Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

[killer kirby]

Finished the main story the other day, with my party all at around Lv 50.

 

Thoroughly enjoyed the game, much more than I was expecting to as well. Was worried initially that I wouldn't be able to get into it, (what with me being a bit of an RPG/Dragon Quest newb) but didn't have any problem at all.

 

I hope this is the sign that you may consider trying some of the backlog and perhaps even look forward to the release of Dragon Quest X whenever that comes out

 

I can see this game having some serious playtime still to come too, with all of the extra quests and items to collect etc... I'm now focusing on the Treasure Map aspect. Love the music that plays in the grottos:

 

	Audio

 

Reminds me of A Link To The Past a little bit.

 

Triva for you, it's the cave/dungeon music from Dragon Quest III, there is a couple of other songs from other Dragon Quest games in there (Won't say though as I consider it kind of a spoiler )

 

Orchestarted version if you want

 

	Audio

It's a huge shame that this isn't more popular over here though for the Tag Mode, I've tried canvassing quite a few times now but not had any luck.

They really should have added Wi-Fi functionality to that feature for the western release, oh well.

 

From my experience of playing Dragon Quest in multiplayer it truly was awesome, and I truly hope they keep in a lot of the features of the DQIX and put it into DQX. Truth be told I do expect Dragon Quest X to be more online focus, since Horii has always enjoyed online multiplayer games.

 

But reading these forums now it's made me all glad that more people have given it the chance and most are enjoying it ^_^

[Grazza]

I've got a potential big problem here. I've unlocked Gladiator and Paladin, but I want to unlock Armamentalist and Sage before I press on with the post-game content. However, I can't find any Great Trolls! Looking in my Defeated Monster list, I see two locations:

 

Realm of the Mighty - they're not there any more, as I've restored it.

Ondor Cliffs - I can't see any, even on the high bit.

 

 

So, a pretty big problem! Do I have to find them in Grottoes from now on?

 

EDIT - No problem, I've just find out I can restore the place where they were.

Edited August 11, 2010 by Grazza

[darksnowman]

Need some pointers for a few quests. I've had these on my list for yonks and thought I would have naturally picked up the ingredients by the time I'd completed the game but I haven't.

 

Malleable Mask

- Circlet x1

- Butterfly Wing x2

- Narspicious

 

Sunstone

- Lucida Shard

- Mirrorstone x3

- Hephaestus' Flame

 

 

Halp!

[Ike]

Need some pointers for a few quests. I've had these on my list for yonks and thought I would have naturally picked up the ingredients by the time I'd completed the game but I haven't.

 

Malleable Mask

- Circlet x1

- Butterfly Wing x2

- Narspicious

 

Sunstone

- Lucida Shard

- Mirrorstone x3

- Hephaestus' Flame

 

 

Halp!

 

Butter Fly win can be stolen from most butterfly type enemies, try around Zere. If your doing the quest were someone gives you a Malleable Mask to upgrade then that's not the recipe you want mind.

 

For Mirrostones, zoom to Swinedimples, then follow the path south east and cross the bridge then huge the edge of continent and go west, and just follow the path a few screens and you find the area where mirror stones are found.

[RedShell]

Triva for you, it's the cave/dungeon music from Dragon Quest III, there is a couple of other songs from other Dragon Quest games in there (Won't say though as I consider it kind of a spoiler )

 

Orchestarted version if you want

 

	Audio

Awesome.

 

Does anyone know what triggers collectable items (the little sparkly stars) to reappear on the world map?

Trying to stock up on various ingredients for Alchemy.

 

I found a pretty decent treasure map yesterday, it contains Metal Medleys. :awesome:

Have been messing with changing vocations too.

 

I can't believe just how much stuff there is to do in this game after the main story, it seems like you'd literally miss half of the content if you were to stop playing directly after the credits roll.

Seriously impressive replay value.

[darksnowman]

Butter Fly win can be stolen from most butterfly type enemies, try around Zere. If your doing the quest were someone gives you a Malleable Mask to upgrade then that's not the recipe you want mind.

 

For Mirrostones, zoom to Swinedimples, then follow the path south east and cross the bridge then huge the edge of continent and go west, and just follow the path a few screens and you find the area where mirror stones are found.

 

It is for the Malleable Mask quest. What am I meant to do instead?

 

I thought I'd investigated all corners of the map available- especially the snowy areas around Swinedimples. I'll head back for a gander later- guess it can be difficult to spot the sparklies in the snow.

 

I found a pretty decent treasure map yesterday, it contains Metal Medleys. :awesome:

 

I did one of mine earlier and had a battle with two Metal Medleys. They both ran in the first turn!

