While some aspects of the series clearly capped out with Dragon Quest III due to the NES's limitations, Chunsoft managed to keep things fresh by approaching the narrative in a unique and inventive way. Creating actual character development for your party members was a novel concept in the early 90s as silly as that sounds. My biggest complaint here is the "Tactics" system, which is effectively forced auto-battling. It's not sophisticated enough to just be a time saving tool, as it will sometimes just flat out work against you, and I hate auto-battle systems in games in general.

I dont even know what to say about Dragon Quest games anymore, every time I finish a new one I start thinking if its my new favourite. I loved absolutely everything about this one. The intro chapters, the story in general was extremely rewarding and captivating, every town is interesting, all the dungeons feel real and never overstay their welcome. This might be the best game of the mainline of all the ones ive played. Half a point (a bit unfairly) deducted because Im not a personal fan of the party AI (big fan of the party members using thwack on the last boss fight)

1990...
I really like the way all the party members get a chapter of their own, i wish more rpgs would do something similiar like here.
All the Members/Protagonist are really likeable and its again a huge evolution in gaming.
But i just could never really get into it, maybe because i dont like the artstyle, maybe because i found the music to be pretty medicore or its just that its always 50/50 for me if i get into a jrpg.
As a kid I probably wouldve loved this game but right now its just okay for me.

A grande diferença desse DQ para os seus antecessores é o formato de narrativa que é adotado, apresentando um cast de personagens que são interessantes em suas respectivas motivações na história principal, o sistema de batalha continua o mesmo do segundo e do terceiro, mas o que eu achei realmente interessante a forma que foi abordado foi o vilão principal do jogo, enfim, o quarto jogo é o melhor da quadrilogia do nes em termos de história e personagem, realmente apreciei cada momento que tive com ele.

I primarily fell in love with role-playing games because I love storytelling. Since I was a wee child, I would always write stories. Even in early elementary school I found myself penning fanfiction for “Peep and the Big, Wide World.” It’s always been my calling, and while, now in my late twenties, I am getting more okay with the fact that it may not be my career, storytelling will always my thing. Dragon Warrior IV really caused me to be enamored with it very quickly, and it 100% has to do with how this game not only tells its story in a non-traditional way, Dragon Quest-wise, but also video-game-wise.

The way the scenario is split up in its titular chapters is perfect. Beginning with Ragnar, and telling a simple story of a normal soldier doing his job and protecting citizens and then having the main plot creep up until Ragnar is the first chosen to be called to a higher destiny. Having the protagonist and chief antagonist completely hidden from the player as they control a cast of supporting characters that one would normally encounter as the protagonist just is perfect. It shifts the player from controlling a singular role; this installment is simulating something a little more omnipotent. In the first four chapters, you find yourself piloting four different characters and setting them onto a path that would have them eventually meet with the Hero they’ve been told, by fate, that they are to soon accompany.

You aren’t just playing as these characters, the player is almost acting as fate, as one of the goddess’ upper servants, leading and commanding the chosen ones so that they will be able to cross paths with the Hero. It still plays like any other classic JRPG, but it shifts the perspective just a smidge to contort the role the player is in, and it just makes it that much more interesting to me. And, besides how it can be used to examine the relationship between player and game, it’s also just really cool to spend extra time alone with supporting characters so that when the Hero meets them, the player gets a little more excited than how one normally might be when gaining a party member. Having a larger cast of characters along for the ride just gives it a more fleshed out fantasy story feel. Along with the episodic format, it feels like I’m reading a series of novels, or watching a show, with a larger cast of characters than the 1-4 that this series has stuck to up to this point. Which, by the way, through the last half of Chapter 5 I was mostly using the Hero, Ragnar, Cristo, and Mara as my main quartet.

