Dragon Warrior IV

Dragon Warrior IV, also known as Dragon Quest IV, was the fourth game in the Dragon Quest series of role-playing games published by Enix, and the final one to be released for the NES. Originally released in North America in 1992, the game was remade for Sony Playstation in 2001 and Nintendo DS in 2007. Neither remake has been released in North America, though fans are hopeful the DS remake will be localized.

The game is unique in the series, being divided into five chapters. Chapters I through IV introduce the supporting cast of the game, while the player-named Hero does not make his/her first appearance until the opening of Chapter V.

Gameplay

Chapters I-IV are nearly identical to previous DW games (especially DWIII) in overall gameplay. In each chapter you control anywhere between one and three characters, each character having a class and abilities resembling the class system of DWIII. The classes are as follows:

Chapter I: Ragnar - Soldier (identical to the Soldier class of DWIII)

Chapter II: Alena - Princess (nearly identical to the Fighter class of DWIII) Cristo - Chancellor (similar to DWIII's Pilgrim, but has a few new spells) Brey - Wizard (similar to DWIII's Wizard, but has several new spells, while lacking some others - most of his attack magic is ice-based)

Chapter III: Taloon - Merchant (operates exactly as DWIII's Merchant)

Chapter IV: Nara - Fortuneteller (similar to Cristo, and DWIII's Pilgrim, but in the NES version she has greatly reduced level progression and stat gains) Mara - Dancer (similar to Brey and DWIII's Wizard, but with more offensive spells, which are fire and vacuum-based)

All chapters except II also contain Non-Player Characters, which travel with the player, but cannot be directly controlled. They act on their own, guided by the game's AI.

In Chapter V, the player no longer directly controls any of the previous characters, instead using the Tactics menu to deliver a loose set of instructions (Normal, Defensive, Offensive, Save MP, Use No MP, Try Out). The only character directly controlled is the Hero, although unlike NPCs, any of the main characters can be instructed to cast spells outside of battle.

Version Differences

Both the Playstation 2 and Nintendo DS versions have a Prologue chapter to introduce the hero before chapter one begins, as well as a 6th chapter with a bonus dungeon and alternate ending. There is also a new Tactics feature to manually control your party in chapter 5.

Packaging

http://www.theoldcomputer.com/Libarary's/Pictures/NESGameCovers/D/Dragon%20Warrior%204.jpg