Format: Nintendo DS
Developer: Level-5
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: 23 July
Score: 9/10
While Final Fantasy is arguably the name most associated with the JRPG (Japanese role-playing game), Dragon Quest is the name that defined it. The first game in 1986 laid down the groundwork that the genre would be built on for over two decades, crafting a world of epic sweep and introducing a focus on ‘grinding’ --seeking out monsters to fight in order to earn gold and gain more experience points (XP) to upgrade your character’s skills.
In Japan, the Dragon Quest series is outsold only by Mario and Pokémon, its cute ‘slime’ mascot as recognisable as Pikachu. When Dragon Quest IX was released for the DS in the Far East last year, it smashed sales records. Due to its heavy focus on ad-hoc multiplayer, special DQ ‘zones’ had to be assigned in the district of Akihabara to avoid congregations of players blocking the streets.
But the series didn't even reach our shores until 2006 with Dragon Quest VIII, released on Sony's PlayStation 2. As such, outside of a devout hardcore following, it’s a craze that has largely passed the west by.
Dragon Quest IX is hoping to change that, built to appeal to a Western audience while not turning its back on its heritage. The details have been honed and streamlined; the multiplayer is expansive and advanced. But the fundamentals remain largely the same; progression, not revolution.
Let’s start at the most important place; its heart. Dragon Quest IX’s beats in time with touching tales of love, loss and growing-up. You are a fallen guardian angel, your wings clipped by a malevolent force unknown. Down on Earth, you are essentially human, walking among the citizens of a small village. The overarching quest is beautifully simple: travel the world as a kindly minstrel, lending a hand to folk along the way. Once your work is done in one town, you will move on, finding others in need. Help enough people, the theory goes, and the ‘benevolessence’ (a physical manifestation of gratitude) will bring back your halo and allow you to return to the stars to find out just what happened upstairs.
It’s unerringly sweet, driven by wonderfully drawn characters and a brilliantly executed localisation. British colloquialisms pepper the dialogue, with a cockney geezer in a frightening helmet declaring their diseased settlement ‘dead as a doornail’, while an over-the-top Scotsman sits on the throne just one town over. It’s endearingly disparate at times, but is executed in such a way that it can fully form a character in a single sentence. It’s an important detail, as your contact with these citizens can often be all-too fleeting.
Dragon Quest IX’s tapestry, then, is threaded with a collection of smaller vignettes; a young girl that needs to be convinced of her true destiny as a big city innkeeper, a Knight torn from his true love, left abandoned and cursed. And this is just the beginning. It’s all dusted with a light coating of theological philosophy, the unifying focus being the one thing that most religions (theoretically) agree on: being good to others. The people around you debate your existence, unaware that an angel walks among them. You even save your game in a church, disguised under the word ‘confession’.
I have a confession of my own to make. I’m no expert on JRPGs. It’s a genre that I historically struggle with. I am fascinated by the anime-style artistic vision and the construction of the huge, intricate worlds that these fantasies take place in, but the turn-based battling and focus on grinding leaves me cold.
It surprised me, then, to find that I fell for Dragon Quest IX in a big way. It’s a game driven by stories, true, but the fundamentals of the game are as traditional as they come. Once you leave a town, you and your party of three are pitched into wide open fields, crawling with monsters. There are no random battles, thankfully, so you can avoid or engage in fights as you wish.
The appeal to Dragon Quest IX’s battling lies in the details. The combat is traditional menu-based fare, but each fight is fast-paced against a remarkably eclectic bunch of enemies. The monsters are exquisitely designed, drawn with a rather unsettling degree of cuteness. It doesn’t seem right, somehow, whacking the ever-smiling slime with a sword, nor do you feel entirely comfortable with running through a creature with names as outrageously twee as Boppin’ Badger or Leafy Larrikin. But you will; actively seeking out battles just to see what your next foe looks like. And for the XP boost, of course.
There’s a deft touch to the grinding in Dragon Quest IX, gold and XP points come thick and fast after every battle. There’s a constant sense of progression; that your party is improving. In the opening hours, you will find yourself levelling-up at an increased rate. It’s a small touch, but one that inspires you, gives you to confidence to push on. And just as you find your skills make you unbeatable in an area, it’s time to move on to tougher trials.
However, any deaths in your party may not carry the weight you would hope, outside of practicality. You can customise your members to take advantage of the extensive vocation (or class) system, but they don’t utter a word throughout your quest. You pick them up at an inn, and they can be swapped for other members as and when you like. Their malleability is a boon, but they can’t help but come across as ciphers, commodities to be used and discarded when someone better comes along. You invest in them because levelling them up is useful to you, not because you care. It’s an odd juxtaposition with the intricate characterisation and benevolent tone of the rest of the game.
There a reason for this, however, due to the extensive ad-hoc multiplayer, with up to three other players able to enter your world and either roam freely, or help you out on your quest. You can also activate a canvass mode, which sends out a signal to any nearby players while your DS is shut. If it finds another Dragon Quest IX player, it will trade characters, with new arrivals turning up at the game’s main inn.
The multiplayer components are wonderfully integrated and forward-thinking, taking heavy cues from Capcom’s Monster Hunter. But here’s the thing: just how practical is it over here?
It’s a feature designed with Japan in mind, where Dragon Quest is a phenomenon. Here, and without the support of play over the internet, it will be far more difficult to seek out other players. It’s in no way a criticism of the game, just a sign of how the West hasn’t embraced such communal handheld gaming. In Japan, it’s a highly social activity, meeting new friends while trading characters in schoolyards, on the metro or even in designated areas within one of Tokyo’s busiest districts. Sadly, we just don’t get that.
But Nintendo are attempting to make a step in that direction, however small, with this release. If nothing else, the big push the game is receiving should propel the name of Dragon Quest into the public consciousness. As well it should. Even as a solitary pursuit, Dragon Quest IX is an absorbing and accessible voyage through a world founded on traditional JRPG philosophy, but executed with craft and style that is wholly universal.
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