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Dragon Quest 9 Official Japanese Thread - USE SPOILER TAGS (or we Kafrizzle yo ass)

B

bluemax

Banned
Aeana said:
I've played a lot more, and things are rolling along pretty quickly. I've gotten the alchemy pot, and now I'm getting recipes like crazy. I hope sorting through the abundance of recipes doesn't cause a problem. :eek: Also, I love how staves return MP if you physically attack with them, and there's an MP regeneration stat along with that to control how much MP you get back. With the combo system, and the MP return system, it seems like they tried to make physical attacks even more attractive. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that, but I definitely like getting MP back from attacking.

Unfortunately, I haven't spent a single skill point on my magician... I just can't decide what I want to do with her. I should really make a decision soon!

Storywise, I've done some events in the town of Beckseria.
The atmosphere of the town reminds me soo much of Attemuto/Mamon from DQ4. It's really cool, and the music that plays there is reminiscent of DQ5.
Click to expand...

How are you getting recipes? Just by throwing random things in? I haven't been playing around with the pot at all.

Edit: Oh wait probably from the bookshelves?
 
A

Aeana

Member
bluemax said:
How are you getting recipes? Just by throwing random things in? I haven't been playing around with the pot at all.
Click to expand...
One of the quests
scholar guy in Saint Stein square
gave a few, and the rest have come from reading books.
 
S

speedpop

Has problems recognising girls
Johnas said:
I was hoping the soundtrack would be mostly fresh, not that I have a problem with any old DQ music.
Click to expand...
I'm more excited about the feel that I will get from the music. Each iteration in the series has enough differences in the music to really tell a story of its own so its very easy to define which music comes from the numbered game. For example, when I listen to DQ5's music I can hear the romanticism throughout a lot of the tracks.. whereas in DQ4 it has a more proud and bold approach, yet it contains some very tragic music as well.

Should be interesting to see what approach he's done for this one.
 
A

Aeana

Member
wrowa said:
Still only three enemies? It's hard to imagine a DQ with such a low number of monsters :|
Click to expand...
I've encountered 4 a number of times now. We're making progress! I hope to see 5 soon!
 
J

Johnas

Member
Aeana said:
I've encountered 4 a number of times now. We're making progress! I hope to see 5 soon!
Click to expand...

Aeana, if you don't mind, I think you might have missed my question above about the dungeons. I know you haven't played very far yet though.

speedpop said:
I'm more excited about the feel that I will get from the music. Each iteration in the series has enough differences in the music to really tell a story of its own so its very easy to define which music comes from the numbered game. For example, when I listen to DQ5's music I can hear the romanticism throughout a lot of the tracks.. whereas in DQ4 it has a more proud and bold approach, yet it contains some very tragic music as well.

Should be interesting to see what approach he's done for this one.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree there. The songs in DQ games are always a great match for their respective areas. I also tend to categorize each DQ by music in my head.
 
B

bluemax

Banned
Aeana said:
I've encountered 4 a number of times now. We're making progress! I hope to see 5 soon!
Click to expand...

Really? Hmm. I've dumped whips on my mage for now, I've got her with a dagger and I'll hold on to a staff for boss fights.

I've been putting her skill points in staff and her class specific skill.
 
A

Aeana

Member
Johnas said:
Aeana, if you don't mind, I think you might have missed my question above about the dungeons. I know you haven't played very far yet though.
Click to expand...
The dungeons are, to me, much better than 8. As I noted in my initial impressions post, the perspective makes the game feel like a median between the old overhead games and DQ8, since the camera is down a little bit further. Dungeon design itself, though, is more reminiscent of 5-7, with Level-5's little graphical touches that go a really long way. I prefer that to 8's huge, but very empty dungeons, personally.
 
J

Johnas

Member
Aeana said:
The dungeons are, to me, much better than 8. As I noted in my initial impressions post, the perspective makes the game feel like a median between the old overhead games and DQ8, since the camera is down a little bit further. Dungeon design itself, though, is more reminiscent of 5-7, with Level-5's little graphical touches that go a really long way. I prefer that to 8's huge, but very empty dungeons, personally.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Sounds good to me! I like what you have to say about the perspective also, that seems like a good balance.
 
