Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (Nintendo DS)

This game is impeccable. Fantastic. A Masterpiece.The game has an excellent story, which to complete will span at least 30hrs if not closer to 40hrs, the story itself containing several bosses, at least 13 within the main adventure. The animation sequences that depict the story are beautiful to watch, and create an excellent story to play through.These bosses are no easy feat, getting more difficult as the game progresses, with the end bosses being nightmarishly challenging to beat.However, even after completing the main adventure you will be nowhere near 100% completion of the game, there are over 100side quests, maybe even over 200, I'm still playing through them, and the game is highly addictive.If you complete all the sidequests, there is still more to do. In the game you can find treasure maps to go seeking new items and equipment on a treause hunt in dungeons and other kinds of areas. At the end of these treasure maps, there is a boss, giving the game well over 30bosses to play through and defeat.The multiplayer is fantastic, having yourself and three friends play in any of your games is a riot, and can help you level up quicker or you can just pilfer their map for things you can't yet attain in your own game.The map is enormous, with continents to adventure through and new things, items and places to discover. There are too many things to write in expressing how great this game is, so I'll stop here, with the end note being: Buy it, it's hard to be disappointed.

Bought this in 2019 and I'm still playing it in 2022 such is the sheer enormity of joy I get from playing this. I'm a huge fan of the Dragon Quest series of games-DQ5 had been my favourite before I bought and played this. But you don't need to have played the previous games to be hooked in to it. It is both accessible and challenging which is no small feat.If you want to get lost in a game and spend many many hours playing it this is the game for you. I honestly can't recommend it enough. The only downside is that by the time I bought it Nintendo had discontinued their DS Wi-Fi so I missed out on all the online content. Even so this is still an outstanding game. Dive in and enjoy a truly rewarding and enriching gaming experience.

I got this game about a month ago and have really enjoyed it so far. I wanted a game that was fun and light-hearted but also one that was in-depth enough I could get lost in it; being a Final Fantasy lover I was hoping for something similar!This game is really good at easing you into it, starting off with simple tasks before you get into the real stuff. The monsters can be quite tough later on if you don't take time to level up enough in-between story-points, but it doesn't get too monotonous levelling up. I didn't realise when I bought the game that you basically create your own party in 1P mode; I thought characters joined you as you went along. While this is fun because you get to design your party members' looks and choose which skills they pursue, it does mean they are relatively non-descript, just to use as healers/attackers etc, rather than having any part in the story at all.Overall the game is really good, I have just managed to aquire a ship to explore further and feel like even though I've spent a lot of time playing there is still a lot further to go. Doing side-quests bulks the game up further and it has kept my interest well, I would definitley recommend this game!

Originally bought this in 2009/10, but then I lost the cartridge after a few months. By that time I'd already finished the game and most of the post game content so I simply sighed and carried on with my life.However, I felt that the game was so good that I bought it again,now in 2014!Now to the review:+ Excellent item crafting system+ Wacky monsters+ Brilliant storyline+ A nice level of customisation that is seen rarely in JRPGs+ Tons of post-game content+ Nice soundtrack- Can be a touch repetitive - some quests are simply item retrieval which can become tedious- Turn based combat system may be slow for someIf you're looking at this now, I'd highly recommend this to you; this game is very special! After all, I came back crawling after 4 or so years...

Arrived promptly and a reasonable game. Good value

Very bland.Annoying storyline.NO character development.Boring level design.Understandably poor graphics by todays standards.This is after 30 hours of play time spent hoping for some sort of enjoyment or sense of achievement to occur. Not a good investment of my time.

I just don't like the way the bosses in the game are made harder as you progress simply by giving them multiple attacks in 1 turn for no real reason, i quit playing it after the bosses were doing 3 attacks for artificial difficulty sake, nothing to do with a speed stat or anything either, they just get multiple moves per turn because they are a boss, workable and by no means impossible, just felt cheaply designed.The world so far seemed interesting though and the character class system looked quite in depth with quite alot to do with it, I just personally couldn't get past the method they made bosses harder than other battles.

I like the fact that you can develop the characters strengths and skills as they advance in levels. There is plently to be done, there are quests to be completed throughout the game and treasure hunts at the same time as trying to fulfil the main aim of the story. You can also make your own items if you have the right ingreadients.Dragon quest IX offers much choice, the graphics are good for a ds game, and if you have friends who have the same game, you can visit their world (or visa versa)and help them out. There is a lot more which I have not tried yet - it really is great fun and I'd recommend this game to anyone.