I wanted to play the NES version instead of the NDS version of this game just because I didn’t want every single Dragon Quest playthrough of mine to be played on either iOS or NDS, and this one seemed like a fun venture. The classical feel was just really nice. The emulator I was using (fceux) had some really nice video settings that allowed me to give this a CRT look that just made me lose myself in the charm of NES aesthetics, which I don’t usually do! This is, of course, a late NES title, which helps it a lot, but this is easily one of the best looking 8-bit games I’ve ever laid eyes on. The party members’ sprites are so nice, monster sprites look great (EXCEPT FOR THAT ONE), it’s just a real treat. The most interesting part of this playthrough was experiencing the localization differences between modern Dragon Quest, which I grew up with, and the elder Dragon Warrior script. There are tiny differences, of course, but it made it really funny deciphering online guides because every FAQ and Wiki is up to date with script from the Nintendo DS version, which might as well be the only one that exists in the west.

It was also kind of a blast playing an old RPG. This might actually be my first RPG where the version I’m playing actually pre-dates my life. I’m so used to playing older games through newer collections with standard UI and mechanics. The command screen, at first, made it feel archaic, but that kind of thing also helps in these old school RPGs because you’re basically given a list of options on how to progress. Did I talk to everyone? Search everywhere? Try every door? Town citizens give you plenty of information, and there’s a lot of good instincts that the game gives the player that helps out.

For instance, in chapter five, you find a seaside village named, well, Seaside Village. Villagers speak of how the tide gets high at night, and that there is a special item that the town used to have in its possession. At night, the tide rolls in and covers every tile of beach except for one tile. Obviously, the next morning you search that tile and, lo and behold, there’s a little village heirloom that’ll help you access another area. Though, a problem I encountered here that is definitely just a part of this series’ overall design choice, is that once you get access to a ship, the scenario becomes insanely less linear and I did have some moments where I encountered things out of order and it caused a lot of confusion. The country of Gartenburgh is surrounded by mountains, I travel around and find a place speaking of a flying vessel! Ah! That will get me there, surely. However, the person who makes said vessels needs a Gas Canister to build it. Right, right… Travel around with no luck and decide just to look it up. Oh, okay it’s in the mine I once traveled to in another chapter. Though, when I last went there in this chapter, nothing had changed? I look up maps and something should’ve changed. Turns out you hear how it changes in… a place I’ve never been? Apparently that place is accessible once you get the master key! Wait that’s in Femiscyra, that’s why… wait… Oh, turns out an item I got already was the key to get to Gartenburgh, and I just didn’t talk to the guy in Burland who tells the player that. Fuck. Oh, and the spot where you use this item was this little nook in the mountain range that I noticed while exploring and just knew was important.

So, yeah, besides those few hang-ups, this game flows really well for an old RPG without modern-day game design’s more player-friendly trends. Dragon Quest has always charmed me like crazy, it’s easily in my top favorite series now after replaying some of my childhood games and playing other installments for the first time. It’s always been tough for me to get through Final Fantasy, I even shelved a playthrough of ‘FFIV’, the Final Fantasy game that I’ve been most intrigued in, just because I got a hankering to play this instead. I’m a DQ-head through and through, and this installment is definitely a new favorite, although I’ve yet to play the game in this series that completely enraptures me to the point that I would call it an all-time favorite. Though, I did play this in anticipation for Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, which is my most anticipated new game of the rest of the year, and was excited to realize how much more of that game is connected to this installment than I initially realized just after that announcement trailer. Safe to say this is probably my favorite storyline in the series so far, and considering I grew up with the ‘Monsters’ spin-offs much more than the main series, I think ‘Dark Prince’ is gonna be a great time for me.

Probably the best out of 4 NES Dragon Quest games.

While there are still not enough improvements, this game finally decides to tell a story with characters! First few chapters you're being introduced to the world and your future party, and only by around 5-6 hour mark the heroes get together. It's a much better system and it breathes life into the game.

That said, Enix really needed to change some things about the controls by this point. The movement and menus are still laggy (it takes maybe 1/3rd of a second for your character to start walking when you hold the button), and coupled with NPCs that like to run everywhere, this can create a lot of annoyances.

I still don't see the reason for them to keep talk/search/door options on different commands in the menu, as nothing I've seen so far, or indeed in previous games, requires to, say, search a door or talk to a drawer.

