DQ4's already here...2 more to go!

User Rating: 8 | Dragon Quest IV: Michibikareshi Monotachi DS
Anyone who's played a Dragon Quest game knows its one of the simplest RPGs to play. But also, the stories tend to stand out purely because they're the most basic stories. So what makes Dragon Quest such a big RPG series? It's because its a simple RPG plus it has a basic story. It's one of the first to get that, and it stuck with it well for several installments. Now, DQ4 came out...and does it do the trick?

As always, you can play a nameless character. One new option is you can be a male or female. The way the game works during the first couple of hours is it introduces you to four particular cases involving four perspectives. Basically, these involves a knight in pink armor, a tomboyish princess, a merchant with ambitions to be the greatest arms merchant in the world, and two twin sisters after their father's killer. I won't say any more since these perspectives introduce many chars that you'll soon meet with your original Hero and fight alongside. But once those perspectives finish, the story resumes.

The gameplay is basic. Attack, Defend, Item, Magic, Flee. It's all basic. And battles occur in a first person view of your enemies on screen. So it is nice to feel like you're part of the action.

The graphics look as 2D as it gets. You have the birds eye view of the world, of the towns.

So why did I give this game an 8/10? Because this game is simple and its enjoyable. Not difficult. No weird storyline to follow. It's still another "Grand adventure to rid the world of evil" story. But that's what Dragon Quest, like many other stories, is. It doesn't change anything except the influences that contribute to that concept. All in all, anyone who wants to enjoy another classic RPG should give this a try.