One of the largest role-playing game franchises in the world, Dragon Quest's popularity is rivaled only by the Final Fantasy series. When Square-Enix announced a conference in Japan for this week, gamers everywhere began whispering rumors about the new Dragon Quest game, wondering which platform it would appear on.

No one would have ever guessed it would be the DS. EVER.

But that's just what was announced mere hours ago. Dragon Quest IX: Defender of the Stars is being developed by Level 5 and will be released for the Nintendo DS. You may now commence with shock and awe.

• Two Dragon Quest DS screenshots
• Inventory screenshot
• Video footage from the game

Thanks to 4CR, GameBrink and NeoGAF for the links.