Intro cinematic!Welcome friends, foes, felines and fogies! It is with the greatest of grandeur that I grant this fine gift. A playthrough of the most perfectly playable parade of puns, presented in a procession of painstakingly prepared pictures! I speak of the one, the only...
First released in Japan way the heck back in 2009 (2010 for the rest of the world), this is the ninth main-series installment in the long-running Dragon Quest/Warrior series. It was the first one released for a handheld system. It was also, for some hideous unknowable reason, the last main-line game to be released internationally. It is also rather fantastic.
DQ9 was something of an experiment in many ways. It was the first game to feature enemies wandering the map, as opposed to invisible random encounters. It was designed with multiplayer in mind using the DSi's Wi-Fi capabilities (though it was still perfectly serviceable as a single-player game, don't get me wrong). There were bonus dungeons accessible via Wi-fi. It featured hefty amounts of character customization: every party member, from the Main Character to their followers, can be extensively customized. Hair color, vocation, even clothing! Yes, in another first for the series your equipment choices are reflected in your character model! Basically, it was a fantastic game and deserves a Let's Play.
The series is most distinguishable for its character art, done primarily by Akira Toriyama. You might recognize the name from his other major, arguably most famous creations: Dragonball and Dragonball Z. It is also, at least in the English translations, chock-full of alliteration, puns, and general wordplay. If that sort of thing offends you, I suggest leaving now. It will only get
worse better as time goes by.
Lovely artwork on the main menu. I'm not playing on a DSi, and even if I were the servers have long gone defunct, so the second option is entirely useless. That's okay. What we really want to do is create a new adventure log.
Character creation! We will need a main dude or dudette to take through the whole story. We'll be able to make other dudes or dudettes later, but for now we're focused entirely on the Main Character. Let's walk through the various options real quick.
Height! The differences are in all honesty pretty slim. Ladies and gentlemen run at (exactly?) the same heights.
Hair style! Now we're getting somewhere! Lots of options, males and females get different choices.
Hair color! Gois and goils get the same options.
Faces! Lookit all the choices available!
Skin colors! You're not going to get any crazy alien skintones out of these, but there's a nice mix of shades.
Eye color! More noticeable with some faces than with others!
And finally, a name! This Vegeta-looking dude, as well as anyone else, can have 8 characters max in their name.
Once the main character is designed and named, the story can begin!
: "Um...begging your pardon, your Majesty, but aren't we getting a bit side-tracked here? Unless cursed weapons have something to do with hurting Mordo, anyway."
: "Nah, she got called away on some Gate business. She'll be back in a few days though, and I'll treat her to the best dinner this town has to offer."
"Circumstances change. They no longer trade. The captain helped me when I needed it, so I owe him a debt."
: "...the fact that you owe the captain a debt does not making speaking up against him the wrong thing to do. You know that, right? He was way out of line when he threatened the townspeople."
: "So...how much do you think all of that paper will be worth?"
