[culpalibri]

What really? I'm playing on an old DS lite, and I too suffer from the framerate drop. It was painfully noticeable the first time I left the inn with all 4 party members.

[culpalibri]

I made the original dragon quest extremely hard for myself by accidentally wandering in the wrong direction, thinking that's where I was supposed to go next. Nope! It was an insane grind. Fight one monster. Go back to town. Repeat. Man did I feel ridiculous when I found out I was doing things out of order.

One thing I do to make DQ IX a little harder is never equipping an item on a character unless it looks good on them. I have several characters who do not wear gloves or helmets, for instance, because it just doesn't go well with everything else they're wearing.