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[Owensboro]

On another note, I really hope the battles move as swiftly as the remakes of Dragon Quest IV and V do. I've been spoiled by how fast-paced those games were. Dragon Quest VIII was a bit too slow for my tastes. Get those extended battle animations and showing the party members out of Dragon Quest battles.

This is exactly what I want from any future DQ Game, be it 9 or the eventual 10, 11, or 100. The one thing I hated about DQ VIII was that the battles took FOREVER. After playing the remakes of IV and V, I much prefer a battle that is front-view only and takes 10-15 seconds versus broad, sweeping views of everyone attacking taking 30-seconds.

 

[Aeana]

Too bad that all RPGs can't handle visible monster encounters like Mother, where enemies aggressively pursue your party and avoiding them actually takes effort.

I don't care for that, actually. For all intents and purposes, battles in Earthbound are random. Enemies appear on the screen randomly, and you can affect that by moving them off of the screen repeatedly. If enemies are visible, I want to be able to avoid them. Otherwise, it's just an illusion and doesn't differ too much from random battles, except it brings all of the crappy things with it (larger, crowded areas, especially).

 

[Drkirby]

DQ 7 looks completely shitacular when compared to other JRPGs released at the end of the PSX lifetime. Doesn't stop it from being awesome.

Also someone (probably the original fool who brought up this tired argument again) mentioned that the game would be longer on the HD systems.

:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

This...would buck current trends significantly.

DS is clearly the home of JRPGs this gen so its no mistake when the whale of all JRPGs ends up on it.

This isn't Tales of Whoring out the Franchise. This isn't even FF XIII versions of belts and zippers. This is Dragon Quest. Archaic is the defining characteristic of the game! Just be glad that Slime isn't rendered in ASCII!

Great, now I want someone to remake DQ1 in ASCII :lol

 

[Man God]

Well, Earthbound also did it for the whole green light/red light system of preemptive strikes. Artful dodging in EB is very fun as well and adds a layer.

Chrono Cross is still the best at this. Pre-set encounters which can be run from, including bosses. Any extra energy in your tanks can be used to heal your party automatically at the end of battle. Only needing a few fights to advance your stats with the excellent and usually tough boss fights as the key to unlocking said advances.

 

[Magicpaint]

DQ games handle random battles well and I have no major issues with them, but there are still moments where I feel like I just want to explore and I'm thrust with needless random battles. This is especially annoying when revisiting older areas with my now-superpowerful party and it just doesn't give me any thrills.

One thing I liked in DQM:J was that enemies significantly lower levelled than your party will even attempt to flee from you if you came towards them (of course on the flip side, if they're much higher levelled, they'll run towards you). If DQIX handles the visible enemy thing like Joker, then I would have no issues at all.

 

[Aeana]

DQ games handle random battles well and I have no major issues with them, but there are still moments where I feel like I just want to explore and I'm thrust with needless random battles. This is especially annoying when revisiting older areas with my now-superpowerful party and it just doesn't give me any thrills.

Use holy water or cast divine protection? It's so weird that people complain about that stuff, when DQ gives you access to holy water from the start of every game. :\

 

[Hobbun]

I don't have a strong preference of either random or visible enemies.

The only drawback I can see with the visible enemies is what Aeana mentioned in that they will expand the visual size of the dungeons (to accomodate for the enemies) and therefore the dungeons will be smaller because of it.

But I guess we will see.

 

[Aeana]

I don't have a strong preference of either random or visible enemies.

The only drawback I can see with the visible enemies is what Aeana mentioned in that they will expand the visual size of the dungeons (to accomodate for the enemies) and therefore the dungeons will be smaller because of it.

But I guess we will see.

Dragon Quest 8's dungeons were gigantic, and it often felt like they had intended to put visible enemies in that game, and didn't at the last minute. I didn't really care for the dungeons in DQ8 because the rooms were so enormous, and the designs were so shallow.

