The Professor Layton series made its grand entrance on the Nintendo DS and quickly made a name for itself as one of the great franchises on the portable. Of course, the widespread sales success of the DS likely had a hand in propelling the series to popularity, so there was something of a mutually beneficial relationship between the series and the console. Interestingly enough, it seems that the success of the Layton games was so impactful that it had an effect on the Dragon Quest series' presence on the console.
Square Enix is putting on a special 30th anniversary countdown for the Dragon Quest series right now, and a recent piece on Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies revealed the origins of the decision to put it on the DS. Akihiro Hino – the CEO of Level-5 – spoke a bit about the game, revealing how he convinced Yuji Horii – the creator of Dragon Quest – to put the game on the DS. Horii was very hesitant to begin with, but Hino continued pressuring him to do it, mentioning how successful Layton had been and how widespread the console was. Eventually Horii caved and the rest is history.
What do you think? Did you enjoy Dragon Quest IX? Which Dragon Quest is your favorite? Drop us a comment in the section below.
[source blog.esuteru.com, via nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 27
So it was his fault
Love the dragon quest series, any idea when dragon quest VIII is coming out have to say that was my favourite, as it's the one that really got me in to series
It was amazing game, love new elements. Would see these elements for the next Dragon Quest games too.
I absolutely loved DQ9. It's the game that got me into the series. And the only one where I had the patience to grind for Metal Slimes.
IX is great, I can't imagine it on another console. The local multiplayer really makes it.
I thought it came from Horii jumping on the DS higher popularity to finally "come back to Nintendo". I'm a bit sad it was Ino's initiative
@Ibberson The 3DS remake should be coming out by the end of the year.
I have to admit, I wasn't a huge fan. I didn't really like the simplistic, turn based battles, so I traded it in towards a pre-order for Xenoblade. Lucked out there!
This game is still one of my favorite JRPGs. I love it.
Dang, my hopes were up that we were getting this on Virtual Console. Lol
I really enjoyed IX, but graphically it was a bit of a let down compared to the beautiful VIII. This year (?) we finally get to see this fixed and we'll finally be able to play VIII on the handheld; cause no matter what, these games are best enjoyed on a handheld
One of the best exclusive RPG for the DS.
Still love it and play it to this day. My kids have copies and we connect together regularly. It's still a great time for all ages.
and they could pack all of the DLC into the remaster of IX
@Parkour_LMan cheers
I couldn't get enough of this game, it's easily right up there with Monster Hunter and Pokemon in my most played games list.
Sucks that the DLC doesn't work now. It was a lot of fun getting on every week to see the new missions, especially since they expanded the story.
Jedward adverts aside, I really enjoyed this on DS. Really glad we're getting more Dragon Quest games in Europe - fingers crossed for Theatrhythm!
Dragon Quest IX is my favourite dragon quest and likely my favourite DS game in general.
I put over 300 hours on that game (and half of those were multiplayer).
For me personally I felt that this particular game was one of the weaker entries simply because of the fact that you have to create your own party and as a result they had no backstory to them. Hard to feel attached to a character that you pretty much just create out of thin air, though the gameplay was as good as ever.
DQ VIII is probably my favorite RPG of all time, and IX did not dissapoint.
This game got me into both the series and the genre. I'd love to see this game get remade on the 3DS sometime in the future, but until then I still enjoy the current DS one.
@Dpishere I completely agree with you. I can't fault its gameplay but the lack of characterisation for team members was hugely disappointing.
Still a great game. But not as good as Dragon Quest VIII, which I still think is the greatest Dragon Quest game so far.
@TRON I think it might be my favourite JRPG. Would you believe that I initially gave up on the game because I thought it was a bit boring to begin with.
Thankfully, I gave it another go and it soon became my obsession for well over 100 hours of playtime.
I enjoyed Dragon Quest IX enough, but frankly, the lack of well-established main characters in lieu of "Build-a-Bear" blank slates. I didn't care about my characters; they weren't compelling; they weren't even interesting. Dragon Quest VIII, by comparison, did a FAR better of job of selling its characters, and it easily my favorite game of the 00s. Dragon Quest VII 3DS continued this by fleshing out the characters it built in the PlayStation version.
@DWWM I definitely agree with you on that, and I am stoked for the remake coming to 3DS later this year. The fact that they removed random battles is a huge plus in my book too!
@Dpishere I didn't know that they'd removed random battles... That just might be enough to convince me to replay it on 3DS.
But I kind of don't want to spoil my memories of the game by replaying it again...
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