Jul 5, 2009

Dragon Quest IX Will Be As Big As Its Store Displays

Categories: Nintendo

Tags: Akihiro Hino | Dragon Quest IX | Level-5 | Square Enix | Yūji Horii

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I have been playing Dragon Quest IV on the DS a lot lately and it is absolutely fantastic. Can you believe that I was reluctant to play this since one of my friends, who is a Final Fantasy Fanboy, had told me it wasn’t worth picking up? Never trust a fanboy, they will embellish truths and accentuate lies.

The Japanese are not afraid to pop up a ginormous store display for any AAA title that is coming out, as you can see by the picture above, and this iteration should be as butt-kickingly awesome as the ones before it. This time around side quests are more prominent and even play a big part of story development. Some quests are even open ended while others intertwine themselves into key points that unlock different chapters of the story. There is even said to be some download content for new quests and items. That should prove to be very interesting.

We are going see some sort of local wifi this time around. There is said to be a four player co-op mode that allows you to play through the game with your mates. The Dragon Quest team also stressed that this will not be a game that ‘needs’ you to play with buddies in order to progress and it is still very much a single player game.

We also have confirmation of one extremely interesting function that is being dubbed “Surechigai” in the Japanese version. This is one of those features inspired by Nintendogs where you keep the game turned on and the lid closed while you go through your regular daily routine in hopes of bumping into someone else who is doing the same thing. It is said to exchange player stats and even populate one of your inn’s with travelers that could lead to quests or even items that are not normally available. As cool as this is, unless you come into contact with a large number of people throughout your day, it is just about useless.

I can’ wait to kick some Metal Slime butt.

The below video shows a huge amount of game play, but unfortunately it is all in Japanese. The lady doing the voice over seems really nice though and it is very pleasant to listen to her even though we have no clue what she is saying.