Customer Reviews

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky Signature Series (Bradygames Signature Series Guide)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Let me start by saying this guide is rather large...448 pages to be precise. The artwork and detail are phenomenal. It is completely glossed over (every page) and seems like it will hold together better than most guides. It is divided into 8 areas: Learning the Basics, Gameplay, Vocations (Classes), Walkthrough, Side Quests, Multiplayer and Downloadable Content, Bestiary, and Appendices. Now, I may have slight SPOILERS in this review. You have been warned.

LEARNING THE BASICS: Standard intro. for a guide that covers the basic info. for the game. It's short, but sweet.

GAMEPLAY: This provides tips about creating a versatile party. It also has a nice Skill Point Levelling Table. The Advanced Combat Mechanics is where the strategies come into play and it covers them well with many different party combinations, like stacking damage for combos. It also covers levelling and obtaining gold, as well as Alchemy. The Challenge Quests and Treasure Maps are also briefly touched on.

VOCATIONS (CLASSES): This is where you have your info. about the different classes and the skills they learn. Each skill is fully explored, showing how many skill points you need to learn a certain ability. Benefits about each class are also explored. There are 12 Vocations in all.

WALKTHROUGH: This leads you through the main story and some of the post-game content. It covers each town and event, but doesn't spoil the story by explaining what will happen. It tells you where to go and what you can find there (Mini Medals, Items, etc.). This is where the Mini Medals are located, however, there are bosses in the game that have a 100% Drop Rate with Mini Medals and they can be fought over and over. In other words, there is an endless supply of Mini Medals in this game. They are spread throughout the walkthrough, so you can keep up with them as you progress through the story. It also lists what monsters you will come across in each area and it has strategies for defeating bosses, usually 1 page. It also contains Maps for each area, towns, fields, and dungeons with items marked clearly on them. This is a very nice walkthrough that avoids major plot points so as to not spoil the story.

SIDE QUESTS: This consists of quests you can do throughout the game...story or post-game or maybe a mixture. It covers #'s 1-120 in great detail with 121-184 being a map, location, and reward, but that is because those are free downloadable quests. It also contains Treasure Maps, which lead to grottoes where various challenges, monsters, bosses, and treasures await. It also lists Legacy Bosses, which are bosses from previous Dragon Quest/Warrior games, like Zoma, Orgodemir, and Dhoulmagus. These are the bosses with 100% Mini Medal Drop Rate.

MULTIPLAYER AND DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT: This section covers questions about multiplayer and downloads. You can play with friends and obtain items and quest via Wi-Fi.

BESTIARY: This is a complete list of all the monsters/bosses in the game. It covers their stats, drops, drop rates, locations, attacks used, and some info. about each one. This section is a must have that easily delivers.

APPENDICES: This section covers weapons, armour, items, prices, alchemy lists, who can wear/use what, spells, abilities, and accolades (rewards for meeting certain conditions). This section is great, but may require some page flipping. However, this is the only gripe I have with this guide, but since I know it's already so large...to expect them to have it listed in one page would have made the guide MUCH LARGER and MORE EXPENSIVE. It does cover each area very well, with the alchemy section covering all recipes and even stating where the item you're trying to create can be found, unless alchemy is the only way.

OVERALL: This is a great guide that is well-constructed, FULL of information, and pleasure to flip through. 5/5.

This game is massive and the guide is no different. With just shy of 450 pages, this guide contains almost all the information you will need. However, I find it lacking in a few departments, especially when compared to some of the other great RPG strategy guides.

PROS:

Beautiful artwork - the maps, monsters, and other art scattered throughout the guide is amazing. Brady Games did a great job illustrating this guide.
Fantastic main quest walkthrough - shows the location of every treasure chest, monster, and shop.
Great leveling strategies, alchemy guide, and class information.

CONS:

Lacking a world map. Many guides of this size will have a fold-out large map. In this guide, it could show all the harvest locations to reduce page flipping.
Some side quests are not complete - an example of this can be seen in quests 63 and 64. There are others like this, where the location of the quest is given without information for solving them.
Table of Contents lacking - considering the information contained throughout this guide, it would be great to have a detailed table of contents. If the guide wasn't so long I would suggest listing harvest points and shop inventories in their own section, but a simple solution would have been to provide a table of contents showing which pages show shops, harvest points, etc.

Conclusion:

This is a great guide, I just wish it had those few things mentioned above. I find myself going online to search for where to find specific alchemy ingredients or which shops sell specific accessories, and that shouldn't be the case considering I purchased a strategy guide already. When compared to some of the guides Prima has done, or even some of the other strategy guides from Brady Games, this one seems less complete. Its presentation is fantastic, the information is almost all there, but I find the execution lacking.

This guide is awesome! And it is huge! I've used this guide so much it's falling apart, and I'm thinking of getting a new one. Even the tape I used to hold it together is now tearing, just to give you an idea of how much use this guide has gotten.

