The only thing I'm not totally digging about this game right now is that it's starting off rather slow. I enjoy a good build-up, but it took a while before I could even leave the beginning area. I've made it to the "World Map" (I think?) so I'm looking forward to exploring what the adventure has to offer.

As a side note, I admit I kind of enjoy the "silent protagonist" set up for this game. I know a lot of people like being able to play as a character for RPGs, but I like being the observer for big fantasy worlds like this one. It helps that the NPCs in this game are full of charm and are actually quite entertaining, so being able to just watch things unfold and then react to them as *I* would (rather than how the character I'm playing as would) is pretty cool.

Of course, my favorite games are stuff like Chrono Trigger and the Legend of Zelda series, so maybe I'm just more prone to like titles with the silent protagonist.

Alright, I've now reached Stornwell, and discovered how to create my little party.

I kind of assumed it would have been a forced little tutorial, but instead I stumbled upon it on my own. Anyhoo, is it recommended to use a full party of 4? Right now I'm using me, a mage, and a priest, and I was just wondering if it was okay to keep it a threesome or if I should just go ahead and bring the Warrior along with me as well.

EDIT: Scratch that. Just figured out how to customize who you want instead of just choosing from the list of 3 that she provided. So now I have my happy team of Minstrel, Priest, Mage, and Martial Artist

I don't think there's any point not getting a full party. At worst you can retire any of them at any time, at the Inn.

Oh and I've finally figured out Quest 003. Turns out for the "down" party trick, you can chain 4 moves in a row. That's what you need to do for this quest.

edit - I made a Martial Artist as well. I will boost the crap out of his "Fists" techniques.

this is a spoiler about classvocation changing

I am 10 hours into the game as of this morning. I got to the spot where you are able to change classes; however,the person who specifically doe sit is no where to be found and for hte story I have to find him. I am going to work now and I will grind money at work but not advance the story so I am not sure if I will have job changes before tonight.

Thanks for clearing that up Pandareus. Still, I don't think I'll pick it up right now... thinking about either this or a Persona game, leaning more towards Persona 3 but I'll see. Definitely would not be a good idea to pick up both now, that's for sure

Haha, definitely, if what I hear about the Persona games being 100 hour long is true. I actually have P4 still wrapped around here somewhere, I'll try to make it a priority... after DQ9.

Persona 4 sure as heck wasn't 100 hours for me. Maybe half that. I guess it could be 100 hours if you got all Pokemon-esque need to collect every demon.

I will have to keep this game on my short list of DS games to get. I have been really interested in it for a while now, just a matter of finding time and money (as always), lol.

Sounds great so far though (aside from Tag Mode being semi-useless).

I got my copy this afternoon. I just rescued Patty and so far the game is awesome.

Took the board's advice and got it too. Liking a ton of the changes over previous DQ games I've played, especially concerning the battle system. Much faster, less screen time wasted on text that I don't really need to read. Characters actually run around to fight, with armor that changes depending on what you've equipped, love that.

Sucks that your party has no personality since they're all made by you (Definitely play multiplayer if you can! So much more fun!) but the rest of the world, from the NPCs to the towns to even the way accepting a quest is described to you is endlessly charming, which makes it so much more fun to explore.

Far better than any DQ game I've played before. Also loving the 3D models for "main characters" and sort of 2D models for non-main characters, I know it's for performance reasons, but it gives it some weird added charm for me that I feel comfy with.

Nintendo is kind of pushing the hell out of this game. (Will they succeed where they failed with Dragon Quest 1?)

Tons of (good!) Nintendo Channel coverage, some decent commercials with Seth Green, GameStop events for Treasure Map distribution. If this game fails, Dragon Quest will NEVER succeed here.

@anandxxx

Haven't the DragonQuest games done pretty well on Sony's machines here in the west? Not like, MIND BLOWING sales numbers, but still pretty good. IIRC.

No. DQ8 didn't sell most of the copies it sold until it was $20.

Alright, stupid question time:

When/How do you unlock tag mode? I feel like I should have already gotten it, so I just want to make sure I didn't miss something really obvious, heh.

EDIT: Aha. Found it after doing a bit of Google sleuthing. I always just mashed through Erinn's dialogue so I could quickly rest, not even realizing she had the option to "Canvass for guests." I don't understand why they made it such a subtle detail for enabling tag mode. It would have been so much more accessible if you could just choose it from the main menu...

@Pandareus

Wow, really? Lame. Dragon Quest 8 was one of the best RPGs on the PS2. And considering how rampant that genre was on that system, that's saying a LOT.

What kind of games were really popular on PS2? It got a lot of (*groan*) 'hardcore' support, yet games like the brilliant Okami bombed, Maximo bombed, Contra: Shattered Soldier had meager sales... and Dragon Quest 8 didn't even sell well until it was a budget title? WTF!

The PS2 was a beast last gen... yet it's audience didn't seem to buy it's better games. I don't get it.... why?

Anyone know how Vanillaware's "Odin Sphere" sold at the tail end of the PS2's lifespan?

It's the same as with any mainstream console. People like to act like the Wii is a new situation, it's not, except for the complete lack of major 3rd party support.

Yeah, I picked up DQVIII after it had gone down to $20, but that was mostly because by the time I had gotten a PS2 it was already down that low. Had I had the system earlier I would've bought it at a higher price without question.

Hey, I'm not making any accusations! I picked it up for $20 myself.

That was before I knew I loved this series.

Man, I'm loving this game so far. I haven't even really done anything yet, I'm just enjoying the gameplay and the experience. I'm currently hunting down every Bodkin in the area that I can, since they seem to be the ones that give up the most cash when defeated.

"I wanna be a billionaire, so frickin' baaaaaaddd..... " [face_punch]

@GameDadGrant
Odin Sphere was Greatest Hits. I think it did alright. It's true that a TON of great games bombed on PS2 (including most of my beloved niche favorites), but there were also great games that sold well. People didn't call attention to PS2 bombs because there were enough examples of success in every genre to counter the argument. Which is maybe why people don't call as much attention to 360/PS3/PSP bombs as they do to Wii/DS bombs. Actually, that's probably because many parties want Nintendo to fail.