Dragon Quest IX to be DS-Exclusive

Posted on Tuesday 12th December 2006 at 17:48 by laszlow

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

Posted in: Square-Enix News, News from Japan

Written by	laszlow
	Contributor
	Member Since: 2003-10-16
	News articles posted: 98
	More articles by laszlow

Comments

Zeromus_X	Comment 1: 2006-12-12 23:49
	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.
laszlow	Comment 2: 2006-12-16 18:53
	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.
Elena99	Comment 3: 2006-12-16 20:10
	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.
Aether Master	Comment 4: 2006-12-16 22:24
	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.
WildHalcyon	Comment 5: 2006-12-20 15:20
	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.
Zeromus_X	Comment 6: 2006-12-20 23:58
	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.
Please Log In to Add Comments

Printable Version (in new window) · Top of Page

Caves of Narshe Version 6
©1997–2025 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)

All fanfiction and fanart (including original artwork in forum avatars) is property of the original authors. Some graphics property of Square Enix.