Dragon Quest IV

released on Nov 22, 2001

A remake of Dragon Warrior IV

Dragon Quest IV was remade for the Sony PlayStation in Japan. It was developed by Heartbeat and published by Enix. The remake was developed using Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past 's 3D graphics engine. With this remake came new features; among them were a new chapter, a new character, a boom town reminiscent of VII's, an inter-party talk command similar to Dragon Quest VII, and the ability to turn off the artificial intelligence for party members. The Enix of America Corporation originally planned to bring the remake to North America in 2002, but it was later cancelled due to Heartbeat closing its video game development operations.


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Not as great as the DS version, but it has the PS1 charm over it and a better resolution. Wish someone translates this specific version, it also has the support dialogue on top of that.

for better or worse, it’s dragon quest.

This game needs no introduction, as it is one of the best installments in the Dragon Quest series. This specific version expands and improves the original experience in many ways, being one of my favorite remakes because it doesn't limit itself only with modernized graphics, but also updates and expands a lot of things and obviously also because it's literally as if you merged Dragon Quest VII from PS1 (my favorite DQ) with the original DQIV from NES.

Dragon Quest IV was a turning point in the franchise. After Dragon Quest III, the franchise had already reached its highest point in that era, and for its fourth installment the series had two paths to choose from, either they reiterated the concept of an open world and made the game even more gigantic and free, or they made the experience more linear, restricting the player from the freedom so characteristic of the first 3 games in order to have an adventure with a tighter design. Dragon Quest IV clearly went for the second option, but as unbelievable as this may sound, this did not sacrifice the sense of adventure that characterizes Dragon Quest, rather, it was enhanced.

Let's cut to the chase, one of the reasons why Dragon Quest IV is one of the strongest installments is because of how its story is divided into chapters. It was a concept that for its time was novel and was something that greatly improved the narrative and world building, but it didn't change the overall structure drastically, it simply served as another way to present the story and gradually teach the gameplay mechanics to the player. Each chapter is good for different reasons:

Chapter 1: Like the game that started it all, Dragon Quest I, this chapter begins with a single character, with a single simple task, in a small place, but teaches enough of the Dragon Quest world to introduce new players. It teaches the basics, such as the importance of talking to NPCs, the cycle of day and night, turn-based battles, the importance of buying equipment, etc.

Chapter 2: Just as chapter 1 could be a tribute to the first Dragon Quest, this one can be considered as the perfect tribute to Dragon Quest II. Here everything is more extensive, now we control 3 members in the party instead of just one, the amount of villages and stories we encounter is greater, and in the same way, the battles start to get more complicated. Here the player learns about the importance of status altering magic and how to strategize in combat.

Chapter 3: Forget for the moment everything you learned in chapter 1 and 2, chapter 3 presents us with a twist to give you control of none other than that character who always sells you weapons and stands behind the counter, a humble merchant. This chapter is great because at first you literally start out as an NPC, but gradually you become a treasure hunter and build up a fortune that becomes almost addictive as you focus on earning more and more money on top of earning experience points. It's a pretty unique and fun chapter.

Chapter 4: I told you to forget everything you learned in chapters 1 and 2, but now you will have to remember them more than ever, because things get more complicated in this chapter and you will need to be very cautious if you don't want to have a bad time. This stage of the story shows how behind the curtain the main antagonist was slowly moving the pieces to execute his plan, and well, it is in this chapter where we see the product of that and how the enemy is already too strong, to the point that the story ends abruptly with a somewhat unfortunate conclusion, which gives way to the last chapter in the story.

As unbelievable as what I'm about to say may seem, chapter 5 could very well be considered a complete game on its own, you could say that's when the real Dragon Quest experience really begins, so it will also be the part where I will structure my review in my more "classic" way.

Chapter 5
Dragon Quest IV is for me the perfect Dragon Quest game. It maintains the purity and sense of adventure of the first three installments, and not only that, but it was the first game in the franchise to prove that in addition to adventure, there can also be a good story to tell.

