Moving on from the Erdrick bloodline, here's something new.
Dark clouds began to cover a far and distant land, bringing darkness not only to the world, but to the hearts and even minds of many, leaving many poor souls tortured and violent, or casting them to hide away. A little boy was growing who, unexpectedly, was summoned by destiny; to save the world from the evergrowing darkness.
Many different people would play a role while he was growing and even into his maturing age: a brave castle knight who would rescue missing children from a town, including the soon-to-be hero, a princess whom would've prefered to live a life of adventure, two sisters seeking revenge on their killed father, and a traveling merchant whom seeks a dream of owning his own shop with his family. Little did they know they would unite into one power.
But not only they were doing work of their own to save the darkening world, evil was doing its work, and progressing quicker than anyone would've liked. An ancient evil master with the power greater than that of a god was said to be reborn, and it was exactly what he was doing. There was only one thing to do once the hero was old enough to fight and accept this deadly quest which would change the future of mankind, for all eternity, and that was to destroy the evil lord known as Necrosaro, and save the world from the thickened darkness.
Good: Brand new land to explore, many new spells to learn, a large party, several sidequests, new "Small Medal" addition, another excellent soundtrack by Sugiyama himself, new "chapter" system to give an interesting look on the story.
Bad: Unable to choose commands for other party members individually, some fights are extremely tedious.
Graphics: After the first three games, there were many improvements in graphics, one after another. This is no exception to that. There are also some new terrain elements and many other visual treats that were never seen before.
Sound/Music: The sounds pretty much match up with every other game in this series, nothing has changed there. Soundtrack was, again, another written by Koichi Sugiyama, the mastermind behind every other Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest soundtrack, and as always, is excellent and sometimes beautiful.
Difficulty: This game is certainly longer than the third, and the third alone was long and difficult. Many new enemies await, and some are extremely powerful. Also, there are more mazes and dungeons than ever before.
Gameplay: Everything gameplay-wise is the same as any other game in this line, except that instead of progressing the story by going along with the quest, it's split into five chapters, each one involving the story behind every member who will be in your party. The fifth and final chapter unites them. This gives a new and interesting perspective on the backgrounds behind each person. Otherwise, there isn't very much that's different as gameplay experience goes. The major downer about this game is mostly the fact that, especially in play on the fifth chapter, you won't be able to choose what each party member does individually anymore, such as telling them what enemy to attack, or what spell to use. The only thing closest to that is change their tactic, which will be to attack at will, to back you up, to heal, use spells, and so on. But they're mostly AI controlled, the only person you'll have any full power over is yourself. After awhile, however, it isn't that hard to get used to.
Controls: The same old controls as in every other Dragon Warrior game, very simple to learn, no tricks or magic here.
Overall: Aside from some of the downers about this game, it's excellent, and quite a rare find for the NES, being it was one of the last games made and didn't have as much attention as Enix would've liked, at all. That still doesn't mean the game is bad, it's far from bad, it's wonderful, and it has a great storyline, something different from the Erdrick story. It will give you something to do if you have a couple of weeks of spare time ahead on your hands. Pick it up if you can find it, but expect to pay near the amount of a new Wii or 360 game, it can range between 40-60 or more for a good-condition copy.