quote

The ninth entry in the acclaimed Dragon Quest series, Dragon Quest IX: Protectors of the Sky is boldly being developed as a portable game title. Dragon Quest 9 features an action-oriented battle system playable cooperatively by up to four players via Wi-Fi. The DS's dual screen setup is also put to use, with the top screen showing a map and the bottom screen housing all the action.

quote

Dragon Quest IX On the Way
Compser says so.
by Anoop Gantayat
August 19, 2006 - Surprise, surprise! The Dragon Quest series will continue! Speaking at the latest installment of the Dragon Quest Concert, an orchestral event held in Tokyo on the 11th, series composer Koichi Sugiyama confirmed that Dragon Quest IX is in development. "I'm not sure when Dragon Quest IX will be released, but it seems that progress is continually being made. I'm personally excited," reads a quote from Sugiyama, posted to Famitsu.com.

What a relief! Prior to Sugiyama's statement, there had been speculation in some circles that Square Enix might just cancel the series and collect its losses after part 8 just managed to just barely squeeze past the 4 million sold mark. (Please note that this statement is completely false. Square Enix has no intention of actually canceling the series, and members of any "circles" claiming as such have been gathered together and imprisoned in cartoonish prison cells filled with treasure chests and random battles.)

Sugiyama's confirmation of Dragon Quest IX's development isn't exactly news in that it one, happened about a week ago, and two, is more obvious than a sell out of the latest DS Lite shipment, but we're sure Dragon Quest fans are interested anyway. Too bad the maestro didn't mention a target platform for the title, as everyone seems to be wondering right now, PS3, Wii, PS2, or Wonderswan?

quote

Dragon Quest 9 Set for DS
Square Enix brings Japan's favorite series to Japan's favorite system.
by Anoop Gantayat
December 11, 2006 - Square Enix held a press conference in Tokyo today to announce the next entry in the main Dragon Quest series. In a surprise move, Japan's most popular series will continue not on the PS3 or the Wii, as many had expected. Instead, Square Enix will be bringing the game to the DS.

The full name of Dragon Quest 9 is Dragon Quest 9: Hoshizora no Mamoribito. The surname can be translated to "Protectors of the sky."

Level 5 will be handling development on the game. The hot-shot development studio headed up development on Dragon Quest 8, before turning to a couple of projects for Sony. On the DS, the studio is currently working on Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village, to be self-published early next year.

Development staff on Level 5's end is the same as from Dragon Quest 8, right down to company president Akihiro Hino, who's serving as producer. Other staff members should come as no surprise. Series father Yuji Horii, heading up the project once again, was in attendance at the press conference, and said, "The DS version is not a side-story, but a true part of the series." Kouichi Sugiyama will be lending his talents to the game's soundtrack. And all future Dragon Quest soundtracks, it seems, as he took the stage today to say "I will continue making Dragon Quest music until I die."

Development seems to be quite far along. The online arms of magazines Famitsu and Gemaga, report that a demo was held at the press conference, with Horii and other guests playing the game live. Dragon Quest 9 features an action-oriented battle system playable cooperatively by up to four players via Wi-Fi. This is the first network-based Dragon Quest, Horii noted. The DS's dual screen setup is also put to use, with the top screen showing a map and the bottom screen housing all the action.

Horii is aiming for a Japanese release some time in 2007. With Dragon Quest 8 pulling in favorable sales internationally, expect a release outside of Japan to follow.

We've uploaded the first two screens of the game, which come our way via Gemaga.

quote

Dragon Quest IX Q&A
Square Enix and Nintendo answer some pressing questions.
by Anoop Gantayat
December 12, 2006 - Have you heard the shocking news yet? Dragon Quest IX is coming, not to the PS3 or Wii, but to the DS! Square Enix made the announcement at a press conference held in Tokyo earlier today.

In attendance at the conference were Square Enix president Yoichi Wada and Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. The two suits fielded questions from the press on the announcement.

Iwata was asked to comment on the news of Dragon Quest's arrival on the DS. "More than the fact that Dragon Quest has returned (to Nintendo hardware)," said the Nintendo president, "I'm personally more impressed that it's being released on a portable machine. Portable gaming, which was in a corner of the gaming industry, has been moving into the main stream since about last year. This announcement has come as part of that trend, and I'm extremely pleased."

