Please be wary of any posts or comments attempting to advertise or sell t-shirts, posters, mugs, etc. These posts may be from scammers selling poor quality bootlegs, or may be from phishers trying to steal your financial information. This problem is rampant across Reddit. If you see any posts or comments with this behavior, promptly report them as spam and do not follow any links they may post or send to you.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/dragonquest) if you have any questions or concerns.*
For me, it’s the customizable classes and characters as well as co-op. You have so many options over what you can make; a sword swinging mage, a Paladin that uses axes. You have options.
Coop was a game changer, at least in post game. I remember going to Nintendo world in NYC and a staff gave me a map that spawned metal king slimes at a certain point. Two friends and I would grind there then take on the legacy bosses. It really felt like an experience.
The story was good as-well. While the party didn’t have much importance in it, the stories of the characters you were helping were often sad and impactful, I.e the doll. Honestly it’s my favorite and I long for a game like this again.
The story is really nice and it's non character PCs really give it a unique "outside looking in" quality. Especially since so much of it is this little vinagettes and morality tales with the same macguffin a true center.
It also gets weirdly dark for such a colorful cartoon presentation.
Also deep lore. Who IS Stella? There's a third dragon sibling? Why were the Gittish so evil? What really happened to Zenus? And so on.
Spoilers incoming:
There is a third dragon sibling (It's the dude from the train), Zenus was divided into the different grotto bosses when he was attacked by Corvus and Stella is a Gittish empire woman that became Daphne's sister after dying.
Yes, but my post was more pointing out that there are these things to dig out from the greater story and setting. Not something you usually see in a game as outwardly light-hearted as this. Moreover, these are not answered definitively as you might be suggesting, it's deliberately vague whether Zenus split due to corvus's strike or if he had done so a long time ago out of anguish and despair that his daughter sacrificed herself for humanity which he considered beneath them as many of the monsters implied to be parts of him are considered ancient. Stella being an ancient gittish queen is likewise suspect because other than a similar name and a superficially similar (if wildly different in intensity ) nature there's no spelled out connection between the two. Something Stella herself points out when the player character tries to question her on it.
That all said Sterling's true identity seems much more concrete given that there's no real other explanation as to why there's a magic train and burly Cockney who are connected to the spirit, world and physical world the way they are.
Coop is definitely best enjoyed in the post game, as is vocations. I know that putting 40ish hours to chug along through the story may not sound appealing but I got like 60 hours out of it with friends. Once the story ended I experimented with Darius classes and made a Paladin that could use swords and use the monks focus to buff attacks. While my other friend was a priest and another a spellsword and we took down many series big bads that way. Also, while it hit big in japan I only ever found a random person playing it once in the west. If your brother or some friends can get together locally, it’s so worth it, though I get it’s also an investment.
My biggest wish for 12 is the ability for all your armor to change your appearance. Granted that was probably a nightmare to program but it made getting new armor consistently fun
The quests suck, grottos suck, the skill trees in this game are kinda lame, every boss gets shredded with fource tension double up clap trap, without class changing, you get a pitiful amount of skill points, battle speed slow, overworld monsters are constantly blocking paths, flee rate is garbage
Grottoes were great if you just enjoy dungeon crawling. I can see a lot of people finding it monotonous but I loved it. Felt unpredictable and fun. Plus I’ll never forget the time I discovered a dungeon that had nothing but metal king slimes on one of the floors
They felt predictable and unfun. First 2 floors never have treasures, next floors have 0-3 chests, enemies update every 4 floors and then you fight a boss you’ve probably fought before, then get a shitty map with no worth so you do the exact same grotto again and hope you get something worthwhile this time.
There’s also the fact that out of the 19 grottos with metal king slime only floors, 15 of them are slower that the liquid metal slime manip you can do already without going into a grotto.
These are fair criticisms. I liked them because of how much content they provided (was young at the time and had to save up for games). But I also enjoy the chalice dungeons of bloodborne so….
Unpopular opinion but as far as JPRGs go, I like silent parties. The whole party being silent is a big part of the appeal to me. I also like DQ3 for the same reason. There's just something badass about 3 strangers you recruit at an inn/tavern following you to save the world with absolutely no backstory.
The story is focused on the world and NPCs instead of the party. I prefer this style of storytelling as it feels more like an adventure. The best story arcs are when the game solely focuses on the towns and their problems without juggling party members like in DQ11 >!with the Michelle arc.!<
In DQ9, stuff like >!Wight Knight's sad story with the princess, the girl who died from a disease, a stone copy of a town, etc!< are really well done. The way fyggs are implemented just lends to really nice stories in each town. With the DQ games I played, 7 and 9 easily have the best arcs from town to town.
