Dragon Quest 9

[SaiKar]

So I DID get this like I said I would, and I've been playing it off and on over the past few weeks for little bits after work, which kind of feels like how my life runs these days.

Anyway, it's an incredibly charming game. You can tell a huge amount of effort went into making all the characters and the locations and the dialog and the quests and the scenarios and the enemies seem fun and worthwhile. I mean, come on, that priest in the cave ALONE had more character than some games.

I also liked how you could customize the appearances and gears and jobs of everyone in the party, and how the other three characters you pickup are totally optional and were never even mentioned in the storyline (other than at one point when I was solo and a guy suggested I go grab my buds cuz it's gunna get rough), and how the main character was actually someone powerful rather than just being some shlub from nowhere that was destined for greatness.

Plot starts out really, really engaging. Without going into it, you're put in a fairly refreshing position in the grand good vs. evil storyline, and it felt like the stuff I was doing during the game was actually important. At least, early on. It did have a tendency to degenerate into "okay, new town and new random problem. Have fun fixing it" mode often, but just when I was wondering if it was going to stay like that forever they'd pull me back to the main, strong storyline for an update.

Battle system is simplistic yet entertaining. The game doesn't screw around giving you full heals before boss battles, so conserving MP and resources during a dungeon is really important. Boss battles tend to vary widely in difficulty, with some being skin-of-my-teeth wins. But luckily even characters dead get exp based on how much of the battle they were alive for, so if someone gets offed in the last round of combat, they'll get almost full exp and, if they would have leveled up, be at 0 exp to level up (so win any fight) when they're brought back to life. That's a feature that EVERY GAME EVERYWHERE should have. There's a lot of little polishes like that here and there but none come readily to mind.

There's a couple gripes I have with the game. I'm trying to make some more complicated alchemy recipes and it seems vital ingredients recharge in real time, so I basically have to shut the game off for a day or so if I want to finish my alchemy before moving on. And it seems that a lot of the job choices are rather throwaway - I wish I had made at least a priest at some point and my mage and thief aren't stacking up all that well as I get farther in the game. And it seemed easy to waste skill points spreading them too thin, but luckily for me I wised up and started work maxing out traits early instead of mucking around trying a bunch of weak stuff.

Still, the good far outweighs the bad, and coming from super-critical me, I think that says something. If you have a DS, and like RPGs, you owe it to yourself to pick this one up.

[X_marks_the_ed]

The whole moving coffin thing when a party member dies is win.

[oooog]

I am still playing this game every now and then.  Mostly to just do a QVC or a grotto run every now and then.  I have to find that fat bastard Atlas in a grotto and not only steal from him, but kill him with Zam.  Only problem is that he is not appearing in any of the grottos, and I am getting tired of fighting Shogum.
Oomph, Magic Mirror, Care Prayer, Psych Up
Egg On, Forbearance, Multiheal, Psych Up
Egg On, Forbearance, Moreheal, Falcon Slash
Shogum dies.

3 turns.  Uber Falcon Blade and Falcon Slash is a viscous combination, especially when it's at max tension and oomph'd.  If you were wondering, the format was Armamentalist, Paladin, Sage, Gladiator, and I do believe that is a balanced team.

But I digress.  I think the game has sort of fizzled for me, which is alright what with the imminent release of games I must play.