This is a great remake on Dragon Quest IV gives it's fans and RPG lovers somthing that they want for there DS.
A strange is that over in Japan and America it's called Dgraon Quest IV, but over here in the UK/Europe it's just called Dragon Quest Chapter of the Chosen. Dragon Quest IV was first released in Japan on the NES back in 1990, and then released again for the Playstation in 2001. With millions of copies being sold in Japan alone, you can see how very popluar the series is in Japan. The Nintendo DS version however is yet a remake of the past version of Dragon Quest IV with new features added in.
Story however is broken into 5 chapters kinda like episodes, each chapter you'll be playing as each charcter as they go through there story. But later on in the game you'll be getting your charcters together to fight the forces of evil and fnd out the truth about the main Hero is not like other people.
Gameplay: Anyone who has played an RPG game any system you'll get into the gameplay stright away, which is like most RPG's will have commands for each charcter you'll use. Like Attack, Magic, and Items, you can also change your tactics with other charcters in your party team. You could have one charcter to keep healing your team if there low on HP and you could have anothor charcter to use spells.
During your journey through Chapter of the Chosen you'll be doing quests and beating various bosses in different dungeons and locations. But when your playing through each chapter there won't be many places to explore but later on you'll be able to use a ship to sail across other places.
But I would say this if you die in a random battle or during a boss fight, it's not Game Over. Instead you'll be transported back to the nearest Church which are all over the place in various towns and lose half of your gold.
Graphics and Sound: With this being a remake for the DS, the 3D animation spirites and graphics are well done. During battles the gameplay screen will have your Party teams commands and HP on the bottom screen and your enemies on the top of the screen. During the field map and plus when your going through towns, castles and locations are highly detailed set in a middle-age fantasy world.
With this being on the DS there's only 2 save slots and if your trying to save the game and if your in a middle of a dungeon you can't save; you would have to exit and head back to the nearest Town or Castle and speak to the Chruch Preist to save your game.
It would have been cool if it had touch screen controls instead of useing the standard buttons and directional pad to move and around and selecting commads. There is a lot of Text-Dialog however since there is no actual vocing which is a good because some RPG games out there do have weak english voice acting but have got the option to change it to Japanese.
With no voice acting the soundtrack makes a great touch making your adventures memorable and finishing your quest. Some tunes do feel that your lonly or a little depressed but still a good RPG game to play through.
Overall: Beating the main story first time round could take you upt to 30 hours or more pending if your a fan of the Dragon Quest series or not. However if you own a Nintendo DS and enjoy playing Dragon Quest IX on the DS; it's worth checking out since the game is cheap to get around £10/$10 either online or offline.
I would admit the remake of Chapter of the Chosen does have a few features and surpising guest charcters as well which do make an entry. But other then that this is a RPG which will you take you a while to beat and a few challenging bosses to grind through..