Okay. Stop me if you've heard this one. A Priest, a Warrior, and a Mage walk into an inn. If you've already got a handful of punchlines ready end that joke, it's a safe bet you're a fan of the role-playing genre of video games. One of the granddaddies of all time is the best selling Dragon Quest RPG series from Square-Enix. For nearly twenty five years, all manner of adventures have jumped into the action, swinging swords and slinging spells with the best of 'em. Now the Dragon Quest experience has made its way to the DS with Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies. So, does the venerable franchise still stack up after all these years?

In Dragon Quest IX, players are put in the shoes, or rather wings, of an angelic race called Celestrians. Celestrians are tasked with protecting the mortal realm from harm, and collecting the resulting gratitude to help the World Tree, Yggsdrasil, to bloom. All seems to be going well at first, with the tree getting ready to sprout fruit and the Celestrians waiting on a ride from the Starlight Express to ferry them all off to a higher plane of existence. Of course, this being the start of the game and not the end, something has got to go wrong ... and it does. Inexplicably, a beam of light blasts the Starlight Express out of the sky, blows up the Celestrian tower, and knocks all the Yggsdrasil fruit (as well as the player) down to the mortal realm below. Waking up without your wings or your halo, it falls to you to discover what caused the explosion, and to find some way to set things back on the right path. And with that, the "Quest" part of this latest Dragon Quest game begins in earnest. Oh and don't worry, the "Dragon" part will pop up more than once as well.

One of the staples of the RPG genre has always been the party of adventurers who come together to save the day. In most games, the player ends up stumbling across other characters who end up getting recruited for one reason or another in order to help save the day. Dragon Quest IX ditches this in favor of giving each player a more customized experience. Instead of running into key players to sway to your cause, you put together your own little A-Team like group of misfits from the first major Inn you come across. Your party size is limited to four, but you can create up to eight unique party members via the character creation menu in the Inn. Even more customization comes into play later in the game once you unlock the ability to change the "vocation" of your characters. Feel like ditching your mage and trying out a thief for a while? Done. Even better, many of the abilities you earn in one class carry over if you change to another. This means your Warrior is sure to be different than anyone else's.

The biggest change in Dragon Quest IX is the addition of multiplayer and downloadable content. Players can join each other's worlds, explore the landscape, and fight off all manner of creatures while in the company of up to three buddies. You're free to run around in another player's world as much as you want, though it won't advance your story if you're in a friend's world. It's a fun addition to the series and a way to keep players coming back for more. Unfortunately, it's local online play only. You can play with your friends while they're all in the same house, but playing with your friends across the country is still out of reach. On the other hand, though, you CAN use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to connect to the Dragon Quest IX server and download new content regularly, including new items and quests available for pickup at the DQVC shop in the game.

As much as the new changes bring to the table, the game still suffers from some of the same old trappings the series has had since the old Dragon Warrior game on the NES. Essentially, Dragon Quest IX is an almost endless string of repetitive battles. This is made worse by the fact that if you changes classes, you start the new vocation all the way at level 1. And since many vocations aren't unlocked until later in the game, there's no way to avoid having to go through the grinding process. On the upside, if you switch back to a class you've already played, you pick up where you left off. For fans of the DQ series, this probably won't be a huge issue, as grinding has always been a part of the franchise. For new players, though, it could get old fairly quick. Also, some players might feel disappointed by the lack of plot-driven party members, but it's easy to forgive given the game's wealth of customization options.

All in all, Dragon Quest IX is one of, if not the best entry in the two decade old franchise. It's easily accessible and gives players a lot of control over their experience. Plus, getting friends together for some adventuring harkens back to the old days of pen and paper RPGs and rolling for initiative. There's still some room for improvement, like with online multiplayer and a little less focus on grinding, but as it stands, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies should be more than enough to scratch any DS owner's role-playing itch.

Final Score: B+