Introduction:
Very little could be said about the Dragon Quest video game fans in
general and in particular the role do not already know. The overall feel
is that the legendary series of worship in Japan, Dragon Quest,
appearing on Nintendo consoles, especially those designed for home as
they were NES and Super Nintendo. The most anticipated delivery of the
Dragon Quest series, exclusively for users of the portable Nintendo Dual
Screen has finally now landed on the Nintendo DS Consoles, and its a
multiplayer.
The old dream long cherished by the conductor of the series, Yuji Horii,
is now a reality for owners of SD. After four long years of development
punctuated delays, a constant, these are innumerable questions that
will finally find some answers. How such a monolithic RPG Japanese would
he make the transition to multi without sacrificing its balance of play
(speed, difficulty), while reaching the widest audience possible, the
fundamentalist requiring his speech ten lines before safeguard, the
casual player unfamiliar with this kind of tradition.
The introduction of the adventure that makes us the first animation
sequence gives us honey in the mouth with excellent artwork charge of
the famous Akira Toriyama. That yes, we must recognize that everything
this man touches turns into something very much like Dragon Ball, which
Midas Japanese manga. Seeing the introduction of the game, we seem to
see a piece of an episode of the adventures of Son Goku and company, but
it is the teacher’s style Toriyama, no doubt. In addition, all images
are accompanied by the triumphant fanfare of the series, the well-known
issue of Dragon Quest, Koichi Sugiyama work of the master. Everything
indicates that we are faced with a work with stale aftertaste. Moreover,
the name of the great saga that adorns the title leads us to expect
another great Japanese classic adventure game …
About
the Game:
Earlier than setting off on their adventure, gamers can make their own
heroes, deciding how they would like their countenance, hair and
garments to appear. As the story open ups, gamers turns into stronger,
smarter and more commanding, and can modify companions who link their
group. Players get pleasure discovering around 1,000 pieces of clothing,
body armor, weapons and other items that gives them with a sole
appearance and special abilities. You can also modify the class of their
character at any time, selecting from a variety of vocations that
affects their capability and strengths in the game.
In DRAGON QUEST IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, players start their
adventure as a city guardian who is assigned to get back a sacred tree’s
fruits, which have the power to award wishes. Players travel the world,
overcome fearsome monsters and untie an epic storyline. During their
journey, you can encounter mighty opponents in fast-paced battles, and
also interact with a colorful cast of characters.
DRAGON QUEST IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies contains special modes
that let players share their adventure with others, allowing up to four
players to team up via a local wireless connection and experience the
fun of tackling challenging monsters and dungeons cooperatively with
their own characters. Players can even leave the game active in their
backpacks, pockets or purses and still interact with other players via
an interactive "Tag Mode." Information about players’ characters can be
wirelessly transmitted to others, and treasure maps and customized
greetings can be exchanged automatically by players who come within
range of one another when their games are set to Tag Mode.
Players looking to enjoy a variety of different game activities can take
on special side quests. Some of these quests will be earned by
progressing through the game, while additional quests will be made
available for free download for players with broadband Internet access
after the game launches, providing hours of additional content for
virtual adventurers to enjoy either on their own or with friends. Some
downloadable quests will continue the main storyline of the game, while
others offer standalone missions.
Gameplay:
Like any good RPG multiplayer, Dragon Quest IX begins with the creation
of a small avatar, a phase that it is better not to ignore pain of too
quickly regretted the absence of many backup slots. The choices are
unfortunately very limited in terms of facies – mostly hideous – or hair
color, men and women. But the fear guide the same hero that the
neighbor disappears fairly quickly, since the equipment, apparently,
differs according to the occupancy of your character. Immediately born,
your character will be transported to the realm of angels in charge of
overseeing the world of humans without their knowledge. By collecting
star auras emanating from the inhabitants, the Angels hope to see the
fruit of the Goddess one day push on the World Tree, a rare sesame that
will lead the country to God. Stationed in a small village, guided by
your mentor Aquila, you will also work for the welfare of villagers and
surrounding areas.
