The team is formed!

With no daylight savings tagging with a day one plot dump, I don't have to rush tonight!

Lucillia makes her way through the Angel Falls plains for, what may be, the last time. I doubt it, but ya never know. Stella, the fairy conductor of the Starflight Express, still wants to operate her train, so we make our way inside. Stella talks about how she wants to make it look gaudy with gemstones and whatnot, but we need to turn it on first. She goes over to the control panel, presses a button, and nothing happens. Stella had hoped a Celestrian's presence would have activated something, but she's thinking we're not angelic again. I wonder how we lost our halo and wings? Since the train's still broken, we might as well explore the surroundings.
 
We make our way to a new area, Stornway, the capital. There are new monsters here and places to explore, but I'll get to them in a moment. It's already nighttime, so I make my way into the city and see Patti and Erinn outside the inn. Erinn is still unsure of herself, but Patti gets her into the inn anyway. Stella thinks she's about to witness a train wreck and makes us follow them. Inside, we see the two of them talking to other employees at the bar. The only one I remember the name of is Ginny. Apparently, Patti thought Ginny would be what turned around the inn, but she failed. Ginny is now unsure that this random person off the streets can save them. Patti went to find a guy but came back with a young girl. No one is thrilled, but that attitude changes when Erinn reveals the Inny! The three workers drop to their knees and begin to pray at the altar of Edwinn. They're still not sure the offspring is as good as the original, but it's worth a shot. If we talk to Erinn at this point, she pretty much tells us to come back later once they're all set up. I took this opportunity to look around town and buy new gear. Once I returned, Dragon Quest IX really starts! Ginny runs the bank, Patty runs various team stuff, and Erinn runs the inn. There's also an invisible Celestrian who handles the wi-fi stuff, but emulation doesn't allow that. Sorry, Erinn, but this inn will never reach the heights it could have twelve years ago. And in Japan.

But talk to Patti, as she's the important one here. She lets us experience one of the things I was looking forward to about this game: party creation. We can make our own characters here, and I make my friends. It's only a four person game, so I can't make all of us. I thought about making myself the hero of DQIX, but I'm not worthy of such acclaim. For the time, we'll be running with myself as a mage, Drew Carmello as a monk, and Tryton as the warrior. I'll probably make Xander a mistral later, once Lucy's changed. I may even make the wifefolk, who knows?

And, with a full party, I head to the castle. Word around town is a Wight Knight has been harassing the citizens of Stornway, and the King is looking to get rid of it. In the throne room are the King and his daughter, Simona. The Knight has been calling for Simona to appear at the Loch of Storn, north of Stornway, but the King is hesitant to sacrifice his daughter. Makes sense... She seems like she wants to go, though. Anyway, he asks us to take care of it, which I do. We have to loop around the town to the west, but the north path is clear enough. It's still filled with all new monsters, but they're not that big of a problem. En route is a small town with a revered tree, Zere. The general store has better armor than Stornway, but there's not much here. I think this exists as a checkpoint before the Wight Knight encounter, even more to the north. But I'll confront him and save Stornway...

...tomorrow!

I didn't need to rush. I spent most of tonight getting my team's levels up and buying new gear. I also did the first few quests and got some stat seeds. It's early, but everything feels alive so far. There's more going on in Stornway that I'm not necessarily a part of. I'm also enjoying the battle system now, despite it still being pretty simple. But the best part is there's no more inventory management. Characters can still only have eight items, but gear isn't a part of that, and there's a bag to keep all out stuff in. We can't use that bag in battle, but I don't care. Get hyped!