B

BudokaiMR2

Member
I got this yesterday and played quite a bit of it. Really fun so far and the presentation is really top notch. I made my party with Main + mage + Thief + Monk

We will see how long that lasts. Heh
 
R

RevenantKioku

PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS oh god i am drowning in them
Main/11 + Warrior/9 + Thief/9 + Priest/9 at the moment. I really like how the staff you can buy can be used to cast Mera (or at least it acts like that) so my Priest is doing decent enough damage. That MP regen is sweet as well. Going Swords/Spears/Claws/Staves on the weapon skills put mostly putting skills into the unique class skill. Barefisted looks nice but I really hate going weaponless, especially after playing my FFV challenge barefisted mostly. I wonder how changing classes and weapon skills will work.

Monsters on the map isn't as lame as I expected but it is still fairly lame. Still, what with this basically being DQ3 meets DQ8 it is pretty goddamned awesome so far. Just trying to hunt down the
Black Knight
at the moment.

For those worried about the Japanese, the game has furigana. Which is so awesome because it makes reading it so much smoother, assuming you have hiragana down. Looking up words takes very little time for me and this is probably one of the first Japanese games I'm really understanding the dialogue too. (Although that may have been a long time coming thing considering how long I've been working towards it.)
 
B

bluemax

Banned
I wish I hadn't sold all my old gear so I could use it in the alchemy pot!

Bleh I think I'll just hold on to new stuff for now. I made a couple of nice helmets so far!
 
S

sprsk

force push the doodoo rock
bluemax said:
I wish I hadn't sold all my old gear so I could use it in the alchemy pot!

Bleh I think I'll just hold on to new stuff for now. I made a couple of nice helmets so far!
Click to expand...


Arg, hearing this makes me sad, I've been selling old stuff up so I could gear my party.
 
R

RevenantKioku

PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS oh god i am drowning in them
Indeed. Keeping shit from now on, it seems.

And not being able to take the alchemy pot with you must be the trade off for instant combinations, eh? Oh well, that's ultimately better and it isn't as if getting around in DQ games is ever difficult.
 
S

sprsk

force push the doodoo rock
RevenantKioku said:
Indeed. Keeping shit from now on, it seems.

And not being able to take the alchemy pot with you must be the trade off for instant combinations, eh? Oh well, that's ultimately better and it isn't as if getting around in DQ games is ever difficult.
Click to expand...

It's especially easy now, too.
 
C

chicken_ramen

Member
ITA84 said:
Oh, so that's how you pronounce Aeana.
Click to expand...

Haha, I was thinking the same thing.

Mine copy is still on it's way. Game looks so awesome though. I've kept myself in the dark on purpose, but the temptation is getting stronger.
 
B

bluemax

Banned
You get a
teleport spell that costs 0 MP shortly after the third dungeon
.

Female leg armor in this game is scandalous. So far I've had equipped, bikini bottoms, a pink mini skirt and now bikini bottoms with knee high socks. My female characters look like 1980s sluts with long sleeve white shirts and bikini bottoms with knee high socks, not heroes.
 
R

RevenantKioku

PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS oh god i am drowning in them
I'm sure Toriyama continuously petitions for titty scenes in DQ games.

So, first time a character died in battle. If you die and stay dead in battle you get XP at the end but if you start the battle dead and end dead you do not. Interesting.
 
DCharlie

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
Wow. I am amazed how much fan service Sugiyama has given to the music. Simply amazing. And I am only like 2 hours into the game.
Click to expand...

they mentioned at the launch that the hardest part of developing for the DS was the music.

... or eating ice cream.

i can't remember.
 
M

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Aeana said:
Well, I can add what quests I've done so far.

#001
Malon wants some spotted spider silk (まだらくもいと), which you can get at the web-covered pit northeast of town.
#002
Amaris wants to see a victory pose, so stand next to her and hold down B and press up (which should say ガッツポーズ).
#003
Amaris now wants to see you perform four gestures in a row, so go into your menu, select さくせん and then しぐさ　とうろく and go down to the down arrow part, where there are four boxes. From top to bottom, add these gestures: まわる, はくしゅ, ジャンプ, and ガッツポーズ. Then exit out and stand next to her, hold B and press down. You should do all four in a row and complete the quest.

#005
Burton, a knight at Saint Stein castle, has a friend who is ailing somehow (I forget exactly what he had), and wants to make a medicine. What he actually wants are an herb (やくそう), antidote (どくけしそう), and full moon herb (まんげつそう), so talk to him again when you have those items to complete the quest.
#006 Still trying to figure out where to get the item I need for this one. :\
#007
Manny is trying to slide through a crack in the wall, but is having trouble, so he wants some lubricant. He asks for some slime jelly (スライムゼリー), which drops from slimes.
#008
Old man Irohan wants some magic holywater (まほうのせいすい). I honestly forget if a store sells this, or what, but I had one when I got to him.
Click to expand...
THANK YOU! if you can be arsed to, could you make note of the new ones you find?

and i just got the game today, luckily on my off-day so i'm a good bit in now, and here's what i think:

- you have to play this one with headphones, the music is really amazing. and the dungeon theme is so wonderful and forboding, really deep and resonant, that organ synth sound is too great.