 

[Iam Canadian]

I don't care for that, actually. For all intents and purposes, battles in Earthbound are random. Enemies appear on the screen randomly, and you can affect that by moving them off of the screen repeatedly. If enemies are visible, I want to be able to avoid them. Otherwise, it's just an illusion and doesn't differ too much from random battles, except it brings all of the crappy things with it (larger, crowded areas, especially).

Well, you can sometimes sneak past enemies by using the environment to your advantage, though I agree that this isn't always possible. Still, I like the Mother system as a nice compromise between random encounters and visible monsters; it maintains the tension and the sense that you can't avoid every battle that random encounters offer while making things like pre-emptive attacks less arbitrary.

For the record, I enjoy both systems. Though as much as I enjoy the Tales games, I do think that it has one of the lesser systems of enemy encounters. :/

As for the larger, crowded areas...eh, I thought the Mother games handled that well enough and I never felt that the dungeons were too expansive. I'll give DQIX the benefit of the doubt until I play it.

 

[Hobbun]

Dragon Quest 8's dungeons were gigantic, and it often felt like they had intended to put visible enemies in that game, and didn't at the last minute. I didn't really care for the dungeons in DQ8 because the rooms were so enormous, and the designs were so shallow.

*rereads your last post*

My apologies, the problem you had was with huge rooms, not dungeons that are too small.

Maybe they will have better designs this time for the dungeons?

 

[Magicpaint]

Use holy water or cast divine protection? It's so weird that people complain about that stuff, when DQ gives you access to holy water from the start of every game. :\

I admit I never use this item/spell much, but does it work 100% of the time? My brother always complained about the holy water being ineffective, so I just never relied on it.

 

[Aeana]

*rereads your last post*

My apologies, the problem you had was with huge rooms, not dungeons that are too small.

Maybe they will have better designs this time for the dungeons?

The problem is simple dungeons with large, uninteresting rooms (to make room for all of the visible enemies). DQ8's dungeons are small and short, but with huge individual rooms. We've already seen a bit of that in DQ9's screenshots, but I really hope it's not as bad as DQ8's dungeons.

I admit I never use this item/spell much, but does it work 100% of the time? My brother always complained about the holy water being ineffective, so I just never relied on it.

Works fine on enemies that are weaker than you. It just doesn't prevent enemies that are around your level or stronger.

 

[Hobbun]

The problem is simple dungeons with large, uninteresting rooms (to make room for all of the visible enemies). DQ8's dungeons are small and short, but with huge individual rooms. We've already seen a bit of that in DQ9's screenshots, but I really hope it's not as bad as DQ8's dungeons.

Ok, so I did read it right the first time. I agree with you. I don't mind having large rooms, but don't shorten the length of the dungeon because of it. If the game needs to scroll more than usual to have large floors, so be it.

 

[Magicpaint]

Works fine on enemies that are weaker than you. It just doesn't prevent enemies that are around your level or stronger.

Hmmm. If that's the case then I guess it solves the issue of revisiting oooold areas but not necessarily revisiting recently visited areas (purely for exploration purposes).

 

[Fuu]

Like Hobbun I don't have a clear preference either, I just want whatever is used to be implemented well.

However, the Charm Bangle (no random enemy encounters at all when equipped and Luck +10) and Lure Bracer (10 times more enemies appear when equipped and Attack +15) accessories from FFX-2 were such an optimal solution to the problems people usually have with random battles.

Loved how you get them very early in that game and I don't know why more RPGs don't use something similar.

 

[jaundicejuice]

Ha ha, it's like someone stepped out of a time warp from when DQIX was first announced for the DS.

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker had monsters visible on the field and in the dungeons and it felt very much like a Dragon Quest. I know it's supposed to be a conservative series when it comes to play mechanics but I don't think this will be a change for the worse.

 

[Aeana]

Ha ha, it's like someone stepped out of a time warp from when DQIX was first announced for the DS.

