When Dragon Quest IX was announced as a Nintendo DS exclusive almost three years ago, fans of the franchise were dumbfounded. But now that Square-Enix and Nintendo have finally released the game in North America, we now see we wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
You play as an angel-like Cellestian, who is tasked with guardian a tiny village known as Angel Falls. Your duty is to assist villagers and collect benevolessence from them in order to give to the Yggdrasil, the great tree that will open the gates to heaven. After the last of the benevolessence is given to the tree, the Cellestian observatory is mysteriously attacked and you wake up in Angel Falls as a mortal. You and your party must go out and discover the cause of the mysterious event and attempt to return to the observatory.
The battle system is cooler than ever thanks to the new third-person action.
When you first start, you are tasked with customizing your hero. Previous titles in the franchise allowed you to choose your gender, but changing physical features and skin-tones are new to the franchise, the same goes with your customizable party-members as well. Another huge difference is the removal of the random battle system. As you explore the overworld and dungeons, monsters will appear on the map (similar to the first Blue Dragon), engaging them on the map starts a battle. The battles switch between first and third person. First person when on the menus, third-person when the battle is actually carried out. The game also includes a basic combo system, where chaining attacks deals additional damage. The action is more fluid and interesting than previous games and works really well.
Perhaps the biggest change is the games multiplayer focus. The game essentially has a "Co-op" mode, where you can bring a friend into the game and join in on the role-playing fun. Unfortunately, the multiplayer mode is local-only, so you'll have to find a friend who also owns a copy of the game to play.
Even you could be this badass!
The games visuals are fantastic, especially for the DS. The battle graphics are in full 3D, similar to the previous DS release, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker. Only this time, the visuals are crisp and improved. The enemies look great as do the character models, thanks to the beloved art-stylings of Akira Toriyama. Another big aspect to the game is the outfitting of your characters. Each piece of equipment has it's own unique look, so you can mix-and-match to customize your party. As always, the Dragon Quest music is orchestrated and fantastic, with more variation than the soundtrack from Dragon Quest VIII. The game also retains the classic battle effects, which is a nice touch.
Overall, Dragon Quest IX is one of the most accessible, beautiful and fun role-playing adventures out there. It manages to break through the technical limitations of being on the DS to bring us the best Dragon Quest experience yet. If you have never played a Dragon Quest game, or were never into RPGs, you're doing yourself a favor by giving this one a try. It's that good.
- Kyle K.
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