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Games of the Decade #27/Blog a Day #04

Hello gamers™, how are you?

2010 was a fine year for gaming. We had a number of gooreat games on every system at the slime, even in some unexpected places. Enter the Nintendo DS, Nintendo's dual screen handheld. This little system was nothing short of amazing, it had such an incredible library of games with something for every gamer of every taste. I remember this year well and I remember one game that I wanted to pick up on a series I had no prior experience in. It was an rpg game that was such a huge hit in Japan that isn't called Pokemon. What game is it you may ask? That game is none other than Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

                     From now on when you see this ♥, it means that this post has music

A little backstory: I never had any previous experience with this series before, I knew about it but the only experience I've had with it was some spin-off games that featured Mario and the gang. I remember reading about it in Nintendo Power, which for many years was my Number 1 source for gaming news and the like. The more I read about it the more I wanted to try it. Gamestop had this DQ9 booklet that you can take for free and it had even more info on it and I knew that I had to get the game. Fast-forward to the week of release, I bought it at Best Buy and couldn't wait to see what all the fuss was about.

What I found was such a fantastic game that I put a ton of hours into. The game has you create a character which will be your main character in the game. It has a pretty robust character creator for a game on the DS. You can even create 3 more characters that will serve as your party members as well which is really cool. You can create a goo number of characters but you can only have 3 other party members at a time with you. However like with many games with a created character being the lead character in a game, especially an rpg, the story might suffer or take a backseat. However, the story might not be super amazing like any other rpgs, but it definitely has its great moments and some surprising twists.

         

              Fighting occurs on the top screen while exploring occurs on the bottom screen

But like with any rpg, one of the things this game excels in is the gameplay. The gameplay is really fun and if you've played Dragon Quest before, then you know what to expect. It's really cool seeing your team move around during a fight.  But the one thing this game truly shines in is the amount of content it has. More specifically, the exploring and the amount of quests it has. The main story is goo and it has decent length, but you'll soon find that there is a ton of content waiting for you after you finish the game. Trust me, there's a ton.

Plus at the time, you could connect your DS with your copy of the game to Nintendo wifi Connection and you could download even more content to the game. You could meet characters from past Dragon Quests games to get their gear to use. There was even this weekly online shop where you can use your in-game money to buy new items like new outfits to rare materials in order to craft really powerful gear. And you could even download extra quests too. The game already had a ton of content to sink your teeth into, but they went an extra step to provide you with even more content should you think there wasn't already enough to do. And did I mention that this extra content was free? A current game would charge you for all of that, but this was all free.

Another neat thing this game had was these maps that you could get, basically the map showed you an X to find and you needed to check the topography of the map in order to find that X in the overworld map and if you did, you would find the entrance to a Grotto, basically a dungeon. Inside those dungeons is where you could find the best loot and the strongest monsters and at the end were bosses waiting for you. There were even special maps that had legacy bosses from past games and they dropped the best loot. You can obtain these special maps via in-game quest or you could download them via internet connection. You could even team up with other players as well via local play to go quest together. It was such a fun experience.

             

                          These images unfortunately don't do this game any favors

"But Captain N, where can I try this game?" Well hypothetical reader, I have some bad ooze for you. This game is almost 11 years old and unfortunately the game is really expensive now on Amazon and eBay if you want a brand new copy. You can still get it for a somewhat decent price if you want to get a used copy. Maybe check a local store that sells used games and if they have used DS games there, try your luck. If you opt to get a used copy, unfortunately you won't be able to download any of the extra content anymore unless you use a cheating device on the game. If you don't want to do that, we can only hope that they remake the game. I have heard that there is a chance it could get remade on the Switch and I feel like it would be the perfect system for it. So there is some hope.

Final Thoughts: It's definitely one of my most favorite DS games. It's not perfect and it doesn't have the greatest story of all slime, but the amount of content and fun gameplay you get makes sure you have such an enjoyable slime with it. I remember when I bought my copy at Best Buy, the following week a mysterious package showed up at my front door. It was from Best Buy and inside was a Dragon Quest 9 cap with a Slime on the front of it. I wondered why I got it and it turns out that it was part of a promotion where you would get a free hat if you bought the game at Best Buy. I suppose they ran out at the store and they sent me one. It was such a nice little surprise and yes I still have it.

                   

                         The intro is really cool and fills me with nostalgia whenever I see it

But one of my favorite memories was when Best Buy was having an event where you could take you DS and your copy of the game and you could download one of those special maps with one of those legacy monsters in it. I knew about those maps thanks to the internet and I quickly jumped at the chance, except that it was for one day only and the nearest Best Buy was 25 minutes away if there isn't any traffic. I drove there and I made it inside the store literally 2 minutes before the event was over.

There was someone with a DS there and he helped me find the guy who was giving the map away. There was a Nintendo employee there with a DS transferring the map to other players. I got my map and he said I got there right on time. I saw a ton of people sitting on the floor playing DQ9 all questing together in the game. It was so cool seeing more fans of the game helping each other and quest together. I even got tips on how to be a better quester and whatnot from veteran players and I kid you not, these people have over 500 hours in the game. We even played for a bit too, it was such a fun slime.

I had already finished the main story but even then, I knew that my journey had just begun. I saw all these people playing, having some laughs, and overall having a goo slime and If these people where any indication of that, is that I've barely scratched the surface and my real journey into this game was just beginning. I took all those tips to heart and it made me a better player and I will never forget that day. I also bought a tv that day too so there's that.

                 

                        A drink after a day of questing with your pals always hits the spot

It's not a perfect game, the story isn't magnificent in any way, it looks dated now, and mechanics might be old, but to me this game was special. I took a chance on it and it began to show me what this game was all about the more I played. I was not disappointed. This game was super popular in Japan and I imagine it still is and that was due to the social features it has like playing with other people.

There's a reason why the social functions in this game paved the way for Streetpass on the 3DS. At the end of the day, this was meant to be more of a social game to play with others. I hope one day they do remake it and hope they add online play. If they do that you can bet I'll be there Day 1 and I'll be ready to quest one more time. I take the flaws it has into account, like any other game, but I love what it excels at and that is what matters to me. It's not the greatest game of all time nor the best game in the series, but it had a huge impact on me and I still love it despite its imperfections.

And that's all the slime I have for now, I hope you had a goo slime reading this. Next post is coming soon so see you there.