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Seven minutes of Dragon Quest IX
Square Enix has finally started ramping up the promotion for a game that basically needs no promotion: Dragon Quest IX. With a new semi-open-ended structure and multiplayer gameplay, there's a lot of mysterious new content in this game -- even after Square Enix and Level-5 toned down the "new." The last half of this (seven-minute-long) new trailer focuses on the multiplayer mode, which adds a bit of the unexpected to the expected (the expected being a tavern lobby and multiplayer dungeons). You can see players taunting each other and dancing, and one player even demonstrates the ability to be a jerk to other players by setting pit traps. Classy. Check out the trailer after the break.
Square Enix introduces some new Dragon Quest IX characters
One month before the Japanese launch date (can it really be that soon?) Square Enix has released new screenshots of Dragon Quest IX, with brief introductions to some of the cast. The game has quite a sizable ensemble of characters! Most of them are humans living in a village, but at least some portion of the game is also set in an "angel world" where angels feed a World Tree to get it to yield fruit. Some of the colorful cast of (human) characters introduced in today's update include Olga (Origa?), a young girl who frequently wades into the sea to pray; Lu Fin and Eliza, an archaeologist and wife, and Ratena, a mysterious, hooded girl who has some kind of sway over the hero. Dragon Quest IX's semi-sandbox structure means we could be engaging in various optional side quests for all of these people. We're willing to guess those archaeologists would pay for relics found in dungeons, for example. %Gallery-15248%
Square Enix announces Dragon Quest Wars for DSiWare
Square Enix has revealed the Dragon Quest Wars whose title was trademarked last month. Anyone expecting some kind of MMO tactics game will be disappointed, because while the new game does feature online play, it's nothing quite so grandiose. In fact, it's a 500-point DSiWare download.Dragon Quest Wars is an online-capable board game for up to four players. Each player creates a team of four classic Dragon Quest monsters and participates in "simple battles" against up to three other AI or player teams. The small game has some decent strategy game cred: it's being developed by Intelligent Systems, the Nintendo second party responsible for both the Fire Emblem and Advance Wars series. Dragon Quest Wars will be out in Japan this June.[Via 1UP]
Square Enix files trademark for 'Dragon Quest Wars'
It's beginning to look like Square Enix might have a fairly revealing show at E3 this year -- following last month's trademark filing for Vanguard Storm (the assumed title of Squeenix's unannounced action title), the developer recently filed a trademark which reserves the title Dragon Quest Wars. The game will likely feature adorable, slime-based creatures participating in large-scale conflicts -- or, like many trademarked titles, won't actually get developed. We're banking on the former option, as Japanese gamers seem to love them some Dragon Quest. [Via Siliconera]
85 million Final Fantasy games sold, global takeover imminent
Hot on the heels of yesterday's official acquisition of "the house that Lara built" (Eidos, folks), Square Enix has released a load of numbers on its biggest IPs -- including some that it just acquired yesterday. Unsurprisingly, the Final Fantasy series flies high above its brethren (in a fancy airship, of course) with over 85 million units moved over the series' lifetime. We imagine after the company releases its flurry of FFXIII titles, that number will jump considerably.Among other details in the release is Dragon Quest's lifetime sales, reaching nearly 50 million units, and the Tomb Raider series showing up with 30 million units sold in the past 13 years. Also of note is Kane & Lynch: Dead Men selling nearly two million shameful, shameful copies. Can we expect the layoffs to stop for now?[Via Edge]Source (warning: PDF)
April Fools: Gag taunts downtrodden Dragon Quest IX fans
As a hilarious April Fools' Day prank, AkibaBlog posted a notice that Square Enix's DS role-playing game, Dragon Quest IX, had gone on sale early, with stores hosting surprise midnight launches. The blog posted pictures from other launch events in Tokyo's Akihabara district, passing them off as images of 2,000 eager gamers waiting to pick up their copies of the game. "The Starry Sky is protected, but the release date isn't," according to a fake marketing slogan. If you happen to be in Akihabara, don't rush over to Sofmap! It's a joke. It seems especially cruel to pick on the people waiting for Dragon Quest IX, who are already grief-stricken over the game's delay from March 28 to July 11, and many of whom are probably crying right now, collapsed on the sidewalk outside of AsoBit Game City. [Via Kotaku]
Dragon Quest V team wants your feedback
