Is Dragon Quest 9 Worth Playing Solo? 

I have never played dq9 with other players and have beaten the game several times when i was a child. To this day, its my favorite rpg story and i love the job system so much. i wish more rpgs had the ability to mix and match jobs like this game

I still pick this game up from time to time and still love it like the first time. Hope we'll get a remake someday... someday... *sigh*

Thanks for covering this wonderful game. This was my first DQ game and I think its my favourite, it's so so charming and fun and I would do anything for a modern remake of it.

So many positive comment for this game. I’m gonna try it out with the delta emulator. I’m gonna trust you all saying that solo gameplay is sufficient. Gonna burn some time while waiting for DQ3 HD2D 😊

I played this alone back when it first came out and tbh it still was a lot of fun and the story was really fun to play.

I never once felt like I needed friends for this game, and it was one of my all time favorite games as a kid. I’m watching a review for the first time, because I’m playing through it again and wanted to see what others thought of the game. (The party system is basically the same as dragon warrior 3, so I never even noticed they were “silent” I just imagined what kind of personality they would have)

I'm super late to this conversation - I just want to throw my hat in the ring, as most people here haven't experienced multiplayer! I grew up with DQ9 alongside my brothers. I have 3 older brothers, and all 3 had DQ9. So, growing up, we used to play with each other. And, honestly speaking, I enjoy the solo party aspect for the main story game entirely more than playing multiplayer in during the story. I had help from my brothers as a kid because I didn't understand the mechanics fully, and their characters were stronger than mine, so if I was REALLY struggling with a boss, I'd get them to come help me; swap out some party members, they'd come join, help me beat the boss, and I move on with the story. But this severely underhanded my party later on gameplay-wise. All my characters are mismatched levels now because of this despite being FAR postgame (my highest (the hero) being 99, my lowest being 47). Now, I'm playing solo on my second cartridge, and I've also hooked my friend into the game to play solo on her emulator. And the experience of doing it entirely by yourself is just as rewarding. Yes, you lose the story aspect within the party itself, but there's enough outside of it that you don't need it. The hero has the entire story and all the interactions, and if you have a wild imagination you can make stuff up in your head about your party members. The story is beautiful and one of my favourite RPG stories I've ever played; and I've never thought it was better in multiplayer than solo. As for grottoes, though, I think I do enjoy the challenge of grottoes in multiplayer more than I do with my party members. There's a security in planning out everything with your party and knowing all their moves back-to-front because you see them so often, yes, and it's still worth doing grottoes solo. But my absolute favourite thing ever was to fight high-level grottoes with my brothers. Nothing beat that comradery. Otherwise, it's still super, super fun to play it solo, and even 10yrs after I got my first copy, I play it to this day. And now that my friend has now been roped into it, I get the joys of watching her fall in love with my childhood game :)

I never got my hands on any friends willing to play it with me, and yet it still was among my favorite DS games from my childhood.

for me one of the goat, i love this game, I played it when I was 8 years old back in 2010, and I'm actually playing it now!

This is the game I went the extra mile and bought a second copy of aswell as a 2nd NDS just so I can always start a new game without losing the downloadable content. Then I discovered that the content is still available on 3rd party servers :D

The marketing for this game really didn’t work. Although, I haven’t played it with Jedward and that might be the optimal experience!!

DQ9 might have been multiplayer in Japan, but I played my 197 hours all by myself when it was brand new because no-one I knew had an NDS much less played Dragon Quest.

It felt like DQ III so I don't mind the rest of the party not having active roles in the story. But when I played DQ X online, being able to go adventures with real people is a very interesting experience. I'm hoping if they port it to mobile, it'll also have at least local co-op. 🙏🙏🙏

Just came across this as I’m playing it on my computer and was wondering if I could find the dlc this is so helpful

I got the game in 2018 and played it solo. I actually kinda wish I could do another playthrough, except it only has one save file.

I played through DQ9 for the first time last year. Also played through DQ11 for the first time this year. I still go back to DQ9 for the post-game but I can't ever see myself playing more DQ11.

This is still my favorite DQ game. Hoping for a re-release on switch someday or something like that.