- the world is really beautiful, and the character animations are fluid and remind me of a cell shaded ffivds. i just think it's weird that most of the npc's look like they were ripped straight out of DQVds as flat sprites....but it's completely forgivable because the world is so well realized.

- i don't know about the whole sandy thing. her music is terrible, and she seems so...generic. maybe if i could read what she was saying, there'd be more to her.

- i can't believe how easy it is for a dude with really basic katakana knowledge to make it through as far as i have on my own...the only place where my katakana skills fail me is in bossfights, where i can't tell my spells apart sometimes. but i've just passed the third dungeon's boss and i didn't have to strain too hard.

- the overworld is fantastic....but i was expecting more reward for exploration, like dqviii. i run to the faraway corners to be rewarded with absolutely nothing. no cool reward, makes the map feel kind of empty when you think about it.

sorry for the keyboard diarrhea, but i'm coming off a huge playthrough and wanted to talk about this wonderful experience. and if it doesn't sound wonderful from what i said, don't worry, IT IS.
 
R

RevenantKioku

PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS oh god i am drowning in them
Ugh, priests level up so slowly.
And I just fought a メーダ. Have we even seen one of those since DQ1?
Dungeons are much more exciting than the overworld because enemies pop out of seemingly nowhere to get into battles with you. Not as good as random battles, but it does improve the formula a bit.
Shotaro finally dinged to 11 so here's a photo of everyone. MC is of course ahead.
Lv11.png
 
J

john tv

Member
Some of you guys are fast! I'm 10 hours in but I'm only at
Beckseria
. I always take my sweet time with DQ games tho, and I'm really enjoying this so far. The story of
the Black Knight
was classic Horii -- loved the way that all came together. I definitely agree on the musical fanservice too -- the main town theme sounds a lot like the DQ1 town theme (soon as I heard it I thought of Brecconary), and there's been lots of other touches that "feel" like previous music too (including
the town I just got to -- as Aeana said, it sounds like DQ5
).

I was never a fan of the skill point system in DQ8, and I'm having a little difficulty with it here, too. I always have trouble deciding what to give to who. I'm using them as I get them, but I really dunno if I'm making wise decisions or not...
 
M

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
john tv said:
I was never a fan of the skill point system in DQ8, and I'm having a little difficulty with it here, too. I always have trouble deciding what to give to who.
Click to expand...
can you imagine not knowing what any of it means? i hope there's a translation of that stuff quick, cause i'm shooting in the dark with that stuff. i'm just loading up my skills on the first option at the moment.

and if i have one big complaint about the game right now, it's the slowdown that having more than 2 party members brings. when it's just me, smooth. but when i add a couple of adventurers, the framerate bogs like crazy. whatever.
 
B

bluemax

Banned
mattiewheels said:
can you imagine not knowing what any of it means? i hope there's a translation of that stuff quick, cause i'm shooting in the dark with that stuff. i'm just loading up my skills on the first option at the moment.

and if i have one big complaint about the game right now, it's the slowdown that having more than 2 party members brings. when it's just me, smooth. but when i add a couple of adventurers, the framerate bogs like crazy. whatever.
Click to expand...

Stolen from another board:

Complete skill sets:

Sword skills:
4p - Dragon Slash (normally does 1.5x more damage to dragon type monsters)
9p- Attack Power + 10
13p - Metal Slash (Almost guaranteed 1 HP damage to Metal monsters)
22p - Satisfaction Rate Up (Raises chance of hit)
35p - Miracle Sword
42p - Attack Power +20
58p - Falcon Slash
76p - Attack Power +30
88p - Giga Slash
100p - Equip All Job's Swords

Whip skill:
3p - Spiral strike
7p - Whip of Love
13p - Attack Power +10
22p - Binding strike
35p - Attack Power+20
42p - Sleeping strike
58p - Attack Power+30
76p - Heal Whip
88p - Souryuu Strike [Double Dragon Strike] (Randomly strikes twice)
100 - Equip All Job's Whips