This game is still very old and janky, but it has more charm than previous titles combined thanks to people in the world feeling more like people and less like one-liner machines (although of course those still exist). It's also not as horny as III.

However, this game should only be played if you can withstand slow repetitive gameplay, as enounter rate can get incredibly high. Unless the game shits itself in the final act, I'm comfortable grading it now.

"Honey, wake up!", your wife tells you, "your boss will scold you again if you're late!". You're reminded of the existence of the overbearing and rude shop owner that employs you. How many hours at the counter will you have to spend this time before he is satisfied? Your back hurts, the bed you sleep in is worn out and not very comfortable, and yet you can hardly sleep in and fully recover - you have a wife and child to feed. You get up, get dressed, wash yourself and are now ready for another day at work. "Here's your lunch, honey", your wife tells you as she kisses you on the cheek, "have a good day!"

Taking the lunch, you're on your way to the weapon's shop. An old man stops you, "Torneko my dear", he says, "can you push me to the church? My bones are cranky, and I'll even pay you a couple gold for that." Needing every penny due to the meager pay you receive, you decide to help the old neighbour out. You feel ridiculous pushing an old man to the church, humiliated even, but eventually manage to complete the task. "Thank you dear, this is for you." You receive 9 gold pieces. The idea that you have to do such tasks for a mere 9 gold pieces makes you feel ashamed, thus not feeling like working, you take a little detour to the bar. An old drinking buddy is happy to see you. "Torneko old friend! How are you?", he shouts in a carefree manner that simply irritates you. How can he relax like that while you have to slave away in the weapon's shop? "Have you heard, friend, they say there are many treasures in the cave up north. Nobody goes there because they say it's full of monsters, but I wonder if the rumor is true. That'd be something if we could get our hands on it, eh? You wouldn't have to work for the old shopkeeper anymore, eh?"

Him and his ridiculous fantasies, you think. And suddenly, as if reminding yourself you're not quit as low as to start drinking and spreading rumors in the morning, you remember that you're already thirty minutes late to work. Finally, you decided to leave your daydreaming and already drunk friend alone and make your way to the shop. "You're late. Again. Where were you?" - he doesn't even greet you properly - "Stand in front of the counter and take care of the customers. You get paid on commission, so do your job properly." and as he says that, he disappears into the back of the shop. This is it. Another day of pain.

For hours customer after customer is entering, asking for one of the three items on sale at the shop or looking to sell one of theirs, and you diligently make sure they pay the appropriate price. Despite everything, you do want to do your job properly. After around 8-9 hours, you've finally had enough and ask for your pay from the shopkeeper. "Hmm, your work was worth 109 gold pieces today. See you tomorrow." The day of torture has ended, and it's time to return to the light in your life, your family. You enter your home.
"Welcome back honey, how was work?", she gives you a soft greeting kiss, "I'm glad you are working so hard for us honey, but does working for someone else really suit you? When I married you, you wanted to become the greatest merchant in the world. I know you can do it. That's why I married you! W-Well, it's not the entire reason of course. Fufufu."

Her words are encouraging, but also worrisome. Deep down you understand what she is really saying, She's saying she doesn't want a husband who's stuck in a dead-end job as a cashier at a weapon's shop. You're loved, but for how long will that last while you're humiliating yourself pushing around old men for a few more gold pieces? You go to bed, night falls, but your wife's words linger in your mind. This can't go on for much longer. "I have to do something. I'm done with this monotony, I'm sick of selling weapons for a couple gold coins. I want to provide for my family. I want to show them what I can do. Tomorrow I will do something. I will change something.", you think to yourself half-awake, imagining yourself bringing riches home to your soon-to-be-proud wife. Didn't your friend say something about treasure in a cave in the north? You've never fought with monsters before. You're a bit chubby, not the most athletic person, in fact, you've never won a fight before. But sometimes a man has to take risks. Sometimes a man has to be bold. Sometimes a man needs to want more.

