Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

Azeroth was getting old and tiresome, so all my new adventures have been in the Protectorate (and beyond!), and I’m a happier man for it. For one thing, the plot’s a lot less grim, overall, even if it is tinged with much sadness along the way (Coffinwall, I’m looking at YOU). But the game seems to have an unshakeable faith in the essential goodness of people, and the story communicates this well, which is probably why I got hooked on it in the first place.

Now, some 60 hours plus into the game, they’ve deployed their second grasping claw; mastering the subclasses, and grinding for gear. It’s got all the item-compulsion of an MMO without having to rely on nine to twenty-four other people. Plus, you can save the game at almost any time.

I’m not quite endgame yet, but I’m close, so I’m starting to collect more and more rare alchemical materials, wandering the world for sidequests, and prepping for the time when I’ll be delving grottoes in greater depth. And speaking of which, with PAX 2010 on the horizon, and already-scheduled meetups and other Canvassing for Guests occurrences, there should be a great number of maps to share and characters to bump into! It’ll be fun to have a packed meeting room in the Quester’s Rest, for a change.

map lovingly plundered from Zaraf

Response to the game has been overwhelmingly positive. Some of the best and most interesting takes have been Jeremy Parish’s 1up review and Chris Kohler’s article on map trading in Japan. On the crunchy side, there’s The Dragon’s Den, with its lovingly detailed item data and a writeup on the deeply magical Hoimi table. The only bit it’s really missing are the Vocation data, and GameFAQs fills in the blanks there. Now, back to farming up liquid metal slimes…