Dragon Quest 9 News
This isn't official in that it came from a press release, however recent Japanese gaming magazine scans seem the reveal that even though Dragon Quest 9 has optional multiplayer options, the battles are still turn based and resemble the battle system previously seen in the series.
As to how this works with multi-player, I'm uncertain. I can only guess that the party is big enough that each player can take control of multiple characters, or perhapses the multiplayer refers to some sort of side-game.
*update*
Upon studying the magzine scan further, I noticed that the party seemed to consist of four characters. So two players could comfortably split control of that, though if multiplayer went all the way up to four players it might be a little boring. Also the scan reveals a custom character creator tool, suggesting that you can create your own party members and level them up to your liking. This should mean that no two parties are going to be exactly the same, especially after you take the multiplayer options into account.
The magazine scan can be found.... at
http://www.rpgamer.com
As to how this works with multi-player, I'm uncertain. I can only guess that the party is big enough that each player can take control of multiple characters, or perhapses the multiplayer refers to some sort of side-game.
*update*
Upon studying the magzine scan further, I noticed that the party seemed to consist of four characters. So two players could comfortably split control of that, though if multiplayer went all the way up to four players it might be a little boring. Also the scan reveals a custom character creator tool, suggesting that you can create your own party members and level them up to your liking. This should mean that no two parties are going to be exactly the same, especially after you take the multiplayer options into account.
The magazine scan can be found.... at
http://www.rpgamer.com