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker had monsters visible on the field and in the dungeons and it felt very much like a Dragon Quest. I know it's supposed to be a conservative series when it comes to play mechanics but I don't think this will be a change for the worse.

It's nothing about being conservative, or random battles being 'archaic' and visible enemies being 'progressive.' (Seriously? Visible enemies have been around forever, that technical limitation malarkey is so silly.) I just don't like visible enemies, period, and yes, it felt really silly to me in DQMJ as well.

 

[Llyranor]

My main preference for visible enemies is if they're easy to avoid, so it gives more player control over their encounter rate. Game too easy? Avoid tons of battles!

I guess it's my own fault if I don't use encounter-reducing items much, though.

Ultimately, I'm fine with either. The main requirement is that the game actually have an enjoyable battle system.

 

[Yottamole]

Has anyone been up to the official blog recently? I think there are some new pictures up there...It would be nice if someone who can read Japanese translate some of the text on the site.

 

[Aeana]

Has anyone been up to the official blog recently? I think there are some new pictures up there...It would be nice if someone who can read Japanese translate some of the text on the site.

Yeah, I follow it. They've mostly been posting recaps of old media coverage... but, yesterday, they posted that they're resuming magazine coverage starting next week... so there will be something in the June 1 issue of Jump. I'm looking forward to it!

Also, someone on 2ch gave some retail information, which I'm not positive is legitimate, but here it is anyway: 700k preorders as of last week, there's a new PV coming at the beginning of June, and the currently expected shipment of DQ9 is between 2.5 and 3 million.

 

[thetrin]

In the time the game was delayed, it would have been extra super special if they had fitted wifi compatibility in. It's not a dealbreaker, but I don't have any friends here in town that can read any Japanese. I want to play with my old JGAF pals.

 

[Aeana]

Jump "scans" finally showed up. They're really low quality, and difficult to read, but the major focus of this article is some new human characters. Archaeologists Rufin and his wife Eliza; Nead, some guy who is hostile towards the hero; a young boy, Tir, who knows some town's secret; a young girl, Origa, who lives by the sea; and a mysterious girl, Latena.

And there's a little blurb about DQ Wars in the corner.

Really, I'm going to have to wait until there are better scans or a website article to tell what else is here, but it's not a very interesting article, regardless.

 

[Hobbun]

Yeah, I follow it. They've mostly been posting recaps of old media coverage... but, yesterday, they posted that they're resuming magazine coverage starting next week... so there will be something in the June 1 issue of Jump. I'm looking forward to it!

Also, someone on 2ch gave some retail information, which I'm not positive is legitimate, but here it is anyway: 700k preorders as of last week, there's a new PV coming at the beginning of June, and the currently expected shipment of DQ9 is between 2.5 and 3 million.

I'm sorry if this is a silly question, but what does PV mean?

Also, I really hope we hear something at E3 date-wise for a stateside release.

 

[Aeana]

Promotional video.

 

[Hobbun]

Oh right. Thank you.

 

[flipping_heck]

not much here, just a poll about DQIX from famitsu..just one more month til Japan shuts down

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3174718

A Famitsu poll including 1000 soon-to-be DQIX buyers...

- 71.7% own a DS
- 21.8% are buying a DS alongside DQIX's launch
- 6.5% will borrow/obtain a DS through other methods
- 30.7% plan to play for one or two hours a day
- 56.4% will name their character with their internet nickname
- 17.3% will borrow a name from a movie or novel
- 17.2% will use their own name
- 26.7% plan to play co-op
- 23.9% won't use multiplayer
- 29.6% didn't know the game had multiplayer
- 22.1% want to be a "Fighter"
- 16.5% want to be a "Magic Fighter"
- 10.5% want to be a "Paladin"
- 63.7% are excited for the story
- 45.5% enjoy the fact that the game is on a portable
- 33.1% are excited for the music
- 30.1% are excited for the battles
- 29.8% are excited for the characters

 

[Aeana]

Thanks; interesting stats. The multiplayer stat is especially interesting... I thought SE had done a great job over-focusing on the multiplayer aspect.

