Fantastic and deep battle system, with skill trees, vocations and innumeralbe skills that you can use to craft your very own tactics in however way you wish. The story is themed around "accepting loss", and there are some surprising heavy hitters in this department. Unfortunately, visually, as a 3D DS game, it hasn't aged well at all, the story is nonetheless one of the weakest in the series even if not bad at all, and generally it just needs a remake at this point.
Back when online was active this was a 9 / 5
I LOVE DRAGON QUEST!!!!
I LOVE BEING ABLE TO MAKE MY OWN PARTY TO FIT MY OWN PLAYSTYLES STRAIGHT FROM THE SECOND TOWN!!!!!!
I LOVE BEING ABLE TO PLAY ALONGSIDE MY OWN FRIENDS AND HELP THEM IN THEIR OWN BATTLES!!!!!!!
I LOVE SPENDING HOURS FINDING CRAFTING RECIPES, DOING SIDEQUESTS, AND MAKING MY OWN STORIES WITH THE PARTY I CREATED!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE DRAGON QUEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE BEING ABLE TO MAKE MY OWN PARTY TO FIT MY OWN PLAYSTYLES STRAIGHT FROM THE SECOND TOWN!!!!!!
I LOVE BEING ABLE TO PLAY ALONGSIDE MY OWN FRIENDS AND HELP THEM IN THEIR OWN BATTLES!!!!!!!
I LOVE SPENDING HOURS FINDING CRAFTING RECIPES, DOING SIDEQUESTS, AND MAKING MY OWN STORIES WITH THE PARTY I CREATED!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE DRAGON QUEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sois una panda de cobardes por no admitir lo bueno y comfy que es este juego!!!!
Really cool game. Every time I start a Dragon Quest game I always find myself surprised by how good they are. This game in particular has a ton of customization in terms of your party. You just create 4 custom characters and can make them into whatever job you want. For example, I got through a majority of this game without even having healing spells because I was able to build a party that could handle that. Spending several hours crafting gear admittedly helps with that, but still. Speaking of the crafting, it was a pretty major part of my playthrough. I got super into it, tbh. Created a dedicated spreadsheet to tracking things that I want/need that could calculate the number of each ingredient that I need. That's not to say that doing that level of crafting, or any crafting at all, is required to enjoy the game, but I thought it was really satisfying.
This game also got really creative with multiplayer. In a way, I think they were experimenting with some MMO stuff in this game before they made X. I unfortunately played this years after the online was shut down, but traces of the game's roguelike-y dungeon generation content still remain and seem pretty integral to post-game. Similar to an MMO, 100%ing this game also seems grindy as hell. I hear some people say that a majority of this game's content is in the post-game, so I definitely intend to check that out.
This game also got really creative with multiplayer. In a way, I think they were experimenting with some MMO stuff in this game before they made X. I unfortunately played this years after the online was shut down, but traces of the game's roguelike-y dungeon generation content still remain and seem pretty integral to post-game. Similar to an MMO, 100%ing this game also seems grindy as hell. I hear some people say that a majority of this game's content is in the post-game, so I definitely intend to check that out.
The game does without a predefined cast of playable characters in favor of giving the player complete control over the customizability of their party. From vocations to appearance, players can make their team unique and fit any team composition.
Allowing custom characters has its pros and cons.
Cons:
Your characters lack any personality, therefore the connection between members of your party and their interactions with the story seems rather generic or simply nonexistent.
This, however, does not stop you from imagining a personality for your characters in order to immerse them in the story.
Pros:
You have complete control over how your party performs. Skills transfer between vocations, allowing you to mix and match with a plethora of abilities while in combat.
--
The story focuses more on the interactions and personalities of the NPCs rather than the player's characters, and Dragon Quest 9 does an excellent job at portraying an interesting story with intriguing characters, even if you are not playing as them.
One negative thing I must bring up is the DLC content which added new dungeons, bosses, and items. Because it was tied to the old Nintendo Online services, it is unlikely that you will be able to download the additional content. Through code hacks, I was able to get the DLC apparel items, but I was never able to unlock the new grottos added.
