Dragon Warrior IV
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| Dragon Warrior IV | |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | Enix Corporation (Japan) Enix America Corporation (NA) |
| Developer(s) | Chunsoft |
| Designer(s) | Yūji Horii |
| Artist(s) | Akira Toriyama |
| Composer(s) | Koichi Sugiyama |
| Released | February 11, 1990 (Japan) October 1992(NA) |
| Price | ¥ US$ |
| Genre | console role-playing game |
| Mode | single-player |
| Platform | NES |
| Series | Dragon Quest |
| Rating | N/A |
| Media | 4-megabit NES cartridge |
| Input | NES Controller |
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. While the playstation remake didn't make it to North America the Nintendo DS remake was released in North America in September of 2008.
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.
Prologue
The NES version the game starts you off in chapter 1 as the soldier Ragnar who has been assigned the task by his king of finding the missing children of the nearby town Izmit who have been mysteriously disappearing. The remakes of the game, however, start you off as the hero in the small town where you've grown up in which you cannot exit. While short lived this little segment serves as a way to get to know a little bit about the hero before you start the game.
Story
The story in Dragon Warrior IV revolves around the hero and his/her companions and their quest to stop the resurrection of the ruler of evil, Esturk. The first four chapters of the story are about the hero's companions and their journeys. While they each travel with their own goals and dreams in mind they all eventually find out about Necrosaro and his plot to kill the hero and revive Esturk leading them all to continue their journeys so they can find and protect the hero and stop Necrosaro and his plans. Chapter 5 begins with the hero who has just turned 17 and is living peacefully in a small mountain town when Necrosaro and his minions attack trying to destroy the hero while he/she is still inexperienced. One of the hero's friends Celia transforms herself into the hero and dies at the hands of the fiends. Thinking their mission was accomplished Necrosaro and his monsters return from whence they came leaving the hero to begin his/her journey and fulfill their own destiny.
Characters
Gameplay
A classic turn based style like its predecessors, Dragon Warrior IV breaks apart from the trilogy of its previous three games and sets you in a new world to venture and explore. Also unlike, the games before it you don't start out as the hero, instead the game is divided into 5 chapters in which you play as your party members in the first 4 before finally controlling the hero and meeting your companions in the fifth chapter.
In the fifth chapter 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. All chapters except chapter 2 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.
The wagon system was also introduced in Dragon Warrior IV. With the wagon you can travel with more than four party members and can switch them in and out of battle on command. Also new to the game was the Medal King who makes appearances is the sequels as well. If you collected small medals for him you could exchange them for prizes. The casino was also expanded to include poker, slots, and monster fight betting. If you won big at the casino you could exchange your chips for extremely valuable prizes.
Version Differences
Both the Playstation 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. The playstation version uses the graphics engine from Dragon Warrior VII and the Nintendo DS remake uses nearly the same style.