 

[Sage00]

- 45.5% enjoy the fact that the game is on a portable

Hm.

 

[Rpgmonkey]

I expected the "enjoy the fact that the game is on a portable" number to be like 60-75%.

 

[Sage00]

I expected the "enjoy the fact that the game is on a portable" number to be like 60-75%.

As usual it's Famitsu elite who respond to these surveys. The hardcore gamers who wish the game was on the top-range consoles (and rightfully so imo! But I like that there are other opinions). If it had a better pool it would probably be nearer your numbers, probably higher.

 

[CaVaYeRo]

I'm finishing (I guess so) DQIV remake right now as my first complete JRPG experience.

I just wanted to understand the genre and the series. I tried with other titles before, but now it has been the real deal for me.

I like it. i think being so beautiful is part of the success. I won't mind buying DQV and continue up until IX is out (and then Wii X, of course).

Any suggestions? Is it better to have a break, try other games, etc?

 

[yankee666]

Any info on the new Famitsu scans??

 

[Synless]

I'm finishing (I guess so) DQIV remake right now as my first complete JRPG experience.

I just wanted to understand the genre and the series. I tried with other titles before, but now it has been the real deal for me.

I like it. i think being so beautiful is part of the success. I won't mind buying DQV and continue up until IX is out (and then Wii X, of course).

Any suggestions? Is it better to have a break, try other games, etc?

Buy Dragon Quest V immediately. The game is far better than IV.

 

[MotherFan]

not much here, just a poll about DQIX from famitsu..just one more month til Japan shuts down

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3174718

A Famitsu poll including 1000 soon-to-be DQIX buyers...

- 71.7% own a DS
- 21.8% are buying a DS alongside DQIX's launch
- 6.5% will borrow/obtain a DS through other methods
- 30.7% plan to play for one or two hours a day
- 56.4% will name their character with their internet nickname
- 17.3% will borrow a name from a movie or novel
- 17.2% will use their own name
- 26.7% plan to play co-op
- 23.9% won't use multiplayer
- 29.6% didn't know the game had multiplayer
- 22.1% want to be a "Fighter"
- 16.5% want to be a "Magic Fighter"
- 10.5% want to be a "Paladin"
- 63.7% are excited for the story
- 45.5% enjoy the fact that the game is on a portable
- 33.1% are excited for the music
- 30.1% are excited for the battles
- 29.8% are excited for the characters

Was this survey before the red dsi announcement? I expect it to go up if it was not. And even with this rate, the number of DS sold on the launch will be staggering.

 

[GaussTek]

I'm not very sure, but I guess those are new screenies:

http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1224675_1124.html

(copy/paste link)

Looks just amazing

One month before the Japanese launch date (can it really be that soon?) Square Enix has released new screenshots of Dragon Quest IX, with brief introductions to some of the cast. The game has quite a sizable ensemble of characters! Most of them are humans living in a village, but at least some portion of the game is also set in an "angel world" where angels feed a World Tree to get it to yield fruit.

Some of the colorful cast of (human) characters introduced in today's update include Olga (Origa?), a young girl who frequently wades into the sea to pray; Lu Fin and Eliza, an archaeologist and wife, and Ratena, a mysterious, hooded girl who has some kind of sway over the hero.

Dragon Quest IX's semi-sandbox structure means we could be engaging in various optional side quests for all of these people. We're willing to guess those archaeologists would pay for relics found in dungeons, for example.

 

[GaussTek]

Sorry for the bump, but I'm surprised about the lack of hype on this game, yeah I know it's not coming to NA/EU in a while, but come on, is a new DQ game.

Here's a bunch of the screens posted yesterday:

The rest (a lot more) on the link posted above.

Edit: Yeah, better clic the link above

 

[Hobbun]

Screens aren't showing up.