Otherwise, the game is great and should definitely be given a shot.
Allowing custom characters has its pros and cons.
Cons:
Your characters lack any personality, therefore the connection between members of your party and their interactions with the story seems rather generic or simply nonexistent.
This, however, does not stop you from imagining a personality for your characters in order to immerse them in the story.
Pros:
You have complete control over how your party performs. Skills transfer between vocations, allowing you to mix and match with a plethora of abilities while in combat.
--
The story focuses more on the interactions and personalities of the NPCs rather than the player's characters, and Dragon Quest 9 does an excellent job at portraying an interesting story with intriguing characters, even if you are not playing as them.
One negative thing I must bring up is the DLC content which added new dungeons, bosses, and items. Because it was tied to the old Nintendo Online services, it is unlikely that you will be able to download the additional content. Through code hacks, I was able to get the DLC apparel items, but I was never able to unlock the new grottos added.
Otherwise, the game is great and should definitely be given a shot.
If not for the focus on multiplayer and post-game this game have I would enjoy it even more. Still it's a pretty good DQ, that simplifies the vocation system of VI and VII and combines with the progression system on VIII. Having all the DQ charm, of course, nice dungeons, nice character and monster design, good QoLs. A joy to play.
This game makes me feel like im worth something #TooReal4Backloggia
A wonderful return to form in many ways, harkening back to the job system of Dragon Quest 3 while revolutionizing how side quests were handled in JRPGs entirely. If the concept of a Dragon Quest game for the DS entices you, definitely give this a go. Because this was made for the DS.
Solid game if you enjoy grinding, the postgame is all grinding. I think it aged a bit poorly, but it's still a fun game to (re)visit.
Simply ethereal. My first Dragon Quest game and one of my favourites, if not, my favourite. Story is amazing, the themes of this game are wonderful, mixing the aspect of light and darkness and even so creates a merge between the two, and executing this very well. Towns and areas are beautiful. Soundtrack is simply outstanding and very fitting to the theme of the game. Customisation of party members and the way armour and weapons actually change the appearance of characters was a wonderful touch. Overall, a masterpiece and another Dragon Quest entry that did not fail to impress.
How did they make a mainline Dragon Quest I couldn't bring myself to finish. That's frankly impressive.
Played via emulation - The lack of a real cast of characters definitely hurts this game, but in my opinion, DQIX has some of the best gameplay in the series. I played this one in a relatively short burst without access to the online, and I still had one of my more enjoyable DQ experiences based purely on the gameplay. I had a great time building my cast to be exactly how I wanted, and it was surprisingly gratifying to reach the end with a cast of characters whose path I had completely decided for myself. The story was mildly enjoyable, moreso in the first half, and the villain was one of the better ones in the series, up there with Psaro for me. In any case, I honestly really liked DQIX. I can only imagine how much more fun I would have had if I could play it online with my friends.
Fun but im alone in this world
In my viewpoint its the weakest game in the series
I love killing the lord of evil by throwing a dozen juggling balls at it.
insane how huge it is for a 2009 ds game, big part of my childhood
i tried playing this because i wanted to try playing a dragon quest game. i knew enough about dragon quest beforehand to expect a fairly basic jrpg. but i love a good ol fashioned jrpg, and this one came highly recommended from those who played it as a kid. and yeah, i see why. the protagonist being a fallen angel is conceptually pretty neat. there's plenty of good ol fashioned jrpg charm, plus the ability to completely customize your whole partys appearance, outfits(!!), and vocations, and the entire game has multiplayer support. im sure this would've been my favorite thing ever...if i was 10 years old and had people to co-op with.
as i am not 10, however, this game is just a little too annoying. anything interesting the gameplay has to offer requires grinding: trying out different vocations/skills, doing alchemy (a crafting system i actually find fun, which would be impressive but...) , or even progressing the story. grinding is made annoying by the fact that combat is simplistic without the decency of at least being forgiving. i had to backtrack to revive or heal up my party a good few times...and i personally think a story and combat system as simple as dqix's should at least make itself easy to progress through. the storyline suffers greatly from the fact that none of the player characters have any personality. the writing of other plot-important characters like the wight knight, phleming, or marionette, is often interesting enough, but their stories are so short compared to the amount of time i had to spend mindlessly fighting monsters that it doesn't feel worth it.