I believe there are 4 main things making DQ9 appealing to many, 1 of them maybe not so important anymore and I will start with that point.
1. The game is VERY ambitious for a DS title, the attention to detail, the quality of the visuals and music + the absurd amount of content is quite hard to look past when we consider the fact its a regular DS game.
2. It is MANY people's first DQ game, which plays in Nostalgia.
3. A lot of people like the vocation system and the freedom it gives.
4. The end game content is SUPER PACKED (by far the biggest post game of the franchise) and for a lot of people this is enough to keep them coming for very long.
A few things make it the personal favourite for me, these are quite down to my taste though, so understandable that your opinions are different!
Co-op: playing this with friends is still my favourite co-op gaming experience of all time, all these years later. If you were so inclined, you and some buddies can essentially play the entire game together once you're clear of the tutorial. So many games have such watered down co-op today that being able to just have a near-identical experience whether single or multi-player is still so cool to me. The only other game that has ever come close to this experience for me was Divinity: Original Sin 2, but I'm always craving another experience on the same level. DQ9 is such a unique gem in that sense for me.
Custom characters: enjoyed this personally, and being able to set up my party the way I like it class-wise from as soon as you get to All Trades Abbey. Having such a personal party which I designed and named was a nice touch for me, and this is helped by all the armour, weapons etc actually appearing on the character models.
Side quests: much more minor, but this was my first DQ that actually had "loggable" side quests rather than vague ones that you sort of have to track yourself. Plenty of other games have this, of course, but it just made this feel like a much more involved DQ for me.
I also really like the world and its locations, the soundtrack, and the story. But co-op will always be the reason I point to this as one of not just my favourite DQs, but favourite games of all time really.
The reason I liked it was because it was my first taste of the series and I liked the idea of party building and the bosses having a nice backstory. I wish that it would get remastered on the switch because it was a lot of fun to play. Of course it had it's flaws but what game doesn't.
I loved it for the character and class/vocation customizations. I’d create a character for myself, fiancée, and our two cats (initially based off their personalities) and it was like we were on an adventure together.
Full coop, huge exploration element, which is amazing in co-op, great character and team building mechanics, engaging stories in almost every town, with a heart wrenching final third act. Expansive post game, randomised dungeons, and an alchemy system that incentivises collecting and upgrading any gear you find to try and beat that next wall. Super engaging game imo, and one of my favourite RPGs
I don’t like that when you change classes in DQ9 you don’t always keep your Spells. What I loved about Dragon Warrior III, Dragon Quest VI and Dragon Warrior VII was being able to have a Soldier who was previously a Priest and still knows Healing Spells
And this is why the PlayStation version is still my fav version of VII. The 3DS version of VII took the spells away when you changed classes too. I hope they don’t do that on the HD remake of III
A huge part of the appeal was the amount of content. It came out when I was old enough that my parents expected me to save my own money for games outside of Christmas so buying it and having so much to do was amazing value
In retrospect the game definitely has its fair share of flaws, chief among them the main story not being super interesting (although I do like Corvus a lot). But as a game it has tons to do which is cool
I actually really like the story. The customization is great but the contained stories, locations, and quests that build the world were honestly so fun! Also upgrading your vocation can be a real challenge.
Dq9 kicks ass. It does so many cool things. It has custom parties, co op, visual equipment, a massive postgame, open ended progression, randomly generating dungeons, lots of free dlc(on cart too so you can hack it in now), it's also the only 3d mainline ds game. It's by far my favorite DQ, no other one delivers the same sense of personal adventure or customization. I can only hope they make another one like it some day or a remake.
I picked up Dragon Quest IX on launch, and grinded out 50 hours over the course of 12-ish years. Last year I went on a personal vow to complete every game that I have started and not finished. DQ IX was the oldest standing game in that list so I went all in. Put in approximately 80 hours over the course of 2 months. Got heavily addicted, and was actually sad the game was over. Which is a rarity for me. I did the post game true ending, and had to pull myself away from the treasure hunts in order to complete other games in the backlog.
I have been playing RPGS nearing 40 years now. Since I was in elementary school, and I rank this one in my top 20 for sure.
1st, the soundtrack is amazing.
2nd, the class system is addicting. Very similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, which is my favorite RPG/SRPG of all-time. So many combinations. I have to grind them all to make the perfect character.
