Dragon Quest 9: Crossing to Casual?

I fell in love with Dragon Quest 4 years ago when my friend Adam told me that this cute blue Hershey's Kiss thing was actually a monster that you fight in the game! Now I can make a whole slime outfit for my warrior (named after my husband Dave)

However, I had a hard time finishing Dragon Quest 8, on the PS2. Random battles made the experience way too slow, and not rewarding enough. Too much grinding, it was not possible to get even the first success in the first dungeon without grinding back and forth on the low-level monsters.

Also I wished it was on the DS so I could play where I play most other long RPGs, on my commute to work! I did buy and finish DQ4 on the DS.

But I have been looking forward to a new DS DQ for a while. Enter DQ9: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, which I bought on launch day, July 11.

The developers (Yuji Horii, creator of the series; Level 5/Square Enix, the developers; and publisher, Nintendo) seem to be trying quite hard to make this game more palatable for at least 3 "new" audiences, and I think they have succeeded:

1. Americans (Dragon Quest/Warrior just not very popular here in US but is HUGE in Japan. My friend Andrew who is a Pokefan, had never heard of DQ).
   
2. Women (see link to Iwata Asks interviews on my earlier blog post - addition of char customization, they think has helped this. Game is more popular with Japanese women than the previous titles too). They've also focused on several other "casual" features that we focus on to improve conversion for our games at PlayFirst (list below)
   
3. Kids - The series is 25 years old so many of the original fans are now parents and teaching their kids about Dragon Quest. Horii-san said in the Iwata Asks interview, that they wanted the local multiplayer feature so that parents could play directly with their kids and teach them about the game together.

Here are some of the specific "casual" features that I think contribute to DQ9's improvements over at least DQ8, if not the entire series. Also, I know that overall the marketing of the game is focused on the new multiplayer features, but here in the US I think that people will fall in love the most with single player first and then use that fandom to suck others into the multiplayer.

Customization, Metastructure (with clear goals) and Rewards.

CROSS-OVER TO CASUAL

1. Customization (Engagement): In the Iwata Asks interview, Horii-san pointed out that DQ9 is more popular with Japanese women at least, than the other series. They think this is because of the ability for "fashion" that the customization affords.

I think it goes deeper than that for a lot of people, not just women. There's also a lot of creativity when you create, name, and outfit each character, instead of having them pop up into your party as they appear in the story. In several reviews, these customized characters are called out as a drawback because it makes the game story fluffier, no connection to your characters. This didn't bother me as much as I thought it would -- the game story is about "helping" in game characters, and the in-game characters are just as rewarding to me as the party members who join up in other DQ games.

I really enjoyed making a little party of "me", husband, two friends we like, and giving them jobs/clothes that match real-world personalities somewhat.

Storytelling - There is this awesome thread on Gamespot (and another on IGN Gamefaqs) where people have made up RPG stories for their parties. The appeal of this goes back to The Sims and all the stories posted on their community pages.

2. Metastructure and Clear Goals: In other DQ games (and other RPGs) I often refer to a walkthrough to figure out what to do next.

In DQ9, from the beginning, the player doesn't have much confusion, but yet still a sense of exploration. The game opens with two villagers walking along a path - they are beset by monsters. You're watching from the heavens with a senior Celestrian, and drop down to help, (before this you customize your character quickly and name him/her).

Presto - First Battle! Either player is sucked into gameplay, or not, but no long opening cutscene, less risk of boredom. (This opening sequence is almost set up with a free trial in mind, I wonder if they are thinking ahead, to download distribution in the future).

The villagers thank you by name afterward, since they know they have a new Guardian (you!).

As the game goes on, players have a system of quests, and a fairy named Stella who follows the player around, in addition to the overarching story goal (helping people, collecting fyggs, with eventual goal to return to your heavenly realm, regain your wings).

In the beginning of the game, Stella is constantly popping out and prompting the player where to go next. She also appears on the Battle Records menu, and presents you with rewards as you play (see below).

This is kind of like Navi in Zelda, but somehow not annoying. Also, to advance the storyline, there is a dependable pattern which may prove comforting to casual players -

1. enter village - walk around entire village and talk to everyone, figure out what's going on

2. fight around the village to level up (but not needed for too long) - buy new cool stuff in village

3. go to nearby dungeon to solve whatever problem villagers have.

4. talk around village after return and do other random quests.

If players do these steps, the story is not confusing or feeling like it's off-putting or "too hardcore".

I have been playing for about 30 hours now (which includes time the DS has been sleeping) and have only looked stuff up on a FAQ ONCE! It all seems to make more logical sense. The maps are also small enough so you don't get lost, but large enough to keep a sense of wonder and exploration as you wander.

Also, at least in the beginning part of the game, it seemed like each minor sub-goal could be completed in about an hour (ie, my BART commute).

3. Frequent Rewards:

Top here is that gameplay and "grinding" does not get tedious because you can run around the random battles and avoid them, if high level enough. This was one of the things that soured me on DQ8. Also adds to the customization - if I want to fight a lot of slimes, I'll go choose them!

Leveling up and buying new stuff is continually rewarding. The new equipment available never beefs you up by more than 5-10 points in a stat, but it's enough to make you feel like you're improving. Making new items with alchemy after finding all the ingredients is also fun and not too confusing (you can find out in the item lists and monster lists where items are dropped, and then go find them, without a FAQ).

In the Battle Records, you also get accolades for stuff like achieving 500 victories, defeating a certain percentage of monsters, getting new skills, etc.

It also tracks the wardrobe items found, regular items, alchemy recipes, and your quests.

Horii-san said that he admires Elder Scrolls: Oblivion quite a bit, and the quest system seems somewhat drawn from that. The quests are sometimes very specific but you get good gear from them, and they help fill out the fantasy that you are a celestial, here to help in the world.

Traveling is not a pain because the main character learns Zoom very early and can jump around to any town they've seen.

Also the basic story mode is nicely ramped. The hardcore say it is too easy. I just played my first treasure map dungeon and got trounced by Equinox, the boss horse at the end.

That boss apparently is supposed to be fought around level 30 or 40. There are tons of treasure maps to find and trade - this is apparently the difficulty coming in at the end of the story. Story still challenging but not too hard, so that "almost anyone" can play through and have fun.