Mini Review – Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky
J-RPG
I got a fever!
Mark
The term J-RPG has become a bit of a dirty word lately with it’s connotations of stale gameplay, clichéd characters and the never-ending grind of quest-fight-quest-fight. In this part of the world we often think of the Final Fantasy series as being the quintessential J-RPG but in truth the humble Dragon Quest series holds the crown not only in terms of success with Dragon Quest outselling Final Fantasy with ease in its native Japan but also with its structure and gameplay that have been refined with every entry unlike Final Fantasy that creates an entirely new system every game be it materia, gambits, sphere grids only to then dump it for the next game.
More bad cosplay than a furries convention.
So what you have here is a very humble game with a traditional story (fallen angel saves world from ancient evil) traditional game mechanics (soldiers fight, mages cast fireballs, priests heal, monsters attack), traditional setting (green fields, dank caves, bustling towns, haunted ruins) all wrapped up together with four player local co-op and enough gameplay to easily keep you busy for 100+ hours before you even touch the free to play extra downloadable quests, items and character cameos from Dragon Quest VIII!
The Nintendo hype machine would have you believe this is some kind of kiddy friendly Pokemon-style fashion dress ’em up but be under no illusions this is pure as J-RPGs get. Yes you’ll need to grind some areas for loot and money and yes some of the mini quests would test the patience of even the most hardcore otaku but when it all gets too much you can just zoom the other side of the game word and spend hours doing other missions or drop them entirely.
Sure, you could call Dragon Quest old-fashioned but classics are classics for a reason so next time someone asks you what car you’d rather drive: a Nissan GT-R full of gimmicks and gadgets or a Aston Martin made with refined elegance just remember sometime it’s better to go with the classics.
9/10