Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

Dragon Quest IX: Defenders of the Sky is the ninth installment in the acclaimed Dragon Quest series, developed by Level-5 and published by Square Enix.

On August 19, 2006, series composer Koichi Sugiyama confirmed that Dragon Quest IX is in development. He is quoted by Japanese video game magazine Famitsu as saying "I'm not sure when Dragon Quest IX will be released, but it seems that progress is continually being made. I'm personally excited."

On December 12, 2006, during a press conference celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Dragon Quest franchise, Square Enix announced that Dragon Quest IX will be released exclusively for the Nintendo DS handheld gaming system, making it the first original numbered Dragon Quest title to appear on a handheld. Dragon Quest IX will feature an action-oriented battle system (possibly real-time combat) and cooperative multiplayer for up to four players via Wi-Fi, as opposed to the traditional turn-based design of earlier Dragon Quest games.