Much like the games before it, Dragon Quest IV was an incredibly formative game for both the series and the genre as a whole. While Phantasy Star II was able to place an emphasis on a narrative a year prior, Dragon Quest IV is actually a good video game also manages to give its party members their own spotlight and proved to be a big step towards more character driven stories in both the series and rpgs as a whole. It feels less like a followup to Dragon Quest III and more like a followup to Dragon Quest II given your party members are established characters in the story again and not just blank slates that the player can project their imagination on to. Despite this, dq4 manages to feel just as, if not more personal than 3 thanks to how immersive it is. I don't think the world building or sense of adventure is quite as good, but 4 segmenting the build-up towards even being able to control the main character into chapters does wonders for making the player care for pre-established characters even after they join the party and get less far less dialogue.

I really adore just how different it feels stepping out onto the overworld as the hero in dq4 for the first time compared to 3, and it ties into what I believe to be the series' most recurring theme - family. It's something that can be applied to all of the stars of the proceeding chapters in some way, but when chapter 5 starts, the only family you knew immediately is taken away from you. You're totally alone. It's the direct antithesis to 3 - you aren't going out in search of a father who may or may not be alive and on a quest to defeat baramos, with a mother and hometown to return to. You have no family left, and your only goals are to fulfil your destiny and survive. The music that plays once you step outside, "Homeland", has this really sombre feeling to it, far less..adventurous than the aptly named "Adventure" of the previous game. There's this real sense of isolation to it all, hell even the very first npc you encounter in this chapter tells you to go away because they don't like how depressed you look. People in Branca are venturing out in groups of 4 to stop Necrosaro, and unlike in 3, you can't form your own group or even join any of the already formed ones, so you move on to Endor, and not long after getting there you get to hear this tune.

I'm autistic and lonely so this plays in my head whenever i somehow manage to make real friends I adore this little song that plays whenever you get a new character in these games. Kinda really just gives the impression of how important it is to have someone join you. Stepping out on to the overworld still plays the same music as before though - you still have a long ways to go, and for all you know the people who decided to travel with you are still total strangers. The very next dungeon is even a cave that tests the newly formed trio's trust in eachother, and it almost ends very badly.

The overworld music doesn't change until you have every recruitable party member - so basically not until you've been venturing with your companions for long enough and accrued enough of them to fill the void that your destroyed hometown left. Dq2 and 4 planted the seeds for it but found-family is probably my favourite recurring theme in the series and it's part of why I like 5, 6 and 11 so much. Regardless, it's not long after leaving Endor with Mara and Nara in tow that you're introduced to a big part of what makes chapter 5 so immersive, for better or for worse: the ai controlled party members. See, yeah, it's really good at that immersion I mentioned. I found it really easy to project myself onto Solo, far more so than I did with Erdrick, because it feels like you're not playing alone?? If that makes sense?? I mean, yeah that's probably what the devs were going for. The ai is usually able to hold their own in battles and deal with random encounters effectively, and they actually get smarter as the game progresses, or at least, they get smarter when it comes to random encounters because good LORD do they suck at dealing with bosses. A rant draws near!

That was so fucking corny, sorry, here's something even cornier! Here's a crudely drawn graph detailing my enjoyment with dq4. Yeah, about Balzack. He definitely lives up to his name because he sure proved to be a pain in the fucking nuts. There's a good chance you'll try fighting him and get demolished, so no biggie, I'll just go elsewhere - the game opens up a lot like dq3 does once you get the ship, so surely I'll just leave him till late- oh he's gating two progression items and they're the only way to progress through the story, fair enough. I'll just keep throwing myself at hi- brey why are you attacking him for 1 damage instead of casting debuffs or literally any of your spells. Alena why are you repeatedly defending as the last character alive when you're going to die anyway can't you just see if you can try finishing him off. Cristo why are you repeatedly trying to silence him if it didn't work 3 times before instead of healing the team.

Yeah, it sucks! If you want to know the worst part of this, one of the items he's gating immediately gives you access to the orb of silence - the thing you used to beat him in his first encounter, which really adds insult to injury given he gets to attack twice a turn and his spells do significantly more damage compared to his other attacks.

