Topic: Dragon Quest IX - Release Date 7/11 - U.S.

[Olimar77]

I think you need to travel to Quester's Rest in Stornway each time you want to go into tag mode. Traveling around the world does get a little easier as you progress through the game.

[Sarail]

Quick question...

I started playing last night, and I've only put two hours into the game so far, but do I eventually get party members that I can control their attacks and spells? Or do I only get to control my guy? I've got this Igor/Ivor (whatever his name is) guy with me right now... but I have no control over attacking with him... I figured since this was the beginning area of the game, that they'd give me a guy to help along like that, but I wanted to know if I eventually gain control over my other party members in battle.

[Sundoulos]

I haven't gotten to the point you're at yet, but when you get the opportunity to create your other party members, you can select an option to have them AI controlled or choose to directly control them.  That's how it's worked in previous Dragon Quest entries (at least in the remakes.)   That's what the reviews I've read seem to indicate.

As in previous Dragon Quests, there are also other NPC characters who temporarily remain in your party and are always AI controlled.  Ivor probably falls into this category.

[Tennindo]

I got this game n I love it. played 6+ hour straight the 1st day I bought it

[BeautifulShy]

Just a little heads up. The first Downloadable quest is out.

[TJ Spyke]

I am really tempted by this game. For those who have it, do you think it's worth getting knowing that you may not get to do any of the multiplayer? I only know one other person with a DS, and he is not into this type of game.

[that Baby guy]

That's tough to say.  If you're looking to play a difficult RPG with loads and loads of post-game content, then yes.  If you're looking for something with a very compelling story or characters, honestly, it's more iffy.  Since characters are built by the player, but there's a linear story, it's a bit more difficult to feel connected than say, Dragon Quest 5, where much of the game felt a bit more character and story driven.

[Mannypon]

Well I have no hopes of playing multiplayer either and I think it's a worthy purchase but only if your into traditional JRPGs.  When I first heard of this sequal's decision to not really have any main characters I was upset.  I thought the game would eventually turn into a dungeon crawl which can get old really quick unless your googoo for loot hunting lol.  But I have to say though that so far I'm more than happy with the story.  Instead of focusing on the main characters like in traditional rpgs, the game focuses on the NPCs and thier struggles.  Its a nice approach that you don't see often and I think allows for more varied experiences becuase every NPC is different and have different struggles.  Every town you hit is almost like a new adventure.  It really helps to give life to the somewhat lifeless nature npcs and towns have in traditional jrpgs. 
 
I'd compare it to watching a weekly anime series of some traveling group of characters lol, somewhat like the pokemon anime.  They travel from town to town and even though there is a main story to follow, smaller stories take place with each new location.

[TheFleece]

I picked this up earlier this week and I can't put it down. It's really streamlined so the experience is as smooth as possible. I doubt I'll get anything out of the tag mode. Has anyone downloaded the weekly quest?

[Sundoulos]

I'd compare it to watching a weekly anime series of some traveling group of characters lol, somewhat like the pokemon anime.  They travel from town to town and even though there is a main story to follow, smaller stories take place with each new location.

It's funny that you mention that; the Dragon Warrior cartoon series that had a short-lived run in the west was my first exposure to Dragon Warrior (and Akira Toriyama's art style.)  I loved the cartoon when I was a kid, and I've had a soft spot for the series ever since. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcJrLXpRwQU&feature=PlayList&p=41B4A36B0E0A4DBA&playnext=1&index=10

I like this so far.  I haven't progressed as much as I would like, but it's been fun, and what I expected, really.   There is one difference between this and old Dragon Quest's, though; in a lot of Dragon Quest's it's fairly easy to wander off into an area where the enemies can easily stomp you.  This design seems more segmented and designed to slowly ramp up the player difficulty.   I noticed it actually took a lot longer to start questing in the field, too; the intro was a lot longer than a normal Dragon Quest.

[SixthAngel]

I like this so far.  I haven't progressed as much as I would like, but it's been fun, and what I expected, really.   There is one difference between this and old Dragon Quest's, though; in a lot of Dragon Quest's it's fairly easy to wander off into an area where the enemies can easily stomp you.  This design seems more segmented and designed to slowly ramp up the player difficulty.   I noticed it actually took a lot longer to start questing in the field, too; the intro was a lot longer than a normal Dragon Quest.