Square Enix's move to put the next numbered entry in the franchise on something other than the PlayStation brand has been taken by some to be a nod by the firm at Nintendo's recent business direction in comparison to Sony's. Iwata was asked to comment on the impression that the PlayStation management is trailing behind. "As we've stated before, we're not thinking about fighting Sony, but about how many people we can get to play games. The thing we're thinking about most is not portable systems, consoles, and so-forth, but that we want to get new people playing games."

Wada was asked the fundamental question: why bring DQIX to the DS? "We ended up bringing it to DS under the consideration that we want to deliver to as many people as possible a Dragon Quest that offers a new experience," explained the Square Enix boss.

And the big question that we're sure Wii owners have been wondering since the announcement: any plans for Wii connectivity? Wada fielded this one, stating, "We're making a product that uses the DS's wireless features. I don't believe there will be any connectivity with the Wii. Also, looking at the game design side of this new Dragon Quest IX, there won't be ports to other hardware."

So there you go. DS or bust for the next entry in Japan's most popular gaming franchise.

quote

Dragon Quest IX Gameplay Details
Square Enix makes some major changes to Japan's biggest game series.
by Anoop Gantayat
December 12, 2006 - You might think yourself the Dragon Quest master if you played through Dragon Quest VIII. But your past encounters with the series will mean nothing for part IX, which is on its way to the DS. Dragon Quest IX takes the series away from traditional menu-based battles to real time action RPG gameplay.

At today's press conference, held in Tokyo to make the surprise announcement of DQIX's platform, producer Akihiro Hino played the game along with series father Yuji Horii, music composer Kouichi Sugiyama and a member of Japanese music group, and resident Dragon Quest spokespersons, SMAP. Famitsu has provided specifics on what went down during the gameplay session.

The four players had a unique character. Horii played as a hero, Sugiyama as a knight, Hino as a priest and the SMAP dude as a magician (these are just Famitsu's guesses based on the demo). Each player began in a different location of town. Everyone gathered around Horii, then the group went out into a field for battle.

Dragon Quest typically has random battles. Not this time. In DQIX, monsters (including classic creatures like "Slime") move about freely over the fields of play. When you approach these creatures, they take notice of you and come in for attack. You fight directly on the field using direct attacks rather than selecting options from a menu, making this more on an action RPG than an RPG.

You're not stuck in the vicinity of your party. While Horii told everyone to gather in front of a dungeon, Sugiyama was busying himself fighting monsters while Hino, citing his desire to show everyone more of the environments that his development staff had worked so hard to create, decided to head back into town.

One example of stylus use was indirectly revealed during the demonstration. The demo version displayed a message asking players to directly touch a character they wanted to heal. Aside from that, details on the game's control scheme, and all the magic spells and monsters, will have to wait.

Those who are worrying about Dragon Quest losing its charm as a single player game needn't. You won't have to play the game with others. "We'd like to make an epic title that can be fully enjoyed when playing alone," said Horii. "I can't discuss the game content yet, but the fact that we attached IX to it means that we'll be making a game of the appropriate level."

Dragon Quest IX has been in development for about a year now. There's still a lot to be done before the game's release, though, with character designer Akira Toriyama claiming, via a hand written letter displayed at the press conference, to be in the middle of his work in creating new monsters. A Japanese release is set for 2007, so expect solid gameplay and story details to begin surfacing over the next few months.

quote

First Look: Dragon Quest IX
Square Enix unveils the first trailer.
by Anoop Gantayat
December 15, 2006 - Square Enix made waves this past week with the announcement of Dragon Quest IX for the DS. While we shared a couple of images with you in our initial report, today we've got something even better: video footage!

