I was hesitant to start Dragon Quest IV but since I'm playing through the whole series I knew I would have to get to it at some point. When a game asks me to reset progress or start over often it's a turnoff. Dragon Quest IV is broken down into 5 chapters and each one is their own story with it's own set of lovable characters, but they start at level 1 each time. Each character gets time to shine and it became exciting to get to the next chapter to meet the next member of my eventual adventuring party. A focus on characters and world is something that makes Dragon Quest IV one of my favorite in the series.
It's been said before, and I won't pretend to have this thought be my own, that each chapter from 1-4 is a part of a tutorial. Once you get to Chapter 5 and regain control of your main character to gather the others you'd been playing as, you know the basics of how each individual works with their strengths and weaknesses. Ragnar is your tank/fighter, Kiryl or Meena are you healers, Borya and Maya your mages, Alena is a thief/rogue type, and Torneko Mothafuckin' Taloon is the party badass. Towards the end of the game it becomes a real struggle to figure out which party members you should use in the next dungeon or when fighting a boss. There are places where you can swap them out at will, but, you're usually locked into 4 people. At the final boss I ended with Hero, Ragnar, Kiryl, and Borya. Equipment will most likely get shared among the group as money is harder to come by and with 8 members you'll never really have everyone as well equipped as they could be.
Throughout the story you hear of a mysterious figure known as Psaro the Manslayer. I had seen pictures of him in the past but someone going in blind is in for a real treat. There's an overhead feeling of dread throughout the game. Each character has their motives that I won't go into since I either can't remember them, my memory is about as good as a goldfish, or I don't want to spoil. At the end of the story it feels personal as to why you want to go after Psaro for being such a bastard. I haven't felt uneasy in a story since the end of EarthBound. The last few hours of this game are ominous, especially in the location you go to at the very end.
The world is a perfect size as well. Nowadays games brag about how large the map is and all the things you can do in it. What I love about Dragon Quest games are that they use the exact amount of space they need. Everything is perfectly spaced and there aren't exclamation points littering the map with side quests. Having the world broken up in each chapter introduces you to it at a perfect pace and you never feel overwhelmed. There's even a town "building" side quest...yes, I know I just bitched about them but this is the only one in the game. The quest tasks you with returning to old towns in search of people looking for a place to make a new life for themselves and it's cool to see the fruits of your labor. I also never went out of my way to collect all the mini medals in the other games but I constantly had enough to get the next reward from Minikin, the collector in this game.
While I played the DS remake of the game I can only imagine what it was like back in the day when it was first released on the NES. With a broken up chapter structure and things like Torneko's chapter that I didn't even go into(!) it must have been amazing. Alright, I'll gush about Taloon's chapter for a second. Dude...you're trying to get your own store and have to work for someone else until you break out on your own and start killing slimes and adventuring. This goofy fat dude works at a job he has to put up with and has to make the choice to say "see ya later I'm gonna go chase my dreams". Wow, I felt like I was just describing myself for a moment but we all know I'll never actually chase my dreams...I'd have to have some in the first place.
Dragon Quest IV is awesome!