Dawn approaches. This is the day. This is the day that will not be the same as any other. You go to the weapons shop. Not as an employee, but as a customer. You arrive. "A copper sword, please.", you tell your boss. "Torneko, you don't need a copper sword in front of the counter, no one is going to attack you", "well, I don't need the counter today. I'm quitting. But before I go, I need that copper sword.", "You're making a mistake, Torneko. But as you wish."

Leaving your life of monotony behind, you take the first bold step outside the safe confines of the city as suddenly a she-slime draws near. You're grasping the copper sword, of which you have sold hundreds, but have never used one for yourself - until now. You're fighting your fear, your uncertainty, your hesitation. This is it, there is no going back now, with determination you take your first blow.

Welcome to the world of Dragon Quest

It is undeniable that if you talk about Dragon Warrior IV and what makes it great that you'll end up talking about Torneko Taloon, our favorite guy. He embodies all the best parts of the game! I do think it's interesting that for both Final Fantasy and DQ, the fourth entry took the freeform class sytem of the previous games and said "what if we made each of these an actual defined guy." Obviously the games went in very different directions with that premise, though. But you know, while Final Fantasy to me is always narratively at its best when it's a little bit of a comedy, Dragon Quest is at its best when it's a little bit of a tragedy.


DQ3 had some pretty distinct early attempts at this, but IV having a more developed story and characters means there's just a lot more of it. I'm not saying it's super original or developed, but I think that was the point. The D&D roleplaying roots were still here in 1990 and the way it manifests is that you just get presented with with stuff and you have to fill in the blanks. Your little green main character has their entire village wiped out within a few minutes of being introduced, and you're just left with a particularly lonely feeling, standing in the bombed-out ruins of her home. None of those characters got enough screentime for me to remember their names, but the vibe of the first moments of being a level 1 lonely child thrust into the world is real. The last scene in the credits is your protagonist returning to those ruins and magically having their friend come back to life or something, which isn't explained and maybe serves as an early warning of the series' later tendency to give every game a super happy ending where you retroactively undo every bad thing that happens. Including this one, actually, in the later remakes.


Take Mara and Nara, or Meena and Nina or whatever they translated them as later. They have a pretty straightforward revenge plot going. Just when they're about to get what they're after, it's pulled away from them by the revelation that things are Bigger than they realized. Even after you kill off the guy responsible, NPCs who know them indicate that their revenge isn't finished yet, probably because they realized they have to stick around and defeat the Real Bad Guy and so on. The bits are all there but they really wanted the player to put them together, and since this is a game for children it's pretty sick! I don't think any of the other party members have anything that could even be stretched to call a character arc.


Psaro, though. The bad guy. He's pretty cool. Probably a little TOO many missing pieces to his story, really. I know they took great pains to make him an entire spinoff recently so I assume this has been rectified to hell by now. The antagonist who hates humans because blah blah discrimination is a juiceless premise but I DO like the antagonist who is manipulated into throwing away his whole-ass brain and becoming a big monster but everyone agrees he's kind sympathetic. He also has a badass sprite so we're like 75% of the way there already.

The game is full of stuff like that, and having played through most of V I know they chose this kind of storytelling to refine in the next game. Torneko's chapter rightfully gets a lot of love for kinda inventing the entire minor genre of fantasy shop simulators but when you look at mainline Dragon Quest, it was the presentation, very ambitious for the NES, which kinda informed a lot of the next several years of the series. Seeing Dragon Quest steering itself in new directions with this one, a lot of the reputation the series has for being all the same does not seem especially justified!

All this having been said, I don't quite like it as much as III. It's neat that you don't control your party directly in theory, since it makes them feel a lot more like companions and it's a fun experiment, but holy hell Cristo stop casting freakin' Thwack on bosses. What is wrong with you my guy. That's not going to work! I could never play one of the remakes of this sucker and deal with an entire extra chapter with more dungeon, this version was already just a smidge longer than ideal. None of this makes the game too hard, though: the difficulty curve is very good and leans well within the range of easy enough. The original trilogy is pretty great, but I'm really looking forward to digging into the middle section of this series that I missed, and also V which I did not miss but it kicked ass and I didn't beat it so I'm still gonna enjoy that one.

