Review | Dragon Quest IV Chapters of the Chosen
Das Reviews: Dragon Quest IV: Chapters Of The Chosen
November 11, 2008
It wasn’t long after I fired up Square Enix’s Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen for the Nintendo DS, that I remembered why I loved RPGs so much. There are so many electronic quests, pixellated kingdoms alight with activity and destruction, monstrous displays of level grinding, sprawling, mystifying magical portholes into dimensions that our stupid brains won’t transport us to unless you’re one of the lucky few with something called imagination (or hard drugs). Yet, very few of these video game adventures ever provide a seriously entertaining experience that doesn’t dwindle after the first act. Enter Dragon Quest IV: The Chapters Of The Chosen.
In this cultural wasteland of reissues, remakes, reincarnations and regurgitations, I hesitated at picking up Dragon Quest IV, just as I balked at the idea of the much beloved Chrono Trigger getting the DS treatment. Dragon Quest is not a fresh-faced game as it’s seen the insides of Famicom and Playstation. And even though I never played those versions (Dragon Warrior for the NES took my dragon-based virginity) I was worried I’d be playing a game that clung to clunky controls or tried to update the graphics with 3D character models that look like little steaming piles of kuck with bright eyes. But as I saw the menu screen light up and the familiar tinkle of the tunes made popular by its 8-bit ancestors, I was drunk on its hybrid of the nostalgic and novel approaches to story, characters and the universe. It was like seeing an old comic book character done right after hundreds of overbearing, arcing story lines that destroyed the allure.
Dragon Quest IV succeeds in attaining the unattainable, a story with characters that breathe. You will spend a chapter with each character, witnessing the major hiccups that get them entwined in the hero’s narrative. (You start out picking the hero’s gender and can go with the default names of Solo or Sofia or throw your own name like PJ McPicklefuck, to each his own.) The game features five distinct chapters in all, and the fifth, the culmination of everyone’s stories, is epic indeed. Missing children, a rebellious princess, vengeance seeking prostitutes (well…their actually a fortune teller and a dancer but they look like whores to me), and an escaped lunatic gladiator are just a few of the characters you encounter or control. My favorite chapter involves Torenko, the poor and overworked merchant, and his quest to raise money for his starving family. You actually get to work as a stockboy at a local weapon shop and work your way up to owning your own business and become a provider for your own family. Every other RPG game on the market features a store that lets you just buy the shit you need. DQIV forces you to take customer, after customer, after relentless customer to work your way up. It’s maddening, but it’s also the kind of attention to detail and storytelling that makes Dragon Warrior IV so special.
For newcomers, The Chapters Of The Chosen will provide entertainment well worth your gold bits. New AI systems such as Tactics control which lets you predetermine individual character decisions in battles, as well as Casino mini-games, day and night events, tradeable Mini-Medals and 360 degree rotational control while traveling allows you to uncover previously unseen doors and items. All this and more implemented with trouble-free controls in a super saturated adventure with bright, sharp detailing and awesome (and cartoonish) monster designs.
In a day where hundreds of games clamor for our holiday duckets, DQIV provides ultimately great value, a sharp storyline, dynamic characters, retro fusion gameplay and a tongue in cheek approach to the genre that should keep a smile on your face even as the economy collapses around you.
Das Verdict: Pick it up. It’s one of the best RPGs to sit in your palm at least until DQ V hits next year.
Review by Jonathan Lees