Who knows what will happen when, finally, open the gate leading to
Heaven … As often with Dragon Quest , and more with this one, the
growth takes place at the option of small independent quests with no
real link. This construction with the Dragon Quest VII is probably
explained by the presence of multiple, which would sit ill with a
scenario too referral. Except those times when little fairy Stella plays
the vases (a national scandal in Japan!), Fans gather all these simple
moments, this fine writing poignant and humanity, without frills, which
are the hallmark of series. The dark knight at the wrong time of the
young prince put to the test by a stepmother Machiavellian, Dragon Quest
IX is a partition always as effective, based on a French impeccable.
Fans will certainly enjoy the summaries accessible to Y, which can take
stock of the scenario.
For a title centered mainly around the cross, the establishment of
several parties is probably not as ergonomic as possible. It was hoped
the game online, but it will just play locally. We had a simple
interface to access, but it is imperative to get to the hostel from the
main city, Ablithia to start a session without forgetting to leave the
characters of his team in reserve to accommodate its guests. On the
other hand, the fate of teleportation is achieved very quickly, and it
is free, so the operation requires only a few minutes. More surprising,
but inevitable with an increase also of those Guided RPG Japanese, the
scenario will progress to the player host. The guests will be entitled
also to the cut-scenes , but once returned to the fold (the start is
possible at any time), they will repeat the same passage a second time
if they are late.
Of course, the pleasure of fighting alongside his peers is priceless,
especially against a boss , when the slightest error in the plan may
lead to the fiasco playing bad luck. Normally, each player is free to go
wherever he wants and if the search boxes in red are reserved for the
host, vagrants can browse peacefully in the blue treasures. The team may
even fight each of them aside if they move away a little too perfect
for organizing impromptu mini-raids. Finally, a command allows the host
to round up everyone in the same place or even fight if he crosses paths
with enemies too strong or too numerous. Really well thought out.
We have seen the excellent results of the fourth and fifth in the series
in the two reissues of the original games were made for the portable
Nintendo Dual Screen. We could expect something very similar, since the
spirit of the series has remained virtually unchanged since the creation
of it (back in the eighties) to the last installments of the main saga,
with the previous chapter one of the flagships of Japanese role in the
catalog of veteran PlayStation 2.
But from the start of the game find significant differences with the
preceding chapters of the saga. The first of these is the possibility of
creating us our own character at the beginning of the adventure, in
contrast to previous releases, which came pre-defined characters, with
some historical background and a default character that would influence
the events within the game . Here, the character you create from scratch
in every way.
I must say that Dragon Quest IX can count on a 3D realization of beauty,
which pushes the DS to its limits. Besides, the game oar when it
displays more characters in the train of your hero, a default really
clenching when you return from the Heavenly Bride , imperial in terms of
fluidity. The limited rotation of the camera are equally amazing, even
if they allow some backdoor here or there. As for the tactile part, we
can not really say that kind of routine. Furthermore, since you have to
click twice each order in combat, it was soon clear up the stylus to
return to a more traditional gameplay. For the rest, it’s all good: the
character models as enemies signed Toriyama ( Dragon Ball ) is quite
remarkable (some zoom lenses do mention that the NPC did not all receive
the same care), and especially the game multiplies prowess in terms of
variety of environments and effects (see the rain falling on the island
of that name …).
Obviously, this installment also with some aspects of the interface,
which is often considered antiquated by the endless menus respect for
tradition, a bias really diehard … Fortunately, the menu is enough
visual equipment quickly to admire his avatar in all its glory. As often
with Dragon Quest , the most haunting melodies of Koichi Sugiyama will
remain etched in your memory for months, even after completing the
adventure and fro. Too bad the theme of fighting, of course, the most
common, is not one of the most successful in the history of the series.
In more general terms, Level-5 pushes the limits of the DS, with taste
and refinement that is wonderful and should be authoritative time in 3D
on the small machine to Nintendo .
There
was light …
We shall have no option to question the morality of acts of our
character, because, as we see the beginning of the adventure, we are
angels. Angels hidden from the eyes of mortals and angels, it seems,
because our first goal will be fighting against enemies who seek to
endanger the life of a humble villagers … The enemies that we
encountered in the early stages the game will be familiar to all who
have ever played any of the titles in the Dragon Quest franchise. Again,
for example, will be in attendance the friendly limos, more than a
headache gave us in previous installments of the saga. In fact, the
first enemy that we face a sort of sausages will be armed with a spear
and two limos, who did not give us too many problems, at least in
principle.