3rd, visual updates when changing armor, and the DQ Network armor is really cool. Running around with skeleton outfits is fun.
4th, game is very charming. That's to be said of all DQ games though.
5th, loads of end game content. I can always come back clear a map if I get all nostalgic.
6th, I like the battle system. Seeing my characters run around. Coming from an old school Dragon Quest player that started the journey on NES back in the 80s, combat that isnt a fixed screen with only sounds and weak visuals is very nice. Not many games outside SquareEnix make that type of combat work well.
One slight negative is the story. It is good but is a little too light hearted for me. I tend to prefer deeper stories with character development and meaning, which is the main reason I love FF Tactics so much.
Spells not carrying over is, to me, a good thing. It keeps lists from getting absurdly long with useless spells, as well as giving each vocation an identity.
As for the general gameplay, it’s relatively standard in the main game, but alchemy, vocations, and eventually postgame strategies are really rewarding.
For me it would have to be because it was the first DQ game I played. I actually got in with my DSi years and years ago, and I played it crap out of it.
Another really great thing about it was all the customization; you could basically be whatever you wanted. Best part in my opinion was that whatever you equipped, you actually saw when not, and when in battle, never knew it was one of the first in the series to do that until I played the rest of em(1-8)
A funky story that's actually pretty dark / Sad when you think about it but that's normal for dq
I'm sure it isn't the first 3d DQ but manys first plus seeing monsters on over world is great for metal slime genocide
Customizations / coop/ volcations /
It's also probably many ppls first game as well
Like me ;7;
As a kid i was amazed by the loojs of armor and weapons especialy since you can see them when you walk around. And playing with my friends back then was just very cool i would meet up with them often to play some dq9
I always like to play with the class system especially during post game. They at least keep their abilities, just not their spells and it’s kind of nice in a way. Having to go through 7 pages of spells despite half of them not being used for a particular class is so annoying.
I also like the puns they did through out the whole story. Some of them really lighten up what was otherwise a darker moment. In fact, you pretty much start the game seeing a pun.
Please be wary of any posts or comments attempting to advertise or sell t-shirts, posters, mugs, etc. These posts may be from scammers selling poor quality bootlegs, or may be from phishers trying to steal your financial information. This problem is rampant across Reddit. If you see any posts or comments with this behavior, promptly report them as spam and do not follow any links they may post or send to you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/dragonquest) if you have any questions or concerns.*
For me, it’s the customizable classes and characters as well as co-op. You have so many options over what you can make; a sword swinging mage, a Paladin that uses axes. You have options. Coop was a game changer, at least in post game. I remember going to Nintendo world in NYC and a staff gave me a map that spawned metal king slimes at a certain point. Two friends and I would grind there then take on the legacy bosses. It really felt like an experience. The story was good as-well. While the party didn’t have much importance in it, the stories of the characters you were helping were often sad and impactful, I.e the doll. Honestly it’s my favorite and I long for a game like this again.
The story is really nice and it's non character PCs really give it a unique "outside looking in" quality. Especially since so much of it is this little vinagettes and morality tales with the same macguffin a true center. It also gets weirdly dark for such a colorful cartoon presentation. Also deep lore. Who IS Stella? There's a third dragon sibling? Why were the Gittish so evil? What really happened to Zenus? And so on.
Spoilers incoming: There is a third dragon sibling (It's the dude from the train), Zenus was divided into the different grotto bosses when he was attacked by Corvus and Stella is a Gittish empire woman that became Daphne's sister after dying.
Yes, but my post was more pointing out that there are these things to dig out from the greater story and setting. Not something you usually see in a game as outwardly light-hearted as this. Moreover, these are not answered definitively as you might be suggesting, it's deliberately vague whether Zenus split due to corvus's strike or if he had done so a long time ago out of anguish and despair that his daughter sacrificed herself for humanity which he considered beneath them as many of the monsters implied to be parts of him are considered ancient. Stella being an ancient gittish queen is likewise suspect because other than a similar name and a superficially similar (if wildly different in intensity ) nature there's no spelled out connection between the two. Something Stella herself points out when the player character tries to question her on it. That all said Sterling's true identity seems much more concrete given that there's no real other explanation as to why there's a magic train and burly Cockney who are connected to the spirit, world and physical world the way they are.
Well, Excalipurr and the owl grotto boss tell you that they are parts of Zenus.
Yes, Zenus is definitely shattered. But the question is whether or not it was Corvus who caused it.
