Dragon Quest IX Ranking: B
As an avid fan of RPGs, I can’t overlook the Dragon Quest series. In Japan it’s arguably more popular than the more internationally recognized Final Fantasy series and most people versed in the history of console RPGs will tell you that the first Dragon Quest spearheaded the birth of the genre.
Unfortunately, I could never get into the series. I tried playing a couple of the games, but I eventually hypothesized that I have this weird idiosyncrasy where I need to see my party in the battle screen to enjoy an RPG. Dragon Quest’s early games had a first-person view of the battle screen, and for some reason that made me not get into it. This became clear to me when I couldn’t get into EarthBound, which has the same sort of style in the battle screen.
Dragon Quest games began adopting a third-person battle system in the later installations, though, and so I decided to take another look at the series. I decided to play Dragon Quest IX, as people all over were raving about how great this game is, and at first I agreed. And then I got to the post-game.
The post-game is so over-reliant in randomness it burned me out of continuing, and I played the Diablo series. Want to get the best gear? Farm legacy bosses for rare drops to use in alchemy recipes. Want to fight legacy bosses? Farm grotto bosses for rare map drops. Want the proper grotto bosses for those rare map drops? Run treasure map after treasure map, praying to RNG the entire time.
Otherwise, the game before the post-game isn’t bad. I decided to challenge myself by playing with only 2 characters rather than 4. I also had a strict no-death rule, meaning if any character died in battle I automatically restarted from the last save. This made the game quite difficult, but doable. It would’ve been nice to test my team on the legacy bosses, but like I said – RNG burned me out.
I want to make some comments about the story. Basically, Celestrians (angels) look after mortals because their legend says that they’ll attain salvation if they do so. One particular angel, Corvus, in guarding his village, becomes injured and gets captured by the big bad empire some 300 years ago. He, through a misunderstanding, thinks the mayor’s daughter betrayed him, and after being chained up for 300 years, becomes bitter and hateful and vows to destroy everything.
Let’s go through this. First, mortals cannot see angels, so how exactly did anyone rescue or capture Corvus? Someone mentions that the empire’s denizens can see Celestrians, but this is never explained; furthermore, the mayor’s daughter Serena isn’t a denizen of the empire, so how was she able to see him?
The first time the empire visits the village, they demand Serena marry the general and she refuses. They’re about to take her by force when Corvus, who’s recuperating in the village, appears and sends lightning bolts down upon the imperial forces, causing them to flee or die. It seems that all Celestrians except for the main character have this power. What is it? Where does it come from? And why didn’t Corvus just do that again the second time the imperial forces arrive to capture him?
I mean, sure, the second time they brought more guys, but he’s a Celestrian with lightning bolt powers. Couldn’t he have hidden somewhere and just rained lightning on them? Why did he have to run away?
Anyway, his fleeing with Serena doesn’t end well, since the mayor betrays them both by tricking his daughter into tricking Corvus into drinking a sleeping potion. Corvus thinks Serena was in on the plot and gets captured, while the imperial forces kill both the mayor and his daughter. Serena returns as a ghost and resolves to find Corvus and explain to him what really happened so he doesn’t resent her. It takes her three hundred years to accomplish this, only doing so after you yourself defeat Corvus in the game’s final battle. Obviously, she’s a bit late in the “prevent resentment” department.
Why does it take her this long? She knew that Corvus was being captured by the empire, so shouldn’t the palace in the empire be the first place she looked? And she’s a ghost, so she can walk through walls and teleport and fly. She should’ve found Corvus in about a week, not three hundred years.
But because she took her sweet time, Corvus’s resentment and rage had 300 years to fester, and it gives him unholy powers which he then uses to send large purple energy beams of evil throughout the mortal world, the Celestrian Observatory, and the Realm of the Almighty. His attack heavily damages, if not outright destroys, God.
Let’s talk about that. If Corvus has enough power to kill God, why doesn’t he just use his power to destroy everything else, which is what he wanted to do? Why does he allow himself to remain chained up inside the imperial palace dungeon, which is where and how you find him? Are you telling me that the guy who has enough power to kill God doesn’t have enough power to break a couple of chains holding him down? What the hell kind of metal did they use to make those chains?
Let’s…give that the benefit of the doubt. Corvus remained in the palace because he was being held by magical, Corvus-resistant chains. So, his plan was to resurrect the empire so a hero would show up, defeat the empire again, and “rescue” him. That goes without a hitch, since that’s exactly what you do, but then Corvus, instead of destroying the world like he wanted to do, flies up to the Realm of the Almighty and…sits on this throne and does nothing. He just sits there and waits for you to come kick his ass. Why does he do that? He already had enough power to destroy God – he could’ve KameHameHadouken’d all of existence to high hell the second he got free from the imperial palace.
Also, why didn’t he just kill you when you fight him right after you free him? At that point you literally cannot lift a finger against him because of the Celestrian Law, so he can easily just murder you. Sure, your mortal partner(s) can fight him, but either (1) he loses, which means the story ends right there, or (2) he wins, which brings us right back to why he didn’t just kill you in the first place.