i won't rate this game unless i finish it, but right now it'd be about a 2/5. i played up until getting the boat before deciding that if the game was still boring me a solid 90% of the time i should probably go play something else. i might come back to it for completion's sake one day, but this was a pretty disappointing first foray into dragon quest.
as i am not 10, however, this game is just a little too annoying. anything interesting the gameplay has to offer requires grinding: trying out different vocations/skills, doing alchemy (a crafting system i actually find fun, which would be impressive but...) , or even progressing the story. grinding is made annoying by the fact that combat is simplistic without the decency of at least being forgiving. i had to backtrack to revive or heal up my party a good few times...and i personally think a story and combat system as simple as dqix's should at least make itself easy to progress through. the storyline suffers greatly from the fact that none of the player characters have any personality. the writing of other plot-important characters like the wight knight, phleming, or marionette, is often interesting enough, but their stories are so short compared to the amount of time i had to spend mindlessly fighting monsters that it doesn't feel worth it.
i won't rate this game unless i finish it, but right now it'd be about a 2/5. i played up until getting the boat before deciding that if the game was still boring me a solid 90% of the time i should probably go play something else. i might come back to it for completion's sake one day, but this was a pretty disappointing first foray into dragon quest.
Probably the peak of DQ gameplay in the main games (haven't played X or XI yet as of writing, can't comment on them yet).
Music's great, story's nice, tons of side content that extend the lifespan of the game a lot, especially once you get into grotto exploring.
Tied with V for my favorite of the series.
Music's great, story's nice, tons of side content that extend the lifespan of the game a lot, especially once you get into grotto exploring.
Tied with V for my favorite of the series.
i played this something like 10 times and id do it again
This game is fun. I’m a sucker for character customization and this game lets you do that to the full. (For the time) You make your character and he starts out as a minstrel but soon after you get to create your own party. You customize their look and class. Armor also changes their look as well! Then your off! This is the first Dragon Quest game to get rid of random battles and it is such a nice change of pace. The story is interesting but a bit straightforward in terms of flow. You’ll see nothing to ground breaking here but it gets the job done. Back in the day you could connect with your friends and tackle dungeons together that would have special bosses and loot. For the time the game was great. But with that feature now being made obsolete it does the change the game. The game is however absolutely worth your time and in your collection. It’s fun, catchy tunes, and great art design by Akira Toriyama!
Really good game and plot: if you are new to turn based combat this might be difficult at first but once you learn how to counter bosses (Magic Mirror that reflect spells back on spellcasters for example), the game is (mostly) a cake walk. Had to deduct half a star as I would prefer that your companions were actual characters instead of mute characters that you create yourself. But again, preference. I highly recommend it otherwise!
first JRPG I ever played. I didn't know shit about Dragon Quest, and my step-brother peer-pressured me to buy it. it was super fun but I never beat it.
I was recommended this game by a really big dragon quest fan, and I'm glad I played it. It's one of the most intriguing DS games both gameplay and story wise. The story is basically helping out spirits and people with their troubles, and they all connect together to a finale that's just plain crazy. The amount of customization and replay value this game has is astonishing. I'll definitely replay this one a lot.
Rating this game on its own merits, rather than as a Dragon Quest game since it's the only instalment I've played (although I do plan on playing XI very soon).
This game SLAPS. While some people might not like it, I really enjoy how the story follows a very loose structure, going from town to town, meeting various people, seeing their stories and helping them out. It's a really nice comfort game and one of the first real JRPGs I ever played. It can be a bit grindy and it's a shame that a good portion of its multiplayer content is now inaccessible, but I still have a lot of fun regardless. Also this game's sound design, just perfect.