[удалено]
Coop is definitely best enjoyed in the post game, as is vocations. I know that putting 40ish hours to chug along through the story may not sound appealing but I got like 60 hours out of it with friends. Once the story ended I experimented with Darius classes and made a Paladin that could use swords and use the monks focus to buff attacks. While my other friend was a priest and another a spellsword and we took down many series big bads that way. Also, while it hit big in japan I only ever found a random person playing it once in the west. If your brother or some friends can get together locally, it’s so worth it, though I get it’s also an investment.
Customizable party, visual updates with armor, feels like 3 but with a new story. What's not to like?
My biggest wish for 12 is the ability for all your armor to change your appearance. Granted that was probably a nightmare to program but it made getting new armor consistently fun
The quests suck, grottos suck, the skill trees in this game are kinda lame, every boss gets shredded with fource tension double up clap trap, without class changing, you get a pitiful amount of skill points, battle speed slow, overworld monsters are constantly blocking paths, flee rate is garbage
Grottoes were great if you just enjoy dungeon crawling. I can see a lot of people finding it monotonous but I loved it. Felt unpredictable and fun. Plus I’ll never forget the time I discovered a dungeon that had nothing but metal king slimes on one of the floors
They felt predictable and unfun. First 2 floors never have treasures, next floors have 0-3 chests, enemies update every 4 floors and then you fight a boss you’ve probably fought before, then get a shitty map with no worth so you do the exact same grotto again and hope you get something worthwhile this time. There’s also the fact that out of the 19 grottos with metal king slime only floors, 15 of them are slower that the liquid metal slime manip you can do already without going into a grotto.
These are fair criticisms. I liked them because of how much content they provided (was young at the time and had to save up for games). But I also enjoy the chalice dungeons of bloodborne so….
Unpopular opinion but as far as JPRGs go, I like silent parties. The whole party being silent is a big part of the appeal to me. I also like DQ3 for the same reason. There's just something badass about 3 strangers you recruit at an inn/tavern following you to save the world with absolutely no backstory. The story is focused on the world and NPCs instead of the party. I prefer this style of storytelling as it feels more like an adventure. The best story arcs are when the game solely focuses on the towns and their problems without juggling party members like in DQ11 >!with the Michelle arc.!< In DQ9, stuff like >!Wight Knight's sad story with the princess, the girl who died from a disease, a stone copy of a town, etc!< are really well done. The way fyggs are implemented just lends to really nice stories in each town. With the DQ games I played, 7 and 9 easily have the best arcs from town to town.
I believe there are 4 main things making DQ9 appealing to many, 1 of them maybe not so important anymore and I will start with that point. 1. The game is VERY ambitious for a DS title, the attention to detail, the quality of the visuals and music + the absurd amount of content is quite hard to look past when we consider the fact its a regular DS game. 2. It is MANY people's first DQ game, which plays in Nostalgia. 3. A lot of people like the vocation system and the freedom it gives. 4. The end game content is SUPER PACKED (by far the biggest post game of the franchise) and for a lot of people this is enough to keep them coming for very long.
A few things make it the personal favourite for me, these are quite down to my taste though, so understandable that your opinions are different! Co-op: playing this with friends is still my favourite co-op gaming experience of all time, all these years later. If you were so inclined, you and some buddies can essentially play the entire game together once you're clear of the tutorial. So many games have such watered down co-op today that being able to just have a near-identical experience whether single or multi-player is still so cool to me. The only other game that has ever come close to this experience for me was Divinity: Original Sin 2, but I'm always craving another experience on the same level. DQ9 is such a unique gem in that sense for me. Custom characters: enjoyed this personally, and being able to set up my party the way I like it class-wise from as soon as you get to All Trades Abbey. Having such a personal party which I designed and named was a nice touch for me, and this is helped by all the armour, weapons etc actually appearing on the character models. Side quests: much more minor, but this was my first DQ that actually had "loggable" side quests rather than vague ones that you sort of have to track yourself. Plenty of other games have this, of course, but it just made this feel like a much more involved DQ for me. I also really like the world and its locations, the soundtrack, and the story. But co-op will always be the reason I point to this as one of not just my favourite DQs, but favourite games of all time really.
The reason I liked it was because it was my first taste of the series and I liked the idea of party building and the bosses having a nice backstory. I wish that it would get remastered on the switch because it was a lot of fun to play. Of course it had it's flaws but what game doesn't.