I have such a love-hate relationship with DQ9. I think its a great game for first-timers, but there is just never any magic replaying it for me

Great video! Love this game - enjoyed doing a longplay on it :)

one of my top games of all time, never played online or with any friends

Why no remake

DQ9 ia by far my favorite, i have a weak spot for character customization, this game has it all, good story, good character customization, INSANELY GOOD SOUNDTRACK (but tbh wich DQ game doest not have it?) Challenge and long play potential, i think I have 400h in DQ9

Your top 7 are dope+ very simple lar to kine

my #1 of the 3 I've played but I didn't finish dq11 because it isn't on gamepass anymore

Its sad that the DLC of this game is lost to the sands of time cause of Nintendo closing down their DS Store.

It's the only way TO play. I know it has multiplayer functionality, but even if you find two people with DS consoles, the odds of them both having the game and wanting to play it at the same time are astronomical. If you can prove otherwise, then play it with me.

Will you be doing a video on 10? Because I really enjoy DQ10

I’m having a hard time with it cause my party are not like part of the story. Just mute puppets

105 Marks Hills

I felt 9 was better then 5 and 7 but not even close to 11 or 8

I dont think there is a bad DQ game

Wow, DQXI is your favorite? You have really bad taste.

Dragon Quest 7 last place? 🥲

DQIX is ABSOLUTELY my favorite DQ game of all time. Granted, I may be biased because it was the first one I've ever played but idc. I loved this game as a child and just got my cartridge working again now in my 2DS for the first time in at least 10 years, and I'm living my best life replaying it in 2024

i absolutely adore this game and wholeheartedly recommend it to literally anybody, even if alone.

My Mom didn't want my dsi to be connected to the internet when I was a kid, so I've been playing dq9 solo. I also feel the silent teammates I made gave me a chance to make up their stories, and it helped me flex my creative side, like Gann, the spiteful forever squire that slowly became a nice guy and saw his dream to be a paladin come true.

The game deserves a remake with the ability to select your class from the start Minstrel is great but I want my character to punch effectively or spear or hammer from the start.

Yes, definetely worth playing solo. The only thing I miss from those days, is the ability to buy extra stuff daily via the wi-fi feature, otherwise I never really needed internet to enjoy this game for a good while.

I'm playing through DQ IX for the first time by myself right now and I just reached the final boss! It is absolutely a good single player experience! It's really refreshing to watch a video about this game that doesn't echo what everyone else says about this entry in the DQ series. Great video, I subbed!

This was the game that got me into j-rpgs & DQ. I never once touched the mutliplayer as i wasnt able to. Its one of my fave games of all time, i want a remake so badly

Me and a few friends played this game a few months ago but in a different kind of way, 1 of my friends played the game on an emulator and the other friend and I acted as party members issuing commands during battles as the main player streamed the game over discord. It was a great time.

This game was freaking incredible

my biggest issue with IX nowadays is the same as most if not all square enix ds games (ill admit to a much larger degree with DQIX) is i cant do everything and get everything without hacking the game and for someone like me thats a huge turn off

Wait this game’s supposed to be multiplayer? This game was actually my very first rpg and one of my first games in general. I got very far as a kid but eventually lost the cartridge along with my original ds, but about a year ago I finally beat the game! It’s a fantastic game and it holds a very special place in my heart

I've always said that many Dragon Quest games run on a "Saturday Morning Cartoon Monster of the Week" sort of format. You go to a place and find there is something odd going on. Usually one or two people work to aid you, but ultimately it's up to you to figure out what to do to save the day. Once you are done, the folks recognize your heroism, you get a reward (often a plot coupon of some kind, but not always), and you move on to the next town in trouble. Most of the time you never return to that place, and it becomes a random town on the zoom list and map that makes you go "Oh yeah, remember there? That's when this happened!" Unless there was something you forgot (Like a mini medal) or something you couldn't get before like chests or items hidden behind locked doors. Ultimately, this game is *extremely* like that, basically the perfect example. And, given the party are blank slates, it works very well.

DQ9 was the first RPG game I ever played when I was about 10 or 11 years old, Im now 22 and looking forward to the new Dragon Quest game

Only Dragon quest I've played, loved it solo multiple times

I bought this game back in ~2012 to keep me busy after a surgery that left me unable to walk for about a week. I enjoyed it immensely and wasn't even aware that it was geared towards multi-player. The single-player experience lived up to some of my favorite JRPGs I had played before, like Golden Sun 1&2, Chrono Trigger and Grandia 2. It's a really well-made game.

