Before hand. I had never heard anything about Dragon Quest IV. Usually when the series is talked about it's either the first trilogy or the later ones in the series, so I had no idea what I was getting into and that'll stand true for this trilogy as a whole.

Graphically, I gotta say this game looks really good. I had been playing the games mostly through the Switch remakes which are based off the mobile versions and use the same graphics engine, so I've been seeing the games look a bit too much like each other. This time I actually get to see a remake done in a different style, and I actually really like the character designs and how the monsters move and animate. While the world design really doesn't look too different than the last games, the dungeons and bosses on the other hand are on a whole new level. I'm actually shocked this game wasn't released on the SNES or GBA, because I feel like it would have fit on either because of it's Golden Sun-like design of the world.

Along with the world is a rather pretty soundtrack. Gone are the same tunes I was hearing in the past games, and here come so rather pretty sounding village music, and dungeons, and the fact each character has their own battle theme is a really great touch.

There's not really much to say about the controls and mechanics. It does most of the same stuff as the past games did on every level as far as movement and combat, save for the ability to rotate the camera while in towns and dungeons, that while not heavily utilized, it was something that created a few new paths and hidden items.

Now to the best part of the game that makes it stand pretty highly to me. I can't think of too many games that take the approach of having the hero not be the main focus right away. the game has other characters that have their own chapters where they go on their own adventures and build their own spot in the story waaay before the hero even gets to do anything. It's refreshing to see all these other people who will join the hero later, get development and agency on their own and not tied to the hero. It almost feels like everyone else grows and becomes a seasoned hero or heroine in their own right, so THEY can help the hero become the hero with their experiences. It's such an amazing way of telling the story and having you root for them while growing into your own. I really wish more games would follow this and hope it's something that the rest of the series learns from.

So with all the praise do I have any issues with the game? Well...

- While graphically it looks great, some of the towns have a weird frame rate drops at times, I dunno if it's the water moving or the towns people sprites, but its distracting when it happens.

- The world map could use some work. Not the world itself, but the map on the other screen is no help at all.

- I've complained about this I swear every game, but while I get the dialogue represents other languages that tend to make it sound broken, it gets waaay too distracting and makes the NPCs hard to understand and takes a little bit of tension out of the story in spots.

- Speaking of story, while I love the character and world building...again the villains especially the main one has VERY little presence to the point it takes to near the end to get ANY feel of real danger and stakes, I feel like this is a common complaint I make as well.

Dragon Quest IV was a really great game and I'm starting to see where Final Fantasy runs parallel with Dragon Quest when it comes to sequel structures, like Final Fantasy IV...Dragon Quest IV started the series with grander stories and more world building that the prior games barely touched. I really liked this game.