Information about the game is finally starting to pour in, and every time an update comes, I'm never quite sure where to post it. Because of that, I've decided that it's probably a good idea to start a news and information thread so that I can keep everything together. Some stuff will be a little sparse for a little bit while I continue getting everything together. I'll also be able to add more screenshots demonstrating certain things that I mention here as soon as the news sites update with the stuff from this week's magazines.
The game is supposed to be playable at Jump Festa next month, so we'll hopefully know even more by then.
Story
Unfortunately, we don't know anything about this yet. I hope that we will once Jump Festa comes around.
Character creation and customization
The big theme of DQ9's info push right now is the fact that the hero is you. To that end, you can create and customize your hero to suit your style. Everything from gender, to hairstyle, to height, right down to facial features can be customized during character creation. Party members can also be either recruited from a list of premade characters, or created just like your hero.
For further customization, all of the equipment across 8 different equipment slots (that's 3 more than past DQ games) is visible on the character. The equipment slots are main hand, shield, head, upper body, lower body, hands, feet, and accessory.
The game also changes the classic DQ stats around a bit. Now, the stats are strength, agility, resilience, dexterity, charm, healing magic, attack magic, max HP, max MP, attack power, defense, and fashion/style. (Mostly) useless stats like intelligence and luck appear to be gone.
Class system
Similar to DQs 3, 6 and 7, DQ9 has a class system. Classes can be chosen at the time of character creation, and then changed by visiting Dharma Temple. So far, this should be familiar to anybody who has played DQ3. DQ9 takes the class system in a direction that's different from DQ3/6/7, though. Now, individual class progression is done through a skill point system, not unlike the one found in Dragon Quest 8. As you level up your class, you gain skill points to spend in various skills just like in DQ8.
The classes revealed so far are warrior, priest, mage, beastmaster, martial artist and thief.
So far, we know that the warrior has the following skills available to put points into: sword, spear, dagger, shield and courage.
They've also mentioned special skills learned by putting points into four of the classes' special skills. Warrior - courage: bodyblow. Priest - faith: saint's blessing. Mage - magic: evil barrier. Martial artist - spirit: psyche up -- works just like the command in DQ8.
Battle system
The game is turn-based and no longer an action RPG. It appears that enemies appear on the field, meaning that there are no random battles. The battles appear to be standard Dragon Quest fare, with characters visible as in DQ8. The twist this time is that it appears that characters can move around the battlefield, kind of like Grandia or FFX-2 or something along those lines.
Cooperative play
As far as I know, local wireless co-op is still in the game, but we don't really know how it'll work just yet.
That's about all we know right now.
If anybody sees anything I haven't added here, let me know and I'll cover it. I've only included stuff we have concrete info about, though, so I've left out Luida/Rikka/Roxanne and the inn options, among other things.
The game is supposed to be playable at Jump Festa next month, so we'll hopefully know even more by then.
Story
Unfortunately, we don't know anything about this yet. I hope that we will once Jump Festa comes around.
Character creation and customization
The big theme of DQ9's info push right now is the fact that the hero is you. To that end, you can create and customize your hero to suit your style. Everything from gender, to hairstyle, to height, right down to facial features can be customized during character creation. Party members can also be either recruited from a list of premade characters, or created just like your hero.
For further customization, all of the equipment across 8 different equipment slots (that's 3 more than past DQ games) is visible on the character. The equipment slots are main hand, shield, head, upper body, lower body, hands, feet, and accessory.
The game also changes the classic DQ stats around a bit. Now, the stats are strength, agility, resilience, dexterity, charm, healing magic, attack magic, max HP, max MP, attack power, defense, and fashion/style. (Mostly) useless stats like intelligence and luck appear to be gone.
Class system
Similar to DQs 3, 6 and 7, DQ9 has a class system. Classes can be chosen at the time of character creation, and then changed by visiting Dharma Temple. So far, this should be familiar to anybody who has played DQ3. DQ9 takes the class system in a direction that's different from DQ3/6/7, though. Now, individual class progression is done through a skill point system, not unlike the one found in Dragon Quest 8. As you level up your class, you gain skill points to spend in various skills just like in DQ8.
The classes revealed so far are warrior, priest, mage, beastmaster, martial artist and thief.
So far, we know that the warrior has the following skills available to put points into: sword, spear, dagger, shield and courage.
They've also mentioned special skills learned by putting points into four of the classes' special skills. Warrior - courage: bodyblow. Priest - faith: saint's blessing. Mage - magic: evil barrier. Martial artist - spirit: psyche up -- works just like the command in DQ8.
Battle system
The game is turn-based and no longer an action RPG. It appears that enemies appear on the field, meaning that there are no random battles. The battles appear to be standard Dragon Quest fare, with characters visible as in DQ8. The twist this time is that it appears that characters can move around the battlefield, kind of like Grandia or FFX-2 or something along those lines.
Cooperative play
As far as I know, local wireless co-op is still in the game, but we don't really know how it'll work just yet.
That's about all we know right now.
If anybody sees anything I haven't added here, let me know and I'll cover it. I've only included stuff we have concrete info about, though, so I've left out Luida/Rikka/Roxanne and the inn options, among other things.
