Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen

"A fine chapter in the book of Dragon Quest"

Square-Enix really likes re-releasing games from its past onto current consoles, both remakes and ports. This might seem like a bad thing, but it's not exactly. Most of these are greatly enhanced from their classic origins. The game in question in this review, Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen is no exception. It's a total reinvention of DQIV based on Enix's original remake for the original Playstation.

Dragon Quest IV, originally released as Dragon Warrior IV on the NES here in the states must have been way ahead of its time. I never really got a chance to play it much beyond the original opening chapter, but I can definitely see how it shined like a signal flare into the future of console RPGs.

On the DS, the game is released with the subtitle: Chapters of the Chosen. This is a fitting title for the game because its story is divided into chapters. Each chapter coincides with a main character or group of characters setting out to reach their dreams or right some wrongs. The characters include Ragnar, an honest and worthy knight who takes on the quest of some missing children; Torneko Taloon, a rather large merchant who desires creating his own shop; Alena, a tomboyish princess who desires to see her world along with her royal servants Kiryl and Borya; and lastly the twin dancers Maya and Meena who want seek vengeance for their alchemist father's murder. These all seemingly unrelated stories finally come together in the fifth chapter when the Hero character, whose name is of the player's choosing, ventures out to finally defeat evil. Evil in this game is in the form of a mysterious villain you only catch glimpses of until the end when you learn about his diabolical plot. He goes by the name Psaro the Manslayer. You will learn more about him and his manslaying as you play the game.

The game has notably vastly improved from its NES version in many facets. For one, the graphics have obviously been given a complete overhaul. You can now rotate certain areas in the third dimension, such as towns and certain dungeons. This allows you to find things that might otherwise have been hidden. One example is the treasures that would have taken a lot of wandering and random battles to otherwise reach. The graphics might not push the DS to its ultimate capabilities but that was never the point of the Dragon Quest series (sans the beautiful Dragon Quest VIII). It looks extremely functional and at times pretty so its not really faulty graphics wise at all.

The game plays like a typical roleplayer, in that you have to move from dungeon to town to dungeon etc. fighting tons of random turn based battles in the meantime. There's the usual need to do the fight-level up-inn combination throughout the game as certain bosses and areas where random battles were fought are incredibly difficult if not properly leveled. The final boss fight is incredibly difficult if you don't have every spell in the game and your party isn't effectively leveled (just need to find some more of those king metal slimes).

The game has a turn-based battle system not unlike the other Dragon Quest games or even games such as Earthbound. The series never went and tried to manipulate the battle system to the extent of say the Final Fantasy series. It simply stays to the tried and true turn based system.

Another part that was changed, some would say improved, from the original was the translation. The dialogue is more varied and to be honest sillier. Different kingdoms have different dialects, most of them are tolerable with one exception. That would be Alena's land which speaks in a broken English dialect supposed to be what Russians or Eastern Europeans talk like. It gets annoying because you have to decipher what they are actually trying to get across, which shouldn't be happening. When I first saw it I just thought it was that the villages were simply not smart, but then I realized it was the Russian dialect making it very frustrating.

The game is fairly long, not insurmountable by today's standards but it's solid. You can complete the main quest anywhere from 20-30 hours depending on how much leveling and side quests you desire to do. Then the extras will take you at tops maybe 10 hours to complete but they are a difficult ten hours so be prepared for more leveling and fighting even if its not a lengthy chapter comparatively. Like most RPGs it doesn't have a tremendously high replay value, but it certainly has its merits relating to replay.

In the end this is a simply solid title, a definite pick up for most Dragon Quest veterans and fans of classic role-playing games alike. If you aren't too keen on traditional turn based role-playing games then this won't change your mind one bit. But the game is certainly solid and a testament to the forward-looking nature the original classic game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/31/09

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