The first trailer has a mix of artwork and gameplay footage and is definitely worth a view. See it for yourself in streaming form at the Square Enix website.

quote

Previews: Dragon Quest IX
Japan's biggest series moves to Japan's hottest system.
By Jeremy Parish 12/13/2006

Dragon Quest and DS -- seems like a natural match, right? After all, Square Enix's RPG franchise has been the biggest thing going in Japan for two whole decades, and Nintendo's double-decker portable sells twice the competition's numbers (or more) these days. And the two have already collided in the form of the excellent (but woefully underappreciated) Rocket Slime, with Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker due in just a few weeks.
But now Dragon Quest IX is coming to DS, which is genuinely shocking news and a much bigger deal than more portable spin-offs. See, for two decades, the numbered entries of the series have sold three or four million copies apiece, and they've always appeared on the leading console of the day: Famicom (NES), Super Famicom (SNES), PlayStation, PlayStation 2. But console sales are sagging out in the East while classic franchises and like New Super Mario Bros. and non-traditional software like Brain Age and Animal Crossing post seven-digit sales for DS. There's a sea change happening here, and Square Enix is riding the crest of the biggest wave.

Dragon Quest is hardly the first classic franchise to make the switch from console to portable; Castlevania and Mega Man come immediately to mind. The difference, of course, is that the other series have become niche favorites at best, while Dragon Quest is arguably at the peak of its popularity -- the latest chapter of the series, Dragon Quest VIII for PS2, was the first chapter since the original to sell a million copies outside of Japan. (And without resorting to free copy giveaways.) For the biggest series in Japan to take a step to more modest hardware speaks volumes of the direction the country's industry is headed.

While the DS hardware is certainly far less powerful than the PS2, DQIX definitely won't be a step backward for the series. In fact, it's may well be the first genuine advancement the franchise has seen since Dragon Quest II introduced a multi-character party back in, oh, 1988. Dragon Quest has long defined the concept of "traditional RPG combat" with its battle system that features heroes and enemies lining up in rows and trading blows in a turn-by-turn fashion -- but no longer. DQIX much more closely resembles a portable MMO than Dragon Quests past.

Which isn't to say it doesn't have that Dragon Quest style; like its predecessor, DQIX is being developed in collaboration with the RPG diehards at Level 5. Based on early screens of the game, they've performed a small miracle with the visuals, crafting beautiful cel-shaded graphics that make Final Fantasy III's visual high-water mark look like low tide. Series artist Akira "DragonBall" Toriyama's angular art style is a perfect match to the system's relatively limited capabilities, and the big-headed characters look cartoonier than DQVIII's cast. And of course, the usual batch of monsters will be in tow, including a massive rubber-faced ogre seen in the tiny batch of screenshots Square Enix has revealed.

Rather than lining up to play whack-an-ogre, though, players will be teaming up with their friends to beat monsters down in real-time. The DS's wireless capabilities will be put to full use in DQIX, apparently giving individual players control over a single warrior and requiring teamwork to take down the bad guys. The series has often been panned for its fight-fight-heal combat style, but when you have to count on someone else to do the heal part, things can feel quite a bit more edge-of-the-seat. It remains to be seen whether there will be an option for players who prefer to solo the adventure, but the change of interface and the emphasis on multiplayer will make for a dramatically different Dragon Quest experience.

It's a shocking turn of events, perhaps even more significant than Final Fantasy XI actually being an MMO. Much of Dragon Quest's enduring popularity is derived from its familiarity, from the comfortable feeling that 30-something gamers get from games that have only superficially changed since their eight-bit ancestors. Removing the turn-based style is a big risk for Square Enix since it could very well alienate series fans.

Then again, maybe the name Dragon Quest is so big that gamers will embrace the game regardless of what form it takes. Hopefully so -- the Japanese RPG genre can be awfully stagnant at times. Maybe Dragon Quest's abandonment of its old-fashioned ways will be the tacit go-ahead the industry needs to bring some innovation into the mix. Whatever the case, it's an unusually bold step for the series and may be precisely what it needs to finally catch on with American and European gamers.

Where Square Enix has gone the Japanese gaming industry has followed, so the company's current direction is telling. The Final Fantasy series is the company's technical flagship, always representing the cutting edge of graphics and presentation; Dragon Quest, on the other hand, is the steady money-maker, bringing comfortably familiar gameplay to the largest audience possible. For the first time ever, these sibling series are turning to different venues to achieve their respective goals: DQIX to DS and Final Fantasy XIII to PlayStation 3. If nothing else, it means that portable systems are slowly being recognized as a serious venue for original content... and that the DS's already impressive Japanese sales are about to become even more mind-blowing.