Dragon Quest IX / 9: Protectors Of The Sky Gameplay Details

Dragon Quest IX is not only the first title in the series (by this we mean, in order of VI, VII, VIII they have all been released on consoles, not handhelds) to be a handheld based game, but it is also breaking the pattern of Dragon Quest being a typical RPG game. It has been announced it will no longer feature a menu based battle system, but infact will be fulyl turn based and active making this an action RPG style game. Also, in Dragon Quest IX you are able to play in party's with your friends via Wi-FI! So you can play with a friend in battles, or just talk to eachother and help eachother out. A demo of this was presented to us at the Jump Festa event in 2006, when the development team played together! Akihiro Hino played the game along with the series' creator Yuji Horii, music composer Kouichi Sugiyama and a member of a Japanese music group, and resident Dragon Quest spokespersons, SMAP. Famitsu have provided us with the specifics on what exactly went on during the gameplay demo 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. Each player began in a different location of town. Everyone gathered around Horii, then the group went out into a field for battle. You're not even stuck in the vicinity of your party either. Horii told everyone to gather in front of a dungeon, Sugiyama was at that time occupied fighting monsters while Hino, wanted to show everyone more of the environments that his development team had worked so hard to create, decided to head back into town. So already we get a basic feel as to how Dragon Quest IX shall play out! And it sounds very fun, and also interactive! Fans of the series may feel woried that all this multiplay focus may ruin the single player aspect of the game, however Yuuji Horii the games designer stated to us that "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.", so it shall be fully playable single player, and its entirely optional to go multiplayer!