Dragon Quest IX
Square Enix
Amor Project/Level-5
DS
US Release: TBA
UK Release: TBA
Origin: Japan

December’s Jump Festa event in Tokyo saw out a portentous year for the Japanese games trade. Organised by Shueisha, creator of the hugely popular Jump anthologies, its prominence on the gaming calendar, together with the negative vibe of this year’s TGS, signals an urgent shift in how the region promotes its games.

With Weekly Shonen Jump overtaking Famitsu in popularity and challenging its monopoly on exclusive coverage, the consolidation of anime, manga and games into a more durable super-culture continues. For a Dragon Quest facing its own conflicts and uncertainties, it was a fitting time and place.

Keen to show that traditional singleplayer and contentious co-op can peacefully coexist in Dragon Quest IX, Square Enix rolled out two playable demos, one covering each. Together they answered another important question: how the series handles a visual reduction beyond even the cel-shading of DQVIII. The increased preference for 3D in Japanese DS games has done little to overcome its manufactured limits, and the prospect of a cutesy DQIX plagued by ugly textures and crude terrain seemed only too real until now.

Yet unlike Phantasy Star Zero, which risked crippling its ranger classes with its low draw distance, DQIX sits happily between the recent DS remakes and DQVIII in terms of looks. Stylus control for both menu and camera fares equally well, though a struggle between old and new was still evident both in-game and on the show floor.

The need to collaborate doesn’t come easily to the Dragon Quest faithful, and it took a somewhat matronly approach by the Jump Festa staff to stop their multiplayer guests from wandering off-tour. And because DQIX remains turn-based, it’s had to impose its own authority on wayward players to avoid being exploited. So while it’s possible for lone battlers to drag out their turns until help arrives, any late arrivals incur a penalty of missed turns.

Still, fans used to flying through the DQ interface found few problems with the antique menus, while exploration was largely uninhibited in both modes. Multiplayer hellos, goodbyes and customary RPG fist pumps were exchanged with a B-button-invoked petal menu, while general fears of an action-RPG takeover were largely put to rest.

Will anyone care enough to form an offline party in the first place? That’s another matter. This is no Monster Hunter Portable, and its fear of alienating fans has left it awkwardly placed between traditions. Combined with a preference for well-rounded parties, its classic character classes mean that not everyone can play the hero. Fancy slogging through levels and battles as a healer or magician? It appears you may have to.

With a potentially traditional Dragon Quest X announced for Wii, the purpose of DQIX remains unclear. Given the ongoing development of Dragon Quest Online, is it a change of tack or a curio? Record numbers brought that question to the Makuhari Messe, and it’s hard to imagine they left without it.