Are you thrilled that Square Enix finally got around to localizing Dragon Quest V? Or maybe you're disgusted that the remake didn't include more Dippity-Doo'd amnesiac protagonists or 30-minute-long cutscenes? Let the team know! The company has opened a comment form on the Dragon Quest V website, through which registrants in the Square Enix Members program can leave feedback about the RPG remake. The form promises that "each message will be read," though a response may not be forthcoming. While you're exploring the Dragon Quest V site, why not send out DQV e-cards to all your friends, and grab some wallpapers? %Gallery-12146%
Dragon Quest IX delay may influence Final Fantasy XIII
So Square Enix' next DS bestseller, Dragon Quest IX, has been pushed back to the next fiscal year in Japan, thanks to some major bugs. Whoops! No wonder the company slashed their earnings forecast for the year. What does this mean for Square Enix' other titles? Japanese news site IT Media reports that Final Fantasy XIII may be influenced by the delay of Dragon Quest IX, according to Yoichi Wada. It's unclear as to what form this "influence" will take and nothing more specific has been said. It could mean Final Fantasy XIII will be delayed in Japan, or it could mean that the game is actually brought forward in the US and Europe in order to increase the company's FY 2009 income and more quickly recoup their FY 2008 losses. Alternatively, it could mean the main character might wear a slightly different outfit now. We simply don't know. [Via Kotaku]
Square Enix lowers revenue forecast for fiscal year
First, the bad news: Square Enix has lowered its (delayed) revenue forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009. In fact, it has lowered the forecast so much that "lowered" is really just a polite euphemism. As reported by Edge Online, the previously expected net income of 12 billion yen has been scaled down slashed to 4.5 billion yen, a considerably smaller amount than the previous year's net income of 9.1 billion yen. The Japanese publisher, which just proposed a takeover bid for ailing Eidos, also expects operating income to miss last year's 21? ?billion? yen and settle for an inverted 12? ?billion. The underperformance is pinned on "Amusement? (?Taito Corporation?) ?and games? (?offline segments?)," particularly the "severe business environment for Amusement,? ?and the adjourned release of a major game software??,? ?which was originally announced to be released March? .?" Said major game software is Dragon Quest IX, which will now be deployed in Japan on July 11th. The good news: That's the end of the bad news.
Dragon Quest IX delayed until July in Japan
Square Enix has announced a delay of Dragon Quest IX from its March 28 release date to July 11. The March release date had been announced at a Dragon Quest-specific press conference in December. The announcement indicates that major bugs were found in the game code. This delay seems like somewhat of an emergency measure; as NeoGAF members note, Square Enix had already put a lot of money and effort into advertising the game around Japan, including promotional signage around 7-Eleven stores -- a partnership that has since proven ironic. In somewhat less terrible news, Famitsu has posted new screens of the game, featuring an inn-based communication system. Players can visit their friends' version of Ricca Inn, and leave messages and treasure maps. %Gallery-15248% [Via NeoGAF]
Dragon Quest IX, or 'Dragon MapQuest IX'?
It's a minor thing, but the map screen in Dragon Quest IX is quite lovely. And, honestly, it's more important to have a nice world map than it may seem, because you'll be staring at the thing all the time. The sepia-toned map provides a detailed drawing of the world, including bridges and other narrow crossings. Less detailed, but still pretty great, is the treasure map, seen here. These maps imitate the color scheme of the main world map, but are drawn crudely and with much less detail. Treasure maps, of course, are marked with an X in a location corresponding to some mysterious treasure -- housed inside caves. Once inside the cave, you switch over to a blank automap that fills in as you explore. That's a lot of different mapping for one game! %Gallery-15248%
Dragon Quest V: Handout of the Heavenly Slimes
Square Enix has just announced a contest to promote (and give away) the upcoming Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride. If you are a citizen of the US (don't complain to us, we didn't make the contest) are eligible to win a big Dragon Quest V prize pack including a copy of the game signed by series producer Yuji Horii, along with a collection of awesome Dragon Quest toys. We are coveting that plush Slime Knight pretty hard. Entering couldn't be easier. Well, it could be easier if they didn't make you poke around the website, but it's pretty easy. All you have to do is find all the monsters hidden around the official site, which will then lead you to a contest entry form. The site's pretty informative anyway, so it's worth the browse! %Gallery-12146% [Thanks, T.J.!]
