Dragon Quest IX

[Pic0o]

Tuesday, huh? Brace yourselves for my crash course in Dragon Quest. Let me throw some backstory in here. I was chillin at my buddies place and he was playing on Dragon Quest VIII. I watched him kick some massive mob ass and collect some monsters along the way. I was interested and this started an interest in the series for me. I resisted for some months, but after some Holiday gift cards, DQIX was calling.

 

I scooped up Dragon Quest IX for DS the other week, and pretty much every other game took a back seat. Granted, I've been pretty busy lately too, so DS over console and LCD is working out for me nicely. Saves States are also awesome, so I can play until tired, then save and :zzz:

 

Let's cut through the features and such of this game:

Multiplayer = Yes

• Local Co-Op over local WiFi with up to 4 Players
  
• Internet enabled: Store vendor content downloading and additional Quests
  

Tag Mode: This is the 'Canvas for guests' option at the Stormwind Inn. You will come to use this when you have Treasure Maps (wiki) available, as you can share them with others.

 

Save slots = 1

Random Encounters: No...ish ( You will see mobs on screen, but in dungeons some enemies will pop below you while moving)

Max Party Members 4 + non battle NPC

 

Starting out, game story does it's thing pretty quick. You should have no problem with a slow start on the story and main character. Also of note is the Art style. Dragon Ball Z like characters are all over the place, so be warned if the character animations of DB-Z bother you heavily, know what you are getting into.

 

Level system is standard fare, but as you progress, you'll gain the ability to change Jobs. You'll be able to use your skill points from the other job to boost your stats and gain more abilities. XP from battles will distribute to members based on their level. Throw a level 1 in your party of level 18 members, and your low level guy will still get XP, just scales to their level.

 

Exploration is pretty fun. You'll have a nice World Map and cities to check out, when not kicking some dungeon asses. Quests and the like are obtained from NPCs in towns and dungeons. Along with the exploration, you'll be able to ransack NPC homes like any good RPG. The items will vary in cabinets, but seem to mostly be the common heal-tier items and some occasional armor in them. Further exploration will lead you to Red and Blue Chests.

 

Equipment wise, you can gear up your whole party. The character models will also update to reflect the gear changes. Makes for a more enjoyable time messing with the huge list of alchemy items you can make. You can store items on a character, or in your Bag. As I just mentioned, you'll also be able to craft items. You can try your luck randomly, or collect recipes from Bookcases and such.

 

Battle wise, you have turn based combat. You can assign Tactics to your party members so they auto-battle, or you can set Follow Orders, that will leave you with control of each character you pick that tactic for. Tension is a good thing to become familiar with, especially since it costs nothing to use and is available when you start the game. Tension typically goes up in increments of 5 > 10 > 20 > 50 > 100. As you would guess, Max Tension crushes with big damage.

 

Multiplayer:

You can do some Local Co-Op missions and story content. The progress is based off the host of the game. You can access MP via the Rapportal NPC in an Inn. When you join a game, your party members leave, as when you join someone's game, they drop a party member to have you instead. Getting aggro will draw all players into the battle. In battle, you will have full control of your normal character actions. There is also a Tag Mode for trading treasure maps to people who pass by you IRL, but I haven't seen this in-game yet. This is activated by talking to Erinn in Stornway and picking 'Canvas for Guests'.

 

Finishing up, another handy feature is 'Y' to give you a plot line objective overview, that also shows the World Map on your upper DS screen. Really wish a simple option like this was a commonplace in RPGs.

 

So yes, I am enjoying this game. Your regular game saving is done in Churches, while you can do a Save State at any time, then resume it where you left off later. Save states are very handy when you don't have enough time to hit the Church.

 

There are extra jobs you can unlock via quests, in addition to the 6 base classes. The unlockable job quests are listed below.

• Gladiator - Quest #103
  
• Paladin - Quest #106
  
• Sage - Quest #115
  
• Luminary - Post-Game Quest #118 (pending)
  
• Armamentalist - Quest #109
  
• Ranger - Quest #112
  

 

One thing I highly advise is a World Map with labeling, as there isn't a great way to check zone names in game. Found this map digging around and it appears to be made by DQ9.ffsky.cn and Guide4Gamers.

Edited February 4, 2012 by Pic0o
World Map added + Advanced Jobs

[Pea]

Damn it Pic0o! This would have been good to know a few days sooner, I could have put it bday list. Lol. =p Please post more as you play more, I'm intrigued. =)

[Pic0o]

Curse my timing! Had the game for almost 2 weeks now I think. When I read about the Co-op actually working for main missions, I was hyped. I then played it with my buddy and it was as awesome as I hoped. Tried to get Kat on it, but she hardly has the free time to crush on a beast RPG. :P

[Pic0o]

I jumped back into this, as I haven't played it in a few months. I consider this to be my sudo-MMO as I have 75 hours on my save file and am about half-way done with main story and such. Add the fact there are Hundreds of side quests too, and you are dealing with an insane offline RPG.

 

I spent a few hours last night getting back up to speed on where I left off, exploring and grinding a bit. I :lol:'d after some fierce map exploration to remember about the Zoom spell, that lets you teleport to previously visit towns. At least I got a damn good feel for area linking. :P

 

I still haven't played any Local Co-Op since my initial 3 hour play, but I do remember how dope it was. I don't know if I can get Kat into it though, because she'd likely fear the inevitable addiction that would occur. The Classes / Jobs are very Final Fantasy XI like in respect to level (subjobs are cumulative), so while my main characters are level 30, the beast ability to bump my subs up is pretty insane.

 

This is pretty much the game that makes not playing an MMO not a thing. I get all the exploration and ass kicking I want from a portable game, while keeping pause under my control.

 

DS Tunneling dreams

I would really like to make a method to create a Local WiFi emulator, that then takes traffic and routes it online. This would be miraculous for having a 4 player MMO pimp session remotely! Since we still have our DS Lite, I am highly tempted to get another game cart on sale. 2 Player local play at home and 3 player for the Buffalo trips. So much dirty potential! :D

Updated to note some more info I found. GBATemp info. the protocol is called 'Ni-Fi' for the local stuff. Looks more a less unlikely to emulate within reason, since it'd take quite a bit of data capture and emulation to run something PC side, that the DS would connect to properly (let alone unmodded). Old abandoned project effort here (akkit.org)

 

You can find this game in stores for $20 bucks used. Highly advised. Kat now has a copy too. :)

Edited January 28, 2012 by Pic0o
Updated DS Local Tunneling observations

[Pic0o]

Finished Main Story at 113 hours. My party setup is as follows:

Minstrel 40

Warrior 41

Priest 40

Martial Artist 41

 

Final Battle was pretty hardcore. Multiheal was certainly needed and pretty much needed every turn. Post game adventures and alternate job tinkering is a go, as I mainly stuck with the jobs listed above, on my playthru.