| Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (NA) Dragon Quest: The Chapters of the Chosen (EU) |
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Box art of the North American release of the remake for the NDS |
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| Developer(s) | Chunsoft Heartbeat, ArtePiazza (PS) ArtePiazza[1] Cattle Call[2] (NDS) |
| Publisher(s) | Enix Square Enix (NDS) |
| Designer(s) | Yūji Horii |
| Artist(s) | Akira Toriyama |
| Composer(s) | Koichi Sugiyama |
| Series | Dragon Quest |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo Entertainment System, PlayStation, Nintendo DS |
| Release date(s) | Famicom/NES PlayStation
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| Genre(s) | Role-playing video game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | |
| Media/distribution | 4-megabit NES cartridge[9] CD (PS1) Nintendo DS Game Card |
Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (ドラゴンクエストIV 導かれし者たち Doragon Kuesuto Fō Michibikareshi Monotachi, lit. "Dragon Quest IV: The Guided Ones"), known as Dragon Quest: The Chapters of the Chosen in Europe and originally published as Dragon Warrior IV for the North American NES version, is a role-playing video game and the fourth installment of the Dragon Quest video game series developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix (now Square Enix). It was originally released for the Famicom on February 11, 1990 in Japan. A North American version followed in October 1992, and would be the last Dragon Quest game localized and published by Enix's Enix America Corporation subsidiary prior to its closure in November 1995, as well as the last Dragon Quest game to be localized into English prior to the localization of Dragon Warrior Monsters in December 1999. The game was remade by Heartbeat for the PlayStation, which eventually was available as an Ultimate Hits title. This was followed with a second remake developed by ArtePiazza for the Nintendo DS, released in Japan on November 22, 2007. This remake was released in Australia on September 11, 2008, in Europe on September 12, 2008[10] and in North America on September 16, 2008.
Dragon Quest IV differs from the rest of the series by breaking up the game into five distinct chapters, each of which focuses on a different protagonist or protagonists. The first four are told from the perspective of the Hero's future companions and the fifth one, from the hero's perspective, brings all the characters together as they begin their journey to save the world.[9] The PlayStation remake adds a sixth chapter, which is retained in the DS remake.
Contents |
Dragon Quest IV offered several new features over the first three titles, while carrying on many of those introduced in the previous games.[9] 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) 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.[11] This "Tactics" system is seen as a precursor to Final Fantasy XII's "Gambits" system.[12] 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.[11] 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.
These are the main characters of the story, and are controllable party members during their introduction chapters (Chapters 1-4). When they join the Hero in Chapter 5, the other party members become NPC characters that are only controlled by the "Tactics Command". In the re-releases, this setting can be changed to "Follow Orders", which allows the player to choose their actions. Also, with the re-releases, many of the character's names were changed to be closer, or incorporate their Original Japanese names.
Non-Playable Characters:
In the original version, the game is divided into five chapters. The first four provide back-story for the Hero’s party members, while the fifth follows the Hero himself as he meets up with the other characters. Chapter One begins when a knight from Burland rescues abducted children from monsters. He discovers a plot to kill the Legendary Hero and decides to set out on a quest to protect him.[11]
Chapter Two follows tomboyish Princess Alena and her two friends as they try to prove their strength.[11] Partway through her journey, Alena’s father loses his voice after speaking of a dream he had depicting the end of the world. After restoring his voice, she travels to the town of Endor to enter a tournament. She defeats all of the combatants except a warrior named Psaro the Manslayer (originally localized as Saro until he learns of Rosa's death and changes his name to Necrosaro), who failed to appear. After the victory, she returns to find the castle empty, so she sets out to find out what happened to everyone.
Chapter Three follows a merchant named Torneko as he establishes a thriving business in Endor. Later, he hears about a set of legendary weapons, which he sets out to find.
Chapter Four follows Maya and Meena, two sisters seeking revenge for the murder of their father. They avenge their father’s murder, but are thrown in a dungeon by the murderer’s master. They escape from the dungeon and make their way to Endor.
Chapter Five follows the game’s protagonist, known as the Hero.[11] It begins with the Hero’s hometown being attacked by monsters, led by Psaro the Manslayer. The Hero manages to escape, and is joined by the main characters of the previous chapters, as well as Hoffman, who drives the cart. Together, they spy on Psaro and discover that Estark, the Ruler of Evil (originally localized as Esturk), has been awakened. Their quest then becomes to travel to Estark’s palace and defeat him.
In the town of Strathbaile[14] (originally localized as Izmit), the heroes have a dream that explains Psaro’s plan. Developing a deep hatred of humanity after the death of his elven girlfriend, Rose (originally localized as Rosa), at the hands of humans, Psaro plans to become the next Ruler of Evil using the power of evolution he obtained from the “Armlet of Transmutation.” The party then travels to the Zenithian Castle. There, they meet the Zenith Dragon, who takes them to Nardiria (originally localized as Evil World/Last Refuge), where Psaro is. There, they defeat his generals before challenging Psaro. After fighting a continually evolving form of Psaro, he is vanquished.
The PlayStation and DS remakes include a sixth chapter. This chapter focuses on the heroes working with Psaro to avenge the death of Rose, and finally put the world back in order. Throughout this chapter, Rose is revived and the party is able to defeat her true killer, the Dark Priest Aamon (originally localized as Radimvice), one of Psaro the Manslayer's subordinates who intended to take the secrets of evolution for himself and usurp Psaro the Manslayer, setting all plans in motion that drove Psaro to his insanity.
