So Dragon Quest IX is out tomorrow(In Japan)

[isfet]

www.sankakucomplex.com

sorry, Matt, but your blog is the only one i can read where i don't mind grammatical and spelling errors.

[dhex]

just to put on my snooty hat for a second, i think it's cute these guys are finally getting around to "side quests".

welcome to 1988, my friends. enjoy the ride!

on a more serious note, do folks ever cross back over from dq to, say, wizardry? (the western series that comes to mind as being most progenitor-ish). i know someone told me that there were a few wizardry branded games in japan that were largely roguelikes with no real c+c in them but until wiz 5 or so they're mostly straight up dungeon crawls. though the wizzes were never my favorite series, to be sure. (wiz8 is apparently some kinda masterpiece)

i figure if you're going to western rpg tile crawl yourself to death, there's always the bard's tale series or perhaps even wasteland.

[Llydis]

I tried running wasteland a while back but my windows 98 machine was too fast for it.

Maybe with the advent of Dosbox it would run at an...acceptable speed?

[dhex]

dosbox runs it fine, but you do need a .txt or pdf of the manual, since that's the copy protection.

the oldest of the old school! (it's unforgivably hard)

[isfet]

not that anyone here delves into highly illegal ROM downloading

but there's a patch out for the DQIX ROM, in case you weren't able to get it to run.

the graphics are surprisingly better than i expected!

[drozdal]

A lot of people praise Wizardry 8, but for me, managing 8 person party with a turn-based combat every 5 minutes where you have to dig your way thru a LOT of menus to get things moving gets boring quickly. I have to admit, back in 2001 that game looked brilliant.

As for other good (but solo) werstern crawlers - Ultima Underworld series were always my favourite - the freedom of movement engine gave you was mind blowing back in 1992.

Now I will shut up, because I really have noting more substancial to add to this thread, I never played any of the games in DQ series.

[Llydis]

That's because they hated bringing them out here for a while.

[scratchmonkey]

on a more serious note, do folks ever cross back over from dq to, say, wizardry? (the western series that comes to mind as being most progenitor-ish). i know someone told me that there were a few wizardry branded games in japan that were largely roguelikes with no real c+c in them but until wiz 5 or so they're mostly straight up dungeon crawls.

There's a fair amount of Japanese Wizardry and Wizardry-alikes, the dungeon crawler seems to be a pretty popular niche over there, even now.

As for DQ, a friend who has lived over there says that there's an odd dichotomy where the vast majority of DQ players don't seem to be interested in other videogames and "gamers" are highly dismissive of DQ and those who play it. Anecdotal evidence, etc.

[isfet]

in a lot of ways it must be a designer's dream to have something lime DQ. the main series ALWAYS does well and people come out of the woodwork to buy it.

[Llydis]

Dragon Quest's target audience always seems to be "everybody."  Well, actually, that was the target audience in the first place with the first Dragon Quest.

I am wondering if there is a fan translation of this: http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/books/fc/dqm.html

I'm also wondering why why don't have that many documentary comics over here. Other than that it'd be interesting to know what the process was going on in creating the original Dragon Quest.

[isfet]

that's kind of interesting.  i'd read it, out of curiousity, at least.

but it makes sense to have a comic based on the creation of DQ, since it's just such a major thing over there (and comics and games seem to go hand in hand a lot of the time).


so is anyone really playing IX at all?  i'm still in the first section, i'd imagine.  it's fun!  i don't really want to keep playing it as i only understand enough to have a vague idea of what people are saying (and this series is a little less charming when you don't have the dialogue), but i'm enjoying myself and therefore don't want to stop.

they're really emphasizing the character customization/creation in this game; unlike most JRPGs, everything you equip is shown on your character.  the whole thing sort of screams "adorable."  if marketed correctly, i could see a lot of people, even those who own a DS but don't really "play games," getting into this. 

but DQ has never really taken off here in any kind of major way, so i wouldn't be surprised if it's barely marketed at all.

[Llydis]

Iwata does want NoA to market it over here. Probably with the same marketing style they're doing in Japan to promote DQ to people who are unfamiliar with RPGs. Whether it works or not, remains to be seen. Since it was NoA who marketed the first Dragon Warrior.

Also This!

http://www.woodus.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14587

It seems like if there is a main character you want to dress up as from the previous DQ games... You can!

[isfet]

that's pretty neat.


yea, i remember NOA marketed DQ1 fairly heavily, but i also seem to remember that it didn't really work out for them in the long run.  and it's really a shame that the SNES games/remakes were never brought out here in any official capacity.  but who knows, maybe they made the right decision in terms of finances at the time.  but considering how long Enix disappeared from the US, it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway.

[Llydis]

Then again, Square Enix pretty much doesn't have to rely on Nintendo to bring games out over here. So, it could just be something Iwata wants to do in order to bring more awareness of the DQ series here in the states. At least among his customers.

They'd probably do a few things in the style of the "My First DQ" Pamphlet they have over there. (somewhere near the bottom of the picture list.)

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3175124

It is neat looking at how much merchandise goes along with a Dragon Quest game too. With all the kind of things you'd find with popular children's cartoons you find over here.