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Dragon Quest IV(JP) also known as Dragon Warrior IV for the original North American release for the NES in 1992 is a video game initially released in 1990. The game was later got an remake under the title Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen for the Nintendo DS.

Gameplay[]

Dragon Quest IV offered several new features over the first three titles, while carrying on many of those introduced in the previous games. Similar features included are the day and night cycles, the ability to travel via ship and a flying vehicle (this time, a hot air balloon), and the three levels of keys. They are Thief, Magic and Ultimate (originally localized as Final). There are also travel doors, which allow the party to move a great distance on the world map with little travel. Unlike the Hero in Dragon Warrior III, the Hero of Dragon Quest IV is not required to be in the party at all once the wagon becomes available. Despite this, the Hero is again the character that possesses the most powerful healing and attack spells. Many spells, weapons, armor, and shops (including the vault/bank) function the same as in past games.

In addition to the new chapter-based storylines, an artificial intelligence system called "Tactics" was implemented that allowed the player to provide strategies to the party members (who become NPCs in the final chapter), such as prioritizing damage, healing or MP conservation, while maintaining full control of the Hero. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation and the remakes of IV allow tactics to be set for characters individually rather than using one tactics mode for all characters, as well as including the "Follow Orders" Tactics mode, which allows other characters to be controlled manually. This "Tactics" system is seen as a precursor to Final Fantasy XII's "Gambits" system. The wagon, first introduced in this game, allows the player to choose which characters are used in battle. The wagon can also be seen in Dragon Quest V and Dragon Quest VI. The first casino appears in this installment as a place to play several mini-games (slot machine, poker, and the Monster Betting that was introduced in Dragon Warrior III) using tokens that could be traded for special items. Searching drawers and inside of jars was first introduced in this game as a means to find items. Small Medals, later Mini Medals, were introduced as a new item to search for and trade for special unique items from a secluded king.

Saving the game was made easier by allowing one to save a game in a House of Healing, rather than talking to a king. Also, the save ("Confession" in the DS remake) and EXP point to the next level-up ("Divination" in the DS remake) are now separate commands. Returning to the format of the original North American Dragon Warrior, programmers allowed users to open a door using a command appearing in the top level of the menu (rather than requiring users to search through various characters' inventories for the key as in some previous games). The only requirement was that at least one character in the party needed to have an appropriate key in his or her inventory. Since this command was added, an unlocked door was added in this game, as well as large Castle Doors. However, this command was eliminated in later games and the remake, in which doors can be opened by attempting to walk through them.

Plot[]

Prologue[]

In the prologue (missing from the NES version) the hero of the story, Solo/Sofia is introduced. The hero is in sword training in his small village. Afterward, he goes home. The prologue ends there, and it is the shortest chapter in the game.

Chapter 1[]

Ragnar McRyan, a soldier in the kingdom of Burland, is given orders to search for missing children in a nearby town. Ragnar, along with Healie the Healslime, find and defeat the monster who took the children. The duo discover that the monsters were searching for the legendary hero, who is believed to be a child. Upon learning this, Ragnar and Healie set out to find and protect this hero (although Healie actually just wants to turn into a human, and believes that he can by travelling with one).

Development[]

According to Yuji Horii, he wanted to have something the player went around collecting as the previous Dragon Quest games had crests and orbs respectively. However, he did not want to do the same thing over again by forcing the player to collect a certain number of items before they beat the game; mini medals instead have nothing to do with clearing the game. The promotional illustrations for the Japanese version was drawn by famed manga artist Akira Toriyama, whom provided the artwork for the previous games in the series and would continue to do so for every future installment.

1992 North American localization[]

Unlike all the other games up to this point, the changes in this version were not as radical. Among them were the usual religious/violence censorship, new graphics for the opening copyright and ending credits, and the betting in the Casino was slightly modified to allow more money being won during a bet.

Nintendo DS remake[]

Dragon Quest IV was later re-released for the Nintendo DS in Japan in November 2007. The game has been remade into a 2D/3D hybrid, similar to the PlayStation version. This release has kept many of the enhancements from the PlayStation, such as the slightly altered immigrant town, but has received enhanced upgrades to smooth the graphics further, and improved sound. This release also allows players to take manual control of all of their party members in the final two chapters.

