Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

 DS
User Score
8.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 283 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 234 out of 283
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 283
  3. Negative: 17 out of 283
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  1. Clownsparade
    Aug 10, 2023
    9
    Single- (or Coop-Multiplayer) basically MMO with a lovely story, a great JRPG style and great balancing, all while having a super genuine story, great humor (especially monster names) and a lovely soundtrack - only downside is the rather tedious grinding that comes with both MMOs and JRPGs I guess (especially when changing classes)
  2. Yojimbo2015
    May 21, 2023
    7
    The latest entrant in the series was developed specifically for the DS and so has the hugely upgraded presentation you'd expect but sacrifices the quirky humour and sense of fun of the earlier games. A very attractive and playable RPG but I personally prefer the old school SNES reinventions for that reason.
  3. ExtrosGamer
    Apr 3, 2023
    10
    Uno de los mejores juegos que he jugado. El paso del tiempo no le ha afectado muy negativamente. Sin duda uno de los indispensables.
  4. hector_bcn98
    Jan 17, 2023
    8
    Muy, muy largo. Demasiado. Eso, sumado a que la historia es flojita y palizona, con todo el tema religioso de por medio y que solo hay un personaje protagonista, ya que el resto los has de crear tú y no tienen ningún tipo de trasfondo ni influencia en la aventura... Se hace cuesta arriba disfrutarlo en plenitud a día de hoy. Conservador en mecánicas JRPG hasta decir basta.
  5. NerfPlayeR135
    Dec 5, 2022
    10
    This is the game that introduced me to Dragon Quest. It can be unforgiving at times, owing to some of its dated mechanics, but if you're willing to put up with that, you'll find that DQIX is shockingly addictive. On top of the main story, there's a massive amount of postgame content you can tackle... but it was unlocked via Nintendo WFC despite being on the card. There are ways aroundThis is the game that introduced me to Dragon Quest. It can be unforgiving at times, owing to some of its dated mechanics, but if you're willing to put up with that, you'll find that DQIX is shockingly addictive. On top of the main story, there's a massive amount of postgame content you can tackle... but it was unlocked via Nintendo WFC despite being on the card. There are ways around that, though.… Expand
  6. Yaacgold24
    May 10, 2022
    10
    The DQ game i've spent most time ever. Truly rich in its gameplay. I hope they will do a remake of this one in the future.
  7. Eddyy
    Mar 27, 2022
    10
    graphic and story are beautiful
    music is perfect
    story and citys 12/10
    eq design 10/10

    realy good game
  8. Tiziown
    May 22, 2021
    10
    The most customizable, free and funny Dragon Quest, with an amazing battle system, job system and skill system. Story is kind of episodic but still good.
  9. DinoBeam
    Mar 29, 2021
    6
    This game starts off at a good pace and eventually gets boring. Egregious use of recolored enemies instead of new ones, slow ship exploring, everything and place being a pun instead of taking itself at least a little bit seriously, and the same damn music for every town and dungeon and cutscene; it all adds up to a large growing frustration as you play deeper into the game.
  10. raucher
    Jan 14, 2021
    10
    Playing it for the first time in 2020 and the game is still impressive, literally the best JRPG on the Nintendo DS, im not a big fan of turn-based RPGs but Dragon Quest IX is a masterpiece
  11. MyTerribleLife
    Dec 17, 2020
    10
    This game is my childhood, It is really great, Emotional, Cheering and very challenging in some parts. It is a great way to enjoy Dragon Quest on the go, You fight a lot of bosses, But after defeating them you feel you accomplished something. I highly recommend it, Its cheap and nice. I bought a used Japanese copy for 980 Yen
  12. YDS
    Nov 1, 2020
    10
    Perfect, That is all i can say. Heartwarming And exciting but also saddening sometimes. You need to quite level up for the bosses, Though it just makes it more fun. I highly reccomend it.
  13. sergejs
    Dec 19, 2019
    10
    While comparing it to the rest of the Dragon Quest series (a.k.a DQ1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, Monster Joker 1 + 2 and slime) it can be said clearly that Dragon Quest IX is one of the best in the series. Although it's a DS only it's a massive experience. Involves a rich story, has outfits which can be seen, a perfect party system and a good leveling up system. Comparing this game further on to DQ10While comparing it to the rest of the Dragon Quest series (a.k.a DQ1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, Monster Joker 1 + 2 and slime) it can be said clearly that Dragon Quest IX is one of the best in the series. Although it's a DS only it's a massive experience. Involves a rich story, has outfits which can be seen, a perfect party system and a good leveling up system. Comparing this game further on to DQ10 and DQ 11 it can be even more said that this game is the best one and the most advanced which makes it the odd one out. I would highly recommend this RPG game to everyone because I just can't describe how good my experience was with it. I have been playing it ever since it's release and I still am playing it postgame leveling up my grotto bosses!… Expand
  14. MARUYAMA
    Oct 2, 2019
    7
    It's nice but would have been *so* much better as the action rpg it was meant to be. Goddammit, purists!
  15. ShiryuChaos
    Jul 29, 2019
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Incredible and infinite game. Customization, Story plot and had bosses (and legacy bosses too) in the maximum level possible.

