Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky Official Strategy Guide [ペーパーバック]

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!!!