Dragon Quest IX Announced!

[Koby]

At a press conference in Tokyo a couple days ago Square Enix announced the first details regarding the newest installment of its flagship series Dragon Quest, titled Dragon Quest IX: Hoshizora no Mamori Hito or otherwise known as Dragon Quest IX: Protectors of the Starry Sky for the DS. Just like Dragon Quest VIII, Dragon Quest IX will be developed by Fukuoka-based Level 5, makers of Rogue Galaxy and the upcoming White Knight Story for PlayStation 3. Furthermore, Dragon Quest IX will feature an online component. Players will be able to team up with their friends and create a party of four, similar to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Battles will be more action-oriented this time around, as series mastermind Yuuji Horii is aiming for an entirely different, new Dragon Quest experience.

Composer Kouichi Sugiyama also made an appearance at today's event, saying he will continue to compose music for Dragon Quest until he dies. Dragon Quest IX will be available in Japan sometime next year.

For screenshots click here.

[† Nutz]

Dunno if I'll be getting it, I really like DQ I to VI. VII was also good, but VIII was kinda of a let down...

[nemarious]

I quite liked DQ9. The story was too predictable as has been the case with (most) modern J-RPGs but the grottos and the removal of random encounters made the game seem far more modern than it was. The fact it still has turn based battles is less of an issue for me but it would be nice if they were tweaked slightly just so it wasn't a matter of fastest first.

[Koby]

I just wish they'd leave the numbered entries to offline home console games. As an old fan of DQ and FF.. I don't like they've taken games such as DQ9 to hand-held only and FF11 and FF14 to being online MMO's. I feel they should have kept them with a different name and I'd like to see a console release of DQ9.

[nemarious]

I just wish they'd leave the numbered entries to offline home console games. As an old fan of DQ and FF.. I don't like they've taken games such as DQ9 to hand-held only and FF11 and FF14 to being online MMO's. I feel they should have kept them with a different name and I'd like to see a console release of DQ9.

The most likely reason for 9 being released on DS is three fold. Firstly it is far cheaper to produce than any of the other format. Secondly, they were already using Level-5 and the others to work on the remakes of the Zenithia trilogy. Finally, there is a much higher market saturation for the DS than any other console so even though they were only charging £30-35 instead of the usual £50-55 for a console game the fact the DS has sold 149ML units means they need to reach a far smaller percentage of their install base in order for the game to be successful.

I have played every mainline DragonQuest and Final Fantasy game and despite DragonQuest having been around longer than Final Fantasy - admittedly not by much - it wasn't until DragonQuest 8 that a title in the series had a worldwide release. I think what it boils down to is Final Fantasy is still more popular. Personally I wouldn't mind what console the DragonQuest games are released from as it's the universe I play the games for.

Koby, maybe you would like to know that number 10 is going to be released on a console. Unfortunately that console happens to be the Wii U so we'll see how that works out...

[Koby]

The most likely reason for 9 being released on DS is three fold. Firstly it is far cheaper to produce than any of the other format. Secondly, they were already using Level-5 and the others to work on the remakes of the Zenithia trilogy. Finally, there is a much higher market saturation for the DS than any other console so even though they were only charging £30-35 instead of the usual £50-55 for a console game the fact the DS has sold 149ML units means they need to reach a far smaller percentage of their install base in order for the game to be successful.

I have played every mainline DragonQuest and Final Fantasy game and despite DragonQuest having been around longer than Final Fantasy - admittedly not by much - it wasn't until DragonQuest 8 that a title in the series had a worldwide release. I think what it boils down to is Final Fantasy is still more popular. Personally I wouldn't mind what console the DragonQuest games are released from as it's the universe I play the games for.

Koby, maybe you would like to know that number 10 is going to be released on a console. Unfortunately that console happens to be the Wii U so we'll see how that works out...

From what I hear, Dragon Quest is a whole lot more popular than Final Fantasy in Japan but it just never got the same following international as the Final Fantasy series. My problem is when I was younger we traveled more so I had more reason to play hand-helds. Now that I never seem to really go anywhere I haven't had much reason for hand-helds other then to play games that don't get released to consoles. So the last hand-held I ever bought/owned was the original GBA and I have no plans to buy the PSP, DS, or their future counterparts. Thus I'd prefer them to have the main releases at least of the series on the consoles. Dragon Quest VIII was really fun and I'm sure I would have enjoyed IX, but the only way I'll get to play IX at this point is whenever they come out with a DS emulator that doesn't lag on my PC or if I get a better one. :/

I had heard DQ X was going to come out on the Wii, but now they've announced the Wii U so it's only natural they change to it. However I honestly am not sure if I will be buying a new Nintendo console at this rate since nearly all the great 3rd party games I was interested in got the big NO from Nintendo of America about localizing them, despite making a localization in Europe with English. That kind of shit on a lot of Wii owners hoping to play such RPG's. Besides Arc Rise Fantasia, Dragon Quest Swords, Valhalla Knights, Monster Hunter Tri... nothing else besides Nintendo games such as Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart, and Zelda got localized that I actually wanted to play which isn't much incentive for me to fork over $200+ for a new gen console from them.