A dragon quest draws near!

Before they became stepbrothers (Brady Bunch--style, in the merger that created Square Enix), Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest were the bitterest of rivals. The hard feelings have cooled in recent years, but a fundamental philosophical divide between the two games remains--in fact, it defines them. Whereas FF has long since defined itself as a flashy, cinematic series whose role-playing roots are often glossed over, DQ is quiet, simple, and conservative.

And that's just how Japan likes it. When Square Enix first revealed the upcoming Dragon Quest IX: Protectors of the Starry Sky on DS, American gamers freaked at the thought that the series' next chapter would be taking a step back technologically: After the gorgeous Dragon Quest VIII for PlayStation 2, DQ9's rudimentary DS-based 3D is a true shock. Yet Japanese gamers didn't care about that--after all, the DS was the only system that anyone was playing over there at the time. No, what shocked them was the fact that this new DQ looked like an action-RPG. They were fine with Final Fantasy XII playing like a single-player MMO because FF has always been about tinkering with gameplay …