Dragon Quest IV - Part 1

I originally played Dragon Quest IV on the NES and I fucking LOVED it. I thought that the fact that the game was broken up into chapters, and that each chapter had its own unique flavour and elements was way ahead of its time. I've known about DQIV for the DS for some time but never got around to buying it, but eventually J3nn bought it for me, and I've been playing it off and on for a while.

Here are some things I've learned from DQIV on my second go 'round.

1) Nostalgia is misleading.

Its still a great game, but the highlights that I fondly reminisce on are shorter, and less impactful than I thought they were. Maybe its because I'm not 14 anymore, and maybe its because I've been spoiled by RPGs like Oblivion or Fallout 3, but its not as great as I remember.

2) Translation is terrible.

I'm currently looking for a character named "Tom Foolery" who is a comedian. If this were an isolated character, I'd get over it, but the naming conventions in this game are all around terrible. On top of that, each chapters characters are modeled after foreign (to northa america) culture, such as Russian, Scottish, irish and french, and the game goes to great pains to illustrate their accents. Its the worst.

3) Playing 2 years of Etrian Oddysey ruined me.

Etrian was a very strategic game. There were many levels of strategy in each battle, there were elemental strengths and weaknesses to consider, there were dozens of skills, and hundreds of party/skill combinations. DQIV, because each character is pre-made and has specific spells and abilities they are able to unlock, takes away a lot of the strategy required and breaks it down to "if you have this equipment and are this level, you should be able to beat these guys". Its not to say that DQIV isn't challenging, but it doesn't require the same depth of strategy that EO has.


All in all, these gripes aside, its still worth playing through, and I am still enjoying it.


See ya tomorrow!