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.[16]
Dragon Quest IV was remade for the PlayStation on November 22, 2001 in Japan. It was developed by Heartbeat and published by Enix. The remake was developed using Dragon Quest VII's 3D graphics engine, but was still Dragon Quest IV's story and world. The characters, towns, world maps, sound, battles and enemies all received updates. The character sprites were updated to match the original artwork for the characters in the original Dragon Quest IV Manual and artwork. With this remake came several new features. Among these features were a new chapter in which Psaro is available as a party member (as well as a prologue chapter), an intra-party talk command similar to Dragon Quest VII, and the ability to turn off the artificial intelligence for party members to allow for direct control of their attacks (except UC Party Members). The game sold over one million copies in Japan by the end of 2001.[17]
Enix America originally planned to bring the remake to North America in 2002 and had even advertised this upcoming release on the back cover to the US instruction manual for Dragon Warrior VII, but it was later canceled due to Heartbeat closing its video game development operations before the localization and translation could be completed.[18][19] It was later explained that the cost and time that a different company would need to invest to complete the translation prohibited Enix from passing this to another developer, as Heartbeat was the most familiar with their own design.[20]
Dragon Quest IV was later re-released for the Nintendo DS in Japan in November 2007. The game has been remade in 3D, similar to the PlayStation version.[21] 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.[14]
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.[22] Many fans took this to mean such an announcement was imminent. On April 9, 2008, Square Enix applied for a trademark to the title "Chapters of the Chosen", and speculation began that this is the new subtitle to Dragon Quest IV for an American Release. [23]
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.[24] An official release date of September 16, 2008 was finally established on the official North American site.[4] 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.[10]
This version of the game contains an entirely new translation of the script.[14] 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,[14] yet an analysis of the location and character names indicates the original localization of Dragon Warrior IV was closer to the original Japanese.[25] This version also uses the new spell naming convention first used in Dragon Quest VIII, such as the spell Beat from Dragon Warrior IV is now Whack.[14] 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.[14]
The Nintendo DS English translation includes 13 regional dialects for the various areas,[26] including Burland now being Scottish, and Zamoksva being Russian.[14] Simon Carless of Gamasutra discusses the difficulty of using dialects in a game with text-based dialog. According to Carless, in addition to confusing some players by using "non-standard" English for certain characters, the use of dialects by characters from small villages could be viewed as derogatory to people with less fortunate backgrounds, or even racist to others. At the same time, he 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."[27]
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 Mysterious 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.
A five volume manga called Dragon Quest: Princess Alena was released. It followed the story of Chapter 2, Alena's adventure,[28][29] but begins to divert during the events in the Birdsong Tower. From this point forward, it introduces several new characters, including the evil Evil Leather Dominatrix Woman, and new locations, including an Arctic location and a haunted house. This story ends with Alena fighting Psaro and defeating him before he goes on with the Golden Bracelet to perfect the secret of evolution.
As with every Dragon Quest, Koichi Sugiyama composed the music and directed all the associated spinoffs. The song heard during gameplay depends on a number of factors. A specific track is always played for towns, another for caves or dungeons, another while the party is mounted on the hot air balloon, for instance. Lastly, while out in the world, each of the first four acts has its own theme song, as does the Hero—in act five, the theme song played depends on who is the first character in the formation.
The original Dragon Warrior IV was one of the only games to feature a crescendo during the battle music. Such a technique was virtually unheard of for an NES game. Not even the PSX remake, Dragon Quest IV, featured this musical concept.
Dragon Quest IV ~The People Are Shown the Way~ Symphonic Suite is a compilation of music from Dragon Quest IV. The first print of the album was in 1990, the London Philharmonic version came out a year later, and a reprint of the original was released in 2000.[30]
| Dragon Quest IV ~The People Are Shown the Way~ Symphonic Suite tracklist | |
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In 1991, Enix released a set of videos featuring Koichi Sugiyama conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra performing the soundtrack in Warwick Castle, along with clips of acting.
| Reception | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 80%[31] |
| Metacritic | 80 out of 100[32] |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| 1UP.com | B+[33] |
| Game Informer | 7 out of 10 (DS)[34] |
| GamePro | 4 out of 5[35] |
| Nintendo Power | 7.5 out of 10[36] |
Dragon Warrior IV was awarded "Best Challenge" and 2nd place "Best Overall Game" in 1993 by Nintendo Power, runner-up "Best Role Playing Game of 1992" by GamePro, "Best Role Playing Game of 1992" by Game Informer and "Best NES Adventure/RPG of 1992" by Game Players. In August 2008, Nintendo Power ranked Dragon Warrior IV the 18th best Nintendo Entertainment System video game, describing it as the peak of the NES' Dragon Quest trilogy and praising it for its innovative five-act story that made it one of their favourite old-school role-playing games.[37] Readers of Famitsu magazine voted the game the 14th best game of all time in a 2006 poll.[38] 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.[11]
The PlayStation version of Dragon Quest IV was the 4th best-selling game in Japan in 2001, and has sold nearly 1.2 million copies as of December 26, 2004.[39][40][41]
As of August 8, 2008, the DS remake has sold 1.15 million units in Japan.[42] Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen was a nominee for Best RPG on the Nintendo DS in IGN's 2008 video game awards.[43] The game has sold 1.46 million copies worldwide as of May 31, 2009.[44] 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.net's Simon Parkin, pleased.[45]
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