[Ike]

It is for the Malleable Mask quest. What am I meant to do instead?

 

You use the Malleable Mask in a recipe to upgrade it. Haven't found the recipe yet so I haven't got it done which is pretty annoying because I've had that quest ongoing for ages now.

[Grazza]

Do you still need the Circlet, darksnowman? I seem to recall you can buy them at Bloomingfield.

[ReZourceman]

Out of interest, when and how do I get alchemy? I'm just doing Brigadoon currently.

[darksnowman]

You use the Malleable Mask in a recipe to upgrade it. Haven't found the recipe yet so I haven't got it done which is pretty annoying because I've had that quest ongoing for ages now.

 

Right. Keep me posted if you figure out what to do.

 

Do you still need the Circlet, darksnowman? I seem to recall you can buy them at Bloomingfield.

 

I do. Bloomingfield is the place to hit then.

 

Out of interest, when and how do I get alchemy? I'm just doing Brigadoon currently.

 

Zoom back to Stornway and go into the Quester's Rest and see if its there yet. Talk to Erinn and see if she has anything to say. If not... keep checking back.

[Grazza]

I love this game, I really do, but does anyone else find it too obsessive? Particularly in these areas:

 

1) Farmable items

So often I want to make something in Alchemy, and yet I need an ingredient I don't have. I look in my guide to see how to make that ingredient, and I see I need a farmable item (like Royal Soil). So, I look in my guide to see where to find that, and when I get there, there might be 1 piece, 3, 4 or none at all, so I have to keep checking, all to make an item which should really just be a little sidequest. It wasn't in VIII and seems like an unnecessary addition. Are they trying to make Dragon Quest like an MMORPG or something?

 

2) Skills

Skill points, particularly from Seeds of Skill, are very miserly in this game, and so you have to switch vocations in order to get more. True, it was a big problem in VIII that you couldn't max-out enough skills, but arguably by fixing that they've taken it too far. For instance, for every vocation your character hasn't tried yet, there are some "easy" skill points waiting to be picked up, but how far do you take it? Level 10, 30, 40? I've spent the past week or so levelling-up my characters in different vocations, just to get the skill points. Yes, it's my fault, but it's hard to resist.

 

The other big thing I don't like about this is that your characters can become all the same. They can all have Spears, Swords, Courage etc, which is all very well, but I believe RPGs are better when more parameters are set. An ideal version would be where your Mage (for example) can max-out all the Mage abilities and weapons, but only those. I couldn't resist getting mine an axe, but it's really not fitting. Again, my fault, but I like some parameters.

 

3) Quests

There are hundreds of Quests. Some are fun, but most are tedious beyond belief and are pure filler. Some have decent rewards, others aren't worth doing. Why do I have to defeat an enemy or boss with Bang or Frizz? It takes away the fun of the boss fight when you're afraid to attack normally because you don't know his HP, and you have to keep chipping of 200 or so HP with a weak spell. What is the point of this? Again, it's very MMORPG-like.

 

4) Mid-step Armour

So much of the traditional armour now has a slightly enhanced version - for instance Steel becomes Gigasteel. The trouble is it's not really worth it and seems like its purpose is mainly to pad out a longer, more excessive game.

 

5) Mini Medals

In previous games, you'd generally have most of them by the end of the game. In Dragon Quest IX, I've barely got half. Like so many other things, everything's designed to last so much longer.

 

Whereas Dragon Quest VIII (main game and post-game) was designed as a clear, brilliant package, everything in IX seems designed to be protracted and obsessive.

 

Moan over!

[Ike]

Butter Fly win can be stolen from most butterfly type enemies, try around Zere. If your doing the quest were someone gives you a Malleable Mask to upgrade then that's not the recipe you want mind.

 

For Mirrostones, zoom to Swinedimples, then follow the path south east and cross the bridge then huge the edge of continent and go west, and just follow the path a few screens and you find the area where mirror stones are found.

 

Quick correction for the mirrorstones location. From Swinedimples head South, on the next screen head south east and follow the what I said before from there. If you get the right place you'll be in the Urdas Marshland.

[Grazza]

Well, after that moan, I'm having a whale of a time! I'm now getting on with the post-game content proper. If anyone wants any advice (which I know they don't), it's this - Grottoes, Grottoes, Grottoes! You sometimes get Metal Medleys in threes, so I can't wait to see the Metal King Slimes!

[Nolan]

Metal Medleys in threes is weaksauce. Try Liquid Metals in threes, and not in grottoes.