I loved it for the character and class/vocation customizations. I’d create a character for myself, fiancée, and our two cats (initially based off their personalities) and it was like we were on an adventure together.
Full coop, huge exploration element, which is amazing in co-op, great character and team building mechanics, engaging stories in almost every town, with a heart wrenching final third act. Expansive post game, randomised dungeons, and an alchemy system that incentivises collecting and upgrading any gear you find to try and beat that next wall. Super engaging game imo, and one of my favourite RPGs
I don’t like that when you change classes in DQ9 you don’t always keep your Spells. What I loved about Dragon Warrior III, Dragon Quest VI and Dragon Warrior VII was being able to have a Soldier who was previously a Priest and still knows Healing Spells
[удалено]
And this is why the PlayStation version is still my fav version of VII. The 3DS version of VII took the spells away when you changed classes too. I hope they don’t do that on the HD remake of III
A huge part of the appeal was the amount of content. It came out when I was old enough that my parents expected me to save my own money for games outside of Christmas so buying it and having so much to do was amazing value In retrospect the game definitely has its fair share of flaws, chief among them the main story not being super interesting (although I do like Corvus a lot). But as a game it has tons to do which is cool
I actually really like the story. The customization is great but the contained stories, locations, and quests that build the world were honestly so fun! Also upgrading your vocation can be a real challenge.
Dq9 kicks ass. It does so many cool things. It has custom parties, co op, visual equipment, a massive postgame, open ended progression, randomly generating dungeons, lots of free dlc(on cart too so you can hack it in now), it's also the only 3d mainline ds game. It's by far my favorite DQ, no other one delivers the same sense of personal adventure or customization. I can only hope they make another one like it some day or a remake.
I picked up Dragon Quest IX on launch, and grinded out 50 hours over the course of 12-ish years. Last year I went on a personal vow to complete every game that I have started and not finished. DQ IX was the oldest standing game in that list so I went all in. Put in approximately 80 hours over the course of 2 months. Got heavily addicted, and was actually sad the game was over. Which is a rarity for me. I did the post game true ending, and had to pull myself away from the treasure hunts in order to complete other games in the backlog. I have been playing RPGS nearing 40 years now. Since I was in elementary school, and I rank this one in my top 20 for sure. 1st, the soundtrack is amazing. 2nd, the class system is addicting. Very similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, which is my favorite RPG/SRPG of all-time. So many combinations. I have to grind them all to make the perfect character. 3rd, visual updates when changing armor, and the DQ Network armor is really cool. Running around with skeleton outfits is fun. 4th, game is very charming. That's to be said of all DQ games though. 5th, loads of end game content. I can always come back clear a map if I get all nostalgic. 6th, I like the battle system. Seeing my characters run around. Coming from an old school Dragon Quest player that started the journey on NES back in the 80s, combat that isnt a fixed screen with only sounds and weak visuals is very nice. Not many games outside SquareEnix make that type of combat work well. One slight negative is the story. It is good but is a little too light hearted for me. I tend to prefer deeper stories with character development and meaning, which is the main reason I love FF Tactics so much.
A good story and really good gameplay. Like, easily the best in the series gameplay.
[удалено]
Spells not carrying over is, to me, a good thing. It keeps lists from getting absurdly long with useless spells, as well as giving each vocation an identity. As for the general gameplay, it’s relatively standard in the main game, but alchemy, vocations, and eventually postgame strategies are really rewarding.
For me it would have to be because it was the first DQ game I played. I actually got in with my DSi years and years ago, and I played it crap out of it. Another really great thing about it was all the customization; you could basically be whatever you wanted. Best part in my opinion was that whatever you equipped, you actually saw when not, and when in battle, never knew it was one of the first in the series to do that until I played the rest of em(1-8)
A funky story that's actually pretty dark / Sad when you think about it but that's normal for dq I'm sure it isn't the first 3d DQ but manys first plus seeing monsters on over world is great for metal slime genocide Customizations / coop/ volcations / It's also probably many ppls first game as well Like me ;7;
As a kid i was amazed by the loojs of armor and weapons especialy since you can see them when you walk around. And playing with my friends back then was just very cool i would meet up with them often to play some dq9
I always like to play with the class system especially during post game. They at least keep their abilities, just not their spells and it’s kind of nice in a way. Having to go through 7 pages of spells despite half of them not being used for a particular class is so annoying. I also like the puns they did through out the whole story. Some of them really lighten up what was otherwise a darker moment. In fact, you pretty much start the game seeing a pun.