Fighting re-developed game strictly by rotation, but this time we will
have a new aesthetic: while in previous saw our enemies in first person,
unable to see our protagonist and his team rather than the data for the
profile each character in this new title the camera will move through
the field of battle as the action that we make with the characters
involved in battle. All the graphics of the game, no doubt, has received
a mime end, and fighting against the enemies have been, without doubt,
one of the parts of the game that have gained with the change.
Both fighting and narrative scenes have been developed and animated
graphics engine that maximizes the exponent the technical capabilities
of the console, at least as far as the handling of the cell-shading is
concerned. Not only is the modeling of characters and environments is of
high quality, but the colors and textures of the game surprised by its
beauty, at times seeming even hand-painted prints instead of digital
images and rendered for the occasion .
Interestingly, in moments of exploration and conversation with the
secondary characters of the adventure, we’ll see a strange combination
of the two and three dimensions, while the minor side characters are
represented by models in two dimensions, the main characters of
adventure follow the pattern of the animations of the game with
three-dimensional modeled again highlight the quality of cell-shading in
our console.
The
endless game:
Be sure to keep players clinging to their DS, Level-5 and Armor Project
pushed logic MMO as far as possible on such a platform. There is already
an array of stats and honors of every kind, for anyone who has made a
number of quests that struck a number of monsters. The alchemy pot of
Dragon Quest VIII is back for the fusion of objects in series, except
that now the player collects items that have only one interest: the
craft. We must therefore rely on some loot lucky or away in a corner of
the map to get their hands on material that will be used to build
another resource and so on. It is no coincidence that the revenue be
obtained in abundance while browsing in the library. Especially the side
quests that the game focuses, sometimes to the point of overdoing it.
The 120 quests are not necessarily all interesting, and some border on
the filling, especially when it comes to "kill (x) Monsters (y) attacks
moldy," or heaven and earth to return the craft. However, this will
still be the way to unlock classes, we have seen, but also techniques
ultimate or pure objects for his hero. It will often prove a certain
level in that class or that discipline to even start that quest, which
reserve, fortunately, new goals once the script completed. Moreover,
while providing a daily update for the shop Special Wi-Fi , with rare
items sold cheaper, the publisher plans to switch one to two new quests
every week, some of which are directly related to the scenario.
Square Enix also took into account the multi for the end game, with a
multitude of randomly generated dungeons on both sides of the map ,
which host of new enemies and bosses relatively strong for small
meetings with friends, for who would do a bit of XP without advancing
the storyline. And for those that would challenge the main mode
disappointed, know that the boss hidden glories of the old Dragon Quest
are among the most unforgiving as the series has ever seen. And for good
reason: to increase the chance of a loot more importantly, ensure that
the rare armor or just the card of another still more terrible monster,
the player will be forced to sacrifice experience points in the newly
acquired giving the boss just defeated for the face again later … and
until it reaches level 99. So of course it is true that one sometimes
feels trapped in a quest to fill the end everything on interest,
especially in a title without online mode. But the game is so addictive,
so lived and so much fun multiplayer, which is easily bear. Dragon
Quest IX is in the works refined to the smallest detail, and it shows.
Conclusion:
Resistant to change, willingly or unwillingly, the series Dragon Quest
finally shakes traditions without selling out his soul. Given the
magnitude of the task, and with so many faithful to please, we can speak
of success for this free Dragon Quest IX: The sentinels of the sky. One
imagines, however, without difficulty dilemmas that have been
undermining the development team, all the sacrifices incurred to ensure
that the concept takes the road without endangering its fragile
equilibrium, both in terms of the multi solo.
The fact that the characters believe in the game does not come with an
overly marked, and the fact that we can enjoy many customization options
as far as weapons and inventory concerns (which, of course, direct
impact on the skills and abilities of the character) is better
understood when we realize that the game is designed, above all, to be
enjoyed in multiplayer mode. Bizarrely, it was not thought to include an
online mode to play with users from around the world, but we can create
local items of up to four simultaneous players. Thus, when we play in
the individual mode of play, we draw on secondary characters handled by
the machine to keep us company on our adventures, while if we play with
other Nintendo DS users, they will become our troupes.