Fan Skill
3p - Flower Blizzard (confuses a group of enemies)
7p - Attack Power+10
13p - Breath Reversal (I believe this reverses fire and ice attacks)
22p - Satisfaction Percentage Up (Increases chance to hit)
35p - Ripple Dance (Does Great Damage to Water-Type Monsters)
42p - Attack Power+20
58p - Fuushi Kaden (your guess is as good as mine!)
76p - Attack Power+30
88p - Fold Fan Dance (Attacks Selected Enemy multiple times)
100p - Equip all job's fans

Shield Skill
6p - Shield Attack
12p - Shield Guard Rate +2%
18p - Great Protection
25p - Shield Guard Rate +2%
32p - Big Shield
40p - Mirror Shield
52p - Shield Guard Rate +2%
66p - Shield of protection
82p - Evasion Stance
100p - Equip all job's shields

Acrobatics
4p - Fire Breath Technique
10p - Evasion percentage up when near death
16p - One Liner
22p - Usual Attraction +30
32p - Quip
42p - Usual Attack Power +30
55p - Tap Dance
68p - Usual Recovery Magic Power +30
82p - Killer Juggling
100 - Usual Skillfulness +50

Dagger Skill
3pt - Poison Dagger
7pt - Attack Power+10
13pt - Killer Boom (Great Damage to Bug Type Enemies)
22pt - CRITICAL Rate Up+10
35pt - Thanatos Hunt (Great damage to Poisoned or Paralyzed monters)
42pt - Attack Power+20
58pt - Assassin Attack (Possible Instant Death on single enemy)
76pt - Attack Power+30
88pt - Vampire Edge (Suck HP from 1 Enemy)
100pt - Equip All Job's Daggers

Spear Skill
3pt - Hurricane Thrust
7pt - Attack Power+10
13pt - Beast Thrust (Damages Metal Monsters)
22pt - Vital Spot Thrust
35pt - Critical Percentage Up (Chance to hit up when spear equipped)
42pt - Attack Power+20
58pt - Flash Thrust (High Chance of missing, if connects Critical hit!)
76pt - Attack Power+30
88pt - Disturbing Thrust
100pt - Can Equip All Job's Spears

Heroic Skill
8pt - Protect
16pt - Usual Power +10常時ちから+10
28pt - Whistle (Summons Weak Monsters (on map) will focus enemy attack on you (in battle) )
40pt - Usual Body Defense+20
48pt - Suicide Attack
56pt - Usual Strength+30
70pt - Lost Attack (Lowers Enemy Tension)
80pt - Usual Body Protection+40
90pt - Usual Max HP+60
100pt - Sword Smash (Greatly Reduces 1 Enemy's Offense)

Cane Skill
3pt - Attack Power+10
7pt - Foot Sweep
13pt - CRITICAL Rate Up
22pt - Send to Hell (Great Damage to Zombie Type Monsters)
35pt - Attack Power+20
42pt - Mow Down (Knocks down a group of enemies)
58pt - Evasion Rate +4%
76pt - Freezing Volley
88pt - Attack Power+30
100pt - Equip All Job's Canes

Staff/Rod Skill
3pt - Max MP+10
7pt - Mafuuji Staff [Literally means: Staff with an Evil Wind kanji] (Seals a group of enemies)
13pt - MP Absorption +2%
21pt - Demon Sweep (High probability of paralyzing demon type monsters)
31pt - Max MP+30
44pt- Staff of Blessing (Restores a significant amount of HP to 1 character)
57pt - MP Absorption +4%
70pt - Max MP+60
84pt - MP Automatic Recovery (MP healed as you walk!)
100pt - Equip All Job's Staff/Rods

Fighting Spirit Skill:
8pt - Divine Message of God (Find out how many XP to the next level without going to church)
16pt - Usual Recovery Magic Power+20
28pt - Exorcism (Removes Curse)
40pt - Usual Max MP+10
48pt - Zombie Guard (Protects against zombie type monsters)
56pt - Usual Healing Magic Power+60
70pt - Protection of the Saint (Avoid Instant Death)
80pt - Usual Max MP+20
90pt - Holy Prayer (Improves your Healing Power)
100pt - Usual Recovery Magic Power+100

That's most of the basic skills.
 
B

bluemax

Banned
Also ghetto spell translations courtesy of me ripping them from Red Scarlet's DQ8 guide:

hero spells
Hoimi - heal
hyado - ice bolt
bagi - infernus 1 group
hyadaruko - snowblast ice 1 group

Priest Spells
Hoimi - heal
kiarii - antidote
rariho - sleep
sukara - defense up
zameha - ???
baaha - ???
behoimi - healmore

Mage Spells
mera - blaze
biorima - ???
hyado - ice bolt
rukani - sap
io - bang (all enemies)
hyadaruko - snowblast 1 group
 
Shouta

Shouta

Member
Played the crap out of this today and ran out of my battery on my DS while coming down here to Tokyo. :lol

All my characters are level 18 at the moment.

