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Dragon Quest IX - Bow to your new god!

Its Summer! The air is oppressively humid and rife with the buzzing of cicadas in Japan, copious amounts of beer pours forth from the top of the Hanshin Department Store [Seek Japan] and school children all across the country are about to be let out for their month-long summer vacation.

Adding to the Summer madness, Square-Enix has just released Dragon Quest IX to the teeming masses in Japan.

Formerly known as Dragon Warrior in the US, Dragon Quest is the end-all-be-all video game event for Japan. No other game has the longevity, the reputation nor the sales figures that the Dragon Quest franchise enjoys in its domestic market.

Originally a joint venture between little-known Japanese game maker, Enix and Dragon Ball creator and manga titan, Akira Toriyama [Wikipedia], the DQ series spawned a virtual cottage industry erected around itself over the course of the 20+ years it's been in existence.

One of the many things the series is noteworthy for in Japan is its ability to cause the country to grind to a halt during the workweek should a new Dragon Quest title be released.

This of course has led to the oft-rumored but little-confirmed national "law" in Japan that all iterations of the RPG series are required to be released on a Saturday (as opposed to the traditional Thursday release for all software titles in Japan) in order to mitigate the expected, rampant absenteeism from more than 1/2 the nation taking off from work to go pick up the game at local retailers.

The line for Dragon Quest IX starts here

I distinctly remember reading all kinds of urban legends regarding Dragon Quest in Japan (some even from old issues of Nintendo Power back in the 80s). Specifically, I remember hearing tales of woe of elementary school kids in Japan getting mugged by other school kids for their just-purchased copies of Dragon Quest III or IV. Blood flowed through the streets and chaos was the order of the day when Dragon Quest V was released!

Despite all of the urban legends, the sales numbers do speak for themselves: GoNintendo [Dragon Quest Series Facts] has compiled a few interesting facts regarding the Dragon Quest series. in particular are the following:

1. * Highest Selling games in the series - Dragon Quest V (5.8 million copies)


2. * Lowest-selling title in the series: Dragon Quest I (1.5 million copies)


3. * Times DQ IX appeared in Famitsu's list of most-anticipated games since 2006: 62

Dragon Quest IX is currently available for Japan - exclusively for the Nintendo DS - a major statement for Nintendo and the video game industry itself (at least in Japan).