 

[jaundicejuice]

It's hard to be excited about a game that I probably won't play for, at the very least, another year and I think that's being almost too optimistic about the time frame. Dragon Quest IX is an undetermined number of years away from release in North America.

A timely release of Dragon Quest VI would help stoke the fires.

 

[Stage On]

It's hard to be excited about a game that I probably won't play for, at the very least, another year and I think that's being almost too optimistic about the time frame. Dragon Quest IX is an undetermined number of years away from release in North America.

A timely release of Dragon Quest VI would help stoke the fires.

I dought it's going to take an entire year for Dragon quest 9 to come out.

After all we got 5 reasonably quickly after it got released in Japan didn't we?

If it's REALLY coming out in July in Japan then we could see it as early as Novemeber.

At the very latest we'll see it by Febuary since 5 was released in July in Japan and Febuary here and the ONLY reason it took that long was becuse 4 was released in September which meant they had to put space between the two games.

 

[Aeana]

Seems like most people don't really care about updates at this point, but there is a new Jump article out that talks about the challenge dungeons and some new story characters... not much point in translating.

See here for a little preview image.

The same blog post also says to expect a "major" update on the official site tomorrow (16th). This will hopefully be the new trailer or TVCM that they've been hinting at.

 

[slaughterking]

A new trailer would be great.

 

[Magicpaint]

Seems like most people don't really care about updates at this point, but there is a new Jump article out that talks about the challenge dungeons and some new story characters... not much point in translating.

I think a lot of people got burned by that delay - plus a lot of us still fear that it won't release this July either and really, since the Japanese version is now coming out so late in the year, it's very, very doubtful an English release will happen this year like some might have hoped when it was slated for March. But I reckon a brand spanking new PV will get people interested again.

The same blog post also says to expect a "major" update on the official site tomorrow (16th). This will hopefully be the new trailer or TVCM that they've been hinting at.

Plz be a 5min+ long PV.

 

[Aeana]

http://www.famitsu.com/blog/express/2009/06/post_201.html

There's an event going on right now. They announced officially that DQ9 is finished and will make the 7/11 date. They also premiered the new promotional video, which will hopefully be added on the site today.

 

[Wilsongt]

http://www.famitsu.com/blog/express/2009/06/post_201.html

There's an event going on right now. They announced officially that DQ9 is finished and will make the 7/11 date. They also premiered the new promotional video, which will hopefully be added on the site today.

So -that's- what your countdown is for!

 

[yankee666]

Finally a confirmation of the 7/11 release date (i still was worried about another delay). The day is near and u will be mine!!!

 

[firex]

I just realized the game's release date is also the store where you can buy it!

I kind of hope I can be in Japan when DQ10 comes out. I'd like to witness the crazy just once in my lifetime.

edit: also, what are the challenge dungeons about?

 

[Yottamole]

http://www.famitsu.com/blog/express/2009/06/post_201.html

There's an event going on right now. They announced officially that DQ9 is finished and will make the 7/11 date. They also premiered the new promotional video, which will hopefully be added on the site today.

...How old is Yuji Horii? What's he wearing...:lol

 

[Rpgmonkey]

So -that's- what your countdown is for!

Wow, it's a countdown?

Meant to ask what the number meant, but I didn't notice it changed.

 

[duckroll]

It's amazing, it looks like Square Enix games are actually coming out this year! Good news for their shareholders I guess....

Spoiler

Where the hell is DQVIr?!

 

[Aeana]

I just realized the game's release date is also the store where you can buy it!

I kind of hope I can be in Japan when DQ10 comes out. I'd like to witness the crazy just once in my lifetime.

edit: also, what are the challenge dungeons about?

You can come across treasure maps in various places in the world (from NPCs, from chests, from bookcases, etc.), which lead to specific places on the map where you can trigger a dungeon entrance to appear. Inside are harder enemies and neat treasure and stuff.

Check out this post for some images and stuff.