The story of this game is set in a new world, it is a standalone story in a separate universe from the first three installments so you don't have to worry if you haven't played another game in the franchise before. This time we take the role of a boy with green hair that due to certain events is forced to leave on an odyssey that will take him to meet a noble knight of a distant kingdom, a princess with a lot of courage and momentum and his two faithful guards. A very nice middle-aged gentleman who is a merchant and two twin sisters who seek to avenge their father. They all unite to defeat a greater evil, Psaro, who plans to re-discover the secret of evolution to take revenge against humans.

Yes, the characters I described before are the same ones that starred in the previous chapters, and it's great how they keep their level and items when they join your party in the final chapter, and thanks to the fact that this remake aims to update Dragon Quest IV to put it on par with the seventh installment, we have the party chat that adds much more depth to each character and is a very fun addition because of the types of dialogues you can find while talking to randoms NPCs and makes it even cooler to have these 7 charismatic characters in your party. Yes, maybe this game lacks the customization and class switching that Dragon Quest III gave, but in my opinion, having 8 characters that are distinct from each other and that you can switch between at almost any time is much better and more fun. If you're on the overworld map, you can switch between party members even in the middle of battle and everyone will gain experience even if they didn't participate in the battle, and there are even some dungeons where this is also allowed, which increases the possibilities for strategy and versatility in combat.

One of my favorite moments in the game is when you unite the whole party and the main theme changes. Up to that point each character had their own overworld theme, and I just find it super cool that there is a theme for all the characters together, when Wagon Wheel March plays it's just epic it fills you with power and determination, there is no moment like this in the whole series. And it's strange, but even though the first hours you already saw most of the world, when you get the ship the game manages to make you feel that you still have a lot to discover and the game leaves the linearity aside to give you the freedom to choose at your own choice and pace the order in which you want to explore the world.

At the beginning of the review I mentioned that this game improved exploration over the previous installments in compensation for the more linear structure, so I'll expand on that. For starters, the simple and small, but significant addition of the mini-medals changed the way we see the pots, barrels and closets, as inspecting these objects can always reveal a mini-medal. The great thing about these is that every time you get a certain amount, you will be rewarded with special items that you could not find in common places or stores, such as a sword that regenerates your life when you attack or pieces of extremely strong armor. The mini medals became iconic within the series and became a must-have for every subsequent game. Another thing that was improved were the dialogues of the NPCs, as they are now more fun to read. The villagers also create and spread rumors, you read them and that's what sparks your curiosity and encourages you to explore the world to find out if the things they talk about are really true, and the best thing about this game is that it hides very interesting secrets all over the world, like the sands of time, which allow you to restart battles if you use them as an object in battle, which is extremely useful in occasions where you are losing or when you find metal slimes, or the Liquid metal sword, which is a super strong sword that you can also find by exploring normally, and that's what I like about this game, that the rewards for exploring are really significant and are not limited to potions or ethers which is usually the only thing that dungeons hide in this kind of games. In the review of DQIII I talked about how your curiosity will always be rewarded and in this game that is taken up again and improved to make exploring more entertaining.

In this game we must also make a search for "magic items", but unlike the previous installments where it was just collecting items and these had no utility beyond allowing you to advance in the story, in Dragon Quest IV we have to collect the pieces of the armor of Zenithia, which feels much more rewarding and more interesting, because getting them not only makes you advance in the story, but also makes our main character stronger by giving him exclusive characteristics, such as the Zenithian Helm that increases immunity to paralysis and sleep, or the Zenithian Sword that when used as an object in battle activates the ability to take away the enemies' status upgrades and plays a fundamental role in the final battle. And overall, rather than feeling like a collection of towns and kingdoms, everything in the world of Dragon Quest IV feels more "alive" and connected, which was strange to see in older games and is something I really like about this particular game. Another factor that helps a lot is that although the game does not tell you where to go, the world and its secrets are designed in such a way that a guide is not necessary at any time to complete the game, which for me is a great improvement over the first games.

