Summary
- Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies is a unique and experimental DS game that deserves to be brought to modern consoles.
- The game offers a lot of content, with a long story and extensive post-game content that can provide hundreds of hours of gameplay.
- Dragon Quest IX features multiplayer gameplay, allowing players to explore the game world together and offering different types of loot for hosting players and other participants.
Dragon Quest has enjoyed popularity for almost forty years, and it shows no sign of slowing down. Each of its mainline titles has been essential to furthering JRPGS as a genre, and these days they carve their path by maintaining traditional turn-based combat. There is still variation in the franchise, and it's time for Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies to be brought to modern consoles.
Dragon Quest IX was a callback to the roots of the franchise in many ways, where players built and managed their party characters rather than having established roles. Players could customize their avatar as well as party members, from their looks down to their play style. Different jobs and opportunities for further customization could be unlocked as the game progressed. Overall, the game did what most Dragon Quest games do best: staying true to its roots while bringing forth new innovations.
Dragon Quest IX Has a Lot of Content
Like most Dragon Quest games, Dragon Quest IX has a long story to enjoy, but when considering the post-game content, players could sink as much as eight hundred hours into one campaign. Even after the story is through, there are plenty of optional bosses to grind and prepare for, so players who like getting their money's worth will have nothing to complain about if Dragon Quest IX is remade. Different parties are composed of different bosses, and each party member needs to grind for skills and equipment. For those who just want to complete the story, one party is sufficient, but for players who enjoy a good post-game grind, Dragon Quest IX fills that niche perfectly.
Dragon Quest IX was also known for its multiplayer content, where different players could join their parties and explore the same world together. The game even offered different types of chests: one that contained loot solely for the hosting player, and one that contained loot for anyone. The game introduces this multiplayer very early on; as soon as party-building is unlocked, players can take those parties and play with their friends. Of course, one difference between multiplayer on the DS and the current multiplayer is that now most multiplayer requires a subscription of some sort to access, so the developers would have to consider that when rebalancing the game.
DQIX Is the Only Dragon Quest Left to Remake
It sounds like an exaggeration to say that Dragon Quest IX is the only mainline game that hasn't received an update, but with Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age getting a definitive version and even the Japan-exclusive Dragon Quest X recently receiving singleplayer content, Dragon Quest IX is the only remaining game. Dragon Quest has a good history with remakes, too, with most games receiving both graphical and gameplay polishes that make the experience more enjoyable. Dragon Quest IX was already considered a beautiful game when it was released, especially since it was on the Nintendo DS, but it has certainly aged since then and could use an update.
With the Dragon Quest III HD-2D remake still somewhere far on the horizon, Dragon Quest IX is the perfect title to tide fans over until its release. Both have similar party building, with the player able to customize each character and stack various skills on the protagonist. Since every character is built by the player, they control how each character grows, giving opportunities to customize combat more than any other game in the series.
Dragon Quest IX is also referenced several times in Dragon Quest Treasures, so fans can rest assured that Square Enix hasn't forgotten about the game, and hopefully, the attention it received is evidence that a remake of the game is on the table. At the end of the day, it simply makes sense to remake Dragon Quest IX when every other remake and update to previous titles has gone over with the fans so smoothly.
Dragon Quest IX Has Some Good Stories to Tell
Although the three characters made through Patty's party planning have no real personality to speak of, the main character has an intriguing storyline that stands out from the rest of the franchise. They fall from grace in quite the literal sense, and it's up to the player to help them regain their former abilities and save their home world. Dragon Quest IX also has some interesting bosses, like the Wight Knight, whose story of lost love is sure to tug at a few heartstrings. Each character is meant to make their own impact on the player, and each one succeeds in that endeavor. Sometimes it's through goofy names, and sometimes it's through relatable struggles for the player to help solve, but regardless of implementation, they all come together to make the game's world feel alive.
It's a Dragon Quest game like all the others—there's a ton of personality in all its myriad of characters, sometimes played for laughs and sometimes in deeply tragic stories only heightened by the goofy monsters and overall cheery tone. Dragon Quest V has its escape from slavery, Dragon Quest XI has its second arc, and Dragon Quest IX is no lesser than either of those. It's been stuck on the DS for some time, and given how some fans of the series started playing when Dragon Quest XI came out, it's the perfect opportunity to introduce it to those less familiar with the series' handheld roots.
Dragon Quest is a series known for being traditional, for sticking to what it does best, and then improving that best even further. While other series have changed the setting or combat, Dragon Quest remains a bastion for those who still appreciate turn-based combat and medieval settings. Playing a Dragon Quest game is a bit like coming home, in a sense, to a comfortable style of gameplay that feels fresh from childhood. The fun localization, the music, the characters, the quests—all these things have kept the series fresh and popular even today.
Dragon Quest IX is no exception to any of those things, and it deserves more than to simply be stuck on the Nintendo DS forever. Square Enix could do so much with the graphics and gameplay, and with the one hundred and eighty-odd quests, there would be tons of content to keep fans occupied while they wait for Dragon Quest III's remake or even Dragon Quest XII.