[RedShell]

Try Liquid Metals in threes, and not in grottoes.

Indeed. I've been encountering those in groups of 5 and 6 now!* Usually ends up being 1 or 2 at the end of battle though... Bloody cowards!

 

On the section near Angel Falls that you need the Starflight Express to access.

Making pretty good progress on leveling up as a result of that, my team is currently:

 

Manolito (Minstrel) Lv. 76

Arnie (Paladin) Lv.37

Jasmine (Ranger) Lv. 41

BruceLee (Martial Artist) Lv. 71

 

Got my hands on a Lv. 55 Treasure Map today too.

Unfortunately it's hard as nails, can't even make it to the boss.

[S.C.G]

EDIT - No problem, I've just find out I can restore the place where they were.

 

Err... how? O.o

[/curious]

 

*edit* nvm... I just found that out.

 

Grottoes are teh awesome, just been doing those recently as I really cba with doing some of the quests... >.> the only annoying thing is the repetition of bosses, I must have fought a certain - rather uninspiring boss - about three times, I did get to fight a pretty awesome boss today though which kind of made up for it.

Edited August 14, 2010 by S.C.G

[D_prOdigy]

I too enjpy doing grottoes. My only problem (apart from at first having no idea where some of them are) is that most of the quests I'm currently on require some higher-level grottoes that have the enemies I need to steal from or defeat. The highest level one I've done so far is 35. Need to keep pressing on!

Edited August 14, 2010 by D_prOdigy

[Grazza]

I suppose the odd thing about this game is that you finish it and you're still not sure what the post-game content is! Presumably it's mainly Quests and Grottoes, although I dread to think how big they get, because I've done a Level 45 one that had eight floors, and I've still not seen a Metal King Slime.

[D_prOdigy]

Need some pointers for a few quests. I've had these on my list for yonks and thought I would have naturally picked up the ingredients by the time I'd completed the game but I haven't.

 

Malleable Mask

- Circlet x1

- Butterfly Wing x2

- Narspicious

 

 

You want the Papillon Mask. To make it:

 

1x Malleable Mask

1x Dread Dagger

3x Narspicious

 

For the Dread Dagger:

 

1x Batterfly Knife*

1x Disturbin' Turban**

5x Butterfly Wings

 

*Batterfly Knife = 1x Poison Moth Knife (buy it at Alltrades Abbey), 3x Cogulant, 3x Butterfly Wings

**Disturbin Turban can be bought at the armour shop in Gleeba

 

Butterfly Wings I found to be particularly annoying to collect, as Batterflies and Betterflies tended to run from me an awful lot, and it's also their rare drop. To make it easier for yourself, Zoom to Zere and head to the separated bit of land that's just to the south-west of the town. Go to the east tip of that bit of land. Betterflies will spawn on that flowery ground without fail.

 

---

 

ALSO - How the hell are you guys getting such high-level grotto maps?

[Grazza]

ALSO - How the hell are you guys getting such high-level grotto maps?

 

Personally, I only chase ones that the Grotto boss drops (ie. I've never done one twice). Generally, a boss will drop a map that's slightly lower than the one I've just completed. However, I then go and do that and get a higher one than previously, eg. 40, 35, 45.

[Ike]

Completed the main story at 76 hours last night. Spent most of the day exploring the rest of the world map and doing some quests. Also managed to kill 4 Metal Slimes in one battle.

[Grazza]

Well done Ike.

 

I must admit, I feel very lost in this post-game. Has anyone got any really good Quests to recommend, please, or places where you get the most Liquid Metal Slimes or Metal King Slimes?

 

Here's my recommendation: do the Quests at Swinedimples. The rewards are brilliant! For example, if you max-out your Shield skill, you can do a Quest that gets you a very useful reward. Same goes for Spears (the only other one I've done so far).

[LegendDK]

I recommend talking to the thief Buster in Dourbridge pub, as he has a couple of quests with great rewards. This only works if you have a thief in the party, though.

[Ike]

I must admit, I feel very lost in this post-game. Has anyone got any really good Quests to recommend, please, or places where you get the most Liquid Metal Slimes or Metal King Slimes?

 

There's a cave you can only reach with the Starflight Express near Angel Falls which only has Slime family monsters, you can find Metal Slimes, Metal Medleys and Liquid Metal Slimes there.

 

[S.C.G]

So... I attempted a level 49 Grotto today...

 

I made it through ten whole floors!

 

...and then got 'raped' by a Darkonium Slime and TWO Octagoons.

 

fun times!

Edited August 17, 2010 by S.C.G