Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky -- Initial Impression.

While I'm still continuing to crackdown on the freaks in Pacific City in Crackdown 2, I'm going to be starting another game. That game of course is Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies for the Nintendo DS. The game was developed by Armor Project, Level 5, and Square-Enix. It was published in the west by Nintendo. The ninth game in the mainline Dragon Quest series marks a few notable firsts. This is the first title in the series developed for a handheld. This is the first title in the series to ditch random battles. And this is the first title in the series to include a multiplayer aspect. Despite all of those firsts, from the time I've spent with the game so far, I can say that Dragon Quest IX feels like Dragon Quest. The holy trinity of Yuji Horii, Akira Toriyama, and Koichi Sugiyama are still in place as they have been for every entry in the series. Horii handling the scenario, Toriyama providing the concept art, and Sugiyama providing the score. I'm quite intrigued by the premise of Dragon Quest IX thus far. Horii's stories are always charming and focused on the human element more so than the quest itself. Everything seems on track for another classic Dragon Quest experience. I'm not worried about this one going south on me.