Aca paso algo raro

lo chido:

el juego tiene las mejoras de calidad de vida que siempre se agradecen en cada nueva entrega

la musica me gusta, mas que el 3, el tema triste es el mejor y tambien es agradable que el tema de pelea cambie segun el capitulo o personaje luchando

el formato de capitulos para contar la historia me gusto mucho, ver como todas las tramas estan relacionadas y se van hilando cada vez mas al punto en que todos los personajes se unen, cada juego le hecha mas ganas a la historia

los escenarios son mas emblematicos, la zona final con esos subjefes geniales, la zona toda oscura y el acantilado con el villano, fua, epicardo papu

lo no chido:

¿quien fue el sujeto que se le ocurrio lo de que tus compañeros en el capitulo 5 (capitulo final, mas largo y mas importante de todos) actuan con IA obligatoriamente?, esto es lo peor del juego, no tienes control sobre tus personajes en la parte final, puedes usar tacticas para influenciar las descisiones que tomaran pero aun asi cometeran descisiones tontas como repetir hechizos inutiles o simplemente no hacer lo que quieras, de hecho, en todo el juego jamas pude usar el hechizo que te duplica al ataque porque mis compañeros simplemente no queria usarlo, perdi y se me complicaron muchos combates por esto

apesar de eso, fue una experiencia que disfrute bastante y que recomiendo si te gustan los jrpg

dragon warrior 4 five stars. i thought the way it played with so many of the tropes it helped to invent was hilarious especially in the section of torneko and his babe wife where i was forced to sell goods for a good half hour. despite the in-jokes and the twists it functions perfectly well as a boys adventure work. obviously my main party through chapter 5 was hero tomboy princess and magical exotic sisters which quickly became one of my favorite rpg harems even with the sisters' shit gameplay. the beginning of chapter 5 (when the music cuts out), and the ending of the game, both really moved me.

This is the earliest JRPG I really like. (Well, I'd probably like Mother 1 a lot more now if I replayed it.) Other than when you switch chapters, the grinding here is fairly minimal in comparison to the previous Dragon Quest games. The storytelling is pretty ambitious for an NES game, with lots of characters and a villain with an actual motivation. The chapter structure is innovative and brilliant, of course. And the game has that playful charm trademark to Dragon Quest, with cute jokes like an enemy trying to use a teleport spell and bumping his head on the ceiling, just like you would. Most of the dungeon designs were pretty fun too, I was getting into the groove of things after awhile.

There are some sore spots. The merchant chapter was a bit drawn out, the grind periods at the beginning of each chapter were pretty repetitive, and the AI for spellcasters is generally pretty terrible. The tactics system really should've been more detailed, but they probably couldn't push the system much further on the NES. But in general, this game pushes itself pretty far given the technological constraints. I had a great time with Dragon Quest IV.

Bar none, the best RPG on the NES and the best game of the NES Dragon Quest quintology. Whereas I could point out at least one flaw with the previous Dragon Quest games (even if each one was better than the previous entry), I can confidently say that DQ4 is the only one where anything I'd criticize would be a nitpick.

Being able to select and customize between 8 of the game's predetermined characters at any moment massively expands your inventory space, while still alotting a good degree of party customization to find the setup that works best for you.

The balance is perfect. The game makes sure to introduce each character to you one by one, demonstrating their strengths and weaknesses, but once it gets to chapter 5, the real game begins. The party members you just got to know over the first several hours of the game are now collectibles for you to acquire. Once you have them all, experimentation is encouraged, and the game can be tackled in many ways.

The only downside I could think of is the weak storyline. Even so, I came to understand that story is not what Dragon Quest is about, at least, not to my understanding. It's about the feeling of adventure, and this game nails that perfectly.

Nothing beats the feeling of defeating your first Metal Slime King.