    Treasure maps and legacy bosses are not only nostalgic but make this game have 999 hours playtime.    … Expand
  16. Nafare
    Jun 9, 2019
    10
    I must say it is hard to put this game down I love the controls the story is very cool and it has amazing graphics for a DS game. It feels like an open world with lots of dungeons to go through and you can create your own character even put on equipment that displays on your characters model.

    Amazing Dragon Quest game 10/10
  17. Johnny_evil2101
    Jul 13, 2018
    9
    A traditional JRPG that does about everything right. It has the classic turn based combat system that we all know (and most people like/love) but it has an edge over the older JRPG's with the new addition of seeing random encounters on the overworld and because of that being able to dodge or attack specific monsters.
    The story is typical dragon quest, yet it has some refined edges around    A traditional JRPG that does about everything right. It has the classic turn based combat system that we all know (and most people like/love) but it has an edge over the older JRPG's with the new addition of seeing random encounters on the overworld and because of that being able to dodge or attack specific monsters.
    The story is typical dragon quest, yet it has some refined edges around it that make it stand out in the series. Not to mention the sheer size of this game, just the story will take you over 50 hours to complete and none of it will feel like a bore.
    As usual with Dragon quest games: the music Is a piece of art written by the well known Koichi Sugiyama. His music sounds epic and nostalgic without being bloated or pretentious.
    The character designs are great as well, being made by the legendary Akira Toriyama (Dragon ball Z).

    What sets this game apart from the other Dragon quest titles:

    + Enemies visible when out of combat (no more pure random encounters)
    + Massive postgame content in the form of dungeons, weapons and much more (some are download by wi-fi and thus discontinued though)
    + Creatable characters: you create your own character AND companions (choosing their class and appearance)

    - The companions have pretty much no impact on the story since they're self-inserts

    For those new to Dragon Quest:

    - You can create weapons, armor and items by using drops or items that grow in the overworld
    - Turn based combat
    - Great music
    - Long interesting storyline
    -Class system (Warrior, mage, ranger...)

    Would definetly recommend this game to anyone who has played or wants to play a classic JRPG, heck I would recommend this game to just about anyone.    … Expand
  18. kingplain
    Nov 1, 2017
    8
    It's a really good Dragon Quest game. I have a few complaints. The wi-fi isn't supported anymore which removes some of the content. Another issue is that NPCs are too verbose. When I go to save I don't want to here the life story of the priest. Likewise, every time I buy or sell something I don't need the shopkeeper to reset the scene "Oh, hi is there anything I can help with?" "Thank you.It's a really good Dragon Quest game. I have a few complaints. The wi-fi isn't supported anymore which removes some of the content. Another issue is that NPCs are too verbose. When I go to save I don't want to here the life story of the priest. Likewise, every time I buy or sell something I don't need the shopkeeper to reset the scene "Oh, hi is there anything I can help with?" "Thank you. Will there be anything else?" "Oh, you'd like to sell something? I can help with that." "What would like to sell." "Is there anything else I can help you with?" "You want to sell something else?" "I can help you with that." I just want to sell/buy stuff. I know how to do it. I've played all the other dragon quests. This type of dialogue bogs down saving/healing/job changing. Lastly, battles go pretty slow. Biggest problem is when an enemy casts a spell that hits everyone. Instead of the outcome populating at the same time, you have to watch each character: "Hit with blah spell..." "... but it isn't effective." Again, it would be an easy thing to optimize that wouldn't take away from the old-school charm DQ that's such a part of the series.… Expand
  19. CAPTAINCOWARD2
    Jun 11, 2017
    10
    This is arguably the best DS game in existence, as it isn't one of those boring linear-plot licensed ones. This game has a VERY easy combat system, a brilliant story and possibly some of the best graphics I have ever seen in a game.

    GOOD POINTS: I. The combat system. II. It doesn't take itself too seriously by putting obvious stereotypes all over the place. III. It's possibly the    This is arguably the best DS game in existence, as it isn't one of those boring linear-plot licensed ones. This game has a VERY easy combat system, a brilliant story and possibly some of the best graphics I have ever seen in a game.

    GOOD POINTS:
    I. The combat system.
    II. It doesn't take itself too seriously by putting obvious stereotypes all over the place.
    III. It's possibly the only Digital Role-Playing Game on the DS.
    IV. Fully customizable characters.
    V. A variety of seemingly everything.
    VI. A post game story that's longer than the actually game.