I spent a lot of hours on this game its a gem

Personal answer: hell yeah it is! Single player is absolutely nuts. Multiplayer: it can be more fun but I'd honestly prefer the solo play. Also bro fucking love Bloodborne adore the mentionm

I ONLY played single player and i remember parts of the story with a smile. I think the main story is much more interesting than DQXI.

watching the clips on the screen had me flashing back through my childhood as i played this game for hours on end. years later now that im older its funny to think i has no clue a Vocation was, or how to even say coup de grace 😂 it has me wanting to replay the game

This game was multiplayer? Lol I only played it as a single player game. Didn’t even know it had the option

Love DQ9, just got it emulated on my phone. Gunna be my main public transit entertainment for a while ❤️❤️

This game deserves more love imo. What it lacks in story, it more that makes up for that in gameplay. You can even access the online/update content by using a save editor. Which is not cheating in my book since it’s the only way to get some of that stuff now. The only meaningful thing lost when solo is that a late-postgame party is slightly less powerful when playing alone due to certain one-per-savefile items like the scrolls.

I've never heard anyone describe DQ9 as even the multiplayer one, let alone "The one that's only good with multiplayer". The idea that a feature of it existing meant it had a disservice done to it is quite silly.

I soled this and had a lot of fun with it. Of the ten main series games I've played its in my top half. Ahead of I, II, XI, V, and VI for sure but definitely behind IV, III, and VIII. I'm not sure if I would put it above or below VII though.. I miss random encounters. I

Can you suggest good ds emulator? I own dq9 and ds and finishet it twice, last time in 2014 winter, and I think I'm going to replay 8 and 9 after I'll finish 11S. Last time I tried ds emu was back in 2009, it had small window, and I had to put my screen resolution to lowest to make that window larger. If that's the same now, then I'll just play normaly on ds or 3ds.

I only played this game once with a friend back when it was released so I'm a little fuzzy on the multiplayer but I thought it was like an Ad Hoc mode and not WiFi. I think once you were connected to another player, you couldn't use the rest of your party members that you created, I could be wrong though. Either way the multiplayer makes sense for Japan but not so much other regions. I think GameStop at the time would have get togethers on special days in US to swap the maps. I just used another copy of the game on a flash cart with someone's save that had everything. I had a spare DS lite to get it done.

I still hope they translate DQ 10 offline. I get not translating the online version but offline, it’s BEGGING to be translated

9 is 1 11 is 2 and 8 is 3 no doubt for me

I think people either love or hate the job system. I am one of those that hate it. It feels super grindy. Otherwise, the game is good but obviously because the job system is important to gameplay, I just couldnt finish the game. I played until soon after you make it back.

I have played this game so many times and never knew it was supposed to be a multiplayer game I just thought you were supposed to create your party which I love in rpgs!

I had 4 or 5 friends that I played this game with back in the day on my first playthrough. Restarted the game recently and it feels a little lonely, almost like I'm playing through it as one of the characters that needs to be freed by the Hero.

I want to get back into this game but sadly my DS is dead now :( I had just beat the main baddy and didn't get to finish the post game :(

DQ IX isn’t the only DQ game where party members are blank slates that you create, DQ III was also like that as well.

I wouldn't call it "most excellent quality thought, but DQ 9 is great it was one of the first games I bought with my own money. For a Handheld DS game DQ 9 is really good, but the lack of characters did hurt it a bit for me, although, some of the episodic stories are really tear jerkers

The world is the main character of this game. After some point, i just felt attached to my characters like they were a DnD group that went through many adventures together.

I played it solo. I thought your video was about fighting alone without a party.

I like nine better than 11. the jobs thing I hope they put in Dragon quest 12

Lewis George Gonzalez Christopher Lee Cynthia

I would fanboy so hard if they remade this game

I’ve always played this game alone .. I’ve always wanted to play the story with the co-op functionality

I never got to play in multiplayer back in Britain.

