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Above: Dragon Quest IX marks the first time a mainline Dragon Quest has been made first and foremost for a handheld.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

Throughout its history, the Dragon Quest series has always been on a home console, but for Dragon Quest IX, Yuji Horii decided to take the series in a new direction by having the game made for the Nintendo DS, a handheld system. Moreover, the game also put quite a bit of emphasis on multiplayer gaming, a first for the series. Even more mind-blowing is that the series does away with random battles for the most part.

In Dragon Quest IX, angels play a prominent role in the game's narrative. In fact, the main character is one. Angels here are trying to get into the realm of their god, but in order to do so they need to gather Goddess fruit. This is done by collecting Star Auras, which angels receive for helping humans in the world below. Collect enough of theses, and it's off to god's land for them.

All of this is going swimmingly for the hero, and before too long he has all the Goddess fruit he needs to board the celestial train, and make his way to god's land. However, just as he is about to board the train, a massive earthquake hits, and the hero, the train tumble to the earth below. When the hero comes to, he realizes he's lacking in the wings and halo department. Thankfully, some of the people that he helped as an angel were more than happy to fix him up. Shortly thereafter, he finds Sandy, the faerie driver of the celestial train who offers to take him home if he can prove that he is indeed an angel. So, off the hero goes to help people once again, and in time he earns Sandy's trust, and is returned to the land of angels.

Above: Here is the Japanese box art of Dragon Quest IX.  We're still waiting on a US release for the game, and as such no box art has been announced for that region yet.

Upon his return, the hero learns that the Goddess fruit have also fallen to the earth, and all of the angels have gone out looking for them, but none have returned. When looking to see what happened, the hero discovers that the fruit have the ability to grant wishes, but with unforeseen consequences that have been twisting people into hideous creatures. Over time, the hero helps purge these people of their corruption, and gathers the Goddess fruit.

As players go about this they'll quickly notice that Dragon Quest IX marks another return to the class system. Like in previous games, only a few basic classes will be available at first, but as time goes on, quests will become available that allows characters to take on new classes. On top of this, players can customize the hero a fair bit, choosing gender, as well as facial, and bodily features for the character. Combat still has players selecting characters' actions, and then watching things play out, but a combo system has been added to the mix. As mentioned earlier, this will be the first Dragon Quest game to support multiplayer, as gamers can play together via wi-fi. One other interesting addition is that Enix has been slowly releasing free downloadable updates for the game in Japan that allow players to take on new adventures.

Dragon Quest IX has sold well over two million copies in Japan since release, but is still awaiting a release in Europe and North America. As of now, a loose 2010 release is pencilled in for the game in those regions.