Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
 

How can it be that just about everyone on my Backloggery list is playing this game, but no one has made a thread?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...IXBoxArtJP.png

First, you make a hero who might look like this with a fancy poncho:

http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/y...201_dq_b23.jpg

Then you're set loose in a world of wacky Scottish people who need the help of a fallen angel to make their lives better. Then you get to create your own party of adventures from scratch, grind, alchemize, and generally go nuts in the usual DQ way. Could the game be described better? Probably, but I'm the one making the thread so you're stuck with it.

Many of the old DQ conventions persist, but random battles have happily been replaced with visible enemies that can mostly be dodged if you choose. Plus there's local multiplayer, which could be fun.

Go ahead, boast of your slime-killing prowess here.
http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/y.../slimefast.gifhttp://i781.photobucket.com/albums/y.../slimefast.gifhttp://i781.photobucket.com/albums/y.../slimefast.gif

Naming your characters dirty words is harder than ever, with a much more aggressive word filter this time around. It picks up on common number and symbol replacements and will also block those in addition to the regular words.

TOO BAD :(

Other than that I'm having a blast, though. So good. Not very far yet though. (Maybe only 5 hours or something)

Here's my poorly named party (what will I do if I ever have to name my children?)

http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/y...p/IMG_0013.jpg
http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/y.../IMG_00141.jpg
http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/y.../IMG_00151.jpg
http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/y...p/IMG_0016.jpg

I'm a little bit after getting the boat (hit up the village on the Great Plains), and I love the game so far. I've played it a ton lately, especially with the power outages I've been getting due to storms, and I just wish there was some wi-fi multiplayer instead of local only.

The quests unlocked via the DQVC shop are apparently only available in the post-game, and treasure maps aren't nearly as plentiful as I was hoping. Then again, I just got my first treasure map from an NPC in a fairly early dungeon that I'd passed over and the boss in that grotto beat me to a pulp and spat on my corpse. It was partly because my main character was only level 10ish after a class change, but mostly because he was too heavy a hitter. If that's how strong the lowest of the grotto bosses is then they may just be withholding maps until later.

My party is made up of:
- Main character - Minstrel -> Thief
- Martial Artist -> Armamentalist
- Priest
- Mage

I may try to take pictures like Nutty later so that I can demonstrate my poor naming skills as well. None are even close to as frightening as Bart.

It was disappointing when they wouldn't take my full name. :\ So I abbrev. it to my nickname instead. Angelica isn't counted but yet Angel is? What the hell? But yeah, in every scenario when I was able to create a female leading character, I'd name her that and color her hair green. ;) And I'll love any sort of confusion that may follow by that name.

I barely played this, I had 2 more missions left in Advance Wars 2: BHR before I can really put in a time sink on this game. I just arrived in Angel Falls after the epic... ya know, the epic, and I just found out that you still need to search everywhere AGAIN. She (the NPC) wasn't specific on the time constraints but yeah I'll be obsessed with searching everywhere. (Blue Dragon's nothings anyone? :D )

Did anyone pick up the Zoma map from EB last weekend (or plan to get it from Best Buy this weekend)? I like how it's a level 1 map, but the boss does 300-600 damage each turn. I'll probably never level up enough to beat that. :(

Crap, forgot about that. I'll have to let my friend know to go so we can both get the map.

I've been grinding my nuts off trying to level and gear out around Bloomingdale. I probably should try to unlock some of those classes but they just seem a little far fetch for me. Especially the metal slime one :(

I'm not sure why the maps were only available at sporadic EB's. None of the mall or high traffic locations around me were participating, and Tritoch would have had to drive several hours to find one. Same thing with Best Buy; not all are participating.

The map will come with some DQVC stuff later if you don't want to get it now, or are incapable of doing so.

That's good news. I know they've said in the past that treasure maps would come out on the DQVC, but I've yet to get any to appear on mine. As Nutty said, the closest participating EB to me was about an hour and a half away. I'm not going to drive out into the wilds of Tennessee just to get a single map.

Pretty neat that they've used the two main story bosses from DQ3 (Baramos and Zoma) as treasure map bosses. I've just finished Fygg hunting and am onto the next leg of the story, but I'm sure Zoma would still crush me. I might give Equinox another try soon.

The metal slime quest to unlock the armamentalist class isn't all that difficult once you try to do it. It isn't easy and is mostly luck over not having the metal slimes run away, but it worked out surprisingly quickly for me. DQ IX's visible encounters make it easy to find metal slime encounters, so these things aren't too bad. I've got all classes unlocked except for Superstar and Sage now, and I've heard Sage is unlocked in the final dungeon and Superstar in post-game.

Just unlocked Gladiator. Now for Armamentalist. I heard Paladin and Ranger weren't too bad to unlock either.

There's only 2 locations in South Carolina participating in the DQ event... luckily Myrtle Beach is one. Going there Saturday. I heard there will be swag and I'm all about free stuffs

Paladin is incredibly easy to unlock. Ranger is kind of tricky, but not bad.

Oh, and if you have fun with the quest to unlock the Armamentalist then you'll love the skill rank 30 spear quest.

