For over two decades, Japanese companies have been trying to figure out how to make their most cherished video game franchise popular in America.  It's a matter of national pride.  Today, Nintendo has revealed how it will sell DQ9 in the U.S.: Seth Green and Lil John (WHAT!?  OOOOOOOOK!).  The Seth Green spot I've linked below will play in theaters before screenings of the third Twilight film, Eclipse.  You've really got to admire Nintendo's stones on this one.  It's one thing to have Beyonce trying to shill Rhythm Heaven (flopped, btw), but going after the Twilight set of screaming teen fan girls?  Wow, Nintendo.  Just wow.

http://ds.ign.com/articles/110/1102787p1.html

I'll be looking forward to getting my free copy when I renew my NP subscription...

I'm sure NoA would say in its defense that going after not-obvious markets is what helped them regain momentum in the console race, but there should be some sort of logical connection with whose attention they're trying for. Using a singer to sell Rhythm Heaven makes sense, but I don't see the connection between a sketch comic and Dragon Quest, especially since the humor-of-choice for DQ9 is reportedly really insidious punnery.

As for the game proper, I admit I haven't paid much attention since they shied away from the idea of making it an action-RPG, but I've read that multiplayer questing is limited to local wireless instead of global Wi-Fi. That seems like wasted potential if true.

The game has visible enemies (except on the ship): +1
The game has custom character creation: +1
Completely visual representations of all the character is wearing: +1
Only 40 hours for the 'main' story, but Disgaea-like postgame: +1

=This is the only the second full priced game in I believe three years I'm buying at launch, and the other was a $40 PS2 game.

I've seen the Seth Green ad. It's hilarious! I thought it was pretty apt too.

How deep is that aspect, and how much of it is determined during the game vs. in the beginning character creation screen?

I really hope they streamlined the game based on Level 5's system they had for Dragon Quest VIII. No disrespect to the original games or its' fanbase, but I always felt it was cumbersome to stop moving, push a button to bring up a menu and then choose "inspect" if I wanted to look at something.

To think I still haven't beaten VIII yet.