Japan not happy about Dragon Quest IX on the DS?

By Spencer . December 27, 2006 . 9:31am

Over at insert credit there are translated quotes from Famitsu about the series switch from a console game to a portable title. The reader poll shows that the decision is split with 40.3% love the idea and 46% don’t. What splits the fanbase more is that 53.9% of those polled are not in favor of the action based battle system introduced in Dragon Quest IX. While Final Fantasy has re-created itself in each installment, the Dragon Quest series has remained pretty much the same as the NES games. The first major change to the series was brought by Level 5 who changed the world from 2D to 3D in Dragon Quest VIII. However, the gameplay was largely the same with fewer menus. Why is there so much outcry from the fans? Because of the “IX” in Dragon Quest IX. The Dragon Quest series is long overdue for an evolution and had Square-Enix called this Dragon Quest DS Adventures or something else the fans would have backed it whole heartedly.

TAGS: Dragon Quest, Nintendo DS, Square Enix

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Cherry

I think making it an Action-RPG and putting it on a handheld is a good idea. I'm not a staunch Nintendo fan or anything, I just think that the DS is something you can easily pick up, and just as easily put down. Furthermore, I've found pretty much all of the Dragon Quest games to be boring -- and they all really seem to be the same game, regardless of the number. I cannot see why Japan still makes a big deal out of the series. As a matter of fact, I think they should start including an alarm clock that goes off every 10 minutes to make sure the user hasn't fallen asleep from boredom. Thankfully, the new direction Level-5 seems to be taking with the series will most likely remedy any boredom. Additionally, if anyone can get an Action-RPG right, and make a good game in general, it's Level-5.

So, to sum it up: Japan needs to get over it. The series has needed change for over 15 years, and it's finally getting it, so now people who previously disliked the series may actually get into it with this installment. Like me.

the_importer

Bah, they're just #$%^ing, they'll buy it anyway, them Japanese folks love their DQ.

I'm sure they #$%^ed when the franchise moved from Nintendo to SONY and when it went from 2D to 3D.

D-Fuse

I bet if it was on the Playstation 3 and had the same stuff that the other Dragon Quest or Dragon Warrior games had there would still be people complaining that it was the same stuff over and over. Welcome chang3?

ShadowMarth

Well, perhaps they're building up to #10. I don't know why they're getting all offensive about the number of the title... It's really meaningless, since the game would exist either way.

Jeff

Americans and the like might complain D-fuse, but the Japanese wouldn't. Haven't you been paying attention? This is the franchise that's so popular a law had to be passed so that new entries (after DQIII) couldn't be released on school days. The Japanese like Dragon Quest to stay just how it is, and I honestly don't blame them. In a world where Final Fantasy no longer needs humans to play (and quite frankly, doesn't seem to want it either), Dragon Quest is traditional and familiar almost to a fault. Nobody is saying you have to every DQ entry, but when every other RPG around is trying new things and becoming more "action-oriented," sometimes it's nice to have a series that sticks to what works and does it well.

That being said, I'm anticipating DQIX to be a fun game, although the descriptions have me a bit nervous. More and more it sounds like a dungeon crawler (I remember reading somewhere that you're given missions by a king and sent off to various dungeons), which might not be the best route to take the series. It certainly hasn't been working too well for the Mana series.