Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DS) Review
Dragon Quest is one of the most storied franchises in Square Enix’s line up, though it’s understandably living in the shadows of the Final Fantasy series too, having had notably less exposure to the West. Thankfully, with the most recent entry in the franchise developed exclusively and uniquely for the Nintendo DS, coupled with the backing of Nintendo themselves, Dragon Quest IX is one of the best RPGs available on the system.
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinel of the Starry Skies takes place in a floating kingdom of Celestrians (guardian angel-type people) known as the Observatory. Players can fully customise their own character, who has recently been appointed as the guardian spirit for a small town known as Angel Falls. The general premise behind being a guardian spirit is to ascend to a higher, better place known as the God’s Land. In order to do this, the protagonist must collect fruit from Yggdrasil, the life tree – who requires benevolessence in order to successfully produce the fruit. Benevolessence is procured by villagers who the guardian spirits successfully help out in daily tasks, whether it be finding lost goods or helping someone move on from the death of a loved one.
Of course, the story does develop a bit further than what I’ve revealed here, but since the story of Dragon Quest IX is so palatable it’s not worth spoiling in this review. Thankfully, as I’ve said, the game’s story is extremely digestable and it’s quite rare to find that in a Japanese-developed RPG. It does feel a little bit shallow to have the main character not really interact with anyone due to the player creating the character, but there’s definitely enough narrative and backstory developed through the other non-playable characters to make the experience extremely competent.
Thankfully, being a partially Square Enix developed effort, Dragon Quest IX features some of the best graphics on the system. Of course, full motion videos are beautifully rendered and feature character designs of famed designer Akira Toriyama, with the designers cleverly utilising the dual screens to show off different perspectives of each character during cutscenes. It’s a nice touch that has never really been done properly before. In terms of in-game graphics, though, Dragon Quest IX does as good as you can do with completely 3D graphics, offering nicely stylised models with some nice animations too. During battle in particular, both the creatures and player characters all move beautifully.
The general gameplay of Dragon Quest IX is as you’d expect from a typical RPG. Players can complete side quests if they want, while also completing quests to further progress the storyline. Additionally, competing in battles with creatures allows players to grow stronger, learn differing spells, and earn money to buy more useful equipment for their own character and others they are adventuring with. In this regard, Dragon Quest IX doesn’t do a whole lot to break the traditional RPG mould, though this isn’t necessarily a bad thing because Dragon Quest IX delivers an experience on-par with those RPGs you would find during the later generations on the Playstation 2.
Battle itself isn’t completely randomised, as enemies all now appear on the field and players can choose to avoid them should they wish to, or instead indulge in as many battles as possible to further their character levels. The battle system has been overhauled too, looking a bit more interesting and modern when compared to previous entries in the series. Despite keeping the token first-person view when planning battles, the actual playing out of actions and attacks is done in third person, creating a much more cinematic experience. Thankfully, the redux of the battle system has done a great job in bringing the Dragon Quest series a bit more up to date with the rest of the RPGs available. It just feels so much more modern and so much better.
Of course, there is a large emphasis placed on multiplayer functionality in Dragon Quest IX, and this is best reflected in the ways in which players can customise their own character and party members to suit their play style. This, as I’ve said before, is perfect to create a sense of “own” within the game, though the story can suffer as a result. As players can customise their own characters, they can also select their own class which affects the abilities, spells and equipment that the specific character can use. It’s nothing majorly new if you’ve been playing Japanese RPGs for ages, though it’s a nice touch and fits perfectly for this kind of game. It is nice being able to construct your own team as per your own play style, and the developers have given such a large amount of the customisability to the player, which just works great.
Probably the greatest thing I noticed about Dragon Quest IX is that it doesn’t feel like you HAVE to grind to get through more difficult parts of the gameplay. Instead, the game gives players more control and allows them to tackle things at their own pace without having to take a sudden halt in progression of the story just to gain a few levels. It’s a nice change in the genre to see this happening, and it’s great to see that there’s all this stuff that players can do, but they don’t necessarily have to in order to have a good time. This scalability in the game’s design will no doubt help it appeal to a much broader audience, and that’s always a good thing.
Of course, the gameplay is all great and such, but how does the soundtrack fare in Dragon Quest IX? It’s a bit of a mix here, there are some great tracks but they are marred by consistent repetition throughout the game world. In fact, this reviewer can think of two distinct parts during the game where I was able to guess a plot twist because the music actually changed and thus gave away the “surprise” of the ensuing scene. It’s a minor gripe but something that reflects poor planning. The tracks themselves aren’t anything special in particular, and as said previously, any really stand out tracks will have players bored of them by the end of the game due to repetition. Having played a few of the games in the series, however, many players will notice and appreciate the different arrangements of classic tunes throughout the series present in Dragon Quest IX.
Naturally, every RPG is quite lengthy in itself, however there is some great post game content available in Dragon Quest IX, in addition to some rather interesting multiplayer functionality that I wasn’t quite expecting. There is “downloadable content” available for the game which provides non-essential power ups, as well as some side quests that do a great job of implementing characters from previous titles in the series. Additionally, players can also team up with three other players to play through the entire campaign in co-operative mode, although it feels a bit lax to have this mode through local wireless play only, no online at all for this one. Additionally, upon completing the game, several quests and locales open up that weren’t available previously, as well as providing greater drops from enemies upon completion of the game. With all this content, you’ll definitely have your money’s worth as the main game itself will clock in with at least forty hours of gameplay, with my first playthrough in particular taking about forty six hours. Dragon Quest IX is definitely a well packed adventure.
All in all, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinel of the Starry Skies surprised me and wowed me. Not only is it one of the best RPGs I’ve played on the Nintendo DS, it’s also one of those games that feels like and possesses that last generation charm that unfortunately seems to be lacking during this high definition generation. Fans of the series should definitely pick this up, though the rather amazing accessibility of the title also makes this a great title to start off with. Definitely worth your money.
Graphics 9.0
Cute and well done graphics in-game, with an amazing utilisation of the touch screens for the games rare cutscenes. Sometimes, the 3D does look a little bit awkward on the DS, but its still amazing.
Gameplay 9.0
Very accessible gameplay coupled with gameplay that doesnt force itself down your throat makes Dragon Quest IX enjoyable for all kinds of players. Customisability adds to the accessibility of this title too.
Sound 7.0
The soundtrack isnt bad per se, its just nothing special, and those who find some of the tracks enjoyable are bound to be over them by the games end, due to repetition.
Tilt 9.9
Theres heaps to do in this game without completing it, and heaps more to do upon completing it. Players are looking at at least forty hours of interesting and solid gameplay, with completionists looking at upwards of seventy hours. Make no mistake, theres heaps packed on this cartridge.
Value 8.0
Being a rather lax Dragon Quest fan, I wasnt really looking forward to IX. Thankfully, with the amount of revisions to the formula and retooled gameplay design, this is one of those RPGs that Ive enjoyed so, so much.