Old and new in Dragon Quest IX's combat
Square Enix has released new screenshots of Dragon Quest IX's combat. The most significant addition to the system is the camera movement, if the breathless Famitsu writeup is to be believed. It's just like the camera in battles in Dragon Quest VIII, and every other RPG since Final Fantasy VII, but 3D anything still seems novel to the series. The new "Hissatsu" moves, on the other hand, actually seem novel. Each class has a different special move that can only be activated at low HP. And if everyone in a multiplayer game does a Hissatsu at the same time, it will combine into a stronger attack! %Gallery-15248%
Dragon Quest V handed over to Europe in February
Square Enix has announced a European release date for the DS remake of Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride: February 20, just three days after the North American release. Of course, the title will omit the number, because PAL region audiences must not be allowed to know how many Dragon Quest games Enix and Square Enix have failed to release over the years. As with Dragon Quest IV, this DS version of the multigenerational RPG will be the first European release for this game, which was one of the best-selling releases on any platform in Japan in 2008. New screens were released to accompany the announcement, and we've placed them in our gallery. %Gallery-12146% [Via press release]
Getting your wings in Dragon Quest IX
Square Enix sent out some new screens of Dragon Quest IX, along with some information about the early storyline. Apparently, you start the game dead (or just inhuman), in some kind of land of angels, working to acquire some kind of "goddess fruit". Your (custom) character must get Star Auras from completed quests in order to make the World Tree grow this fruit. At least in the early portion, Dragon Quest IX will have somewhat of an open-ended structure, as you agree to take on quests from townspeople in order to help them out and earn your Star Auras. We are quite certain that the game will have a fairly linear storyline (it is Dragon Quest), but it's interesting to see Square Enix experimenting just a bit with nonlinearity. %Gallery-15248% [Screens via GAME Watch]
New creatures, new jobs, new screens for Dragon Quest IX
If you want new in the next Dragon Quest, you're going to get it. It looks like Square Enix and Level-5 are making up for a long silence on the game, considering we're looking at more than two dozen (!!) new screenshots, and lots of new goodies for the title. In the recent screens, loads of new things were revealed: at least two new monsters were shown (Zucchinya and Moomon), as well as one, and maybe two new classes. While we've only seen someone labeled Bodybuilder (possibly new?), the Traveling Performer (possibly minstrel) was officially revealed. Among the performer's abilities are acrobatics and making the monster laugh ... too hard to attack, we presume. If it laughs and then kicks your ass, it's not much help. Traveling Performers would be restricted to one of the goofier faces, in a perfect world. %Gallery-15248% [Via Game Tsunami]
Might as well Jump for new Dragon Quest IX, FFCC Echoes of Time trailers
We're slowly being converted into full-on Dragon Questism by the Dragon Quest IX hype, and this trailer from this weekend's Jump Festa event is certainly effective in that respect. It just looks like pure fun in a genre that is often dour and pretentious! We are officially in love with Koichi Sugiyama's Dragon Quest theme now. Square Enix and Level-5 may have been planning changes to the gameplay at one point, but any traces of action-RPG are gone now, and this is absolutely canonical Dragon Quest. After the break, a trailer for another Square Enix RPG that may not inspire as much adoration in so many: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time. Your enjoyment of this trailer may hinge upon whether you think Echoes of Time's cross-platform release is innovative or merely cheap. %Gallery-15248%
Iwata's Quest: help sell Dragon Quest IX
Let's be clear: Square Enix will have no trouble whatsoever selling Dragon Quest IX in Japan. In the west, where Final Fantasy is a far bigger name than its stable-mate, huge sales are by no means guaranteed. That's something Satoru Iwata wants to change, and if that means teaming up with Square Enix to promote the game in not-Japan, so be it. "At Nintendo, we were able to popularize the Brain Age series overseas, which was said to be unmarketable," the Nintendo boss told the assembled press after yesterday's Square Enix conference. "I want to increase the number of people worldwide that understand the appeal of Dragon Quest." Iwata added that he is keen to "form a strong tag team" with Square Enix to achieve this, and mentioned that he was looking forward to working with the publisher and Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii. Does this mean Nintendo is definitely going to be pouring some of its own resources into pushing DQIX outside Japan? It's not official, but we can't think of many better partners to help sell your game than Nintendo! Make the jump for Iwata's full comment. %Gallery-15248%
Dragon Quest IX to destroy Japanese wallets March 28
Square Enix held a Dragon Quest-related press conference today, the news of which was completely dominated by some offhand remarks by Yuji Horii about something or other. But the other big news, for which there was an official, planned announcement, was the release date for Dragon Quest IX: Protectors of the Starry Sky. Japanese gamers can expect to stand in line on March 28, and hand over a staggering 5,980 yen ($65) to get their copies. Dragon Quest IX demos were set up at the unit, using DSi systems outfitted with totally sweet Slime-themed Hori Protect Cases. The Slime speaker stands, after the break, are equally wonderful! When can we get some announcements about those? %Gallery-15248%
Dragon Quest X coming to Wii
Even before the release of Dragon Quest IX, Square Enix is already talking about its inevitable future. Yuji Horii, the series creator, revealed at a recent press conference that the upcoming Dragon Quest X will appear on Wii. This will be the first official entry of the ultra-popular RPG series (at least in Japan) on a current-generation console. (Dragon Quest VIII for PS2, pictured.) Other than that remark, no other details were revealed.Square Enix also revealed the Japanese release date for the upcoming Dragon Quest IX. The Nintendo DS RPG will be in stores on March 28th for 5980 yen. That means the hardcore Japanese fans out there will only have to wait in line for 108 more days. Good luck guys.
