Today was the greatest day of my life. My Mentor has promoted me to Guardian of Angel Falls, the hamlet he once guarded himself. As a Celestrian, it is my sacred duty to watch over the human denizens of Earth, ensuring no harm befalls them. It has been this way for centuries, we Celestrians above, winged Guardians of the humans below.

At my master, Aguila’ bidding, I returned to our Observatory, eager to view with my own eyes the unprecedented - Yggdrasil would soon bear fruit! Every Celestrian ministered to Yggdrasil - our work guarding humankind granted us the very nourishment Yggdrasil needed, before the mighty world tree could bear fruit of its own. All the legends spoke of this - “.when Yggdrasil bears fruit, we Celestrians will finally return to our home in the Heavens.”

Then Disaster struck. Tremors struck Earth and the Observatory alike, great beams of energy scything through our Observatory, striking Yggdrasil, sending Yggdrasil’ rare fruit plummeting to Earth. Tremors struck me as well, knocked unconscious, I awakened in Angel Falls, a Celestrian in name only, my wings and halo lost to me. With a mystery that would carry me between Heaven and Earth, before I found the answers I sought.

These are the opening scenes of Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, the latest installment in Yuji Horii’ Dragon Quest series, one of the world’ most popular role-playing franchises. What’ to like? Plenty, if you’e a DQ fan already. The Vocation systems allows you to move between different character classes, developing exactly the skill set you prefer. Mage, Warrior, and Thief are followed by Rangers, Armamentalists, Gladiators, Sages and Paladins. The tension system remains, allowing you to focus your abilities for increased power in physical combat and spell casting. Side quests and the Treasure Map functions allow you to test your modern team of bruisers against the best of the Bosses from previous Dragon Quest titles.

Still, there’ one thing that makes this my go-to RPG series - charm. Akira Toriyama’ artwork makes the series feel instantly familiar to anyone who’ ever watched an episode of Dragon Ball, with no apologies whatsoever for pun-filled nicknames. My favorites would have to be the feline magic-users - Meow Magician, Clawcerer and Purrestigidator. Even a baddy from Dragon Ball makes the grade - sharp-eyed players will recognize Dragon Ball’ Hunter Mech.

It’ the storyline that holds the greatest charm for me. Characters have history, and real loss, in many cases. Your many side quests as you follow the game’ main storyline will reveal the disaster’ reach, impacting the lives around you. As a game translated from Japanese to English, DQ consistently has the best localization I’e encountered, ever, in a video game. Peasants vary from Mockney patois to a fine brogue, and the upper-crust have their Queen’ English and haughty ways, Square Enix really nails it with their dialogue, right down to your sidekick, erstwhile Conductor of the Starlight Express, with her frequent gleeful mangling of metaphors demonstrating that she’ not quite the smart cookie she thinks she is.