After Dragon Warrior III (Dragon Quest in Japan) I imagine gamers were tired of the same story. The first three games focused around a legendary hero named Erdrick (Loto in Japan) and the exploits of his ancestors. These role playing games were extremely popular and the franchise has, for a long time, been one of the most popular in Japan. It must have been a little stunning when Enix began a new trilogy of games set within this series. Rather than focusing on the world they instead created a brand new one complete with its own mythologies. This trilogy, referred to as ‘heaven,’ focuses around a floating castle in the sky. The first game released in it was Dragon Warrior IV, and despite dwindling popularity in North America, and the next generation of hardware in full swing Enix still followed through and released is here. Despite the change in direction this is an amazing game that retains the spirit and charm of the franchise.
The general setting here is similar to the previous installments. Dragon Warrior IV takes place in a medieval world where magic is commonplace and monsters as well as mythological creatures hide around every corner. The scenario is unique here as the story is divided up into different chapters which contain their own sub-stories and characters that combine in the end. In the beginning you play as a knight from the kingdom of Burland named Ragnar who is tasked with rescuing a group of missing children. Soon after completing his mission Ragnar is tasked with uniting a group of chosen warriors to thwart a greater evil. The next chapter puts you in the role of a princess named Alena. She’s fed up with the life of royalty and one day escapes the safety of her castle along with two of her loyal subjects for the sole purpose of adding some excitement to her life. The most interesting scenario centers around a humble merchant named Taloon who dreams of opening his own shop, and soon sets out to do so. Next we have two gypsy sisters who set out to avenge their father’s untimely death. In the final chapter you play as the boy destined to become the legendary hero who will thwart the darkness looming over the land as he unites with the the aforementioned warriors. The execution is unique, and the story is extremely enjoyable.
Gameplay in general has been mostly unchanged. You guide your party of characters (up to four at a time once again) across a variety of different terrain. The game features a large world map littered with villages, castles, caves and dungeons that you simply walk into to enter. Eventually you will get both a ship, and even an airship (a hot air balloon in this case). Town and castles are used to progress the story, interact with NPCs, and purchase supplies with gold won from success in battle. Dungeons and caves are filled with monsters and treasure and must be completed in a specific order to move the story forward. The world map also features enemies, and battles still occur at random while you are walking around. The battle sequences appear almost unchanged from the last two games with a simple black background as you view your enemies head on. You input commands for each character in your party from the menu, and when finished these are carried out in traditional role playing style. All damage, life, and statistics are numerical. Dragon Warrior IV is extremely traditional (if you couldn’t already tell), but the developers incorporated some neat ideas that were rather new at the time of its release.
The biggest unique feature incorporated here is the ability to swap characters in your party during battle. Sure Final Fantasy X also used this idea, but Dragon Warrior IV did it nearly a decade earlier. You won’t immediately be able to take advantage of this feature, but once you acquire a wagon within the story and have enough characters it can be used in any battle that you choose. Of course there are some restrictions to this system; switching party members in the middle of the battle forces you to skip a turn for said character, and this cannot be done in areas where you are not accompanied by the wagon. Over eight different warriors join you on the journey, and so you’re given a lot of options as far as battle style. Outside of selecting your party members there’s no real customization which is a bummer after the excellent class system in the last game, but each fighter is different enough from one another that you never feel completely restricted. What’s unfortunate is that when you reach the fifth and final chapter of the story the developers, for some reason, decided to give you control of only the hero in battle. The others’ actions are chosen by the A.I. This speeds up battles, but the game is not particularly smart and you’ll find that characters often waste their turn by using a useless command. This is the only major problem that Dragon Warrior IV suffers from, but later on it isn’t such a big issue because the healers are efficient.
The series’ trademark difficulty returns for this sequel. Dragon Warrior IV is difficult as far as RPG standards go; each new area on the world map and dungeon you reach introduces progressively more difficult enemies so in general you feel a little under powered. Upon reaching new towns equipment is usually extremely expensive. When you get stuck, and it’s bound to happen, you can simply grind levels and money to increase your party’s strength. Often times simply digging deep and learning the capabilities of your characters (specifically their ability to temporarily increase stats inside of battle) is all you need to succeed. Also, switching around your party members can also be a big help because they’re all better in specific situations. Speaking of which I absolutely love the diversity among the protagonists in this title. The hero is well rounded, Ragnar is totally focused around physical attacks, the gypsies are magic based, but a few others in particular are very unique. Alena for example is fast, but generally weaker than the others but she has a knack for striking critical hits against foes. Taloon is the most unique because, like Alena, he’s not as strong as the others but during his turns he sometimes enables special effects. These include calling his merchant friends to help out in battle, making a monster skip a turn, scaring an enemy away and a lot more. Taloon is actually my favorite character across the entire series.
The game uses the same exact graphics engine from the previous titles. Characters are blocky, and animate even when standing idle outside of battle. The terrain sprites look like they have been copied directly over. We aren’t presented with anything new until the very end of the game when the setting takes a radical departure. One thing I do like is the fact that the character models are more diverse from one another than in any other early game in the franchise. While Ragnar and the hero look typical others such as Taloon and Alena are unlike any other protagonists in the series up to this point. Unfortunately the battle screens are still very unimpressive. They went once more with the simple black background, and we all know the NES was more than capable of having something else there. It’s boring and I’m still stumped as to why they continued this new tradition. The monster designs look really nice in this title though several appear to have been ripped straight out of the last game. Still, the game is adequate looking but I really wish we weren’t stuck with a simple black screen for battle sequences but in the end it’s mostly forgivable.
Dragon Warrior IV has one of my favorite soundtracks in the series. The battle theme is the best so far up to this point with its faster pacing and wide range. Each character has different world map music which I’ve always thought was a really nice touch. The cave theme is one of my favorite songs in the entire game and I particularly like how it almost seems to morph into the battle music. What’s interesting to note here is the fact that this soundtrack contains almost double the tracks as the last title which is a very impressive feat for an NES game. It might be simple bleeps and blips, but the composer did a fantastic job because the music is very fitting. The sound effects have been ripped from the previous games, but this isn’t a big issue considering the fact that they’re so darn iconic. The audio in Dragon Warrior IV features some awesome music and effects to accompany this fantastic game. This is one of the best soundtracks in the series.
While part III is my favorite installment in the series Dragon Warrior IV isn’t actually that far off. It doesn’t have the deep customization, nor does is the story as good (it’s almost there though) but this is an extremely competent follow up. Had Enix released almost any other game in the series on the back of their best title it would have been a disappointment, but Dragon Warrior IV is an incredible title. It’s easily the second best 8-bit RPG ever released which is saying a lot.
