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Nintendo Businesses Portables (Games)

Dragon Quest IX for Nintendo DS 89

Posted by Zonk from the circle-is-now-complete dept.
PKFC writes "Square Enix, at the 20th Anniversary Dragon Quest conference, has announced Dragon Quest IX: Defender of the Stars ... for the DS. Developed by Level 5, the game will feature four player co-operative mode and an action battle system. Also announced is a Dragon Quest arcade game called Battle Road. Both are expected to hit sometime in 2007 in Japan." This is huuuge news, as it puts the immensely popular Dragon Quest together with the immensely popular DS. Odds are Nintendo will pick up even more sales on the heels of this announcement. Relatedly, DS Fanboy got a few tidbits of info on the upcoming Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles , also for the DS.
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Dragon Quest IX for Nintendo DS More

Dragon Quest IX for Nintendo DS

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  • we're gonna get a slime-shaped DS as well, a la DQVIII + slime controller?
    • That would have been funny if it didn't look so damn creepy.

  • Wow. (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This is pretty much the last nail in the psp's coffin (at least in Japan.. in Europe it's dead since it was released).
    But it's nice to see that some big third parties (square's fully back again?!) embracing Nintendo consoles again. Let's see if we get a "real" Final Fantasy from them as well (for the Wii).

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by ParaphiliaNOS ( 1015689 )
      With your reference to the Wii I assume that you acknowlege the Final Fantasy III for the DS and other Square properties for handhelds. (For newcomers it was already released in North America November 17th.)

      Square began supporting Nintendo again when Bandai's Wonderswan Color/Crystal began losing traction in Japan and the Advance was the clear handheld winner. The support for the DS is just an organic extension of the Advance SP market share. I'm sure we'll see a few more for PSP, but only
      • Square began supporting Nintendo again when Bandai's Wonderswan Color/Crystal began losing traction in Japan and the Advance was the clear handheld winner.

        Actually there was never a threat there. Square started supporting Nintendo when Yamauchi stepped down, and Iwata became president of Nintendo. There was real bad blood from the N64 / PS1 years, and Yamauchi didn't WANT Sqaure properties on Nintendo platforms. Iwata basically made amends, and Square began supporting Nintendo again with the GBA.

        • Re: Yamauchi vs. SquareSoft (Score:4, Interesting)

          by HappySqurriel ( 1010623 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2006 @02:43PM (#17211486)
          There's a little bit more to that aswell ... Square lost a lot of money on Final Fantasy the movie and Iwata approached Square about how inexpensive game development was for the GBA and how (with Nintendo's help) they could make cheap games for the Gamecube; Final Fantasy: Chrystal Cronicles was a game made by a joint venture between Square that was funded by Fund Q (the new studio fund produced by Yamauchi when he steped down).

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by Grey Ninja ( 739021 )
          That's a load of crock. It was money out of Yamauchi's pocket that funded Square's return to Nintendo, via the Game Designer's Studio. It wasn't his stepping down that allowed Square to develop for Nintendo systems again. It was the public apology from Square for their actions during the N64/PSX era, and the demotion of their officers.

          Basically, Square flooded the consumers with anti-Nintendo propaganda, and publicly stated that they would never develop for a Nintendo system again, during the FF7 prom

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by masklinn ( 823351 )

      This is pretty much the last nail in the psp's coffin (at least in Japan.. in Europe it's dead since it was released).

      The PSP is actually much deader in Japan than in Europe as the DS has consistently been outselling it 5:1 to 10:1 for more than 30 weeks (since the release of the DS Lite in March)

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by aplusjimages ( 939458 )
      Nintendo nor Xbox need to put any nails in Sony's coffin. Sony has all the nails and hammers to do it themselves. The PSP tried to be too many things all at once, but ended up becoming so unfocused that it couldn't get a strong base from either gamers, movie lovers, or audiophiles.
    • Let's see if we get a "real" Final Fantasy from them as well (for the Wii).
      If they've already got Dragon Quest, why does it matter whether they get one of its inferior knock-offs as well?

  • wow (Score:4, Insightful)

    by astrokid ( 779104 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2006 @12:00PM (#17208874)
    This is a huge announcement, One of Japan's biggest franchises headed to the biggest handheld. The more I think about it though, the more it makes sense. Square-Enix has stated before that while it wants to support Sony it doesn't want to pour all of its development into the system. Essentially spreading the wealth to other consoles/markets.