This game SLAPS. While some people might not like it, I really enjoy how the story follows a very loose structure, going from town to town, meeting various people, seeing their stories and helping them out. It's a really nice comfort game and one of the first real JRPGs I ever played. It can be a bit grindy and it's a shame that a good portion of its multiplayer content is now inaccessible, but I still have a lot of fun regardless. Also this game's sound design, just perfect.
I played this game singleplayer only with NPC party members save for one session where a friend helped me beat some endgame bosses. During that session, I entered a part of the story where you're forcibly ejected out of co-op and stranded, deprived of even your NPCs. The rush of emotions I felt when I finished that segment and reunited with the characters that had been with me the whole time was one of the most deeply impactful experiences ive felt in a video game
Having only played three dragon quest games, I think i can conclusivly say that Dragon Quest 9 is the best in the series.
I love the villains in this game. It has so many moments that I remember years on
I love the villains in this game. It has so many moments that I remember years on
Cuando le metan multijugador online al MelonDS le pongo 10 estrellas
Kind of an odd Dragon Quest - the main story is not the bulk of the gameplay. Playing through to finish the plot goes by surprisingly quickly (especially relative to VIII or XI), yet this game probably has the most content of any Dragon Quest, technically speaking, as the grottos make the game immensely large. The job system in this game is very solid, so if you like dungeon-crawling and turn-based battle without too much plot, this was a great one. Unfortunately, a lot of this content is locked behind online play, so now that the Nintendo servers are shut down, you need to do some homebrew work-arounds to get this content back.
I want to preface this review by saying I have never played a dragon quest game. So everything in this game was new to me and even if its a "series staple" those elements were still new to me so I cant comment on how they were iterated upon or anything like that. Anyways, lets get into it.
DQIX is one of, if not the, most visually and technically impressive games I've ever seen on the DS. Fully explorable 3D world with countless 3D animated cutscenes, this kind of stuff just wasnt being done on the DS and despite some framerate issues they pulled it off really well. I wanted to start with the technical aspect so that when I go over the rest of what the game has to offer you can get a better idea of truly how impressive it was.
The game features a self insert custom character that starts the game off as an Angel sort of being and quickly finds himself thrust down to earth with no wings or halo. From there he is tasked with helping the people of the Protetorate and locating 7 golden fyggs scattered across the world. This isnt too terribly important but it does give you a good reason to travel the world so I cant fault it too much. From this point on you go from town to town helping the people solve whatever issue is at hand. From posing as a detective to find lost students to saving a town from a widespread disease, this is where the game really shines. Each new town introduces its own set of characters and stakes so the whole time youre playing everything feels fresh and livley. None of them drag on too long and its perfect for the pick up and play / portable nature of the game. This aspect of the game being so good really helps to aleviate one of its biggest could-be-issues in my opinion, that being the party.
This game is almost MMO like in nature as it was designed to be played with friends and online. The entire party is a blank slate with not a single one of them having a single line of dialouge. Very unlike any RPG I had ever played and at first I was really put off by it. Youre supposed to be able to group up with friends and they would make up your party instead of the random characters but in big 2024 that just wasnt going to happen for me. So I went on with the random characters the game gave me. But as I spent more and more time with the game, I didnt mind it as much. The plot is so focused on the story of your character and everything going on in the towns, the rest of the party are never really needed and start to feel like other adventurers that just tagged along for the ride. So as I was kitting them out with new gear and weapons, I started to make up my own stories for them and give them their own personalities. By the end of the game I had no problem with it at all. Now thats just me and I can totally see how this sort of party system would be offputting for people but I really didnt end up minding it.
To finish this off I want to go over some of the other things I really liked about the game. Something that is really inconsequential but offers a lot of charm is changing characters appearence based on what gear they have equiped. This is so cool to me and ensures that your party is entirely unique to you and will look different that anyone elses you see. This in tandem with the job system offer such an awesome suite of customizability. Its really easy to change jobs and each one of them have a large range of abilities that is really unique from one to the next. Leveling up feels meaningful in this game and there is always some new ability or spell to unlock next. This leads me into the combat. Pretty simple turn based action with a handful of different buff and debuff systems thrown on top. What really makes it so intruiging though is how flashy it is. The fights are all full 3D and every turn you get to see your party and the enemies running around duking it out on the top screen as you select what moves to use next. Its purely a visual flourish but it adds a lot to the heat of battle.