When you spend 9 hours over three days not REALLY DOING ANYTHING but still having a blast, you can tell the post-game is going to be horrifyingly addicting.

Grotto diving sounds like it should be a riot~

I spent my time just grinding out gold trying to buy everything in the DQVC I had downloaded. Icicle Dirk at 8700 was a bit hefty of a price, but it's helped my thief out a few. Any tips on how to make stealing work more often? My Deftness is a little over 200 atm.

Got the map from that one dude at Zere Rocks. Can't wait to test it out. Finally got the ship too so I'm just seeing what I can find. I'm enjoying this game a ton.

Also unlocked Paladin and Ranger... found some book for Dancer?

I haven't found ANY books yet.

Where did you get it?

What Dancer book? First I've heard of anything like that unless you just mean a bookshelf that had alchemy recipes for the Dancer Costume and such.

I read that after a point Deftness doesn't have much of an impact on stealing, and that your level in relation to the enemy is more important. Either way, stealing is a pain in the ass.

I finally managed to beat that level 1 grotto boss, Equinox, the other day. He gave me a map to a level 8 grotto where the enemies were even easier, but the of course the boss was much harder. My priest learned multiheal this morning, so I may be able to take him down now.

Also, we've got a new visitor this week. Guess this means they'll be bi-weekly. I laughed pretty hard at the "hat" this one gives.

I hope everyone got some Sharp Shades from the DQVC this week, I am told it is a Sellma exclusive.

Of course my VC never pulled it during any of it's randomized item lists, so I was shit out of luck. Hoping it pops up again during another theme week and/or during regular rotation.

I wonder if this Visitor has 3 items to give too?

Worth trying on the birthday thing/similar job thing like with Alena

This visitor does indeed have 3 items to give. It's still the same using birthday/job to get them too.

The Sharp Shades only came up twice in my shop, but I did grab a pair the second time. I've got my mage wearing them, since they were pretty good in addition to looking hilarious.

I think it was in Gleeba. Wanted me to accept a quest after reading it. Lost art of Belly Dancing or something?

Oh, that.

Well that's pretty bogus.

Guess I'll try to grind out all the money for me to buy out the shop with tonight before heading to Best Buy tomorrow for the map and everything. What day does the DQVC usually update on for the week?

Pretty sure the only unlockable classes are Ranger, Gladiator, Armamentalist, Paladin, Superstar, and Sage. I read that Superstar is post-game only and the Sage quest requires a monster in the final dungeon.

The DQVC updates daily at 8am GMT (4am EST). If you mean when the weekly themes change and visitors arrive, it's apparently on Fridays since a new visitor arrived today and the sale theme changed to slime apparel. Be sure to grab Slime Crowns since they were used in some high level alchemy recipes in DQ8. I wouldn't be surprised if they're required for stuff like liquid metal equipment in 9 too.

Yeah I had just read the book text wrong. Off to more grinding!

Angelo has FOUR items to give actually.

His gloves come from having improved the inn.

...the first stage of which comes from having 7 unique tags.

fffffffffffffffff

I stopped by Best Buy today and got their map (Estark), and picked up more tags, bringing my total up to 9. The inn is improved, but though I've tried several times, Angelo won't give me his fourth item. What job class do you need for the third item, anyway?

I also got some nifty stickers:

http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/y...dqstickers.jpg

Angelo is a priest. Paladin really would've made more sense, but I figure they may be trying to stick to base classes. At least for early visitors.

Aw, I want to have my ass handed to me by Estark. I skimmed a list of "Legacy" bosses last night and they seem to have at least one from every game. Considering I still can't beat a powered-up Slime Knight who calls in King Cureslimes it'll be awhile before I could take down any former final bosses.

I guess my main character has to be a priest then, since I've already got one in my party.

I got the stickers today too. Also got a swell poster when I got the map too :3

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...0807101812.jpg

(sorry for piss poor quality, my phone sucks.)

They had the poster (and t-shirts) too, but I wasn't offered either. The poster wasn't that great, and gaming t-shirts never fit the target audience.

Edit: Reading the CAG thread, it appears you need 30 tags to get the bonus loot from the visitor.

God damn it, I thought the Best Buy thing was just a map, I didn't know there'd be goodies, fuuuuck.

Just picked up a copy of this myself from that K-Mart deal where you get Spirit Choo-Choo for free.

Haven't really bitten into it yet, but definitely excited to try.

Yeah, I was at both the Gamestop event last week and the Best Buy event. Those maps are HARD - you'll easily get yourself pummeled without serious leveling and good equipment. Still a work in progress for me, that...

I think it sucks that the DQVC stuff is random. I only got a slime shield the first day and the rest of the time it's been stuff like Birthday Cakes (3 days in a row) and alchemy mats like Ice Crystals.

At least grinding on the Goldman (Gold Golems) outside Gleeba is profitable! I've got a few of the 1000g selling fodder coins from them.

Lucky. I bought a Slime Shield the first day, but I only need one of those. I'd love to get some ice crystals to help make some Enchanted Stones.

