Dragon Quest IX

[Thalzon]

No important characters join. The game is all about you and your friends saving the world, which is something I've really missed in RPGs in the past few generations. I love naming my characters and adventuring with them. My only regret is that you can't give them beards, so Stevo can't be in my party.

At one point in the story the main character must pose as a student at a school. Having a beard would kind of make that difficult.

That's my reasoning anyway. That and anime characters have some bizarre aversion to facial hair 95% of the time.

[Vyse of Arcadia]

The tag mode feature is useless to me. I wish I lived in a country/region in which people actually played Dragon Quest games.

[Thalzon]

The tag mode feature is useless to me. I wish I lived in a country/region in which people actually played video games.

Fixed that for me.

[Nick Hyral]

The tag mode feature is useless to me. I wish I lived in a country/region in which people actually played Dragon Quest games.

I know what you mean.. I mean I guess I could go to the Game Tower in Columbus and just run tag mode.. But a bit far for my liking just for tag mode. I must say the music is actually pretty catchy...

[Zombie]

So as I understand it... you can't play multiplayer using wifi?

In that case, I'm kind of bummed. I don't really know anyone else personally who owns a DS except my little brother. And he most likely won't get this game. :\

But other than the possibility I won't be able to play multiplayer much, I really want this game. I was playing FFIV on my R4 and then I lost it. I need a DS JRPG to get my fix.

[Tinaddar]

I've put over 100 hours into this game already. Don't ask.

It is the best game I have played in years. I've beaten the game, and done most of the side-quests. All of course without guides (you can't get a good guide on game-faqs yet, even if you wanted to). Some of the side-quests are vague and annoying, but that is the only flaw to the game that I can think of. Well, that, and some NPCs talk WAY too much (I'm looking at you, JACK, and the bank lady).

As far as recommended levels, and "don't go into grottos until you're xx", they'll fool you. I could, for example, kill any of the grotto bosses at level one. That is to say, I could if any of my characters were that low in any class. All four of my main characters have all available classes to at least level 20, most are level 30, and a couple are 40.

You keep your skill points between classes, and you can save up as many as you like to spend them on a class you actually care about. I had each of my guys master a weapon skill while their "main" class was only about level 10, so they'd always have a reliable weapon, then I focused on the class skills that give permanent stat upgrades. It is way faster to level up to ten in a new class, and get the 12 skill points or whatever you get for it, than to level from 20 to 25 and get the same; so, if you're focusing on one class each you're really hindering yourself. At level one in any class, I have well over 100 Hp, 200 agility, etc.

As far as the tag-mode goes... Wow. If I lived in Japan, it would be great. I live in Vancouver. I took my DS to the beach in my pocket, and went for a walk among the thousands of people there. Not a single bite. In the next two weeks there are three more nights of fireworks, and I'm gonna try again, but I am not very hopeful. Kind of wish I was going to a convention soon; my inn is looking pretty empty.

I have one friend and one brother who I'll be able to play multiplayer with, and I'm looking forward to it. Haven't tried it yet. I made fresh level one characters just for that.

[Vyse of Arcadia]

My plan for tag mode is to walk around the math, computer science, and engineering buildings on campus when classes start. If anyone has DQIX in tag mode, it'll be there.

I'm trying to get the two or three other people I know with DSs to get the game for some multiplayer. No luck so far. I really wish it had online multiplayer.

[Kizyr]

I just realized... they made a bunch of name changes from Japanese to English, so I'm not going to understand a lot of the references folks make to character and place names. (Changes were necessary, though... The original names are a mouthful.)

I decided to restart my game since the last time I played was like 11 months ago, and I'd forgotten nearly everything I did. I'll try to get some levels in before Otakon so I can actually try out this tag mode business. KF

[Monobrow]

Played through the first hour or so, looking good so far.

[OceansAndrew]

I think I am getting close to the end of the story, and it's been really fun. I've been doing a few treasure hunt maps as well, and they seem to be super easy monsters in the caves and then a pretty challenging boss. I am having a great time dressing up my dudes too. :3

[Mr. Fox]

My only regret is that you can't give them beards, so Stevo can't be in my party.

I had to shave just so I could be in the game.

[Kizyr]

I think I am getting close to the end of the story, and it's been really fun. I've been doing a few treasure hunt maps as well, and they seem to be super easy monsters in the caves and then a pretty challenging boss. I am having a great time dressing up my dudes too. :3

Dressing up should not be this much fun in a game. I'm paying more attention to style and fashion when picking out new armor than I am to stat bonuses. KF

[Nick Hyral]

I had to shave just so I could be in the game.

This made me choke on my water. Highly entertained me. Finally got to change my vocations (Yeah I'm that far behind) I've been mainly leveling them to skill up my weapon skills and pick up a few stat enhancing talents to beef me up. Really loving this game so far. Makes me want to break out the NES and SNES to relive some of the older RPG days.