    Since the PS3 is already getting a Final Fantasy game, it's probably a little late now to bring out a new Dragon Quest game for the PS2, I can't imagine them sticking on 'waggle' functions for a Wii version and due to their current support of the Xbox360(have they released any games for the xbox360?) the DS is the best choice.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sqlrob ( 173498 )
      I think Young Yangus is already out in Japan, so it still may be released here.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by PKFC ( 580410 )
        For the record, it is its own series now as the DQ Swords game is the second one. There was the stand alone game that plugs directly into the TV with a reflective sword that came out a couple years ago. It's sort of a remake of Dragon Quest I so maybe it doesn't count too much, but still.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by cybereal ( 621599 )
      The 360 has FFXI. Also that little Square spin-off dev house Mistwalker has dropped two games, coming soon or maybe they are out already? One is Blue Dragon, and the other is Lost Odyssey.

      I don't know how the financials are working these days, if it's really an independent dev house or if it's just a different name to attempt a different marketing strategy. But, the talent is directly exported from past Square projects.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by justchris ( 802302 )
        No, Mistwalker is a separate company formed by Hironobu Sakaguchi after he left Squaresoft (or Square-Enix as it was at the time). Blue Dragon was made with the help of Akira Toriyama and Nobuo Uematsu who always worked with Square (and Enix for that matter), but are free agents, not permanently employed by either company. Blue Dragon was released in Japan last week, and from early reports sold more Xbox 360's there than have been sold in a single week since launch. But basically, at this point, Mistwalk
    • Some other Square-Enix games, from the Nintendo website:

      http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/software/lineup/inde x.html [nintendo.co.jp]
      Wii -- DRAGON QUEST SWORDS Spring 2007 Square Enix

      http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/index.html [nintendo.co.jp]
      DS -- Dragon Quest Monster Joker Dec 2006
      DS -- Chocobo Magic Picture Book 12/14/2006

  • The real DQ9? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by hansamurai ( 907719 )
    The real question is, is this the real and official Dragon Quest 9 (with no subtitle)? Square-Enix's latest craze is developing and announcing spinoff titles at the same time as the original game. Look at Final Fantasy XIII, there's the FF13 (no subtitle for the PS3), Final Fantasy Agito XIII (for the mobile phone), and Final Fantasy Versus XIII (also for the PS3). That's just one example, look how they're starting to milk Final Fantasy VII, according to Wikipedia there's something like five titles relea
    • I'm sure Square-Enix will follow the dollars/yen.  As RPG games increase immersion and gamers age; the graphical funfests will go console with increasing frequency and "for the people with jobs" RPGs will go handheld.

    • Re:The real DQ9? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Bagels ( 676159 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2006 @12:13PM (#17209114)
      All of the main-line Dragon Quest games have subtitles like this (see: Dragon Quest VIII - Journey of the Cursed King, etc). And the head honcho behind the game, Yuji Horii, has stated that it's an actual factual numbered entry in the series (check http://ds.ign.com/articles/750/750590p1.html [ign.com]). And it's got the same Level-5 team that made DQ8.
      • Ah, thanks for clearing that up. I haven't played a DQ game since Dragon Warrior for the NES so I'm a little behind the times.
      • I'm pretty sure Dragon Quest VIII is the only one with a subtitle. That being said, you're right in that they have had mainline games with subtitles.

        • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward
          In Japan, every Dragon Quest game from the second onward had a subtitle. Prior to 8, the subtitles were dropped from the overseas titles, along with "Dragon Quest" being changed to "Dragon Warrior".
          • Ahh. Thanks for clearing THAT up. I'm not sure why I didn't know that Dragon Warrior was always a moniker for Dragon Quest. I've always been sitting here with Dragon Warrior (the first one, still have it!) and wondering when it changed.
            • When Dragon Warrior came out, another company had the trademark on Dragon Quest in the US. Apparently, at some point before DQ8 was released, they either reached a deal, or the trademark expired.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by smithbp ( 1002301 )
      In TFA, it says that the title is the actual DQ IX, not a spinoff.

