Of course! Been playing it for over an hour! Just now got to the world map.

Impressions so far: It's a Dragon Quest game.

I was going to post a picture of my shrink-wrapped copy for comic effect, but I'm too lazy, and my computer is too shitty. Anyway, I kind of got pumped to start this game after seeing that FORTY MINUTE Iwata Asks with Yuji Horii and his underling on the Nintendo Channel. Iwata fucking rules.

I remember an old episode of 1up Yours, where Shane Bettenhausen was saying, "Have you guys seen the latest Iwata Asks? We're always asking why Nintendo doesn't give us any interviews, and it's like, 'Oh, because they do their own interviews, which are far better than any of ours.' " Something like that. Where does that dude find the time? He's a beast.

Warren Spector said he recently sat down with Iwata to chat about Epic Mickey, and it was so refreshing to speak to an executive with a development background. He seemed pretty impressed with I-Money's perceptiveness.

Anyway, the only thing stopping me from cracking DQIX is my nagging feeling that it will be remade for the 3DS, with smooth, improved graphics and Tag functionality. How could it not?!

@anandxxx

That would be a bit too soon, no? I wouldn't expect anything of the sort. What I would expect, is DQXI on 3DS.

Anyway, 3 hours in and I've finally assemble a party. It's definitely a slow start. I wonder if I can use the tag mode yet, the game hasn't really touched on that for now.

So anyone going to the Gamestop event should know they'll probably need to have played it for a couple hours first.

The only DragonQuest game I played was the fourth one and I wasn't highly impressed with it, though it was functional.

@Oldmanwinter

Told you not to get IV.

Pandareus said:

@Oldmanwinter

Told you not to get IV.

I know, however it was free being as my brother had the cart and I figured what the hell. I know the newer ones are all supposed to be great and to be honest after reading about them I'm sure I'd like them more than most jrpgs just because they appear to stay closer to the roots of the genre than the direction most devs have gone the past two generations post FFVII... which I think we all know I'm not a huge fan of, to put it mildly.

I have Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and Eternal Sonata (and Deadly Premonition) in their wrappers in my bonus room, I'll probably start Lost Odyssey after I beat Mass Effect 2, which is an amazing game though Bioware definitely took most of the traditional rpg elements out of it. The way wrpgs and jrpgs have gone over the past fifteen years, even grouping them together in the subcontext of "role playing game" seems wrong. They are about as different as a life sim vs a fps.

IV was my first Dragon Quest and I really enjoyed it. Still making progress in V before I'll let myself pick up IX but I definitely will be.

Got my copy. The only thing stopping me from playing it is taking the time to tell internet strangers that I got my copy. ;p

I've never played a DQ game but I'm interested in picking this one up...

What series does it compare to?

@Griptor
Its comparable to any old-school jrpg. Like...SNES old-school. If those appealed to you, then you'll know exactly what you're getting with Dragon Quest.

I got the game today. I am 7 hours into it. We should make eachothers heros in our game. We shoul post our class and how to make our look so thatwe can feel "connected"

@Scrawnton

Damn, man, 7 hours on the first day!? I can't do stuff like that anymore.

As for my class (vocation), I defaulted on Minstrel and haven't had the chance to change it yet.

I tried to create the creepiest little mother****** I could. Male, body type 5, bald, eye type 5, pale skin, red eyes. Called him Damien.

Since you're so far into the game, maybe you can help me: I can't do Quest 003, the one with the lady in the Church asking your to do a pirouette, clap, jump and air punch. I've assigned all of those moves, I do them in quick succession, but the damn bitch won't recognize it.

Also, today it really hit me how unlikely it is that I'll ever get hits in Tag Mode. I just don't see how it could happen. Before, when I thought the game went into tag mode by simply closing the DS while the game was playing, I thought I had a chance. But with the whole "go into the inn and ask to go into tag mode" thing, suddenly it looks a lot more dire. Who's gonna go through all that trouble? Well, there's me, but it won't work with just one guy doing it...

There's still a sliver of hope, though. I am in Montreal, after all. It's a decent-sized city, but more importantly, I take the bike path in front of Eidos Montreal every day. EA's studios aren't too far either. And I could always take a detour and pass in front of the Ubisoft offices as well. Those nerds are my only hope.

