This review contains spoilers
A single player game disguised as an on demand MMORPG. That is how I see this game.
Story:
The story is really cool. I actually enjoy it a bit more than DQ8's story. Every little sub-story in the different towns are all cool and emotional in their own way and the overarching plot of the whole game in general is also cool. I haven't played all the Dragon Quest games, but I think Dragon Quest IX (DQ9) is the only game, where the villain actually has a back story outside of "I'm evil and I kill". Generally I like everything about it, even if it's kind of generic in it's structure (finding 7 fyggs).
Characters:
There actually aren't really a lot of characters in this game. The characters you meet that have actual personalities are always side characters. The reason for that is, that the protagonist is a personalityless self made character, just like in most MMORPGs. And there are no actual party members as part of the story. If you want party members you make them yourself. These party members then also have no personality. I'm very neutral to that aspect. I like good characters, but characters in DQ9 aren't really the main focus of the game in my opinion.
Music:
The music is good. It isn't really outstanding. It fits and has it's general Dragon Quest charm, but it is nothing truly amazing.
Gameplay:
Now to the main part of the game. The gameplay itself is just basic turn based combat. But what makes this games so amazing is the character costumization and progression. First of all YOU decide how many characters are in a party. You can play solo or with two, three or four party members. And you decide how they look and what their names are. Additionally you can actually see every equipment piece on your characters which is rarely to be seen in single player JRPGs. You can combine the abilities of all different vocations (classes in this game) to work on your personal perfect group composition. And finally there are randomly generated dungeons with random loot, enemies and bosses as the basically never ending post game content. All of that content is a massive grind. And if you have friends, you can actually play that game completely in local koop. All of these aspects makes that game feel extremely MMORPG-y. I like that a lot. The grind can be exhausting at times, but I really like the feel from that almost neverending dungeon grind and character progression. I have never played a single player game that gives me the same feeling. The only bad part of the game is that DQ9 is the only Dragon Quest game in existence that didn't get a remaster or a remake, thus is stuck on the DS. Additionally there is free DLC content that isn't available anymore due to needing Wi-Fi connection which doesn't exist anymore. There are other means to obtain it even today, but still. I like the legacy bosses a lot too, even if I haven't played a lot of Dragon Quest games yet. Throwbacks to older games are always a weak point of mine. Though grinding these bosses up to level 99 to fight them on their strongest form is rediculous.
Content:
It's rediculous. There is so much to do that you will probably never finish the game 100%. Due to it's grindy nature and random loot elements, it is basically impossible to do everything in the game. It has the most amount of content in any single player game I have ever played. The only content piece that is sadly missing is a casino.
Replay value:
It has the worst replay value of all time. In this game you work towards a very big and long lasting goal by grinding your ass of. I would never restart the game from scratch again because that would mean to grind everything up again. I only replayed the game once after finding out how to access the DLC and I will probably never do it again. I come back to my long ass save file from time to time if I feel the itch to grind more.
Conclusion:
I really like this game because it is a nice classic single player JRPG experience but also scratches the itch of playing an MMORPG. And I rather play a long lasting single player offline game with multiplayer possibilities than a live service game. This game is truly amazing.
Story:
The story is really cool. I actually enjoy it a bit more than DQ8's story. Every little sub-story in the different towns are all cool and emotional in their own way and the overarching plot of the whole game in general is also cool. I haven't played all the Dragon Quest games, but I think Dragon Quest IX (DQ9) is the only game, where the villain actually has a back story outside of "I'm evil and I kill". Generally I like everything about it, even if it's kind of generic in it's structure (finding 7 fyggs).
Characters:
There actually aren't really a lot of characters in this game. The characters you meet that have actual personalities are always side characters. The reason for that is, that the protagonist is a personalityless self made character, just like in most MMORPGs. And there are no actual party members as part of the story. If you want party members you make them yourself. These party members then also have no personality. I'm very neutral to that aspect. I like good characters, but characters in DQ9 aren't really the main focus of the game in my opinion.
Music:
The music is good. It isn't really outstanding. It fits and has it's general Dragon Quest charm, but it is nothing truly amazing.
Gameplay:
Now to the main part of the game. The gameplay itself is just basic turn based combat. But what makes this games so amazing is the character costumization and progression. First of all YOU decide how many characters are in a party. You can play solo or with two, three or four party members. And you decide how they look and what their names are. Additionally you can actually see every equipment piece on your characters which is rarely to be seen in single player JRPGs. You can combine the abilities of all different vocations (classes in this game) to work on your personal perfect group composition. And finally there are randomly generated dungeons with random loot, enemies and bosses as the basically never ending post game content. All of that content is a massive grind. And if you have friends, you can actually play that game completely in local koop. All of these aspects makes that game feel extremely MMORPG-y. I like that a lot. The grind can be exhausting at times, but I really like the feel from that almost neverending dungeon grind and character progression. I have never played a single player game that gives me the same feeling. The only bad part of the game is that DQ9 is the only Dragon Quest game in existence that didn't get a remaster or a remake, thus is stuck on the DS. Additionally there is free DLC content that isn't available anymore due to needing Wi-Fi connection which doesn't exist anymore. There are other means to obtain it even today, but still. I like the legacy bosses a lot too, even if I haven't played a lot of Dragon Quest games yet. Throwbacks to older games are always a weak point of mine. Though grinding these bosses up to level 99 to fight them on their strongest form is rediculous.
Content:
It's rediculous. There is so much to do that you will probably never finish the game 100%. Due to it's grindy nature and random loot elements, it is basically impossible to do everything in the game. It has the most amount of content in any single player game I have ever played. The only content piece that is sadly missing is a casino.
Replay value:
It has the worst replay value of all time. In this game you work towards a very big and long lasting goal by grinding your ass of. I would never restart the game from scratch again because that would mean to grind everything up again. I only replayed the game once after finding out how to access the DLC and I will probably never do it again. I come back to my long ass save file from time to time if I feel the itch to grind more.
Conclusion:
I really like this game because it is a nice classic single player JRPG experience but also scratches the itch of playing an MMORPG. And I rather play a long lasting single player offline game with multiplayer possibilities than a live service game. This game is truly amazing.