      • We reported earlier today that Square Enix would be holding a conference to announce a new Dragon Quest game, but no one quite expected the bomb shell they dropped: Dragon Quest IX, the next sequel in the officially numbered series and not a spin-off, will be arriving on the Nintendo DS.
        - from Article

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Garse Janacek ( 554329 )

      Actually, that isn't the real question, as I quote from the first paragraph of TFA:

      "Dragon Quest IX, the next sequel in the officially numbered series and not a spin-off, will be arriving on the Nintendo DS."

      I know, I know, Ring TFA isn't what we do around here, but if you're going to say this is the real question, you could at least take the 15 seconds required to check the answer...

  • While this announcement is a little surprising, considering the massive popularity of both the DS and Dragon Quest in Japan (believe me, I was there when 8 came out plus purchased my white phat DS and DS Lite there). They're going to make a fortune on this one, as everyone and their mother has a DS for one reason or another, and we might see DQ becoming more of a Nintendo franchise (don't forget that DQ: Slime Mori Mori was a big game for the DS, DQ: Monsters Joker is also coming out for the DS and there i

    • I am curious to see how they evolve the art style for 9 on the DS; 8 is still sitting on my "to play" pile of games, but from what I've seen it's pretty good looking. I'd hate to see a step backwards.
      The article contains screenshots...
  • So for the part mentioning Crystal Chronicles, I wonder is it just for the DS or will it be like the first and be a combination b/t DS and Wii (a la Gamecube and GBA)? (sorry, I couldn't rtfa, guess it got /.ed)
    • Possibly, but the DS already has what the GBA was missing: Wifi connectivity.  Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates is a 1-4 player game via the wifi.  The Cube game was console with optional GBA controllers so the development of this native DS game will follow a different structure.  (4p Console + 4x GBA versus 4x DS)
  • I'm worried about the action battle system. I've always prefered the turn based approach, even though Star Ocean was pretty cool.

    The other thing that concerns me is co-op play. Will this limit the experience for those of us who don't have friends who like to get together and play video RPG's?
    • Unless content is hobbled like Final Fantasy III DS (Core content OK, only remake specific 'hidden content') than it should be fine.  The GC version held up pretty well with only one player.  (And sometimes a computer controlled ally is FASTER healing you than a friend.)
    • You make a good point: many of us don't have friends! Oh noes! XD

  • More coverage at GamesAreFun (Score:3, Informative)

    by Daetrin ( 576516 ) on Tuesday December 12, 2006 @12:51PM (#17209752)
    There's another article at GamesAreFun [gamesarefun.com] which includes links to some gameplay footage and other tidbits.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by PKFC ( 580410 )
      Yeah that's a link I included in the original story along with your basic links to SE and Level 5. Surprised no one has jumped on it saying the subtitle is actually closer to "Defenders of the Sky" or "Defenders of the Starry Sky" (depends who you ask atm). It was written last night right before bed as soon as I could piece it all together. I got some stuff like the DQ Arcade game from Famitsu's blog [famitsu.com] directly, most of which is on their main page [famitsu.com] now. Surprised most english news sites have no idea about the
      • I was thinking about jumping on it but it's a pedantic point.  Hoshizora is the combination of two kanji.  Hoshi, which means star, and sora, which means sky.  (The 's' gets palatalized to 'z' per common convention.  Perhaps you've seen a sushi menu regular such as inarizushi.)

        The arcade game is nothing to get excited about as it's a derivative work.  A few 'game' sites have already covered it.
  • I came to the conclusion that the Wii-mote is really just an enhanced and repackaged Kenshin Dragon Quest [dqshrine.com] sword some time ago. I believe that Nintendo and Square-Enix got into an agreement which gives Nintendo the rights to Square's patented technology for the Wii. This also allows for Square-Enix to exclusively develop for Nintendo too since they're using the Square technology in the Wii-mote.

    This change from Sony to Nintendo seems to fit into the whole concept rather well.
  • who never particularly cared for the most recent Dragon Quest games, this game looks so much different that it should definitely be worth checking out. I am quite excited about the concept myself!

  • Yay! (Score:2)

    by seebs ( 15766 )
    I've been playing DQ8 on the PS2 some, but the DS is what I have with me everywhere I go.

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