First Look At Dragon Quest IX’s Co-Op Game Play

@Witzbold: While I haven't played series greats like DQVIII yet, I'm assuming they had a pretty deep storyline, and I can't see them being able to achieve something like that quite as well with custom characters. It's like bringing it down to the level of Zelda games (atleast as far as the protagonist goes). Co-op would more than make up for it, but I have a feeling those of us unable to do co-op are going to be in for a less than stellar experience when compared to previous Dragon Quest games.

The graphics are ridiculously amazing for a DS game.

Benjo

I hope this game comes to US and EUR this year!!

Yamato

@landonkun: "a new DQ story to download" for up to a year. So what happens after the year is up? Will that lower its replayability factor? ...What am I saying? RPGs have very little replayability, so this might actually be a potentially awesome idea! btw, didn't someone say that this won't have wifi capability (other than local wifi)? So how do you get this DLC then???

@Mit: You know though its a bit hard to really judge the game at this point in time in regards to the SP considering the fact that we dont have our hands on it let alone have passed the game. While your concerns are legit at the same time too I doubt that they would have made a flagship title "hollow and devoid of life".

For Dragon Quest fans this seems to be a match made in heaven. Am looking forward to messing with co-op with my friend when there is time. Plus want to see how the downloadable quest / item system works too. I wonder if they kept in that online auction house feature they had talked about before.

@Ganji: it looks like a wireless receiver maybe, to display what's showing on their screen directly to the tv, but i could be dreadfully incorrect

@Mit: I agree with the part where you said they should have added online even if it was only with Friend Codes, but at the same time this is how I've been thinking about it. In the first Dragon Quest game you played alone, and I actually enjoyed that and have been wanting enix (now SE of course) to release a New Dragon Quest game where that if you so choose you can play it alone or with friends. maybe it's just nostalgia of me playing my NES back in the day, but i am sure looking forward to Dragon Quest IX, I just hope that I too can get some friends to play it with. ( I only have one at the moment that I can think of..)

Arc-

aw, i want this game really bad, so bad i think im going to go out and get dragon quest v to hold me off soon. question, i certainly do not have any friends who are going to have the patience or even desire to play this, does the lack of friends hinder you during the game? do extra characters come out to aid you like a single player game or are you stuck by yourself to fend off enemies because you have no friends? ;-;

@RevengaSweet: Yes, it's against the law for Dragon Quest to be released on weekdays due to an extremely large portion of the workforce calling in sick to go pick up and play the game, rather than going to work. This causes productivity to plummet, basically making it a wasted day. TL;DR: Yes.

Ah. Japanese TV is one of my favorite things ever in 日本！ It's so wacky and outgoing, unlike American TV, which seems to be headed down the pits to the bowels of reality TV as we speak.

The thing I would not like about Dragon Quest IX's co-op mode online would be that people could (and would) tend to be more of an ass to you than if you were face to face or in the same room. But at the same time, I really don't know any friends that are RPG freaks like me other than in Pokémon. >_> So Wi-Fi could be useful in that sense.

And speaking about SMAP, Nintendo actually hired them for promoting MOTHER 2 in Japan, as I recall.

But really, as a 20 year old band, are they really STILL that popular!? They must be like Japan's Beatles or something like that.

@(Zombie) Goldwings: Yeah, other RPGs with mild multiplayer like Tales atleast did not completely remove the focus from single player. I don't think you can build a party of AI members in DQIX, meaning when you don't have friends, you don't have any companions with you on your journey in the game, which again, sounds pretty damn boring for an RPG.

"this is also the first time actual game play has been shown on television." You mean we were supposed to expect something else besides menus and classic turn based rpg?

hanulbada

@Michael Dukakis - Mets fan: Makes living in Canada/US seem really boring though. I wish we were more outgoing....

Ganji

Japan is freakin' nuts.

This looks awesome. Wonder how long it will take to get over here. Guess I'll need to convince two pals of mine to get a DS in time.

What's up with the thing on the back of the DS? Is it going to use some sort of unwieldy large cartridge, or is that just some sort of fancy thing they stuck on for the show?

Ganji

So, does EVERYONE in Japan play Dragon Quest?

You know what would be cool? if there was real time combat in the multiplayer. So that every player could do their part and have it not be the same effort as a singleplayer experience. Oh. Wait.

@Mit: I myself can't think of an alternative to co-op in RPGs, but IMO, a RPG with co-op reminds me of an MMORPG. They have the same characteristics such as item collecting, pretending to be another character and grinding. Some of the Tales games presented multiplayer with its battle system, but that's only reasonable to have if you have people with you and not those standbying online to wait for you to go into battle. So yeah, co-op in RPGs can be a sticky subject as I personally see the ones implemented with it as a mini-MMO. BTW Japanese/Korean television are awesome and I'd watch their version of a reality show over any American one. Apologies in advance for odd grammatical errors. I NEEDZ SLEEP Z___Z

@Cheezsama: they have crabs.

WorldGreatest is in Misato's Bra

When one of them uses Hoimi, it also said his Hoimi powered up. So I guess there's experience & levels on individual magics/skills.

maxpower4649

Cool, they mentioned that once a week there will be a new story to download. I did not know that. I don't have a DS, but that sounds awesome.

landonkun

God I love Japanese television.

On DQIX, I seem to find myself more and more unhappy as of late with their decision on making it co-op. It sounds like fun, and I'm sure it is, but I can't actually think of 3 IRL friends who are big enough RPG nerds and patient enough to sit and play this game with me in extended sessions until we beat the game.

What are your alternatives to co-op? Playing through the entire game alone, with just yourself? Sounds like a pretty lonely RPG without a party (especially since your characters are all custom, and therefore probably have no deep story or character interaction involved with them). No doubt more difficult as well (although I seem to recall there being difficulty scaling depending on amount of characters).

If they had decided to include online (even FC only) I'd be okay, because there are plenty of places to go on the internet to find people just as interested as I am and devoted to the game to play it with. They haven't, however (thanks Japan), and I'm going to be stuck with another game that I'm not going to get to experience to its fullest due to not having three friends who buy all the same games as me and are willing to spend the time playing them co-op.

LOL @ COSPLAY GUY.

Hmm...DS Co-op you say? Y'know...I don't see that often on the DS. They should make a Co-op Pokemon game too. That would be sweet. Anyways the Co-op aspect on this looks awesome.

If this is their network television, I can only imagine how insane everything else is...

Silvercross

@Cheezsama: Because pixy dust is cheap and highly addictive. I ride the pixy at least twice a weak.

DocBacca

The co-op actually looks quite fun, and it looks to work remarkably well. The open world part of the game looks to be rather like organized chaos, which is usually hilariously awesome if done with 4 people. The combat looks to be a bit slow, but this is DQ after all, if you don't like it, you're playing the wrong game!

DQ really is BIG in Japan, to be featured/heavily advertised like that. And it's a DS game!

stalin23

Why do Japanese TV hosts always act like they're hopped up on pixy dust...

bonus points for the coplay alone!

Dragonah Kwestah!