Dragon Quest IX

[Miho]

You decide. Square Enix is announcing a new Dragon Quest game very soon, and it very well could be regarding the newest installment in the main series, Dragon Quest IX. The question is, which console will it appear on?

[Waus]

Microsoft will definitely be making a bid for it. They have yet to win over the japanese market in any sense, especially with any kind of RPG game.

Nintendo has been on shaky ground with Square Enix for a while as I recall. What was the last game produced for a Nintendo console from Square Enix? Might've been something for the GBA or whatever, but nothing significant comes to mind.


Even though PS3's are clearly the runt of the new console group - I think they're most likely the ones who'll rope in the RPGs and Japanese fanbase.


[/tmi]

[Miho]

Microsoft will definitely be making a bid for it. They have yet to win over the japanese market in any sense, especially with any kind of RPG game.

This is true. Blue Dragon recently debuted in Japan, and allegedly, it has moved 70,000 units for the Xbox 360 Blue Dragon bundle and standalone Blue Dragon game units combined. Not too extraordinary, but it's something, and that will be spreading across Japan by word of mouth, so we'll see how popular the game becomes. Microsoft hopes to sell over 200,000 units of the game, hoping this will create a huge success in the Japanese RPG market for their console.

]Nintendo has been on shaky ground with Square Enix for a while as I recall. What was the last game produced for a Nintendo console from Square Enix? Might've been something for the GBA or whatever, but nothing significant comes to mind.

They have supported both the GBA and DS very well. Recently, they have released Children of Mana, Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, and Final Fantasy III DS. They have Dragon Quest Monsters Joker, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, It's A Wonderful World, and Seiken Densetsu: Heroes of Mana, still in store for the DS.

The GBA saw ports of Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI. (VI comes out in February) It also had Sword of Mana and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

Even though PS3's are clearly the runt of the new console group - I think they're most likely the ones who'll rope in the RPGs and Japanese fanbase.

I don't know about that. Square Enix has recently spoken out about not putting all their cards on the PS3 table, so to speak.

[Miho]

http://www.famitsu.com/blog/express/2006/12/ixds.html

I spoke too soon. This just in, Dragon Quest IX will be for the DS. Incredible. To bring you up to speed, the Dragon Quest series is considered to be the most prestigious RPG series ever created in Japan. For the next main entry in the series to appear on a handheld, is unheard of, but considering how popular the DS has become, this is not that surprising.

[ET]

WTF?! I wonder what it'll look like. They seemed to have done an awesome job with FF3... here's hoping.

If the 360 gets a DQ game... shit's gonna hit the fan. Hopefully it'll get Sony to market itself better. (read: make it's shit unfuckingexpensive.)

[Miho]

IGN further confirms (http://ds.ign.com/articles/750/750590p1.html) it. The official title is called Dragon Quest IX: Hoshizora no Mamoribito. (Protectors of the Sky) Level 5 will be developing it.

[Miho]

Gamebrink gameplay video at the conference. (http://www.gamebrink.com/nintendo-ds/2304-Dragon_Quest_IX-video-1.html)

Screen shots. (http://www.gamebrink.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12336)

More screens shots. (http://www.gamebrink.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12341)

I'm not liking where this is going. Dragon Quest IX looks to have turned into an action RPG. The appeal of the Dragon Quest series was that it has always stayed at its core gameplay, a turn-based battle system.