overdrive's Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies review

I'm only about 7 hours into this game, but my understanding is that there are now fan servers that you can connect to so that you can still get access to the post-game content even though the official servers are dead. This might not have been applicable when this review was written though.

I've heard the multiplayer was a lot of fun when it was still around. I take it you didn't get a chance to try it?

In contemporary reviewers on big sites, and podcasts (like Retronauts) with people that worked in the gaming press, I always hear tell of how great things like Mario Kart DS multiplayer was, how great 3DS's streetpass was, etc. I have never in my life encountered a single other human people with a DS or with streetpass active. I guess you have to live in Japan or go to TGS or something to have these fabled multiplayer experiences.

No, never got the chance to do any of the multi-player stuff or anything that involved linking or anything like that. Wish I'd known about the fan servers when I was playing it, but alas, I can't imagine me going back to this one. It's a solid game, but probably in my bottom half of Dragon Quest games as far as the overall package. Definitely below 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 11 for sure. I will give it credit for one thing, though: Having the character Jack o' AllTrades turn into Master of Nu'un is the single best pun this series has ever come up with.

I'm much further in the game now (around the final boss). I did take the opportunity to unlock the "DLC" with a fan server. You're honestly not missing much. There's more quests, but they're not dissimilar to what comes with the base game anyway. Being able to run into characters like Torneko and Trodain at the tavern was OK, but since you just unlock all of them at once it's not as exciting as being drip-fed new characters. Also not having the Princess of Moonbrooke be a dog is such a lost opportunity.

What really hurts it is not being able to play multiplayer online (which you could never do anyway). Even in 2010, you weren't going to easily find people to play with unless you lived in Japan. A lot of design decisions are based around multiplayer (such as not pausing the world when opening a menu, the absurdly fetchy quests, and way EXP punishes mixing high and low level characters), so playing alone feels off in the same way Smash Bros feels off by yourself.

I'll probably end up reviewing this one. I still enjoyed it a lot.

I still need to get back to and finish 7 on 3DS, and the 3DS version of 8, before finally getting to 9 on DS and 11 on PS4 or Switch. And Dragon Quest is even my favorite JRPG franchise!

I still need to get back to and finish 7 on 3DS, and the 3DS version of 8, before finally getting to 9 on DS and 11 on PS4 or Switch. And Dragon Quest is even my favorite JRPG franchise!

I made it about 25 hours into the DQ7 remake before I gave up (possibly prematurely). By the 25 hour mark I felt like I should (1) have access to the core game systems, (2) know what the goal of the game was, and (3) feel like I've made some progress towards that goal. None of those things were true in DQ7. It's the only game in the series that I truly disliked. Hopefully your experience is different.

I've been playing DQXI on Switch off and on for a few months. It's good, but I'm having trouble getting into it largely because I'm not able to dedicate the time to enjoy it. My wife and daughter discovered Stardew Valley, so I don't think I've played the switch at all in the past 2 months! DQIX is great for me because its designed to be able to jump in and out and has a relatively brisk pace (for Dragon Quest).