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Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
Nintendo DS / DSi
Not As Good As Expected
4/5 stars
Dragon Quest IX did a few things really well and a few things really poorly. As a gamer who has played pretty much every Dragon Warrior/Quest, I expect a lot with each new game that comes out. To put this into perspective, I beat Dragon Quest V remade for the DS not long before I started this game and I was blown away by it. I expected even more with this new game and while it's enjoyable and good, it's by far not the best in the series.
What might bother me the most is the story. The basic plot is great. You're a "celestrian", basically an angel from above that guards over the world below. After a bit of craziness involving fruit from a tree, you're cast below having to collect pieces of this fruit and to do that you have resolve conflicts from town to town. You're no longer a true angel, you're part human letting you take on these tasks. It's a great base for a story. Unfortunately, it doesn't go much further than that. Each town you go in involves another small separate story which you resolve, and it doesn't really tie into the big picture much. There's very little character development, probably because you customize every character you play with in the game so other than the hero you don't get attached to anyone.
The addition of "side quests" was a good idea. The implementation of it wasn't. You can't accept more than 7 at a time, and some of the quests you can't complete until AFTER you beat the game. That irks me to no end. I walked around the world for so long trying to complete/locate these quests before the "final boss" and later find out I was wasting my time. Bad idea Square/Enix.
The game looked great, especially for being a DS game. The game has great music which I always expect from Dragon Quest. I spent somewhere in the 50 to 55 hour range beating the main story, it would have been longer if I knew I could complete the side quests I had still going (but I didn't know if I could so I said screw it).
All in all, I wish they created a game where there's more character development and less "every character can do everything" because you customize everyone. I wish all the side quests were beatable before you beat the game and the bonus content was completely new like in Dragon Quest VIII. I had fun, but it could have been better.
PS - In the 50+ hours I played this game, I only encountered metal slimes/etc. only TWICE. And, they ran away each time. I played a whole Dragon Quest game without taking out something metal. That's just flat out wrong. And trust me, I don't rush through areas....RIDICULOUS!
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