Sup.

i dont suppose the DQVC shop is random for different players is it? i havent had enough people around me on DQIX to check.

quick question guys: is it true that you'll automatically max all skills when you get lv99 for all classes on any character?

Each time you access it you pull from a weighted pool of items, so yes each player has unique contents every refresh.

No, but that's what revocation is for.

I think he was saying if you get level 99 on all twelve classes, will you have maxed out everything by then.

In which case you'd have everything maxed except two skill lines and would be forced to revocate to get the last 200 SP, kinda like I assumed he meant in the first place yes.

Wow, Squeenix are really plugging the game in the UK... must be 4 or 5 different ads on all the time. Not that that's a bad thing, FF are established as a popular mainstream series, why not DQ? Am seriously considering buying this.

The amount of end-game content is ridiculous, and the DQVC makes it practically episodic in nice little bite sized pieces.

Totally go for it.

Hmmm... well I don't ask for much for my birthdays any more, so I'm thinking the missus can buy me something I want for a change!

Speaking of endgame content, how about those grottos? Tons of them, and once you get up to the high level ones they can take forever to thoroughly explore for chests since the thief's abilities don't work in the one place you need them to. So here's a handy tool that I came across which makes finding what you need significantly easier, and here's the thread it came from that gives a rundown of chest rank contents and a description of how to use that Japanese site.

Essentially, you put in the name and level of the map, select its map coordinates (clicking on them brings up a picture of the location), and it tells you how many of each rank chest is in the grotto. Not only that, but you can bring up a crude map of every floor indicating the locations of the stairs and chests. It does take some of the fun out of exploration, but some of the grottos are so huge and empty that there comes a time when you just want to find some Metal Slime equipment.

I'm working on the grottos now, as well. I find myself going back to the earlier ones to see if I can get different maps from the same grotto. I think the highest level one I have is like level 30-ish. I'm still sporting (for the most part) the same gear I had when I completed the main story. Really want to make some of those sweet end weapons and armors but I don't have the funds to get those chrono crystals at 50k a pop :(

This week in DQVC is Dragon Warrior (Quest) 3 week. Haven't really seen anything "must have" but I've been buying stuff incase it can be alchemized into better, later.

Getting higher level grotto maps can be a pain in the ass since it's essentially random with a formula to determine just how random. It goes off of your main character's highest level class, the number of times he's revocated in one class multiplied by five, and the level/quality of the map you just completed. Then there's a fairly wide +/- margin. So basically, level up your main character and keep doing your highest level grottos.

I was stuck in the 20's and then the 40's forever, but one map can shoot you up 20 levels. My highest maps are 81 and 83 at the moment. I really want to get a Greygnarl map so that I can get the Dragonlord legacy map off of him. In the meantime I'm just raiding for Metal Slime gear (need those damn sollerets for one of the 2 non-DLC quests I have left) and rare boss drops since I figured out the Hoimi trick this morning. Not as hard as I'd originally thought.

Yeah I need those sollerets and so I went to the guide and saw that they were were not alchemized. Threw a fit, raged a little. When it subsided I just tried to grind out grottoes :|

I'm just so sick of fighting Shogum or when the game wants to be a massive faggot and have Nemean disruptive wave everytime I get buffed up.

Baramos beat my ass silly when I fought him.

Oh and I dunno about everyone else, but that Estark's map thing. The guy who gave the map to me at best buy must have beefed him up a few times, because I get the floor wiped with me when I fought him. my main guy is a warrior and he hit Estark for 70 while Estark just murdered everyone with kafrizz in almost one shot :\ and my characters are like 56, 53, 56 and 24 (changed the profession to Sage from Mage)

If Baramos beats your ass then don't bother trying other legacy bosses like Estark. He's by far the weakest, though he has a pretty crazy critical hit rate to balance that out. So far I've taken down Baramos, Murdaw, and Dhoulmagus. According to that grotto calculator Greygnarl is the boss of the map I just got, so I'll be able to fight the Dragonlord, Psaro, and Nimzo before having to wait on DLC quests.

Oh, and if you think Nemean is a bitch with Disruptive Wave you'll have fun with Sir Sanguinus and Excalipurr. They like to cast it pretty much every turn.

Baramos was fine then all the sudden he turned all super cena on me and hit mad crazy crits and started going before my priest could cast multiheal. I just sat there dumbfounded. I'll try to get some more gear made and try him again. Right now my hero is sporting Erdrick's Sword and that upgraded mirror armor.

Erdrick's Sword is one of the strongest, but I find the Uber Falcon Blade is much better at dishing out damage. Uber Falcon Blade + Falcon Slash + Oomph + Frost Fource = 4 powerful hits all at once. Not to mention if you get lucky and tension boost up to 50 or 100 with the Gladiator's coup de grace, because then each of those 4 attacks will do around 1600 damage.

Be sure to get the Aliahan clothes and boots from Baramos too. They're some of the strongest defensive equipment I've found. For some reason the Somnia gear from Murdaw and the Trodain gear from Dhoulmagus are both slightly weaker. Even the Alefgard Boots from the Dragonlord are a point or two weaker than Aliahan Boots.