My advice? Just bring Mara, spend your mini medals on a miracle sword (or two), put it on solo, bring alena with the falcon knife earrings purchasable from rosaville, bring any fourth party member (probably ragnar or torneko, could even get a miracle sword for him too if you've been dilligently checking pots and drawers and have enough medals for it), put the ai on show no mercy, and PRAY. It's here that cracks in the ai really show and you realise that you shouldn't bother approaching bossfights with any strategy other than "do as much damage as fast as possible". And that kinda sucks! The big important bossfights in dq3 were awesome because of how much you needed to strategise and plan ahead and experiment to win. Sure you're experimenting with party members and different tactics presets in 4, but it's just not the same level of depth as 3, and once you figure out the winning strat for one boss in 4, they all play out the same. At the very least, the spellcaster ai being moronic when it comes to bossfights means that more party members have their use than in the remake. All the physical attackers, even torneko, are great for bosses, whereas spellcasters are great for random encounters. Torneko's actually cooler here than in the remake because of the random nature of the ai. Naturally all of the effects of his different actions were nerfed because you can just select them any time now, but he proves to be more useful in the original game because of that randomness and just how effective all of the stuff he could do was. You've also probably heard the horror stories of Cristo repeatedly casting whack/beat against bosses to no affect, and admittedly I didn't actually experience that much, but he was definitely good to have around for everything that wasn't a boss fight.

Moving on from the character ai and back on topic of the characters themselves, and some big spoilers for this paragraph, what caps dq4 being more character driven off for me is its main antagonist: Psaro. Much like Baramos and Zoma in 3, npcs speak of him constantly, so you assume he's the real deal, and he is. What you don't expect is for him to actually just look like a regular guy when you see him for the first time. Not regular guy as in having a regular npc"sprite, because he does have a unique sprite (and a totally different design compared to his now synonymous and admittedly cooler sephiroth inspired one he got for the remakes), but he's not some hulking grotesque monster. For the leader of monsterkind, he looks very human, and that's where the parallels between him and the hero, or rather the player, begin, and for me, what makes him so good. He's part human, part monster, much like you're part human, part zenithian. He has a love interest who conveniently shares the exact same sprite with the love interest you have at the start of chapter 5, Celine, and by the time the endgame rolls around, Psaro has had his lover taken away as well. I dunno, I just think 1990 rpg showing how different circumstances can drastically change the lives of two people who are very much alike is really ahead of its time and really cool. Or maybe I'm just looking into it too deep. Still, wasn't that what we were expected to do with rpgs from this time period, though?

To end it all, dq4 has probably my favourite ending in the series. Fun fact - dq4 is actually the biggest nes/famicom game, making using of a whopping 1 megabyte cartridge, and the devs really flexed their muscles with the ending. Actually, not just the ending, the game in general. Koichi Sugiyama was a terrible person but I still think it's worth mentioning how much they were able to progress the perception of music in video games and inspire many other composers who turned out to not be horrible people. Dq4's battle theme is the first instance, or at least, one of the first instances of a crescendo in a video game track, and that's something that wasn't even kept in the remakes (which I'll touch on in a bit). From the way Psaro's sprite pulsates and grows in the final battle, to the nine minute long epilogue theme that intertwines all the different melodies heard throughout the game, this game was a technological achievement, and part of that is why I think I prefer it over the remakes. Something about the immersion given by the forced ai controlled party members, but I also just think it looks and sounds cooler because it's on weaker hardware and that's something that I know is very subjective. That or because while I typically like dragon quest's localizations, 4's remake goes way overboard with some of the name changes and accents. 4's nes localization is shockingly good for the time and a very good way to experience the story, and regardless of how you feel about the version differences, this version of the game still has its place in 2024.

Also, really cute thing about the ending, and I know it's the in the remakes too, but Torneko having that animation of him throwing his son in the air and catching him out of joy honestly makes the ending for me. There's other great stuff like the part where you return to your hometown alone but your companions show up, but we stan Torneko in this house. He's such a loveable guy chunsoft knew what they were doing when they made him the player character in the mystery dungeon games.