    BAD POINTS:
    I. When looking at how long it took me to complete, I realized it took me over 7000 HOURS to finish, which is far too long for anybody to cope with.
    II. You can't go back to the Observatory after you finish the game.    … Expand
  20. DelWolf
    Apr 19, 2017
    10
    I am going to say this now. This is my favourite game of all time. The addicting game play, varied character customisation, catchy soundtrack, intense story, amazing humour, beautiful visuals for it's hardware, likeable characters, huge world - all of them add up to a masterpiece.
    I have always been a big fan of the Dragon Quest series, but I always expect decency from them, not    I am going to say this now. This is my favourite game of all time. The addicting game play, varied character customisation, catchy soundtrack, intense story, amazing humour, beautiful visuals for it's hardware, likeable characters, huge world - all of them add up to a masterpiece.
    I have always been a big fan of the Dragon Quest series, but I always expect decency from them, not phenomenons. And that's exactly what this game is. It's a JRPG that can be enjoyed by both JRPG fans, but also those who don't favour them much. If this gets an HD release for the switch, Nintendo can shut up and take my money!    … Expand
  21. LiGhtBurn80
    Jan 17, 2017
    10
    Un très bon rpg dure et stratégique avec un gameplay très cool un scénario puissant et très addictif il vous faudra des heurs de farm pour avoir le lvl suffisant au boss les plus fort !
  22. night4
    Aug 24, 2016
    7
    It starts off great - great music, great quirky feel, great somewhat original story idea, great party creation. But it slowly degenerates into a grind. Quests are ridiculously time-consuming for modest rewards and leveling up is slow before long.

    I'm still giving it a 7 because I got almost 20 hours before the grind killed all the fun.
  23. DarkFawful
    Jan 26, 2016
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I used to play Dragon Quest 8 all the time, and I loved it. There wasn't that much that could be improved. I did wish that armor would show up on your character, and that you could customize your party instead of getting a pre made one. However, then Dragon Quest 9 came out. This added both features I wanted, along with an amazing story to go with it. I never really felt like I was in a rush or I was too powerful. Even with everybody on my party (custom made :D) at high levels, even some older enemies were still a battle. In other words, this game is great.

    THE STORY
    So as far as I could gather, every town has a guardian spirit. You are the guardian of a small village called Angel Falls and one day you mysteriously fall to the Human world with no powers left. You go on a quest to find out what happened, and along the way you meet many creative and awesome characters. Eventually you find a large village known as Wormwood. However, they don't trust outsiders and won't sell you anything. You'll later find out that the ghost girl that's been following you is Serena, who used to live in Wormwood. They had a guardian named Corvus, who was very protective of Serena. One day, though, Wormwood was attacked by the mighty Gittish Empire, who killed Serena. They captured Corvus, destroyed Brigadoom (another castle/dungeon you find earlier) and slowly died. However, Corvus remained and used his power to bring back the Gittish to punish the Human race. So you stand up against him, with one of the coolest looking final bosses i've ever seen and an amazing remix of the main theme for a last boss track. This game is great.
    However, no game is perfect. I felt like grinding was necessary. I also like to make my characters look nice with their armor on, but most armor looked unappealing on my characters. Otherwise, everything else is great!    … Expand
  24. rafaelxpxpxp
    May 6, 2015
    10
    The only game on my DS I play without get bored. I love the battle system it reminds me of former RPGs on snes. The best game for ds you must play it.
  25. Vataro
    Mar 16, 2015
    10
    100 % kriegt dieses Spiel locker hin . Das beste , größte RPG , das ich je gesehen habe ! Geile Bosskämpfe , Plottwists , 150 Missionen , 400 Gegner , riesige Welten , Schatzkarten und mehr ... Unschlagbare Action ;3
  26. TheVolcano
    Jan 17, 2015
    10
    Dragon Quest IX is my favorite DS Game.
    This is the perfect JRPG. I have 200+ hours of gameplay on this and still haven't finished all the
    sub-quests. It follows the original old-school JRPG Formula, but adds more to it. The graphic are one of the best graphics i have seen on the DS, the soundtracks are still into my mind and the story was great! Every single city has his sub-story    Dragon Quest IX is my favorite DS Game.
    This is the perfect JRPG. I have 200+ hours of gameplay on this and still haven't finished all the
    sub-quests. It follows the original old-school JRPG Formula, but adds more to it.
    The graphic are one of the best graphics i have seen on the DS, the soundtracks are still into my mind and
    the story was great!
    Every single city has his sub-story which you get involved in.
    The map is huge and on 3 layers, one layer that you can reach by walking, one that
    you can reach by boat and one that you can reach only with...um... a flying train.
    The designer of this game is the legendary Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragonball
    and he worked perfectly on this game.
    It is a shame tat this game is not so famous outside of Japan, where it is the twelve best-selling game
    of ALL TIME.    … Expand
  27. NintendoPlayer1
    Oct 17, 2014
    10
    One of my favorite games! This game is so epic! The Story, the soundtrack... i love it so much!! The charakter designe is like in every Dragon Quest Game nice.
  28. Muramas
    Jul 13, 2014
    6
    I find this game highly overrated. It has a mediocre story, no character progression which is compounded by your party is nobodies so they are robots following you, and the camera is awful.