The game is good so far. I'm digging the stuff that's occurred and combat is starting to get harder. I really like some of the stuff they added to combat as hell. Seeing a 650 damage spear attack because of bonuses = so awesome.
 
A

Aeana

Member
Icehouse said:
So are the characters you create blended into the story or are they just generics like in DQIII? How is the story presented?
Click to expand...
The story is presented very much like DQ8, just without extra characters. Story scenes only involve your main character and Sandy, the fairy.
 
J

john tv

Member
Icehouse said:
That fairy better be one awesome character seeing as how DQ main characters don't talk.

So there's little character interaction at all? What about party talk?
Click to expand...
No party talk. The fairy is hilarious, in Japanese at least. She sounds like a ギャル straight out of Shibuya. It'll be interesting to see how she gets localized.

There's plenty of interaction with NPCs and the like. It really doesn't feel any different from past DQs to be honest. I haven't really liked many main party characters since DQ6 anyway, so to me, this is preferable.
 
A

Aeana

Member
Icehouse said:
That fairy better be one awesome character seeing as how DQ main characters don't talk.

So there's little character interaction at all? What about party talk?
Click to expand...
There's no party talk. Your created characters have no lines. To replace that, they made a 'the story so far' sort of thing that summarizes the last few events and points you in the right direction, which you can access by pressing Y anywhere.

I thought I'd miss having other characters talk, but.. you know, I'm not really. 8 was the only one to involve other characters heavily in story scenes, anyway. In other ones, they might say something every once in a while, but most of the time, they weren't really participating. That's especially true of 7.
 
A

Aeana

Member
Icehouse said:
So it's just one of those things where you think it'll make a big impact but it really doesn't? Sounds good to me.

So far, how do you feel the quests are being implemented? Are they how Duckroll feared? As in, padding for the main story? "Go get 100 sticks to continue the story" type of thing?
Click to expand...
The quests aren't really related to the main story so far. You don't have to do any of them to continue the game. They have been mostly pretty silly fetch questy kind of things so far, and the rewards have ranged from crappy to decent (things like stat seeds). I'll keep doing them, though, in hopes that I come across some of the storied quest lines that were mentioned in one of Horii's interviews.
 
D

duckroll

Member
There's really no padding in DQIX. The game structure isn't what I feared at all thankfully. The quests are just stuff people in towns might ask you to do, and you can either accept or reject them. They're pretty generic stuff like you expect optional quests to be though. Maybe they get more interesting later on, but so far they're just small requests and stuff. Now that I think about it, it's not entirely different from stuff which have always been in DQ games, it's just that they're "officially" numbered and listed in a quest log now.

Edit: The language barrier is pretty low, like most DQ games. Unfortunately because of the DQ resolution, the furigana is almost unreadable most of the time even though it's there.
 
G

Gruco

Banned
This thread is going to be taunting me for the next year and a half, won´t it?

God, this is going to be excruciating.
 
L

Ledsen

Member
Cheesemeister said:
Yeah, I'm in Tokyo. I've yet to meet most of J-GAF. Thus far, it's just been Vinnk, sp0rsk, and john tv.

Maybe a J-GAF meetup is in order.
Click to expand...

I'm in, as long as Tokyo newbies with no real japanese skill (yet) are welcome :)
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
CANLI said:
I saw in a french website that the first day sales may have surpassed the 3 millions.

To be confirmed..
Click to expand...

and how would that french site know?

edwardslane said:
Any word on first day sales?
Click to expand...

We won't be getting them. We get first day sales for games that are released on Thursday. We get those on Friday. The sales week runs Monday-Sunday. DQ was released on Saturday.

So on Wednesday or possibly Tuesday depending on if the numbers get leaked, we'll get "first week" numbers which will be the first two days of DQ sales.
 
Shouta

Shouta

Member
I do kind of miss having party members that talk myself. It was really nice having them interact a lot more often in DQ8. They've been writing back stories for the characters and featuring them since 4 so having them actually participate in the story, whether it's actually a vital role or just talking about the situation is nice. So DQ9 is a bit disappointing in that regard. The NPCs have been fairly good though but Sandy kills me.
 
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