Nintendo DS
There are two things I really love about traditional RPGs. Actually, it really boils down to one thing: exploration. This leads to discovering new enemies and therefore forces me to think about different battle formations, weapons, abilities and spells. It also leads to the discovery of new items, which I gather to my person with a lust usually reserved for coke addicts questing for crumbs on Auckland nightclub toilet cisterns.
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DQIX) represents another chance to dive headlong into a world of fantasy violence and plunder. Upfront, it’s probably worth saying that JRPG fans, and certainly fans of the series, need to be all over it. However, if you’re looking for the next big thing in RPGs, it’s not here. DQIX could be a traditional yawnfest, save for a charming world, engaging quest, likable (enough) characters and that strange propensity to foster addiction (in some).
Of course, it doesn’t hurt of love a nice steaming helping of tradition.
So, you’re not getting much that’s new. Clear? Naturally, with every release in the DQ and wider RPG universe, there are trifling attempts made to keep the genre relevant. But here we have been delivered more or less a by-the-numbers experience. If you’re the type to just go ahead and give it a smash anyway, then you’re essentially Square Enix’s target market.
You play as one of the titular sentinels, or Celestrians, whose good deeds gather the final blobs of “benevolessence” required to get the Great World Tree Yggdrasil to bear the fruit known as fyggs. Legend has it, that when Yggy gets fyggy, a ye olde magicke train will come and carry the Celestrian’s out of their home in the Observatory, and into the realm of the almighty. Natch, when you hand over your haul - received from the townsfolk whose prayers you answer - things don’t go exactly according to plan.
You find yourself below. On ground level. With the filthy peasants you have for so long been protecting. Sans halo and wings, you can’t even float anymore. Not that it helped you much before: one of my immediate gripes about the game was that even though I was levitating a few inches off the ground, I still had to use stairs to ascend little embankments...
You know how these things go: you wander the land, completing quests, meeting friends and foes (including your little fairy companion, Stella) gradually working your way up through the levels, taking on bosses, deciding how you want your character to grow and whether you’re a swordy rough and tumble type or a faraway flouncy-pants magician type. It’s going to be up to you to figure out why everything went so pearshaped after the tree’s fruit didn’t do what it was supposed to. Might as well get used to it.
I don’t mean to be flippant, and I certainly don’t want to give the impression that this isn’t a worthy outing on the DS, but it’s so difficult to talk about this game in anything but superficial terms without going deep into the story: the plain facts are that if you’re an RPG/DQ fan, you’re going to love it! And if you’re not, well, it’ll be touch and go.
The multiplayer romp adds a lot of depth and replayability (judging by a look from the surface - my experience has been patchy due to a lack of likeminded friends!) but even the singleplayer campaign will see you sinking hours into the game. Between the myriad enemies you have to fight, each with really clever names like Sacksquatch and Cruelcumber (the first looks like a sack and the second... yeah) and building your bank of items and abilities, DQIX heaps on the value. Before I ever got my own review copy of this game, I had heard others talk about how addictive it was. At first, it really seems like just another grinder, but I was assured (even locally) that a couple of hours in, this all changes. That’s true in part: the grinding element remains, but it ceases to be as much of a chore. The incentive to explore, whether you’re by yourself or with some friends, will be a pretty impressive part of this package for most.
There’s nothing really special to report in terms of the controls. The DS has never been a complex system, and you can choose whether you use your thumbs or a stylus. The sound, too, is pretty basic: the game’s quite light on effects - you get magic, the clang of a weapon - but most of what you’re listening to is the music. Broadly, I find music in these types of games (you know, panpipes-y) to be quite pleasant.
Graphically... well, it’s all a bit fugly to be honest. I have given a 5/10 for graphics, and whether or not we all think this is an appropriate metric, the fact is that for a game with such a well known and respected name, I am surprised they’re that bad. The reason for the average score is just down to a chunky, blocky lack of detail in the characters and world. There’s some really poor texturing, and during in-game cutscenes there is a great deal of shimmer. Other cutscenes, though, are quite cool pieces of anime. And although the world in general isn’t very nice to look at, everything remains quite serviceable.
Whole lot to do? Check.
Multiplayer? Check.
Engaging story? Half a check (the kingdom’s in trouble/what? again?)
Solid RPG conventions from a company who lives and breathes them and knows exactly what the kids want? UBERCHECK.
Sentintels of the Starry Skies is out on 19 August.