Dragon Quest IX Announced!
The Rocket Report: Edition XIII.
December 12, 2006
In what has been probably the most exciting Dragon Quest news in quite some time, Square Enix announced Tuesday that the next installment of the #1 RPG series in Japan will be hitting the Nintendo DS sometime in 2007.
Square Enix stresses that Dragon Quest IX: Defenders of the Skies is a continuation of the main series, and not a spin-off title. Not much is known about gameplay, except that there will be two modes: single-player and multi-player. Multi-player gets you playing through the DS's Wi-Fi network with up to three other DQ fanatics.
Now you may be asking how 4-player DQ will work... Well it's still a mystery, but preliminary screens suggest your party members can be in totally different areas of the map at once, doing their own stuff or helping you out in battles. Concerning battles: enemies will be visible on the field, so there won't be any random battles like past DQ installments. Also, a neat addition is that any character equipment changes will be immediately seen on bodies.
Just like Dragon Quest VIII, Level 5 will be handling development. Yuji Horii, the father of Dragon Quest will lead the entire project, with Kouichi Sugiyama creating the soundtrack. Akira Toriyama will be in charge of character designs.
That's all that is known about this sure-to-be amazing title. While there is no official confirmation that Dragon Quest IX is hitting North American and European shores, considering the past success of Dragon Quest VIII, it's definitely a possibility. Make sure to visit
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Thanks, as always, for all your support,