The Chosen One(s)

A New Trilogy Begins!

No longer should gamers be content with just one chosen one, nay, in this fourth installation of the Dragon Quest series they bring you nine playable characters split up into different chapters to sink your teeth... or um, thumbs into.

Dragon Quest III stretched a lot of boundaries for what the Dragon Quest series was capable of by adding new party members, making them customizable and adding a new depth to combat and the story as a whole.

Dragon Quest IV takes that and runs. Often it is one of the games suggested as a player's first entry into the dragon quest series. So, should you play this remake for the Nintendo DS? Let's talk about it:

Music

Honestly, you shouldn't be surprised that it's this man again. He's done three games he's a welcome staple to the series, Koichi Sugiyama.

Now you'd think after three games he would've gotten boring or repetitive. You'd think that he'd run out of ideas for wonderful compositions, but you'd be wrong. Sure the main theme is largely the same, but that only serves to dish out some delicious nostalgia on a heaping plate of melody.

The overworld themes are above adequate and on the Nintendo DS the mix reaches even higher levels than what was capable on the Gameboy Color. The orchestral ambience lends itself to this game in a way that was just not possible even for the original version of the game. One of the reasons I can suggest this game over it's NES counterpart.

Throw in unique battle themes, villain themes, menu themes, and new music for bonus dungeons, and you get an amazing score, at this point commonplace in the Dragon Quest franchise

Music: 5/5

Animation/Graphics

Akira Toriyama. It's Akira Toriyama again. If there are two staples that hold the book of Dragon Quest together it's Koichi Sugiyama and Akira Toriyama. Dragon Quest boasts 210 unique (worth noting that unique is meh, cause they reuse some characters and slap a new coat of paint on em) creatures. Some of them are old friends like slime, but there's also some great new faces! King Leo, and Pizarro among them.

As well as a new slew of monsters to fight, there are also eight friggin' main characters! (nine in the DS version) That's eight different unique characters with quirks and personalities. Without getting too much into gameplay or plot, the artist deserves a bravo considering that at the time the original came out eight main characters was a common element in only fighting games.

Akira Toriyama deserves his day in the spotlight for all of the dragon quest games, and Dragon Quest IV doesn't disappoint in the art style or renderings. Note: The graphics are also a welcome change of pace from III. Barring the HD remake that's coming out later this year, Dragon Quest IV, V, and VI all boast some amazing graphics, not only for when they came out, but just in general for the DS system as a whole.

Animation/Graphics: 5/5

Plot

We've seen good, we've seen bad (looking at you II) we've seen great (hey III *winks*) Dragon Quest IV is easily one of the most well thought out stories in the franchise.

A player will start off in the prologue as the main 'Hero' but then they'll play through subsequent parts or 'chapters' of different heroes. From Ragnar McRyan to Torneko Taloon, to the twins Meena and Maya, there's something here for everyone. Each character gets their own arc of development, flaws and strengths.

Then they all come together and the player is forced to make some hard decisions as to who is going to be fighting together. This allows the player to make parties up of different styles of play. Magic vs Might what will you choose?

Regardless of what the player chooses they will still have to navigate the world through a few different means, eventually getting an awesome fast travel option.

The end villain Pizarro the manslayer (not to be confused with Batosai) is filled with inner turmoil and strife making him one of the most compelling villains of the series.

With around 25-30 hours of content it's not the largest game, but it makes up for it by providing a complete story with interesting developments, twists and turns. If you compare it to the first story it's a night and day difference with the DS adding some extra bosses and some excellent bonus content, that Dragon Quest has honestly become a little famous for.

Plot: 5/5

Gameplay

It's hard to say that this game falls short in any regard. If it does though, if even just a little it is the gameplay. No, the grind isn't too difficult, no the button play and smoothness isn't what's affected here. It's all the equipment you have to buy.

While having very little to complain about it would seem like equipment buying isn't all that bad, but with the gold drop rate of the enemies combined with the fact that most items aren't universal it added a bit of grindiness that didn't feel essential to the story, or to the overall speed and progress of the game.

However, that should not detract anyone from this gem, because again all the controls are smooth and respond well, the DS was definitely a great platform to revive this game on, and the developers did a phenomenal job at bringing back a classic with new flair.

Gameplay 4.85/5

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Overall

This game is, like many have said before me, an excellent place to start your Dragon Quest journey, it's intuitive and the start of a new trilogy story wise. It's got some great replay value and there is very, very little to complain about on this installation into the Dragon Quest franchise.

My Final Score: 4.99/5 - No game is perfect, but this one comes close

Extra Note 1: I also took some points off in the gameplay section due to the terrible attempts at different accents in the English translation of the game.

Extra note 2: This is the first in my series of reviews that I call it Dragon Quest, because the entries for the Gameboy Color are called Dragon Warrior. Not because it's a different franchise, but because of a lawsuit over the name Dragon Quest in the mid 80s and early 90s. Going forward imma call em all Dragon Quest

Extra Note 3: The bonus content can get pretty grindy. This is true for most bonus dungeons in Dragon Quest (and honestly in most other games as well)