Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen

"SquareEnix's takin' you back to school. OLD school that is."

This game takes me back...

Many years back, I picked up Dragon Warrior IV at my local game rental shop. I was blown away by the major jump in graphics and story from number 3. I've since bought an NES and fought long and hard to purchase the original cart.

Then, much to my surprise, SquareEnix gives me yet another reason to love my DS.

Chapters of the Chosen is, basically, a rehash of the PSOne remake of IV, but don't let that put you off.

The chapter element of the game is what separates it from its earlier incarnations. When you sart the game, you get to name your hero, and choose your gender. hen you play as him/her for a few minutes. Just long enough to say hi, basically.

My only real hang-up with this game is the lack of direction. If you don't talk to EVERYONE in a town/castle, you'll spend a lot of time wandering the world map like Moses in the desert.

Oh, and a word of advice: level, level, LEVEL!!! Only in the DQ series will you find yourself spending hour upon hour just fighting monsters, not only for EXP, but for the gold you'll need to upgade your characters.

The music is great in this game. Each and very tune brought a nostaligc tear to my eye. They did an awesome job of recreating the memorable tunes.

The animation during the battles is AWESOME. And to that I say, thank God, what with all the battlng you'll have to do. Watching the fluid attack animations makes the tedious level griding bearable. The first time I fought a slime in this incarnation, I was floored. It was like I was watching a little animated short. And the boss animations for the endgame are astounding, even on the DS.

The A.I. for your party members has been vastly improved, too. When a character is low on HP, any available healer will tend their wounds, unless they're out of MP. This is a welcome fix, because I don't know how many times I screamed at this game on the NES, when my healer let my hero die. I didn't really have that problem this ime around. Although, maybe, that was just a hang-up of my own creation. ^.^

The extra content after beating the game is sparse, but sill worth playing through. The pioneer town sidequest is fun and all, but a little more additional content would've been nice. The Foo Young/Chow Mein battles remind me an awful lot of the Dragonian King battles from DQVIII.

The character deelopment is non-existant, but that's not really what draws you into this game. I sometimes enjoy RPGs with a lot of pithy dialog between characters, but ometimes, I just want to move from town to town, killing monster and upgrading my characters without worrying about why these characters are doing what they're doing, beside the fact that it's a "just because" kinda thing. Sometimes you don't need a blockbuster-movie caliber narrative to make a great game.

All in all, this game is a great buy for anyone who loves an old-school RPG. Those of you who were weaned on Final Fantasy, though, might want to skip it. The Dragon Quest series has never been known as an RPG that holds your hand through the first two hours. You earn each and every level in this game. I'm so tired of the RPGs that start your characters off at, like, Lv7, or something rediculous like that. I want to play for my EXP. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but that's how I like my RPGs

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/06/08

Game Release: Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (US, 09/16/08)