I'm still on the fence about this one. Like I've said, I am a big fan of JRPGs, but I'm hesitant about the switch from turn based battles to real time. Keep in mind I've never actually played a Dragon Quest game before, so I'm not really qualified to judge, either.

Would IX be a good game for a Dragon Quest n00b to jump in on?

I'm tempted to pick this one up but didn't realize how big of an impact the multiplayer had with the actual gameplay. Reading on a review, your team mates are people you create yourself and apparently have no real personality? I guess that's REALLY old school but it seems a bit strange for an RPG these days. As long as the game itself is good I guess... but it sure changed my opinion on buying it right away.

@WindWaker99

The battles aren't in real-time. They announced they would be long ago but quickly backpedaled because of the strong reaction of Japanese fans.

And sure, IX seems like as good a game as any to start with.

@VofEscaflowne

III was the same way, you created your companions and they had no personality. And that was a single-player game as well.

As far as I can tell (so far, 4 hours into the game), the multiplayer thing has about as much impact on the game as the multiplayer in Final Fantasy VI. You don't ever feel like you should be playing with other people.

Storywise, the major difference with, say, V, is that the story isn't about YOU, but about the people you meet. And given the context it makes sense that it would be this way. The game is still full of charming characters, they just don't happen to be in your party.

Seriously, there are a lot of misconceptions about this game out there, but trust me, just pick the game up and after the first few hours all of your worries will have melted away.

This is a Dragon Quest game. This is not some crazy, ugly Monster Hunter/DQ hybrid experiment like the most uninformed elements on the internet would have you believe.

Oh, okay. I started reading the IGN review and quickly realized my mistake as well. Once I finish Bioshock this is a strong contender for my next game.

Yeah, I'm not big this "Tag Mode" stuff that's really big in Japan but completely non-existent in the west. "Features" like that really should have been addressed by the localization teams. I just don't see it happening on this side of the world. Except maybe at something like Comic-Con or PAX or MAGfest, or even some obscure Otaku Convention. And... mmmaaaaayyybbbeee if you happen to be in 5th Grade and you and your classmates are in "Tag Mode" during recess or something. But in everyday, normal life? Not so much.

Couldn't have the localization team added some kind of online solution to this? And I'm not talking just about DragonQuest IX, either. My other current gaming addiction, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker has a "Tage Mode" feature as well, that will likely go unused by me and I'm sure many others. (Although I admit it was funny that during the tutorial that explains how Tag Mode works, Snake snidely comments how it would only work if there were other players around - kind of a nod that the developers knew this might not be a hit in the West)

But that just makes it more frustrating in the long run. Like, Konami *knew* this feature wasn't going to work as well outside of Japan, but did nothing to resolve it. Just like Square-Enix did nothing with DragonQuest IX's Tag Mode, and years prior Nintendo didn't do anything to enhance or replace the mostly useless "Bark Mode" in Nintendogs.

On the other hand, it's not essential to the game - just like the multiplayer isn't necessary to any of the titles mentioned above. Maybe it's moot point? I dunno. Guess it depends on your perspective. And your circle of friends.

@GameDadGrant

Yeah. But as I mentioned earlier, you could always go to that Gamestop event. Apparently they'll load something on your DS that will unlock the things that the Japanese version requires dozens of tags to unlock, or so the rumor goes.

Not sure if they're doing this in Canada as well, sadly. Plus, my brother's wedding is on that day, so I definitely can't go.

Dragon Quest meetup > Brother's wedding.

I was wondering how the tag mode worked, exactly. If connecting just unlocked content. According to that Iwata Asks, the Treasure Maps are randomly generated, so you really CAN get unique little bonus dungeons. What really pushed the feature in Japan was a legendary dungeon with a level made ONLY of Metal King Slimes (Metal Slimes are elusive, but give you TONS of experience), which was generated totally by coincidence. Everyone wanted to get their hands on it, so players made a real-life "Patty's Pub" in Akihabara to exchange DQ maps. Very interesting. Eventually, the map spread virally all over Japan. And Enix made the feature region-free, so it'll probably make it here, as well. I don't think that would be the GameStop thing, though. OR WOULD IT?