The game starts out with a pretty epic full-motion video introduction, but it's pretty scattered and more for flair than to actually fill players in on the game's storyline. The music used here – the familiar Dragon Quest theme song – sound a bit like a Casio keyboard, so don't expect to be blown away with a soaring orchestral score during this FMV title sequence.
Unlike other Japanese RPGs like Final Fantasy, where you control a specific character in the game's scripted storyline, in Dragon Quest IX you play as a character of your choosing. As such, you have a full-featured character customization feature, not just for yourself but for all the party members you meet along the way. You can alter the sex of the character, the height, the build, hair style and color, skin tone and eye shade. AS you work your way through the quest you'll unlock clothes and armor that can be added to your character – in our demo, we saw a female character with cute little bunny ears.
The adventure itself can be controlled either the standard, old-school "d-pad and buttons" way, or players can choose to maneuver their characters via stylus on the touch screen. The turn-based battle system can also use this hybrid control system: you can work your way through the menus with the D-pad or simply tap on your attack/defense choice with the stylus.
Speaking of battles, just in case the idea of it might scare you away from JRPGs: no random battles! As you wander the land in the overworld you can see each and every hazardous monster. As long as you avoid contact you won't enter into a fight. If you're a high level character, you might find the weaker monsters actually running away from you. But the more aggressive monsters won't let you pass without a battle, so they'll be the ones more difficult to fight. But at least you have a chance to get away before you're whisked into a brawl.
There are more than 180 different monsters in Dragon Quest IX, and along with the main quest there are more than 120 optional sidequests to take part in. Later in the game you'll unlock the Alltrades Abbey, which will give you the opportunity to switch jobs midway through. If you want to switch from Warrior to Priest or from Marial Artist to Thief, you can do that here, and you'll retain your level as well as retain any learned spells. The spells thing is pretty cool, considering there will be skills that only one type of job can learn…but when you switch jobs you'll retain that specialized skill.
The coolest element of Dragon Quest IX is its extensive four player mode, where local players can easily jump in and out of another person's game to help them along in their quest. Players can work through the hosted player's game independently or with the other players. While one player's launched into a fight, the other players can either join in, or simply continue on and work their way through the quest. Players can also jump in mid-fight to offer assistance if or when it's needed. And it's a very smart wireless system: if another person decides to leave, the connection between the other systems in the network can continue without interruption. It actually felt a lot like Animal Crossing: Wild World in the way the network was managed.
Dragon Quest IX also has a "tag mode", a feature similar to Nintendogs' "bark mode." Using this tag mode, players can trade information and personal messages. between systems simply by passing close enough to another Dragon Quest IX player who also has its system in this wireless mode. Dragon Quest IX also features a mode that uses the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, but this is mostly to download quests and items to the system – no multiplayer modes for online players.
Even though the game's been produced and published by Square Enix in Japan, the North American release of Dragon Quest IX will be handled by Nintendo of America directly. While that might not mean much to the end user, it does mean you'll probably see an enormous marketing push leading up to te game's July 11th release in the US, July 23rd in Europe.. I don't know if the game will sell the same huge numbers as it's doing in Japan, but seeing how deep and involved it is...I wouldn't be surprised if it did do boffo sales in these territories.