Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies First Impressions

AveryZoe

July 14, 2010

hoa! This came totally out of nowhere! It's like they took every aspect of the old Dragon Quest games and completely threw them out the window. Where are the sweet townspeople? What is my epic quest? And what is with that pole dancer?

Haha--I had you right up till the pole dancer, didn't I? Dragon Quest IX actually does follow pretty closely to the tried and true Dragon Quest theme, and that's not a bad thing. There's nothing quite so infuriating as a gaming company taking a great series and fixing it. Dragon Quest has remained popular for so many years simply because it is a great game already. Square Enix has done a great job of recognizing that and keeping true to original while adding in some great new features at the same time.

DragonQuestIX (46K) One new feature is apparent from the moment you turn on the game: you can completely customize your character. From gender, to hair style, to eye color, you create your character and then give it any name you like. This is a feature sure to be popular with younger players and that's great because this game is truly kid-friendly. While you may fight the occasional (or downright constant) slime monsters, the fighting is very cartoonish and really not violent at all. Younger children may find the gameplay a bit difficult at times (there is no option to set difficulty), the gameplay should be very engaging for tweens and teens (and their parents).

The story is a typical fantasy tale. You are the guardian of a town called Angel Falls, charged with keeping watch over the town and its people. As you aid the townspeople and save them from monsters, you receive crystals of benevolence when they express their gratitude. It is your job to present these crystals to the magical tree, and when it blooms the guardians (Celestrians) are prophesied to ascend to the realm of the Almighty. Unfortunately, that's not exactly how it plays out, and you end up joining the town as a mortal. From there your real quest begins.

As I stated earlier, Dragon Quest IX does a great job of keeping with the standards of the preceding Dragon Quest games. The gameplay is pretty standard and easy to pick up. You travel around completing various quests, battling monsters and picking up party members along the way. Of course, the more monsters you fight, the higher in level you go--so there are monsters everywhere. A great feature in this game is that you can actually see the monsters before you run into them, which makes it easier to either run away from them or towards them, depending on whether you want to earn more experience or avoid death. For each battle you win, you receive experience and gold, but if you lose then half of your gold is taken away. Ouch.

Dragon Quest IX really is a great game for many different reasons. In today's age of increasingly graphic gameplay, it is refreshing to see a title that doesn't use sex and gore to sell games. This is a game you and your children can play, although you might want to pick up some extra copies as there's only room for one saved game. At the current price of around $35 (or 650 Goozex points) it certainly isn't cheap for a Ds game, but when you consider how many hours of gameplay you'll get from it (reports are 40+) it is really a great buy.

I recommend this game for Dragon Quest fans from way back--you won't be disappointed, because all the features that made the game cool back then are still there. I also recommend it for gamers who have never tried a Dragon Quest game before. The gameplay is quite simple and easy to pick up on--you can use the stylus or the buttons, and the characters and quests are fun and engaging. I give Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies a 9/10 (and I totally recommend it to all my friends--let's do multi-player!)