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Yes, you heard correctly. The ninth entry of the fabled RPG series is going to be on the Nintendo DS. Very little concrete info has been released thus far, but we know that it's going to be called Dragon Quest IX: Defenders of the Stars and it's going to be co-developed by the Dragon Quest dearm team (Yuji Horii, etc.) and Level-5, virtually the same team that brought us Dragon Quest VIII for the PS2 a year ago. Horii himself stated in the press release that this DS game is "not a gaiden or side-story, but a true part of the series."

This is great news for fans of the series, who are unfortunately accustomed to long delays in between DQ titles (there were five years between the releases of DQ VI and DQ VII, followed by four years between DQ VII and DQ VIII). It is certainly unexpected for Square-Enix to put the next iteration of such a major series on a handheld system, but it might just be a testament to the overwhelming popularity and developer support of the Nintendo DS in Japan. In any case, the tentative release date for Dragon Quest IX is "mid-2007."

source: N-sider

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It figures that one of my favorite composers has gigantic ears.

This sounds pretty cool. More portable RPGs= happier me. This also seems like one of the rare instances where something like this actually happens (that is, an installment in a long-running and popular series on consoles being continued on a handheld).

Well, at any rate, I see nothing but good from this.

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OSonic Rave
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[ ]Strike Raid
XRagnarok

We have a trailer. Might this castle in the sky be a return to the Zenithians storyline from DQ IV, V and VI? Who knows? What I do know is that it's Square-Enix and Level-5 collaborating, which for this series can only be a good thing.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
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I wish it was on a non-handheld console *whines*

I like my DS, but I don't like playing something for more than 15-30 minutes at a time on it.

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I had an old signature. Now I've changed it.

I can be the same, the game will generally not be able to keep my attention for more than about 45-60 minutes and then I switch games or go do something else... And with Dragon Quest(which main quests usually ending in about 100 or so hours) that seems impossible for me. I'm getting Dragon Quest IX, though, for sure.

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"You underestimate the strength of a Jedi's mind, Brejik. A mistake you won't live to regret, " -Bastila Shan(Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic)

Im sorry, but the trailer looks, colloquially speaking, "ill". In fact, it looks like what Children of Mana should have been - a full-fledged game with customizable characters*, and more than just a Diablo-esque dungeon romp. I like the move to live-action battles** - the one frustrating thing about Dragon Quest for me has always been the relatively boring random encounters.

* In the trailer, the characters' look changed when you equipped new armor.
** Beating down a troll in the trailer looked like more fun than the entirety of Children of Mana.

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Oh sure, I don't have to get kicked in the junk to activate it, but I like it anyway. -- Thief commenting on the difference between Throw and Blue Magic.

I'm actually somewhat disappointed that (from the looks of it), an action battle system is being implemented. I've always been reliant on Dragon Quest to give me some nice, relaxing, old school turn-based fun. Not that I have anything against action battle systems of course, but I've always looked to Final Fantasy for my experimental RPG needs.

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OSonic Rave
/ \Last Arcanum
[ ]Strike Raid
XRagnarok