"Unexpectedly interesting."

Dragon Quest is, along with Final Fantasy, one of the most beloved RPG series of the Japanese market. So, it is only fair that both of them get plenty of re-releases, even if that severely limits the number of players who have yet to play those titles. With its original version released more than 10 years ago, it is possible that lots of players have yet to play across this adventure, but is it really worth your money? Being a title that closely its Playstation version, released back in 2001, it all depends on your personal gaming experience.

Before even attempting to know more about this game, you should realise that it was first released in the times of the NES, one of the first Nintendo consoles. Back then, games weren't known for having particularly complex storylines, or incredibly enjoyable ones. However, that's a point where this game has one of its biggest appeals - not only does it provide players with a deep and unusual plot, but also puts you in touch with an unusual world, filled with plenty of sidequests and realistic characters, along with plenty of features that, despite usual in today's games, were innovate back at the time of its original release.

Unlike what happens in other games of this genre, here each character has their very own storyline, filled with dreams and hopes of an happy future, which they'll try to achieve. Torneko, one of the main characters, is a fat and lazy man who wants to have his own item shop. Maanya and Minea, twin sisters, seek to avenge the death of their father. Hoimin, a minor character, is a small slime who wants to become human. Since the game is first structured by chapters, you get to learn quite a lot about each playable character, actually making you care about every one of them. With those details in mind, it becomes easy to notice that they all have their motivations, ones that enable them to, sooner or later, join your characters in a fight for a common cause. By the time that happens, this game becomes slightly more predictable, mostly inciting you to travel from place to place in order to gain access to a particular piece of information. Repeat for several times, enter a new dungeon, capture a special item and, eventually, you'll make it to the final target.

Even though each magic caster has his very own roster of spells, physical strikers appear to carbon-copies of each other, except for very particular stats. Arina, a princess that later joins your party, is prolific at randomly unleashing powerful attacks, and that ends up being the only reason that makes her different from, let's say, Raian, the army captain seen in the first chapter of the game. Obviously, such lack of differences makes it harder for you, when it comes to picking exactly what people you want in your party.

Sidequests, just like everything else, appear to maintain the very same requirements of the Playstation version, and there are quite a few for you to enjoy. They aren't required to complete the game, but may award you a few interesting extras, apart from making it possible for you to improve your characters, gaining levels that will end up being important in later stages of your adventure. However, since there are plenty of times where you'll be needing to do nothing more than incrementing your characters' levels before entering a particular dungeon, younger (or less patient) players may feel slightly bored at those times.

Just like in any other game of this genre, battles play an important role here. You'll be fighting plenty of monsters in a turn-based environment, where each of your characters does his action, along with each of the enemies. However, like in old-style RPGs, your characters are never actually seen in the screen, which is instead filled by the animations of the enemy attacks and the effects of your character's ones, either by displaying their offensive spells or the trajectory of their weapons' attacks. Younger players may dislike this kind of interface, but that's something which older players will probably enjoy, as it may appeal to their nostalgy.

For a RPG, it should be noted that this title has quite a few replay value. You may complete the main storyline in around 40 hours, but there will still be a few quests for you to perform, specially one where you get to populate a town with immigrants from all over the world. Even though you won't be playing this game for months, the inclusion of some quests that adds to the play time is quite interesting, if you realise that the original game was actually published quite a few years ago, in a time that games had close to no replay value.

Graphically, this game's quality is lower than the one in many other titles released for the Nintendo DS, which is disappointing if you think about the prowesses achieved by the latest release of “Final Fantasy III”. Even though the scenario is 3D, which allows you to rotate the camera at your own pleasure, most characters are depicted in an unclear 2D style, instantly making the player think about some of the last RPGs released for the Gameboy Advance. When it comes to battles, these flaws are somehow surpassed, and even though some spells appear to use recycled special effects, all enemies display perfect animations, completing all their actions in flawless, almost cartoon-like, way.

Another thing that is unlikely to disappoint you is this game's soundtrack. There's a limited amount of sound effects and the game features no voices at all, but most songs are simply amazing. They have nothing to envy to more recent games of this genre, and they're usually a pleasure to the player's ear, who is unlikely to turn the sound off.

Knowledge of the language is an obvious requirement to play this game. If you haven't played its Playstation version, which is exactly equal to this one, be sure to get this one. It is actually an enjoyable experience, one that time has not made older, and that makes it perfect for all players who want to add a new RPG to their gaming library.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/03/07

Game Release: Dragon Quest IV: Michibikareshi Monotachi (JP, 11/22/07)