As an avid fan of RPGs, I can’t overlook the Dragon Quest series. In Japan it’s arguably more popular than the more internationally recognized Final Fantasy series and most people versed in the history of console RPGs will tell you that the first Dragon Quest spearheaded the birth of the genre.
Unfortunately, I could never get into the series. I tried playing a couple of the games, but I eventually hypothesized that I have this weird idiosyncrasy where I need to see my party in the battle screen to enjoy an RPG. Dragon Quest’s early games had a first-person view of the battle screen, and for some reason that made me not get into it. This became clear to me when I couldn’t get into EarthBound, which has the same sort of style in the battle screen.
Dragon Quest games began adopting a third-person battle system in the later installations, though, and so I decided to take another look at the series. I decided to play Dragon Quest IX, as people all over were raving about how great this game is, and at first I agreed. And then I got to the post-game.
The post-game is so over-reliant in randomness it burned me out of continuing, and I played the Diablo series. Want to get the best gear? Farm legacy bosses for rare drops to use in alchemy recipes. Want to fight legacy bosses? Farm grotto bosses for rare map drops. Want the proper grotto bosses for those rare map drops? Run treasure map after treasure map, praying to RNG the entire time.
Otherwise, the game before the post-game isn’t bad. I decided to challenge myself by playing with only 2 characters rather than 4. I also had a strict no-death rule, meaning if any character died in battle I automatically restarted from the last save. This made the game quite difficult, but doable. It would’ve been nice to test my team on the legacy bosses, but like I said – RNG burned me out.
I want to make some comments about the story. Basically, Celestrians (angels) look after mortals because their legend says that they’ll attain salvation if they do so. One particular angel, Corvus, in guarding his village, becomes injured and gets captured by the big bad empire some 300 years ago. He, through a misunderstanding, thinks the mayor’s daughter betrayed him, and after being chained up for 300 years, becomes bitter and hateful and vows to destroy everything.
Let’s go through this. First, mortals cannot see angels, so how exactly did anyone rescue or capture Corvus? Someone mentions that the empire’s denizens can see Celestrians, but this is never explained; furthermore, the mayor’s daughter Serena isn’t a denizen of the empire, so how was she able to see him?
The first time the empire visits the village, they demand Serena marry the general and she refuses. They’re about to take her by force when Corvus, who’s recuperating in the village, appears and sends lightning bolts down upon the imperial forces, causing them to flee or die. It seems that all Celestrians except for the main character have this power. What is it? Where does it come from? And why didn’t Corvus just do that again the second time the imperial forces arrive to capture him?
I mean, sure, the second time they brought more guys, but he’s a Celestrian with lightning bolt powers. Couldn’t he have hidden somewhere and just rained lightning on them? Why did he have to run away?
Anyway, his fleeing with Serena doesn’t end well, since the mayor betrays them both by tricking his daughter into tricking Corvus into drinking a sleeping potion. Corvus thinks Serena was in on the plot and gets captured, while the imperial forces kill both the mayor and his daughter. Serena returns as a ghost and resolves to find Corvus and explain to him what really happened so he doesn’t resent her. It takes her three hundred years to accomplish this, only doing so after you yourself defeat Corvus in the game’s final battle. Obviously, she’s a bit late in the “prevent resentment” department.
Why does it take her this long? She knew that Corvus was being captured by the empire, so shouldn’t the palace in the empire be the first place she looked? And she’s a ghost, so she can walk through walls and teleport and fly. She should’ve found Corvus in about a week, not three hundred years.
But because she took her sweet time, Corvus’s resentment and rage had 300 years to fester, and it gives him unholy powers which he then uses to send large purple energy beams of evil throughout the mortal world, the Celestrian Observatory, and the Realm of the Almighty. His attack heavily damages, if not outright destroys, God.
Let’s talk about that. If Corvus has enough power to kill God, why doesn’t he just use his power to destroy everything else, which is what he wanted to do? Why does he allow himself to remain chained up inside the imperial palace dungeon, which is where and how you find him? Are you telling me that the guy who has enough power to kill God doesn’t have enough power to break a couple of chains holding him down? What the hell kind of metal did they use to make those chains?
Let’s…give that the benefit of the doubt. Corvus remained in the palace because he was being held by magical, Corvus-resistant chains. So, his plan was to resurrect the empire so a hero would show up, defeat the empire again, and “rescue” him. That goes without a hitch, since that’s exactly what you do, but then Corvus, instead of destroying the world like he wanted to do, flies up to the Realm of the Almighty and…sits on this throne and does nothing. He just sits there and waits for you to come kick his ass. Why does he do that? He already had enough power to destroy God – he could’ve KameHameHadouken’d all of existence to high hell the second he got free from the imperial palace.
Also, why didn’t he just kill you when you fight him right after you free him? At that point you literally cannot lift a finger against him because of the Celestrian Law, so he can easily just murder you. Sure, your mortal partner(s) can fight him, but either (1) he loses, which means the story ends right there, or (2) he wins, which brings us right back to why he didn’t just kill you in the first place.