A disappointment with dragons

I suppose I shouldn't have been too surprised when "Dragon Warrior" equipment gets mentioned in Dragon Quest IX. That was the original North American name for the franchise, after all. However, its use in the game (at least up to where I am now) is strange.

Greygnarl gives you this equipment when it comes time to ride him. At first this is just to get to the Gittish Empire, but then his age-old rival Barbarus the black dragon shows up and you and Greygnarl fight him instead.

This is where the use of the equipment, and more particularly, your riding a dragon - a dragon! - gets strange.

The game shifts from its general style to the hand drawn anime style seen in the game's intro sequence. There's still some dialogue, but the entire fight is a cutscene in this style. It's really quite impressive. But it's an odd choice.

If this cutscene is an animated sequence, then why aren't any of the other cutscenes that we've seen to this point in the same style?

Because being a dragon rider (or even a Dragon Warrior) is totally badass, why make a fight while on dragon-back a cutscene instead of a minigame or special combat of some sort?

What makes me wonder why this isn't a battle you play is the fact that the game requires you to drop off all of your party members before going to meet Greygnarl for the second time. Such a requirement gives the second visit to Greygnarl a feeling of great significance. It is something that your avatar - the game's main character - alone is fit to do. There's an incredible sense of being chosen.

But chosen for what?

To put on some admittedly cool looking armour that nonetheless makes your avatar look generic?

To initiate an animated cutscene?

The fact that such a sweeping change to the way that you play the game leads to a part of it that involves very little play is just disappointing. It's a design choice I can't quite figure out.

Much like how the game designers decided to leave all of your items, equipment, and gold with you when you subsequently wind up in the Gittish Empire's Alcatraz - the Gortress.

I can't decide if I should play along or just try to bust out.