I would say its very easy to wander off later.  You can complete a large section of quests "out of order" because they have no specific order but the enemies are little more difficult in some parts.  I died quite a few times in Swinedimples and the Dreadmaster and it was pretty tough only to coast through Batsureg and the monster lady.  I also wandered into Wormwood early where the monsters were way too tough for me.

[TheFleece]

There's a lot of things that I find myself doing that is similar to Monster Hunter Tri like gathering materials to fashion items and armor. There was also a moment where a ton of content was thrown at me so it feels very open ended about how events can occur. There's a reference to Grand Master Flash and The Furious Five in the game too. This game is great.

[Mannypon]

Edited for spoilers, sorry to those that have previously read my post.  Only read if you are up to the final boss or have already finished the game.
 
Man, I'm up to the final boss in the Gitt palace which is practically the end of the game and now I'm stuck.  It seems like my characters aren't leveled up significantly.  Most of my characters are level 35 max and still in their first vocation with the exception of my main character who has 2.  The only reason I wanted to keep my other three characters in their original vocations though is becuase I want to max out their class specific skills such as the priest's "faith" skills.  This will make it alot better once I move over to another vocation and have their magic mending stats boosting a serious bump. 
 
This has come back to bite me in the ass though as I'm nearly at the end of the game and my priest still hasn't learned the mutliheal spell which is critical right now given these dam bosses attack twice per turn (which I Fing hate).  Its funny though how Squeenix has always provided you with the metal slimes and all its variants lol.  Its as if they already knew you were going to be grinding at one point or another so they give you a little help with said monsters lol.
 
 
On a side note though, 2 things I want to mention, the anime cut scenes in this game are amazing and makes me wish they would release a DQ anime here in the states with the same production values.  They look wonderfull.  Also, I'd like to mention that I love how the characters power up when they hit maximum tention, it reminds me so much of DBZ when Goku and company would raise their power levels lol.  It looks bad ass in this game lol.

[DAaaMan64]

YO MANNY, SPOILER TAGS

Now I think I found a easy way to power level. If you are around level 22 you can continue reading.

Spoiler check 2, if you have made it through the Marion/Bloomridge story (or whatever its called) continue reading.


You know those Metal Medleys? (I.E. metal slime stacks)  You can find them in the kidnapper's cave. I found an easy way to kill them.

So my party consists of:

Gladiator w/ Hatchet Man (+1 ring that gives me +30 MP)
Priest w/      Thunder Thrust
Mage w/       nothing useful
Thief w/        Assassin's Stab

Anyway, find metal slime stacks and just use those 3 moves over and over. That gives you a real high critical chance, and as long as one crit connects, that slime stack is dead. +12000 XP instantly. I seem to be killing 2/3 of the slime stacks I run into and I when from level 28 to 40 in just a few hours. It was awesome.

[Mannypon]

my bad lol, I didn't think I was giving away too much of the story but I can see how some might not want to read about how a particular boss battle plays out.  Sorry again.  I'll keep your info in mind though, I've found a few other great leveling spots while checking the internet. 
 
While we are on the subject of strategies and the internet, I wish rpgs would have a central hub or character in game that you can pay for information such as material locations and great leveling spots.  If that were available, I wouldn't have the need to come online and look up material maps or look up faqs on the best grinding spots.  I'd also love it if you were given a material map in game where once you have located one of the material types, it'll be logged onto your map.  I also wish the map in this game was more detailed as in describing the names of locations as I tend to forget very easily where such and such plains or mt something or other was located.  An interactive world map would've helped.
 
Quick question....how do I do spoiler tags lol?  I can't seem to get which of the options above the text box will serve my purpose.

[BeautifulShy]

<spoiler>words here</spoiler>

replace < and > with [ and ]

Example.
Spoiler tags are great

[Mannypon]

Thanks for the info Maxi.  I have to say though, I hope forum activity is no indication of how successful this game has currently been here since its release becuase the DQ threads here and over at N-sider are practically dead.  I really hope this game sells well so Squeenix and/or Nintendo don't become scared to send our way more rpgs.  I'm still waiting on all the dam Tales DS games along with Graces plus Earthbound 3 and the compilation of 1 and 2 lol.

