy hair and stuff), but faces won't matter unless you're in a cutscene. I do appreciate all the effort though. And thank goodness you can see every piece of equipment on a person. When's the last time you saw that? Hell, most of the time the only thing that changes on a character is the weapon.

    It's especially bad with all of those older games that only let you equip like 4-6 different suits of armor.

    Thinking about it, there are a whole bunch of ways that MMORPGs have been absurdly far ahead of the single-player market. This is one of the more blatant ones.

    jothki on
  • TaranisTaranis Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Wow, the DS, I didn't see that coming. Why do I get the feeling that I won't be able to give my character facial hair?

    Can anyone translate or post a link to a translation of that trailer? I could only make out a few words.

    Taranis on
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  • BedlamBedlam Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Wait so that means that Wi-fi is out? Thats kind of the whole reason I was interested :S

    Bedlam on
  • SilpheedSilpheed Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    jothki wrote: »
    Saddler wrote: »
    I'm for it. But a lot of visual character customization in a handheld RPG is almost silly, though. It's not like it's going to be really noticeable most of the time.

    I am guessing most stuff will be easily seen during play (crazy hair and stuff), but faces won't matter unless you're in a cutscene. I do appreciate all the effort though. And thank goodness you can see every piece of equipment on a person. When's the last time you saw that? Hell, most of the time the only thing that changes on a character is the weapon.

    It's especially bad with all of those older games that only let you equip like 4-6 different suits of armor.

    Thinking about it, there are a whole bunch of ways that MMORPGs have been absurdly far ahead of the single-player market. This is one of the more blatant ones.
    More games need a feature to customize the looks of your character. Especially the Final Fantasy games, where the main characters tend to be so damn overwrought in their character design that I sometimes sigh in frustration.

    Silpheed on
  • jothkijothki Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    Silpheed wrote: »
    jothki wrote: »
    Saddler wrote: »
    I'm for it. But a lot of visual character customization in a handheld RPG is almost silly, though. It's not like it's going to be really noticeable most of the time.

    I am guessing most stuff will be easily seen during play (crazy hair and stuff), but faces won't matter unless you're in a cutscene. I do appreciate all the effort though. And thank goodness you can see every piece of equipment on a person. When's the last time you saw that? Hell, most of the time the only thing that changes on a character is the weapon.

    It's especially bad with all of those older games that only let you equip like 4-6 different suits of armor.

    Thinking about it, there are a whole bunch of ways that MMORPGs have been absurdly far ahead of the single-player market. This is one of the more blatant ones.
    More games need a feature to customize the looks of your character. Especially the Final Fantasy games, where the main characters tend to be so damn overwrought in their character design that I sometimes sigh in frustration.

    FXII really needed to at least have different looks for robes, light, and heavy armor. If I could have put Penelo in plate armor, it would have redeemed her existance completely in my eyes.

    jothki on
  • Xenogears of BoreXenogears of Bore Registered User regular
    edited June 2009
    FF:CC games on the DS did a good job of the WYSIWYG approach to character armor and was most appreciated. The more RPGs that do this, the better in my humble opinion!

    Xenogears of Bore on
    3DS CODE: 3093-7068-3576
  • MatthewMatthew Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Yuji Horii gave an interview awhile ago, and revealed some choice info about the game.

    It's entirely in Japanese, but here it is anyway.
    http://touch-ds.jp/crv/vol13/001.html

    But I got some info off of Dragon's den, and it sounds pretty nice.
    -When you change classes, the character drops back to level 1, but you keep all the special abilities learned from the previous class. Horii suggests a priest with thief abilities.


    -The super classes are attainable through quests.

    -Story CAN advance in multiplayer modes.

    -the quests are the developes way of taking away the pain of level grinding, allowing you to grind while actually doing something.

    -The action RPG mode was dropped because testers found it to monotonous.

    Matthew on
  • ZerokkuZerokku Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    This is seriously my most awaited game right now. Good god I am hyped. Sadly it's going to take forever to come out here D:

    Zerokku on
  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I just beat my ages old copy of DQIII for Gameboy Color last week. It's good to see that DQIX is going to have some new innovations (yay for no random encounters), especially since I quit DQVIII halfway through. I'm not really sure why I like III so much better than VIII, though.

    Hexmage-PA on
  • Xenogears of BoreXenogears of Bore Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Here's the job art. I thought it would be cool to post this stuff. Click on each one for a higher resolution version.


    Base jobs
    2v836kn.jpg24ep1c9.jpgk564pw.jpgdvfu5d.jpg111jre1.jpgk564pw.jpg2yv5iwx.jpg2njztpw.jpg
    w165g9.jpg1zz5nkm.jpgk564pw.jpgfnbkn.jpg9i7pmt.jpgk564pw.jpg2ltgbpe.jpg34f0dcl.jpg


    Advanced jobs
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    o05mvb.jpg2myyu4j.jpgk564pw.jpg10r38jq.jpgk1an0j.jpg


    Mystery job - this is an advanced job that hasn't been revealed yet.
    Silhouette looks suspiciously like sage!
    2e2pf0g.jpgbdpbnm.jpg

    Stolen, with much respect.

    Xenogears of Bore on
    3DS CODE: 3093-7068-3576
  • TerrendosTerrendos Decorative Monocle Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    The only thing that worries me about this is, whenever you have a fully customizable party like this, the characters can't really have any personal stake in the plot. If your second character is a female thief and mine is a male cleric, the same events will happen to them regardless. I like it better when the characters are part of the plot in RPGs. Now, instead of having those key plot people along with me, they're more easily forgettable NPCs that stay in one town and repeat the same two things whenever I talk to them afterwards.

    Terrendos on
  • ZerokkuZerokku Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Terrendos wrote: »
    The only thing that worries me about this is, whenever you have a fully customizable party like this, the characters can't really have any personal stake in the plot.

    Final Fantasy V and Tactics would like a word with you.

    Zerokku on
  • BlackjackBlackjack Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Terrendos wrote: »
    The only thing that worries me about this is, whenever you have a fully customizable party like this, the characters can't really have any personal stake in the plot. If your second character is a female thief and mine is a male cleric, the same events will happen to them regardless. I like it better when the characters are part of the plot in RPGs. Now, instead of having those key plot people along with me, they're more easily forgettable NPCs that stay in one town and repeat the same two things whenever I talk to them afterwards.
    IMAGINATION

    spongebob.jpg

    Blackjack on
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    3DS: 1607-3034-6970
  • Xenogears of BoreXenogears of Bore Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    That's just because writers get lazy on job based games. You could have a decently fleshed out character who just happens to have a job, but doing that for 6 or 8 random recruits could be a hassle that many game makers wouldn't bother with.

    Xenogears of Bore on
    3DS CODE: 3093-7068-3576
  • BlackDragon480BlackDragon480 Bluster Kerfuffle Master of Windy ImportRegistered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I'm probably going to pick this up, although the transition from Action RPG to a more traditional form is a bit of a dissappointment.

    I wonder what ungodly precentage of the Japanese population is going to pick this up day 1? Didn't DQVII have almost half the country come in late or call in to work?

    BlackDragon480 on
    No matter where you go...there you are.
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  • ZerokkuZerokku Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I'm probably going to pick this up, although the translation from Action RPG to a more traditional form is a bit of a dissappointment.

    I wonder what ungodly precentage of the Japanese populous is going to pick this up day 1? Didn't DQVII have almost half the country come in late or call in to work?

    My prediction - DQIX and MH3 will top sales charts for at least a month, if not two.

    Zerokku on
This discussion has been closed.