Friday, July 23, 2010

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies for NDS - First Impressions

If we lived in an actual puzzle game and your character needed to put my character to sleep to, I don't know, steal my car keys or grab the bag of Cape Cod Sea Salt and Vinegar Kettle Chips from my clutched fist or something, there are four ways your character could do it.

1. Wait until around 12:45 am and then come into my bedroom and rant about video games. Take your pick from the following tried and true options. You could discuss the history of any video game developer and its current financial status. You could recount the back story of any game franchise's major character. You could go to our video game shelves and find both the English and Japanese versions of a game, then come in and compare box art.

2. Put any of the following on television: The Hudsucker Proxy, History Channel, anime that is not in some way overly-adorable, any made-for-TV movie.

3. Give me, on average, two and a half glasses of red wine, any type will do.

4. Make me play Dragon Quest IX.

All of these methods have been tested and are proven to put me to sleep in no time. Just ask my husband.

I've managed to eke out about an hour of game play thus far. It has taken me four sessions. It seems about 15 minutes of playing Dragon Quest IX is all I need to prepare me for a big ole nap.

I'm not sure yet why that is. Maybe it's because I have been a little extra busy lately. I haven't been able to find the time to actually start playing until late at night, so maybe I have gone into the game already sleepy. I'll try and remedy this Dragon Quest apathy a bit in the next few days. Since this seems to be slacker week, though, I thought I'd write the rest of this review using as few full sentences as possible and mostly just post pictures.

Why to play Dragon Quest IX:

Grandiosity!



These guys! Could I possibly want to start fights just to see these amazing creations?

Dragon Quest IX

Dragon Quest IX

Dragon Quest IX




The music! (May be the very first non-music game I've played that I've actually wanted to turn UP the volume).



Maps! They look cool and aren't so big that I get lost.

Dragon Quest IX


Why not to play Dragon Quest IX:

Sort of awkward religious stuff!

Dragon Quest IX

Dragon Quest IX

Creepy old farmers!

Dragon Quest IX

The game's sleep-inducing nature! (Don't have a picture or video of that because I can't take pictures or videos while sleeping and because I haven't figured out what it is about this game that makes me so sleepy). Maybe the wandering about and chattering endlessly with neighbors? Maybe trying to figure out which staircase will actually lead me back to that darn magical tree? Maybe the lack of cute new outfits to select for my (Victoria's Secret) angel, Jexxy? Maybe picking up piles of sparkling cow manure to earn Evanescence....wait, that's a sort of mediocre band I don't care for....I mean, to earn Benevolessence?

I'm not sure yet. In any case, I think Ben loves me just a bit less this week. Especially when he watched me try to get Jexxy to walk on a curving path. My new goal for this game is to figure out how to get my angel to walk at an angle since I don't have the use of an analog stick.

What has my life become?

2 comments:

  1. Dragon quests's gameplay is kind of boring. And the story in this one is a problem, because there's no emotional hook to make you care about any of the characters, at any point. The benevotol collecting is luckily only in the beginning part of the game. I felt really insulted when I realized that my angelic duties meant cradling horse shit in my hands. After that, you collect fruit from heaven.

    The game has a dumb story. The whole point is to fight lots of turn based battles and collect lots of costumes and weapons. Hopefully ben will try you out on mother 3, which is like dragon quest, but with an artistic conscience.

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  2. But if the story is dumb and the game play is boring, why does Ben love me less because I don't like it that much?

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