Another thing I though was really cool was the overworld. Unlike most RPGs on the DS, the enemy encounters arent random. Instead they appear on the overworld running around with you and the party. So now you can choose to fight or avoid them and know what monster youre going to fight going in.
I wanna finish this off by saying this game is just full of charm, top to bottom. It knows when to be silly and when to be serious. Its a beautiful game visually and a lot of fun to play. There is so much side content I think you could play for upwards of 700 hours and not do everything. The music is great and sounds amazing even out of crappy DS speakers. If you have a DS and havnt played this, please do yourself a favor and pick this up, such and underrated gem.
DQIX is one of, if not the, most visually and technically impressive games I've ever seen on the DS. Fully explorable 3D world with countless 3D animated cutscenes, this kind of stuff just wasnt being done on the DS and despite some framerate issues they pulled it off really well. I wanted to start with the technical aspect so that when I go over the rest of what the game has to offer you can get a better idea of truly how impressive it was.
The game features a self insert custom character that starts the game off as an Angel sort of being and quickly finds himself thrust down to earth with no wings or halo. From there he is tasked with helping the people of the Protetorate and locating 7 golden fyggs scattered across the world. This isnt too terribly important but it does give you a good reason to travel the world so I cant fault it too much. From this point on you go from town to town helping the people solve whatever issue is at hand. From posing as a detective to find lost students to saving a town from a widespread disease, this is where the game really shines. Each new town introduces its own set of characters and stakes so the whole time youre playing everything feels fresh and livley. None of them drag on too long and its perfect for the pick up and play / portable nature of the game. This aspect of the game being so good really helps to aleviate one of its biggest could-be-issues in my opinion, that being the party.
This game is almost MMO like in nature as it was designed to be played with friends and online. The entire party is a blank slate with not a single one of them having a single line of dialouge. Very unlike any RPG I had ever played and at first I was really put off by it. Youre supposed to be able to group up with friends and they would make up your party instead of the random characters but in big 2024 that just wasnt going to happen for me. So I went on with the random characters the game gave me. But as I spent more and more time with the game, I didnt mind it as much. The plot is so focused on the story of your character and everything going on in the towns, the rest of the party are never really needed and start to feel like other adventurers that just tagged along for the ride. So as I was kitting them out with new gear and weapons, I started to make up my own stories for them and give them their own personalities. By the end of the game I had no problem with it at all. Now thats just me and I can totally see how this sort of party system would be offputting for people but I really didnt end up minding it.
To finish this off I want to go over some of the other things I really liked about the game. Something that is really inconsequential but offers a lot of charm is changing characters appearence based on what gear they have equiped. This is so cool to me and ensures that your party is entirely unique to you and will look different that anyone elses you see. This in tandem with the job system offer such an awesome suite of customizability. Its really easy to change jobs and each one of them have a large range of abilities that is really unique from one to the next. Leveling up feels meaningful in this game and there is always some new ability or spell to unlock next. This leads me into the combat. Pretty simple turn based action with a handful of different buff and debuff systems thrown on top. What really makes it so intruiging though is how flashy it is. The fights are all full 3D and every turn you get to see your party and the enemies running around duking it out on the top screen as you select what moves to use next. Its purely a visual flourish but it adds a lot to the heat of battle.
Another thing I though was really cool was the overworld. Unlike most RPGs on the DS, the enemy encounters arent random. Instead they appear on the overworld running around with you and the party. So now you can choose to fight or avoid them and know what monster youre going to fight going in.
I wanna finish this off by saying this game is just full of charm, top to bottom. It knows when to be silly and when to be serious. Its a beautiful game visually and a lot of fun to play. There is so much side content I think you could play for upwards of 700 hours and not do everything. The music is great and sounds amazing even out of crappy DS speakers. If you have a DS and havnt played this, please do yourself a favor and pick this up, such and underrated gem.