Just wanted to give some updated impressions. I have reached the point where you can change class.  Still not sure how many classes there are, as it looks like to open up advanced classes you have to progress to certain points in the starting classes.  Pretty much how it was done in DQ VII.  I'm not sure what the advanced classes are, but a few NPCs have dropped clues to what they are and they sound kind of cool. Sadly I don't think there will be nearly as many as there were in DQ VII.

The side-quests are also going to get ridiculous.  The early ones were more or less fetch quests, but the ones I'm finding now are just ridiculous. Stuff like kill X amount of a certain enemy with one particular move.  Not sure why that would make someone happy...

Anyway you can pretty much tell that this is the point of the game where it really opens up and allows for a lot more exploration (9 hours in with one solid hour of that being devoted to side quests if you're wondering).  The main quest is going strong, new options for character customization have opened up, plenty of side quests to get distracted with, and the fabulous alchemy pot is available for plenty of experimentation.

eggmiester said:

its a shame that a lot of americans will not get this because its a jrpg it seems like american reviews and game develoers are trying to  stop jrpg games from selling with lies being spreed and hate.
i am  prepared to call this game the best rpg  this year and should be bought by everyone

You're gonna have to get yourself an Avatar, Eggie, and start exploring the rest of the site!

If you look in the Gaming Discussion forums, you'll see a Nintendo Download topic like I make at the GS Wii Forums every week.

If you click on the News tab up at the top, you'll see a gathering of Gaming Related news stories updated daily from around the world, AND there's a General Discussion forum there too where we gather to discuss pretty much anything and everything!

robio said:

I liked it too, despite being waaaaaaay too long for it's own good.  But that was the same year Paper Mario, PSO, and . . . the overated piece of crud FFX were all released.  I don't care who you are, everyone would say at least one of those games was better.

Didn't play Paper Mario in it's entirety 'til it came out to the Virtual Console, didn't like FFX as much as DQVII and I don't consider PSO the same genre as DQVII, either...

So... Nyah!  

(It was pretty long! I had time on my hands back then, so I was allll over it! I played for 99 hours and STILL didn't do everything! I really liked the "piecing the world back together" aspect of it! People couldn't get over the fact that you really didn't even have your first battle 'til after the first two hours of the game! I kinda liked that though! Felt more adventurous that way. Killed it for the FFVII fans though!)

eggmiester said:

how can anyone not like a dq game i still stand by my saying that iyts the best rpg series made but the one problem i have with this game like with joker is that i never know what to put my skill points on so many choices and even more with class change woe is me

DQ is among my favorite series, but even the best series sometimes has a mis-step or two.

DQVII took waaay too long in development. It was the first in the series to stray from a Nintendo console. It had almost (sub) Super NES graphics, at least in the Battle Screens. The 3D towns were horrible in comparison to other games that were out on the PSOne at the time. It made it very, very tough for the American audience to embrace it!

Final Fantasy VII was still fresh in people's memories. It had fighting from the first 5 minutes, elaborate Cut/Summon Scenes and Polygon Models that made DQVII sprites look kinda embarassing...! For everyone who played FFVII as their first RPG, DQVII looked like a big jump back!

That being said I still loved DQVII. I had been playing Dragon Warrior on the NES and Monsters on the Game Boy Color and couldn't wait for ANY continuation of the series on a console! I was grateful for ANYTHING I got at that point!

As much as tough-love case DQVII was for lots of fans, it TOTALLY set the stage for VIII to be the STUNNING revival of the series! Going from VII to VIII was like going from NES to the Wii! Full 3D world, beautiful cell-shading and animated monsters... DQVII was like the ugly duckling, but I loved it just the same. DQVIII brought A LOT of American RPG fans to the series (finally!)...

I guess we'll have to see what DQIX does for the series as a whole!

eggmiester said:

leo i also been playing dq since dragon warrior games and i still feel that dwm is a better monster battling sim then pokemon but sadly it was thought of as worse by most americans

Sadly, Americans are the easily swayed type and were sucked in by: "GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL!"

I L-O-V-E-D Monsters (and even Joker) and was COMPLETELY FRUSTRATED by the lack of ANY marketing for them WHAT-SO-EVER!

DQM was awesome. It got a little repetitive towards the end, but the monster breeding was a much more fun way to catch new monsters than just throwing a poke ball.  God I remember how long it too me to start getting some of the better monsters because I was also finished with the game before I realized you could capture monsters from the foreign traders (taking monsters from other Pokemon Trainers was a big no no and figured that carried into this game).

I was sort of hoping for some references in DQIX to the original Monsters game since "Starry Skies" was in the title.  I was expecting a Starry Night Festival or something.  Apparently not, but no biggies.  

eggmiester said:

When you quote someone, you'll want to make sure the cursor is at the lowest point of the Posting Window.

If you backspace, it's going to become part of the text of the Quote... You'll get it after a few tries. Just be aware of WHERE the cursor is and you'll see what I mean!