Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies for DS

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies is a role-playing game for the Nintendo DS, developed by Level-5 and Square Enix. Metacritic shows a Metascore of 87 and an ESRB rating of E10+.

Overview

The player creates a hero from the Celestrians, a people trapped in the mortal world, and builds a party of four. Wikipedia describes it as the first Dragon Quest with a customisable protagonist and the first with a multiplayer mode, which includes trading treasure maps and lending characters.

It was announced in 2006 for a 2007 release, then delayed by two years, the last delay to fix bugs. Wikipedia notes the postponements led Square Enix to lower its profit forecasts. Akihiro Hino directed with Jin Fujisawa. Yuji Horii designed and wrote, Akira Toriyama drew the characters and Koichi Sugiyama composed. Producer Ryutaro Ichimura said the quest system drew on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and that Diablo served as a reference for keeping players engaged over long periods.

How it plays

Battles are turn-based, as in every earlier numbered entry, but monsters are visible sprites that the player can touch or avoid instead of random encounters. A fight takes place in an arena themed after the location. The party holds four members with eight more in reserve, and any member can be commanded by hand or set to follow preset orders.

Character classes are called Vocations. The hero begins as a Minstrel and can later switch to others including Warrior, Thief and Priest. Changing a Vocation resets the level to one and removes learned spells, but returning restores them. Beyond the main story the game offers many side quests from non-player characters, and an alchemy pot turns gathered ingredients into equipment. Saving is possible only at churches.

The save file is so large that the team could only provide one save slot, which worried the staff because there is no backup if data is overwritten.

Multiplayer is local. A host can be joined by up to three designated players, and guests keep any items, experience and gold they collect but cannot advance the narrative. Tag Mode lets the DS, while in sleep mode, exchange data with nearby copies, bringing characters who carry gifts. Wikipedia calls this anonymous communication hugely popular in Japan, where players gathered to swap treasure maps, and says Nintendo’s Hideki Konno cited it as inspiration for the 3DS functions SpotPass and StreetPass.

Release and credits

Wikipedia gives 11 July 2009 for Japan, 11 July 2010 for North America, 23 July 2010 for Europe and 19 August 2010 for Australia. Metacritic prints the North American date. Square Enix published in Japan and Nintendo elsewhere. Localisation was done by PlusAlpha and Shloc, who had worked on Dragon Quest VIII.

Reception

Metacritic’s Metascore is 87 from 65 critic reviews, while Wikipedia counts 67 and says it was the highest-rated DS game of 2010. Famitsu gave it a perfect score, the first for a Dragon Quest and the tenth for any game, after delaying its review to test the multiplayer. 1UP.com’s Jeremy Parish called it one of the deepest portable RPGs, with complaints about the story and the lack of true online play.

Game Informer’s Phil Kollar and Eurogamer’s Simon Parkin were positive, though Kollar felt the multiplayer fell short of earlier promises. GameSpot’s Bethany Massimilla disliked the grinding and the menus. In an IGN Australia review, Daniel Staines wrote that the traditional approach undermined its strengths. Sales passed five million copies by 2011.

Can you still play it?

A Dragon Quest IX cartridge works in the DS, DS Lite and DSi, and in the Nintendo 3DS family through DS mode. It cannot run on a Wii U or a Switch. DS cards are region-free unless they are DSi-exclusive, according to Wikipedia’s region lock article, and this one is not, so an import will boot.

Local multiplayer and Tag Mode still require other copies and other DS systems nearby. Online functions ended in 2014, with Wikipedia dating the shutdown of Nintendo’s Wi-Fi service to 20 May 2014 on its pages for other DS games. The 3DS family was discontinued on 16 September 2020.