The game does without a predefined cast of playable characters in favor of giving the player complete control over the customizability of their party. From vocations to appearance, players can make their team unique and fit any team composition.

Allowing custom characters has its pros and cons.

Cons:

Your characters lack any personality, therefore the connection between members of your party and their interactions with the story seems rather generic or simply nonexistent.

This, however, does not stop you from imagining a personality for your characters in order to immerse them in the story.

Pros:

You have complete control over how your party performs. Skills transfer between vocations, allowing you to mix and match with a plethora of abilities while in combat.

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The story focuses more on the interactions and personalities of the NPCs rather than the player's characters, and Dragon Quest 9 does an excellent job at portraying an interesting story with intriguing characters, even if you are not playing as them.

One negative thing I must bring up is the DLC content which added new dungeons, bosses, and items. Because it was tied to the old Nintendo Online services, it is unlikely that you will be able to download the additional content. Through code hacks, I was able to get the DLC apparel items, but I was never able to unlock the new grottos added.

Otherwise, the game is great and should definitely be given a shot.

I have no clue where to even start with this game. For every individual thing that it does to impress me, it has a massive annoyance for me as well.

This game excels in expanding Midgar, remaking the worlds beautifully and adding such life to them that you barely see anymore in this medium, it truly impressed me after playing a portion of the original. The soundtrack is phenomenal and easily in my top 5 video game OSTs, will never understand those who prefer the original's. The characters feel so much more alive than they did in the original, they all feel more like real people and the excellent voice acting for the main cast really pushes this to new heights I would have never imagined initially. When the story gets going, it really is an endearing tale that I just wish I got to see more of in this game. So much of this game I like, I like a lot and I will remember it, which is why it's so hard that it screws up in a lot of ways personally for me.

Just going to get my biggest issue with the game out of the way right off the bat, the pacing is atrocious. Some chapters take too long and grow tiring very quickly, some go by too fast. They add so much unneccesary padding that wasn't in the original it feels like this games main purpose is just to completely waste my time and it pisses me off a lot of the time. There was no reason at all to make the 1-2 screen train section in the original into a pretty forgettable ghost train chapter. The combat I have mixed feelings on as well. I feel like in idea its genius, an incredible way to translate the originals real time turn based battles into an action RPG. But the vast majority of the time its just not fun for me, I feel like its just too button mashy a majority of the time, and when its not its overly hard with harsh and inconsistent difficulty spikes like in the first time venturing the sewers. I had nothing but praise for the main cast but the side characters the exact opposite is true, I highly doubt I will ever think about them again after writing this and they just feel like padding. Thats the overall theme of my complaints, the game just feels like it's wasting my time in so many aspects, but when it hits it delivers an emotional and unforgettable experience drowned in a sea of mediocrity and padding. 7R part 2 could fit my issues and deliver a more focused and streamlined experience, and Im excited to see what they could do with it, this team can do great things and have done great things, and the future is optimistic for them.

After making the Erdrick trilogy, Yuji Horii and his team decided making one of the best and most ambitious game in the series (which is saying a lot): Dragon Quest IV.

The game features a somewhat generic story about a hero (you) on a journey to defeat evil from the world, alongside his/her companions. That last part is essentially important, as it is what makes this originally NES game truly shine.

Indeed, after a brief prologue (only present in the remakes) where you familiarize with the hero and their neighbours, the games now opens Chapter 1 and makes you play Ragnar McRyan, a soldier on a quest to find and rescue missing childs from the kingdom. This surprising turn of event is far from over, as the 4 first chapters of the game each makes you play a different cast of characters, each having their own separate background, musical theme and journey. These chapters all serve as a subtle tutorial to the game different mechanics, a buildup for the main plot and Psaro, the main antagonist constantly mentioned but never shown yet, and most importantly an introduction to all of the hero's companions: the "chosen" you play during those chapters.

This unconventional method of storytelling is really effective, as we are always extremely attached to each and every characters despite the fact they almost never talk or interact with each other, or at least until the iOS and Android version that introduces a neat party chat system to the game in the West. The chapters also serve on the gameplay perspective, as throughout them we ultimately get used to all the different class each companions have.

But after those are over, the game may now truly begins in chapter 5, the last chapter of the game where you finally get to play the main character, the hero you named at the very beginning of the game. Throughout this chapter, you gradually encounter the 7 companions you played earlier and once you get all of them, the game now plays an amazing and triumphant overworld song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSRnyb858dg&t=169s), celebrating your journey and your imminent victory.

As I wrote earlier, chapter 5 is where the game truly begins. Once you get a ship, the world map is now almost entirely open for exploration, much like in Dragon Quest II and III. You get to explore new towns with each having their own unique element, venture in dungeons/towers where the same can be said about them, revisit locations you familiarized in the previous chapters with most of them having something new to see, watch the plot unfolds as the events are happening... The traditional but damn enjoyable Dragon Quest formula.

As for the combat, it is the Dragon Quest menu you ordered as usual: simple, snappy, gratifying when the number goes up, and mostly relying on buffs/debuffs spells. The party customization is still as strong and amazing as in Dragon Quest III, because you have at your disposal so many characters with all the different jobs you need. There is tons of different weapons and equipments to buy or find in a chest, and many of them during the late-game have special capacities other than growing the defense stat, so some thinking must be done before battling.

The artstyle of the remake is amazing and even if the NES version sure looks like an NES game, the enemy designs by Akira Toriyama is really noticeable and excellent. The same can be said about the soundtrack. Originally composed as a symphonic piece, this is one of my favorite from the series and really sets the tone for the game (despite being composed by a warcrime denier but we don't talk about that...).

The remakes also add multiple features, most notably the possibily to control party members (rip persona 3 fans), gorgeous animated 2D sprites for the ennemies, a cool growing city you own, many QoL improvements and most importantly a 6th chapter after you finish the game that offers a new ending.

So overall, Dragon Quest IV is an absolute gem that every RPG fans should play. This is for me the game you should absolutely get if you wanna get into the series. But despite all of that, this game is often overshadowed by other entries in the franchise. And you know what? I completely agree with that, even though I just wrote a giant review praising it.

Dragon Quest is just that good.