2010-07-03:

Anyway, just cracked open my latest issue (257 August 2010) of Nintendo Power and there's a spread about Dragon Quest IX. Now, I never got too much into the Dragon Quest line. Mostly when, in dragon warrior 1, I, after having won the game the "right" way, started a new character with Game Genie at a very high level. And won the game in about an hour. "What" I said to myself "is the point of a game where most of the story can be skipped and serves only to make the hero more powerful so he can confront the badguy at the end?" But I digress. The spread is all about he character classes, male and female, that can be chosen. Let's take a quick look see, shall we?

[[image:ma-mf.jpg:Martial Artist:center:0]]

Martial Artist: Sensible. Kind of a chinese bent to the girl, she's not doing any kicks with that outfit, which is weird as a woman's strength is more in the legs then the arms, but whatever.

[[image:mi-mf.jpg:Minstrel:center:0]]

Minstrel: Again, excellent! Very "wandering gypsy" styling, perhaps even overdressed for that profession. 

[[image:pr-mf.jpg:Priest:center:0]]

Priest: Perfect! Not reveling in any way, very monkish, 10/10

[[image:th-mf.jpg:Thief:center:0]]

Thief: Subtle! I can hardly tell these two apart, which is the point, a thief would want to blend into a crowd, get someone else in trouble. Fine.

But now we come to the problem. The Warrior class. What do you think of Warrior, eh? Shield? Sword? Heavy armor? Helmet? Of course! Let's see what we get.

[[image:wa-mf.jpg:Warrior:center:0]]

And you were doing so well, too. Shift the guy's outfit over to the girl, and give the guy an iron breastplate instead of chain mail, and you'll have a winner. For the girl, it's just nonsense! Okay, I can strike at her legs, her exposed shoulder, her elbow, her head, her midsection... this is a WARRIOR? Uh, no. Anyone going into any kind of combat in that getup is asking to get killed, no begging to be killed. (Or stabbed in the back by the thief)

What happened? The others are all so perfect, why did they mess this one up? Weird!