Shortly after the Japanese release, several people editing the Japanese ROM file discovered a near complete English translation along with Spanish, French, German, and Italian translations already inside the Japanese game. On April 9, 2008, Square Enix applied for a trademark to the title "Chapters of the Chosen", and speculation began that this was the new subtitle to Dragon Quest IV for an American release.

On April 18, 2008, Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen was found to have a rating of E10+ by the ESRB, for Alcohol Reference, Animated Blood, Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Simulated Gambling, and Suggestive Themes. An official release date of September 16, 2008 was finally established on the official North American site. The game was released in Europe under the title Dragon Quest: Chapters of the Chosen, omitting the number IV in a similar fashion to the European version of Dragon Quest VIII.

This version of the game contains an entirely new translation of the script. It was claimed in Nintendo Power that the new translation has changed the names of many of the main characters, weapons and towns to be closer to, or include their original Japanese names, while adding several new localizations, yet an analysis of the location and character names indicates the original localization of Dragon Warrior IV was closer to the original Japanese. This version also uses the new spell naming convention first used in Dragon Quest VIII, such as the spell Beat from Dragon Warrior IV becoming Whack. The western translations have been slightly changed in places where the Japanese version included sexual components, and the Japanese version's party talk feature was completely excised from the western versions.

The Nintendo DS English translation includes 13 regional dialects for the various areas, including Burland now being Scottish, and Zamoksva being Russian. Simon Carless of Gamasutra feels that the use of dialects can help some people to understand different cultures, saying, "It has the potential to nurture cross-language and cross-cultural understanding in a very intelligent manner."

A version based on Nintendo DS remake was released in Japan on April 17, 2014 for Android and iOS. It was released internationally on August 7, 2014. The Android version of the game features cloud saving, autosaves, a quick save feature, and a pause feature for ease of use on the mobile platform. This version also reintroduces the party talk feature removed from the international Nintendo DS releases, being translated into the appropriate language. It also replaced the orchestrated music with the synthesized MIDI music in the title screen, which is performed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Reception[]

Dragon Quest IV was awarded "Best Game Grand Prize" and "Best RPG Game" in Famitsu magazine's 1990 Best Hit Game Awards. It was also awarded "Best Challenge" and 2nd place "Best Overall Game" (NES) in 1993 by Nintendo Power.

In 1997 Electronic Gaming Monthly editors ranked Dragon Warrior IV the 58th best console video game of all time, calling it "easily the best RPG ever released for the NES - in the U.S. or Japan." They particular cited the epic length of the game's quest. In August 2008, Nintendo Power ranked Dragon Quest IV the 18th best Nintendo Entertainment System video game, describing it as the peak of the NES' Dragon Quest series and praising it for its innovative five-act story that made it one of their favourite old-school role-playing games. Readers of Famitsu voted the game as the 14th best game of all time in a 2006 poll. In particular, critics noticed with interest that the game's third chapter, Torneko's, departed largely from standard RPGs by making the only goal to collect money and by allowing players to have Torneko simply working in an in-game store.

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen was a nominee for Best RPG on the Nintendo DS in IGN's 2008 video game awards. Critics pointed out that the game may feel outdated, especially to players not accustomed to Dragon Quest games, but that some of the characters, such as Ragnar, make the game stand out of the recent JRPGs. "Ragnar McRyan is in no way a character designed off the back of some intense Japanese schoolgirl demographic focus testing", wrote Eurogamer's Simon Parkin, pleased.

In other media[]

Dragon Quest IV is the first game in the series to spawn spin-offs. The merchant Torneko (also known as Taloon in the NES version) was popular enough to star his own series, in which he finds himself in quests in order to expand his store. These games are the Torneko no Daibouken sub-series (translated as Torneko's Great Adventure), roguelike and random dungeon games produced by Enix (and Square Enix) and developed by Chunsoft. The success of the games later inspired the creation of the Mystery Dungeon series.

Ragnar, Healie, and Torneko all later appear as cameos in Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King in the Monster Arena. Torneko later cameos in Dragon Quest Yangus as a merchant. The male version of the protagonist also appeared as a playable character (as an alternate costume) in the 2018 crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate via downloadable content. He is fully voiced for the first time by Takeshi Kusao.

Trivia[]

Gallery[]

  Main article: Dragon Quest IV/gallery

External links[]

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