    Monsters spawn on map can be seen as both a novel idea because battles can be avoided or a huge annoyance because some of the spawn right in front of you or spawn/wander around when you have the menu    I find this game highly overrated. It has a mediocre story, no character progression which is compounded by your party is nobodies so they are robots following you, and the camera is awful.

    Monsters spawn on map can be seen as both a novel idea because battles can be avoided or a huge annoyance because some of the spawn right in front of you or spawn/wander around when you have the menu open which will allow them to enter battle when the menu closes.

    Which brings me to the camera. The world is 3d but doesn't rotate 360 because to save on detail some characters are 2d sprites (think Ragnarok online) this becomes a huge pain in certain dungeons with high walls so you can actually see where you are going well (Prime example Quarantomb) and also compounded by the fact that monsters spawn right in front of you. Since the camera is also zoomed close to the ground it is difficult to avoid certain mobs.

    Which brings me to map design, the maps are actually pretty nice but they seemed to be designed for monsters not being spawned on map. Some monsters take up a whole walkway and can't be avoided and can be quite annoying to deal with.

    Few other points
    -The characters classes are alright and it is nice that there are so many different ones
    -Being able to change classes is great but it comes a bit too late in my opinion
    -The world is well crafted and nice to have alchemy pickups
    -Alchemy is a bit annoying but is fixed a bit better with a lot of recipes being available more readily. The alchemy pot should be at EVERY inn though or with you.

    All in all I think this is just a cry for the old times instead of a push to improve. I love old RPGs like this, DQ8 is one of my top fav RPGs but I feel that DQ9 was a small misstep.    … Expand
  29. Zegram
    Jun 21, 2014
    5
    Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies just doesn't live up to its predecessor. This is mediocrity at its best.

    The story and most of the characters are dull for the most part. The big draw to this game was supposed to be the four player co-op but I doubt a lot of people actually got to play it that way and as a result you end up with a group of silent protagonists which    Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies just doesn't live up to its predecessor. This is mediocrity at its best.

    The story and most of the characters are dull for the most part.
    The big draw to this game was supposed to be the four player co-op but I doubt a lot of people actually got to play it that way and as a result you end up with a group of silent protagonists which obviously doesn't help the plot.
    This game really seems to be aimed at a younger audience, nothing wrong with that of course, but it offers close to zero value for a more mature gamer.
    This was one of the few games that might've convinced me to buy a DS but instead it ended up making me take a pass.

    The art style is great but nothing new here since it's just like previous games.
    The only real positive thing about this game is the wide variety of customization options.    … Expand
  30. HeroinePandora
    Sep 28, 2013
    9
    I have spent an unhealthy 300+ hours on this game, but it was worth every second. This game is very addictive, but that's because there's so many things to do. While I wasn't a big fan of Akira Toriyama's art at first, it did grow on me because of this game. The story isn't blockbuster worthy, but it still pulls you further in, and the localization quirks and touches are absolutelyI have spent an unhealthy 300+ hours on this game, but it was worth every second. This game is very addictive, but that's because there's so many things to do. While I wasn't a big fan of Akira Toriyama's art at first, it did grow on me because of this game. The story isn't blockbuster worthy, but it still pulls you further in, and the localization quirks and touches are absolutely hilarious. And as a last word, I'm always a sucker for character customization and diverse class options. There's just so many ways to really make you, you.
    Art: 8
    Music: 8
    Writing: 9
    Gameplay: 10    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best DS Game of 2010
4
#4 Most Discussed DS Game of 2010
1
#1 Most Shared DS Game of 2010

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 65 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 65 out of 65
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 65
  3. Negative: 0 out of 65
  1. Cubed3
    Jan 3, 2011
    100
    With Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, Square Enix and Level-5 have delivered what is without doubt one of the most stunning RPG experiences not only on the Nintendo DS, but in existence, full stop.
    Read full review
  2. GameCritics
    Jan 1, 2011
    85
    This is a really big game for something found on a handheld, an epic yarn that offers up hundreds of hours of gameplay for those willing to invest the time.
    Read full review
  3. Nintendojo
    Oct 21, 2010
    100
    Coupled with its simple story and addicting post-game play, one of the greatest triumphs of Dragon Quest IX is that it manages to be a serious role-playing game without taking itself too seriously.
    Read full review
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