I have played this game through on average probably twice a year since day of release. I love this game, and tbh, have gotten plenty of pals into it over the years to enjoy the game with others. That said I have had plenty of solo files too, which is usually quicker and more streamlined, but still incredibly fun. People don’t give the story structure and messaging of this game nearly enough credit. I’d say it’s maybe the most thought provoking DQ game (that iv played) Edit: as a Scot there’s also phenomenal representation, even by DQ’s standards

I got a Reddit ad for this video 😮

DQX is the multiplayer one now

I just started replaying this game for like the 3rd time. I adore this dragon quest. Yes, it was my first one, so yes, I'm a little biased. However, it's amazing. I love that it's so easy to pick up and put down, and I just fell in love with the series because of it. You can also get the DQ9 save editor to get the other DLC quests and a whole slew of grottoes if you don't want to grind for it. This game got me into dragon quest, and it will forever hold the top spot because of that. Happy questing!

DQ9 is easily my favorite DQ game and I’ve only played it in single player in Japanese. The localized versions seem to have benefitted from some nerfed difficulty in some of the quests (like the ranger quest). I actually loved making my characters from scratch and inventing names, personalities, and stories for them. It’s just like DQ3 in that sense. But with better hair. And I love how every item equip is graphically represented. I’ve always wanted that. The enemy selection and episodic stories are also superb. And if you can read Japanese, it’s super cheap; I once bought a copy for ¥100.

Honestly, part of the reason I never had a problem with DQ IX single player is that it is no different than DQ III was back in the day, and having grown up with that, I don’t mind it in the slightest. Well, that and I never had access to anyone playing multiplayer, so it was no difference to me as far as lived experience. It’s still one I greatly enjoy to this day, despite my objections to a number of the really grindy mechanics and achievements.

I'm playing this game right now and actually cried during the Coffinwell arc. This game genuinely has as good of writing as DQ8. I'm so glad I didn't skip the game even if it's got a short single player story

5 is still my favorite

Dq9 was my first dragon quest game and even after playing most of the other main line games, still remains my favorite. Honestly I had no clue it had multiplayer until my second run through. While playing multiplayer is fun, solo play is just as fun or even better

Shame its not even on the psp

I've played the whole game co-op with my wife and can weigh in on the mechanics. Encounters are easier because you can split up and grind faster, and if one player is outnumbered, they can simply wait their turn while the other player teleports over to them (call to arms function is also very useful both in and outside of battle). Also, only human players can "Egg On" making multiple high tension setups a superior tactic for most of the game.

I had no friends when growing up so I always played solo, didn't stop this game from being one of my favourites of all time

Whats the game DLC about? Is the post game content or is it something else? Given that the eShop for DS is closed, would it be better if I play it on an emulator? I bought it when it came out but I think I had too many games at the time and didn’t play it (or was burned out out after finishing 4, 5 & 6)

Yes!

This is a game I played since my childhood so mutch so that my main character is equiped with multiple 5 star armors and if you played the game you will know what that means😅

I played a year or two ago it was great! I'd love to try multiplayer but not knowing what i missed means it don't hurt me. Hate Stella though!!

This is a long shot but do you happen to know a way to play with other people (that are far away) (joining their world/having them join yours) via wifi? Using a DS or an emulator? Is there a software that makes that possible?

I will never stop loving this game, its rather darker story beats is what tips the cake for me. It almost has this overlying veil of depression or sad that makes every small happiness that much more meaningful and enjoyable.

I just played this on the drastic ds emulator. Looks so great on this, while being on my mobile phone. I still have not played this game multiplayer yet.

I played DQ9 in solo when it was new, and it is still my favourite dragon quest!

I've been waiting for a premium Mobile re-release of IX for years. A mobile version with improved multiplayer and ui implementation would be the definitive version for me.

I played it about 5 years ago not having much idea what Dragon Quest even was. I had no idea it was designed with a focus on multiplayer. But I absolutely loved it. It totally got me into the series. It’s crying out for a remaster on Switch. I kinda shocked this hasn’t already happened. It’s the only game in the series that is still exclusive to one console.

Feel like the cac allows you to create your own story instead of being assigned one. Much preferred to Baldurs Gate where your handed characters you dislike, Skyrims followers being an exception

I remember getting this game when I was a kid and my best friend uad the game and hyped it up. It was the first dragon quest game I played.

I played it with friends, when I was a kid and it was a great experience. One of my favorite games of all time

I'd say it is but it would be fun to venture into grottos with friends.