Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies is pure role-playing gold

    1 of 1 2 of 1

      Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (Square Enix; DS; everyone 10+)

      You might like Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies if you’re looking for a game that takes a million years to finish, and you’re the type of person who grows excited at the sight of treasure chests.

      You might not like Dragon Quest IX if you’re stubbornly averse to Japanese role-playing games, you believe reading text to be “a fool’s game”, or if you’re just plain unsympathetic to the plight of single-parent innkeepers with rebellious kids.

      Did you know Dragon Quest launches are as big a deal in Japan as ones for Harry Potter and Star Wars over here? Me neither. But the phenomenon has been YouTubed.

      I first played and loved Dragon Quest as Dragon Warrior, the 1989 North American version of the Japanese RPG, in which I armoured up as a hero named Erdrick, who is the Johnny Appleseed of gold farming, as far as I’m concerned.

      Twenty-one years later, Dragon Quest IX arrived on July 11. And what do you do know? I still like gold-farming, and reuniting innkeeper families.

      Dragon Quest’s ninth installment is about as “pure” a JRPG as one can find in 2010. Its 3-D graphics are comparatively good, for both the genre and for DS games, and it’s more nicely polished than some, but it’s still a JRPG.

      There are new things: a class/skills system which sprinkles more incentives into the levelling progression, and alchemy/item creation, which essentially provides an alternative to gold-farming (or maybe just another obsession), and multiplayer that draws gamers together. If you cross paths with a fellow DQIX player whose DS is in “Tag Mode”, you can score some next-level maps and loot. DQ meet-ups have famously caused pedestrian traffic jams in Japan. But alas—it’s still a JRPG.

      Innovation isn’t why the majority of fanboys line up for the next Dragon Quest. They want their bread and butter: turn-based combat, collecting gold, fetching items, reading dialogue, and levelling up. So if you hate that stuff, don’t buy it.

      But Dragon Quest fans also seek a sense of immersion, entering “into the world” of the game and effecting change on it, and joy, as a result of doing so. DQIX delivers—it’s immersive and joyful. In fact, I dare anyone whose pet didn’t die today to play this game and not smile.

      And while it’s not complex, it’s often profound. Sometimes you’ll chat with characters and they’ll make simple comments about life that—no shit—you’ll be thinking about after you turn your DS off (or the battery dies).

      And maybe most importantly, given it’s a handheld game, story threads aren’t so convoluted that you can’t step in and out of them easily.

      I’m not a big RPG guy, but this game just makes me feel good—and what else matters? I’d recommend it to any gamer, besides those with a serious hate on for JRPGs, and even a few of those, who can probably be won over.

      Chris Vandergaag is a Vancouver-based freelancer. When he's not gaming, writing, or forwarding links of questionable moral repute, he's asleep.

      Comments

      2 Comments

      Hu Gadarn

      Jul 23, 2010 at 6:55am

      I was with you right until the "no sh*t" comment. A thesaurus on the desktop might be a nice gift to yourself for 2010.

      chrisvandergaag

      Jul 23, 2010 at 4:40pm

      Hmm.. well, if anyone asks, the game is rated E, but this review is not.