[OceansAndrew]

Dressing up should not be this much fun in a game. I'm paying more attention to style and fashion when picking out new armor than I am to stat bonuses. KF

I hear that; I skipped on the dragon armor completely because it was so hideously un-fab.

[Thalzon]

If you're having trouble with unlocking the gladiator class, remember that slimes won't run if you're a low level and have crap equipment on. So change everyone to a new class and have one character equipped with a copper sword and leave everyone else bare. Voila! Easy gladiator unlocking!

Too bad armamentalist and ranger aren't this easy.

[The Mutericator]

I still haven't unlocked Ranger, and I'm already about to enter the Obliette (no spoilers in that name, it isn't mentioned until you're there).

I'm about 50 hours in now, after I found the Liquid Metal Slimes I spent about ten hours just leveling everyone up like crazy on all of their weak classes and then saving the points up to use on skills relevant to their professions - so now my Gladiator and Monk have shields, my Paladin automatically gains MP after every round, my Mage has a ridiculous amount of MP, and all of my attackers have huge HP and STR bonuses. Double Up + Multifist = 150 x 4 damage. Give the Gladiator the Falcon Blade and have him Falcon Slash after a Double Up? Oh, cripes. It's around 200 damage each attack, times 4 for 400. I smoked the most recent boss (he drops the Sceptre, for reference) in about four rounds.

MY RECOMMENDATIONS:

- Give your Paladin points in Wands, not swords or spears.

- Give every caster - Paladin, Mage, Minstrel, Priest - enough Wand points to at least get Cadaceus - it's a healing skill that costs 3MP, and because it's a skill, they can use it whenever.

- Monks are crazy when they have maxed-out Fisticuffs and all of the STR bonuses from Gladiator and are wearing shields. Crazy broken.

- Give whoever has Falcon Slash the Goddess Ring so they can use it as often as they like. Gladiators don't have much MP, but when it regens as fast as the Goddess Ring makes it, it's easy to spam.

- Neither Gigaslash is worth it. Don't bother unless you're on your way to Omnivocational Swordmaster.

- Speaking of which, that makes it a LOT easier to level up as a Mage, Priest, et cetera - give a Mage the Falcon Blade and all of his STR boosts from Gladiator, and it doesn't take him long to become useful again.

[Charlie's Angel]

is this game worth buying a DS for? I remember I used to rent some Dragon Warrior games for the NES a loooooooooong time ago and I really liked them. couldn't ever afford to buy them and these days you can't even find 'em without getting sodomized by proxy on ebay

i might not be able to get it anyway because I have no idea what my bonus this year is going to be, but i just thought id ask since my apartment is boring as hell these days

[Nick Hyral]

I wouldn't ever justify the purchase of a system around one game. Dragon Quest IX is a good game.. As are the rehashes of the previous ones.. Plenty of other great games as is.. RPG mainly in my case but still several just the same. I'd recommend a DS not for just this game, but for some of the others they have to offer as well.

[Charlie's Angel]

I know, I was asking because I've got some money coming in and I was just looking for a new toy to entertainment myself with.

[Ruckus]

I also agree that it's not worth buying a DS just for one game, but there are quite a few good games out there:

Dragon Quest IX

Disgaea

Pokemon

Professor Layton (both Curious Village and Diabolical Box)

Also I would recommend just getting the regular old DS. I have a DS Lite which is nice but I can't see too many advantages over the original, and the DSi just doesn't seem worth the extra money in my opinion.

But enough derailing - DQIX is the first RPG I've played in a while (especially for the DS) that has a storyline that really motivates me to want to keep playing.

[OceansAndrew]

We had an awesome time at Otakon trading maps. I think overall we averaged around 70ish people canvassed there, and while most people didn't have maps, and the majority of people had the starter map, it was a lot of fun seeing people come to our inn.

[DragonAvenger]

We were pimpin' out OCR in our greeting message to other players.

[Kizyr]

All I got as greeting messages were:

"Mr(s). English -

Hi, my name is English. Do you speak English?

If you speak English then you can talk with people all over the world!"

Apparently all I gave in return was:

"Hi, I'm from North America. I'm a researcher.

Hi, I'm from Japan! Do you speak Japanese?"

Still got to trade maps, though.

...even if no one would play with me

KF

[Mirby]

I haven't had this much fun with a game in a long time! ^.^

I'm at the Barbarus battle.

My favorite strategy is using Double Up (or Oomph) and then Falcon Slash. My main char is a Gladiator, and this does awesome damage. Plus, I have the Miracle Sword equipped, so I get healed every time I do that!

[DragonAvenger]

Currently my martial artist will deal from 800-1100 damage on bosses when he is fully tensioned and uses hardnails. Bosses generally aren't a problem with him.