[SixthAngel]

Manny, those levels should be high enough to beat that boss.  I just beat the palace and after I did my characters range from 34-37.

Leveling should not be necessary but if you want to there are liquid metal slimes in bowhole.

My advice is first make sure that you used your minimedals.  You are at the point where you should be given a miracle sword which you can make into an Uber Miracle sword using alchemy.  The best weapon for your sword guys imo right now.
Buy mirror armor for people who don't have bounce.  Don't be afraid to use whipping boy to save your healer.

I did a lot of alchemy before this boss and making the Soul Breaker knife was a huge help.  I didn't think it would be that good until after I made it and saw the special ability.  It sometimes decreases the enemies attack.  This really helped me against the Gitt palace boss and the one of the Treasure map bosses.

Also Kabuff, use it.

[Mannypon]

Well right now I have a level 35 Gladiator with the basic miracle sword, a 36 level martial artist, a 35 level mage, and a 35 level priest.  My Gladiator is fine because I'm using Double up to dramatically increase my attack and slightly lower my defence which I would then enhance using a buff spell as I don't have kabuff yet.  With the prayer ring equipped and my miracle sword, the gladiator regains anywhere from 40-70 hp per turn.  My martial artist isn't doing much for me though.  My mage is only there to accelerate my squad and sap the boss to lower his defence.  My priest is just there to heal but since I don't have multiheal, I can only heal one character per turn.  I've managed to get far into the fight but as soon as I luck out and get the whole team hit consecutively, I can only heal one character significantly at a time and they start to die one by one. 
 
Right now I'm just leveling my characters to 40 to then do their specific class quests.  After that I'll change vocations and level them up again.  I haven't done much material hunting because I'm finding it to be annoying specifically by the fact that I'm just getting tired of flipping through the large menu of weapons and whatnot, seeing what items I need and then having to come online to see a material map, then traveling there to harvest.  I'm currently going through some DQ burnout unfortunately lol. 
 
I do need to make some money though and purchase some of those mirror armors as you say they help out and my characters don't all have the top of the line armor at the moment. 

[Sarail]

Am I just missing it, but where do you take on downloadable quests at? Is it in Stornway?

[Mannypon]

Don't quote me on this but I think they are only accessable after you finish the game and I think they'll be spread around the world similar to regular quests.  Now this is just my guess so hopefully someone with more knowledge of it will correct me where need be. 
 
Progress report....currently grinding for liquid metal slimes over in The Bowhole and I'm its driving me up the wall.  I've had at least 6 slimes STRAIGHT run off in battle and I have already lost count on how many have run off into oblivion on the dungeon map (run and disappeared into the water or wall)  WTF.

[SixthAngel]

We have very different teams so your strategy will have to be different than mine.
Mine- Armamentalist, mage, paladin, and thief.

If you don't want to have your mage attack with frizzle give him/her a ton of special medicine.  After you sap the enemy and Oomph your own guys have her be another healer.  Special medicine is easy to get and heals 90 or more hp.  Since your gladiator takes care of himself it should make two people be more than enough to heal your team.

Changing vocations and leveling up again just seems ridiculous.  You don't keep stats, only the abilities your learn for the class.  Unless you want to learn a specific spell like kabuff with a different class it isn't worth it.  All the classes have their strong and weak points.  My paladin knows kabuff and magic protection for the party but no zing.  I really hoped he would learn it like the priest but unfortunately I don't think so.

[TheFleece]

There are going to be Map Giveaways at Game Stop, Best Buy and Simon Malls starting this Sat at Game Stop. The date for Best Buy is August 7 and the Simon Mall dates are from August 7 to Sept 19. There are more details like what time you can get the maps and event locations.
http://www.dqnine.com/#/do-you-dq/events/
Each store has a different map.

[Shaymin]

And I don't know if this is a Canadian thing but some of the stores are giving away the DSi XL (Midnight Blue).

I'll be there with bells on.

[Caliban]

Darn. I will be working that day from 2 to 7. I'm putting my hopes on FanExpo for some map trading.