Hey folks, I'm afraid this first post won't be full of much info as I have barely gotten any play time in, but I'm a little surprised and greatly pleased at how awesome the game is in the first 10 minutes or so.
I don't really read up on a lot of games before they come out these days on purpose. I much prefer to have some sort of fun with games and feel knowing everything ruins that fun to an extent. So I was very surprised to find this game is basically a JRPG mixed with WoW.
Before you guys start shitting your pants with fear, let me explain. Etrian Odyssey at it's heart was a game where you get quests, and grind. Mind you, every encounter was life or death and it had bottomless depth, but outside the dungeons the game was just some menus. 7th Dragon now has towns, and people and well, it's less Wizardry and more Dragon Quest. I think most of us knew this coming in. So, the question, at least in my mind was, how were they going to make the towns people relevant and how were they going to make a rather non linear story work? The answer is, quest givers! Now no, these guys don't have yellow exclamation points on top of their heads, but you do talk to people and they do give you quests like "Bring me 3 fruit" and "Talk to the Handsome Knight in ____ town" with quest rewards much like the ones from EO. To be fair, this is really not much of a change from EO, there seems to be a greater frequency of quests, and the objectives seem to be a little more obvious, but aside from the way you get them (which to me seems very mmo) not much has changed.
Then we have character creation.
Maybe I have been in Japan too long, but I have to say that I love the female characters in this game and my party is 3/4th lacking a Y chromosome and 1/4th puffy hat. Man, the blonde healer is adorable. Okay enough of that. The skill system is what everyone wants to know about.
It hasn't really changed much, but this again is (for one, it's more legible) a little more WoW in it's presentation. In fact, the visual representation of your skills looks a looooooooooot like a talent tree. It's nice though you can kind of get the gist of where the skills you put points in to lead to (Btw, you start with 3).
Right, anyway, I will play a lot more after work as I ran out kind of late last night to get it. Here are some random thoughts.
Battles are fun! Random mobs are not as hard as in EO, but that doesn't mean I wasn't in danger of dying a few times. Your healer will be busy, if you have one that is.
Music is AWEESOMEEEEEE, the battle music is AWEESOMEEEEEEEE.
The text is more legible, but I missed a lot in the intro due to being a slow reader of Japanese, when I restart my game tonight I will give more solid impressions of the actual story. From what I gather there are these people called "Handymen" and some stuff happens.
Saving is done at the inn, and it costs money. Eek. I don't think I encountered any enemies that do drop money, so be careful and don't splurge on items without checking inn costs first.
Finally, this game is so awesome.
My party is:
Blonde F Healer
Green F PalaKnight
Puffy hat M Mage
Purple F Warrior
I'd post a pic but photobucket is blocked at work (wtf).
Edit: rk OP GATTAI!
http://dragon.sega.jp/
Story
A long time ago in a NeoGAF not so far away, Yuji Horii hit his head when getting out of bed one morning. He then decided that Dragon Quest IX should not only be on the DS but should also be an action RPG. This caused much a rumbling on the NeoGAF and there were many a meltdown and many a ban. Kazuya Niinou, in his infinite wisdom said "If Horii will fail to bring a true Dragon Quest to the DS, then I shall fill in the gap." Horii's brain damage scaled back and DQ9 is now a rightfully so turn-based game. But then the great bug of "Stupid Online Shit" found its way into Dragon Quest 9 and now this month is left with only one turn based RPG that you must buy.
Gameplay
When players start their journey, they can create their own characters from the following classes: Mage, Princess, Rogue, Knight, Samurai, Fighter, or Healer. Outside of battle the characters will be viewed traveling the overworld from an overhead perspective, while the battles are viewed from a side perspective showing each character as they attack their foes. It is going to be fuck awesome.
Photos
I can't find anything. Shit is blocked at work.
Release Dates:
Nintendo DS: March 5, 2009 (Japan)
Playstation 3: Never
PC: Yarrrrrrrrrrrr
Review Scores
7th Dragon　9 8 8 8
GAF QUOTES
So I'll be picking it up tomorrow and I'm excited to play it, but I haven't finished Devil Survivor yet.
