Dragon Quest IX - The Official Thread of Slurps and Puff Puffs

Originally Posted by Hazzle

While I appreciate the impressions, I really hope you pick up a retail version of the game up at some point : \

I strongly agree.

More impressions:

Originally Posted by Aeana

Well, here are some impressions after about an hour and a half with the game. These probably won't be very valuable to people since other people have already written stuff, but oh well.

• Very, very pretty. And very smooth. The sprites aren't as noticeable as they were in screenshots, at least to me. Once you're actually playing, they tend to blend in.
• Perspective presents a nice median between the old overhead style and DQ8.
• Story is already taking some unexpected twists! Holy crap at the scene with the train.
• Visible enemies are not obnoxious like I feared they would be. They work kind of like Earthbound, except not nearly as aggressive. Some don't even chase after you at all.
• Music is 100% Sugiyama so far.
• Battles are pretty quick, though certainly not as fast as DQ4/5 DS. Still faster than 8, though.
• Equipment no longer takes up your characters' inventory spaces. Due to that, we're back to 8 inventory spaces from 12.
• Speaking of menus... they're kind of slow. Not DQ8 NA slow, but slower than every other one... especially the equip menu.
• In place of party talk, there's a general outline of the story so far when you press Y.
• As the Q&A said, barrels/pots/dressers do have contents that respawn periodically. In addition to that, there are blue chests that have random loot and they also get new contents after a while. Don't worry, red chests still seem to have set loot.
• Difficulty is just right, as usual.
• I'm a bit concerned about the number of monsters in battle, as I haven't fought more than three yet... will this be another FF3 DS? I hope not.

So far I am very pleased. I think this is going to be the real deal all-around, even with the stuff they added. Oh, and here's my character! She needs new clothes so she can stop being ugly. :\

Oh man. I wish I could be playing this game right now.

Bad news everyone: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/09/sq...tion-sometime/

Having sold well over three million copies of Dragon Quest IX in Japan, isn't it the obvious choice for Square Enix to bring the hit RPG worldwide as soon as possible? Well, maaaaaaybe.

In an investor Q&A session, president Yoichi Wada said that the company is "considering" releasing DQIX overseas, according to Siliconera's translation, and still deciding which regions will receive it. And when Square Enix does get around to it, the company doesn't plan to release it anywhere until after April 2010, the start of the company's next fiscal year.

The Dragon Quest series, obviously, isn't as major anywhere else as it is in Japan, but Dragon Quest VIII sold around half a million copies in North America, which seems, at least ... worth the trouble.

DQIX won't be coming out here for quite a while.

Oh well. I wasn't planning on playing it until after VI DS came out anyway.