The graphic style is taken from DQVII, although a little more polished, and even though it's not the best of PS1, it's definitely one of my favorites for combining 2D pixel art sprites with 3D environments and giving you the possibility to rotate the camera.. As for the OST of this game, I can only say that it is exceptional and is one of my favorites. I think it was in this game that Koichi Sugiyama finally managed to compose even better songs. In general terms, I think this game doesn't have a single bad song, I know that here my personal taste comes into play a lot, but the songs in this game are very good. Without a doubt one of my favorite themes is the ship theme... I simply adore it and it touches my soul every time I listen to it. The town theme is simple, cheerful and always puts me in a good mood, it's also very catchy that I've even heard my parents and brother whistling it from time to time haha. The credits theme always touches my heart and makes me miss all those adventures I lived with this game, the first time I heard it made me feel melancholy certainly... And to tell the truth I could be much longer talking about the music, but that's not the point of the review.

This is simply a magnificent remake, it expands the soundtrack, improves the graphics, adds quality of life improvements like the bag, adds post-game with additional content and an alternate ending that resolves some loose ends and makes the ending happier (although personally I prefer the original ending), adds the party chat and changes that in chapter 5 you can control all the characters, unlike the original version where all except for the hero were controlled by an AI. Heartbeat really put a lot of dedication to the Dragon Quest games they developed and I guess it was such a case that they ended up burnt out and closed the company after the release of this game even though these games were a success in sales. A pity, because after Dragon Quest III for SFC and Dragon Quest IV for PS1 there were no more remakes that had so much attention to detail and that were released on home consoles (with the exception of the PS2 remake of Dragon Quest V, which is also excellent and made with a lot of dedication.).

Conclusion
And what else is left to say? It's one of the games I enjoy the most, it has a very good story with an interesting (if a bit tragic) protagonist and villain, an OST that I can't get out of my head because of how excellent it is, and frankly it's also one of my all-time favorites. It's simply a game that resonates with me a lot and is the first one that comes to mind when it comes to recommending a game in this series.

Undoubtedly its greatness is due to Dragon Quest III, even so, it is a game that manages to be extraordinary by its own merit thanks to the evolutions that it presented, which improved the way in which these games were designed. Dragon Quest III shaped the classic Dragon Quest formula, but it was Dragon Quest IV that perfected it.

Additional comment related to the review:
I hope that someday this game will get a translation patch by fans or a new remake, because the DS version has cut the party chat, and the only full version is the mobile one, but playing on mobile doesn't appeal to me. Even with everything, it was worth playing this game in Japanese, I think it became my favorite version of the game, although I do not recommend it.

This game did Octopath traveler way before it's biggest fan's parents met. I played both this version and the DS version and I prefer the DS version in some ways, i also prefer the PS1 version in others. That's why the play time is 60 hours and not the average 30 since I've played this game twice. Dragon Quest IV is easily the best NES RPG that came out and while in my opinion still not as good as V, which came out a few years later, It's somehow still just as modern and only slightly harder to go back to because of some weird story instances where the place you're meant to go isn't super clear, but other than that it's such a classic. The music is goated, the characters are super cool and the dungeons are pretty fun too just like in V. I like that this game features more human characters where V has you controlling monsters for a large portion of the game. Though the story is definitely more simplistic than V in certain ways, the way they intertwine is still interesting. Especially since you don't even really play as the hero on the box until the last third and a half or so.

III was a great game but it's hard to argue that there wasn't much of a story until the very end. Sometimes a journey is defined by the company you keep and the illustrations in II's manual teased something which we had yet to see.

IV not only provides you with great companions but gives all of them a chance to shine before you even see the hero... at least in the original version. But I'm praising the remake because of its quality of life enhancements and fun little quips between characters (sadly absent in some ports.)

I really do think this is the greatest JRPG of all time. This feels like it finished what Ultima III started. It's a thrilling ride from start to finish which every gamer should experience.