The parts of the guide I have used the most: the treasure map locations maps, item list, bestiary, and the alchenomicon recipe list. The treasure maps part is so essential it's like it should have been included in the game. You get these treasure maps in the game that show you a very small portion of the world where a grotto (dungeon) is located and it's up to you to find these locations. Well, rather than walk all around the world looking for a "(!)" to pop up on the ground (the entrance to the grotto; you then press 'a' over the mark and the entrance appears) you can just refer to the area maps included in this guide first and go straight to the location. This is a huge time saver! It's almost impossible to find these places on your own, that is, until you put 500 hours into the game and start to know some of these places by heart! The alchenomicon recipe list is fun too. You can make items using the recipes listed here, before you find the actual recipes in the game, if this is an acceptable practice to you (shh, I won't tell anyone).

It doesn't have everything. In fact, my first thought was, it doesn't even have pictures for all of the items listed (sloppy). However, this seems to have been done intentionally to keep them a surprise. This was done for all the best items in each category, weapons: best swords, best spears, etc; armor: best shields, best helms, etc; and so on. Not a big deal either way. You can supplement this guide with the various free information out there online. I have an entire file folder with additional information, including, a world map with all the recipe materials marked on it, a deeper item guide detailing additional effects (magic resistances, style points), and more info on legacy bosses (what level the boss learns new spells, what level certain loot is dropped). I use both the guide and the online material equally. Bottom line:

BUY THIS GUIDE!!!

The title isn't hyperbole, folks. I buy strategy guides with nearly every game I purchase. Not because I'm a cheat, but because my time is limited and in order for me to get the most out of a game I have to do it as soon as possible within the gameplay. And never before have I played a game like Dragon Quest 9....

Firstly, the game itself requires a person to play for at least two-hundred hours to achieve even half of what's in this game. And as all Dragon Quest games tend to be, there are parts of the game that you're forced to just figure out for yourself. Anyone remember playing early Dragon Quest games and getting to a point where you had no idea where to go? Well Dragon Quest 9 has that everywhere (mostly in the sidequests). Dragon Quest 9 is an extremely foggy game, and this strategy guide is the lighthouse that guides you through it (wow, that was melodramtic)....

I'm going to skip the main-walkthrough. It's very well-done and shows you everywhere you should be going, and offers optional routes as well. No, where this strategy guide pays for itself is in the sections after the walkthrough. The quests in Dragon Quest are difficult to complete (most times) and often time consuming. This guide helps to expediate that process without taking any of the enjoyment out of the gameplay. I'd give this guide a five on that alone. But nope, they continue with a very in depth bestiary that shows you every item dropped by every monster and the rarity in which the items can be dropped (oh and it shows vitals and stats and what-not). Why is this important? Because getting items for alchemy can be very difficult, and having a blue-print of where to look is a great start. And since I mentioned alchemy, this guide shows you every recipe and also shows you where you can find every recipe within the game, making yet another rather tedious process a little less tedious. I guess what I'm saying is that I've never purchased a guide I thought I needed more.

If you have Dragon Quest 9, and you don't like Rubik's Cubes, then get this guide. It'll save you loads of time and get you right into the fun of the game.

This guide like any other gaming guide from Brady Games does an excellent job of keeping me in the game. If I find myself getting lost I can turn to the guide for my next move. I'm the type of gamer that will zig when I should have zagged and then I miss out and wind up lost because I can't go any further, this guide prevents me from that. It's well written and I will always continue to buy gaming guides from Amazon.com and Brady Games.

When you buy a guide what do you usually expect in it? a detailed step by step walkthrough thru the storyline, a list of enemies and bosses, and a list of items and locations?

Well I am happy to say that you get what is described before and a whole, whole lot more in this huge 448 paged walkthrough that was published by bradygames! Besides what I said before you get a highly descriptive list of items, beasts, a complete alchemy list, treasure map locations, and a complete list of sidequests although some of them don't tell you how to complete them.

I recommend this book to anyone and I mean anyone! its so easy to understand that even a six year old child could understand everything except maybe the mathematical stuff. But this is a must buy especially for those new to the dragon quest series!

It came in great shape just like what it said. It was mail fast,thank you for you done.Just got the game for $10.00 new. I have not play it yet. I been in VA for teatment just old vietum vet. I have lot of flash back and back injury. I love rpg it take my mine away to other place.

The first thing you will notice about this guide is that it is HUGE. It comes it at around 450 pages, including hundreds of pages dedicated to the bestiary, weapons, armor, spells, etc. As a small child, I used to love flipping through Dragon Quest guides looking at all of the countless different treasures and monsters - and this guide has shown me that I still do! The art is beautiful, and it's pretty cool to just browse through all of the items and inhabitants that make up a Dragon Quest universe.

When it comes to the walkthrough section of the guide - it's ok. There are nice large maps, but the accompanying text is written in a stylized way that can sometimes make it different to follow along. One serious problem is that there's no checklist for Mini Medals, which is a major collectible in every Dragon Quest game - this is the type of thing you expect to see in a guide book, and it's very noticeably missing. [EDIT: Mini Medals drop from some monsters in DQIX (as pointed out in the comments)], which I hadn't experienced yet when writing the review, so a definitive checklist isn't quite as necessary as it was in previous games) If you're a real collector, you'll definitely still find yourself going to the internet for certain information - even with the guide in hand.

It was very hard to find this guide book in Australia.
My son loves this guide book so much carrying with him everywhere.
Thank you for a great service , Amazon!

very useful guide to have. only thing not included in the guide is the DLC quests (assumedly the quests were released after the book was published)