This game escaped my childhood, only to re captivate me now. Growing up, I wasn't much a big fan of RPGs until Final Fantasy II (IV) was released on the Super Nintendo in 1991. My NES collection read something like this; Contra, Super Mario, and Mega Man. I remember seeing games like Wizardry, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Warrior back in the day, buy my feeble 8-9 year old mind rather be figuring out which weapon to kill which robot master or how to get to Dracula's Castle.
My first foray into the Dragon Quest world was Dragon Warrior Monsters (yes, I was infected with Pokerus like the rest of the world in the mid to late 90's). The artwork and monster designs were brilliant. What have I gotten myself into.
For years I've had a copy of Dragon Warrior VII sitting on my PlayStation shelf. I've yet to this day played it. Now let's press fast forward to the release of Dragon Quest IX.
Life as I know it will forever be changed. How did I know I'd be hooked as a Sentinel of the Starry Sky? How did I know I would attend every Canvas tagging event in a 50 mile radius of my house? Hell, who would have guessed I'd be a co-founder of a Dragon Quest IX tagging group with more than 100 members in the Los Angeles area? Not I.
I'm a traditionalist at heart. Old school Final Fantasy and other RPGs are some of my favorites. I've an avid Pokefreak, even though I've only managed to catch them all during the Gameboy and Gameboy Color era. So what was it about Dragon Quest IX that hooked me? Hell, I'll go as far to say that this game hit all my sweet spots and brought up fond memories of RPGs from an era past.
The game included the basic RPG formula that you can't go wrong with. Solid story, great music. Tons of quest to complete. I doubt I'll ever truly complete them. For a DS title, the graphics were awesome too. But there's two more things that got me hooked. Multiplayer and customization. Unless you wanted all the same Armor and hair styles, every Quester in the world of DQIX had their own distinct look. And this may sound funny, the last time I had multiplayer in a traditional RPG was Final Fantasy III on the SNES, and the only thing the second player could do was select attack commands during battles. This game lets another play enter your world to help you along with your quest, or get to the second to last floor in the Mayasuki dungeon. This game has win all over it, but every other Dragon Quest/Warrior game to be released failed to sell outside of Japan. How is this different?
Well, the marketing muscle of Nintendo was flexed in favor of this game. From TV spots and movie theater ads to a full fledged mall tour, this game was going to succeed.
B
ut enough about IX, we all know how great the game is. Now I'm on a quest to complete every Dragon Quest/Warrior main game. Currently I own Dragon Warrior, Dragon Warrior VII, Dragon Quest IV and Dragon Quest IX. I've recently obtained Dragon Warrior III, Dragon Quest V, and Dragon Quest VI. I've located two copies of Dragon Warrior I & II and Dragon Warrior III for GBC at the local swap meet. Might take my SP with me to check if they work still before I buy. I've beaten only Dragon Quest IX and IV. I'm about to finish DQV hopefully this week, and erase my save from DQVI (I made the mistake and told Amos the truth, Momma didn't raise a liar).
So with my latest addiction to Dragon Quest/Warrior I've been reading up on every game, I even started a Caravan Heart game on the side. Too bad I missed out on the Retronauts Podcast. I still got some Dragon Quest questions I want to ask. Maybe Parish will answer them via Twitter.
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