I don't really read up on a lot of games before they come out these days on purpose. I much prefer to have some sort of fun with games and feel knowing everything ruins that fun to an extent. So I was very surprised to find this game is basically a JRPG mixed with WoW.
Before you guys start shitting your pants with fear, let me explain. Etrian Odyssey at it's heart was a game where you get quests, and grind. Mind you, every encounter was life or death and it had bottomless depth, but outside the dungeons the game was just some menus. 7th Dragon now has towns, and people and well, it's less Wizardry and more Dragon Quest. I think most of us knew this coming in. So, the question, at least in my mind was, how were they going to make the towns people relevant and how were they going to make a rather non linear story work? The answer is, quest givers! Now no, these guys don't have yellow exclamation points on top of their heads, but you do talk to people and they do give you quests like "Bring me 3 fruit" and "Talk to the Handsome Knight in ____ town" with quest rewards much like the ones from EO. To be fair, this is really not much of a change from EO, there seems to be a greater frequency of quests, and the objectives seem to be a little more obvious, but aside from the way you get them (which to me seems very mmo) not much has changed.
Then we have character creation.
Maybe I have been in Japan too long, but I have to say that I love the female characters in this game and my party is 3/4th lacking a Y chromosome and 1/4th puffy hat. Man, the blonde healer is adorable. Okay enough of that. The skill system is what everyone wants to know about.
It hasn't really changed much, but this again is (for one, it's more legible) a little more WoW in it's presentation. In fact, the visual representation of your skills looks a looooooooooot like a talent tree. It's nice though you can kind of get the gist of where the skills you put points in to lead to (Btw, you start with 3).
Right, anyway, I will play a lot more after work as I ran out kind of late last night to get it. Here are some random thoughts.
Battles are fun! Random mobs are not as hard as in EO, but that doesn't mean I wasn't in danger of dying a few times. Your healer will be busy, if you have one that is.
Music is AWEESOMEEEEEE, the battle music is AWEESOMEEEEEEEE.
The text is more legible, but I missed a lot in the intro due to being a slow reader of Japanese, when I restart my game tonight I will give more solid impressions of the actual story. From what I gather there are these people called "Handymen" and some stuff happens.
Saving is done at the inn, and it costs money. Eek. I don't think I encountered any enemies that do drop money, so be careful and don't splurge on items without checking inn costs first.
Finally, this game is so awesome.
My party is:
Blonde F Healer
Green F PalaKnight
Puffy hat M Mage
Purple F Warrior
I'd post a pic but photobucket is blocked at work (wtf).
Edit: rk OP GATTAI!
http://dragon.sega.jp/
Story
A long time ago in a NeoGAF not so far away, Yuji Horii hit his head when getting out of bed one morning. He then decided that Dragon Quest IX should not only be on the DS but should also be an action RPG. This caused much a rumbling on the NeoGAF and there were many a meltdown and many a ban. Kazuya Niinou, in his infinite wisdom said "If Horii will fail to bring a true Dragon Quest to the DS, then I shall fill in the gap." Horii's brain damage scaled back and DQ9 is now a rightfully so turn-based game. But then the great bug of "Stupid Online Shit" found its way into Dragon Quest 9 and now this month is left with only one turn based RPG that you must buy.
Gameplay
When players start their journey, they can create their own characters from the following classes: Mage, Princess, Rogue, Knight, Samurai, Fighter, or Healer. Outside of battle the characters will be viewed traveling the overworld from an overhead perspective, while the battles are viewed from a side perspective showing each character as they attack their foes. It is going to be fuck awesome.
Photos
I can't find anything. Shit is blocked at work.
Release Dates:
Nintendo DS: March 5, 2009 (Japan)
Playstation 3: Never
PC: Yarrrrrrrrrrrr
Review Scores
7th Dragon　9 8 8 8
GAF QUOTES
octopusman said:
Flying_Phoenix said:
jaundicejuice said:
NintendosBooger said:
JaCy said:
sp0rsk said:
So I'll be picking it up tomorrow and I'm excited to play it, but I haven't finished Devil Survivor yet.
