A worthy, and possibly outshining, culmination to the Dragon Warrior series on the NES.
As a side note before the succeeding review, please reference my blog post describing the categories that I use, which aren't the same as Gamespot's.
Dragon Warrior IV looks like a game cut in the same mold as previous Dragon Warrior games, that is to say that it looks pretty darn generic. That isn't to say that it isn't effective, however. Dragon Warrior on the NES uses a square tile system for it's overview screens. One step onto one tile. Each tile shows the terrain with no differentiation from any other tile of the same terrain. All hills look the same. All forest tiles look the same and so on and so forth.
Buildings in the Dragon Warrior world are blander than the overworld tiles. The word "gray" adequately describes the buildings. Towers and caves show little inspiration in their graphical designs. Moving away from the overworld, the battle screen is the same black screen that the two previous installments presented. Enemies aren't all that eye catching. The same family of enemies is distinguished only with palette swaps.
To be clear, the graphical presentation of the game doesn't create an impressive atmosphere. As previously mentioned, effective is the proper description. What makes the atmosphere in this game notable and memorable is the music.
The game is drawn out into five individual chapters, each with different lead characters. The first stars Ragnar, a knight from the land of Burland, who sets out in search of the legendary hero. His overworld theme is upbeat but controlled and soft, a tune that matches the drive and solitude of the single knight out to do his duty.
The player is surprised upon leaving Santeem castle in Chapter two to hear a new theme. The theme is a little fuller than Ragnar's, as well as somewhat more laissez faire. This fits the party of three where the leader, princess Alena, is out more for adventure than duty.
Chapter three's theme is kind of willy-nilly, a nutty theme that doesn't seem to fit with a medieval RPG. Taloon isn't your prototypical RPG character, though, a merchant out to become the best arms merchant there is. Again, a fitting tune for the chapter.
Chapter four has a new battle theme in addition to a new overworld theme. Both have a sense of emptiness, and a new beginning coming out of that emptiness. Nara and Mara are starting a new journey to avenge the death of their father.
The hero begins alone in Chapter five, and the music reflects that. Once he /she begins joining up with the characters from the previous chapters, the music changes to more of a march which again fits the mood.
These overworld themes are pleasing to listen to, wildly different from each other, and fitting for their situations. It's what draws the player into the game, something it's graphical counterpart can't do.
The game plays in the familiar Dragon Warrior manner. The heavily menu driven system is the staple of the series and at release, could easily be considered outdated. That aside, it becomes a matter of taste to whether a player would enjoy the system. The system makes the game play a little slow. Most of the game for that matter can be described as being on the slow side, modes of transportation, battle, menu screens, dialogue, but that is the M.O. of Dragon Warrior and is to be expected. Nothing unusual, meaning nothing really bad or spectacular. It still plays solid. There's solid balance and unbalance in the game with character stat development. There isn't the parry glitch that it's predecessor had, where you could parry and fight on the same turn.
Even had the parry-fight glitch remained, there'd be little place to use it. This is due to the new feature in the game of only controlling the hero in chapter five. In the preceding four chapters, you control your characters like any other Dragon Warrior. However, in chapter five, you lose direct battle control of all characters save the hero. A tactics system replaces the controls. At the beginning of each battle, you can change the tactics of your team to various strategies. Offensive tells the magic users to dust off their high level spells with no regard to magic points (MP). Defensive tells the characters to be cautious, use defensive magic, parry at higher HP. Others involve the use of no MP. One is Try Out mode. Characters use items they wouldn't normally use, use spells they normally wouldn't use, basically trying out new things.
What makes this battle system intriguing is that the A.I. allows the characters to learn. If a spell isn't working against a particular enemy, the caster uses it less and less against that character. If a character uses an item that has a magical effect, he or she will learn what that item does and start using it in appropriate circumstances. The crutch to this is that the characters have to learn this for every enemy. One example that any player of the game will know to be extremely exasperating is Cristo using one of his instant death spell several times against boss enemies. Every single boss is immune to those two spells, but he will cast it upon every boss he encounters at least three times, wasting those three turns. It can also be frustrating to get a character to use some items correctly if at all, as it takes the bizarre Try Out tactic to get the characters to use most items to begin with.
The mode adds strategic depth to the game, as well as gives the player the feeling of being a character in the game, rather than be the overlord tactician in previous installments. The idea of the feature is to make the player feel like he/she is the hero and leader of the group and is to guide the strategy of the team. You lose direct control of the allies, but you still have strategic control. The system is refreshing to the Dragon Warrior series, but it isn't without it's flaws, like Cristo's happiness with the beat family of spells.
The game runs fine. The textures seem a little grainy and aren't a real upgrade from Dragon Warrior III. The menu screen color changes are a nice effect to the game. The color goes blue at night, red when a party member is down, and green when a party member is at critical. The sound effects are unchanged from previous installments of the series, and don't stand out. The enemy sprite in the battle screen aren't uniform when struck. Larger enemies take a little more time to disappear and reappear than smaller enemies. It isn't to the extent of Dragon Warrior III, but still noticeable despite being a minor issue. Spells have color associated with them now. Fire spells have a red animation, ice spells a blue color, etc., a nice touch.
The value of the game is the story. The storyline is much more in depth than the previous games. All main allies have a back story that the player actually plays through. The beauty of the chapter system lies here. The villain in the game has depth as well, a change from the previous games. The game provides some reasoning and explanation of his motives.
The game doesn't have the same replay value of Dragon Warrior IV. The player does play the game slightly differently each time he plays the game. In chapter five, the player has seven main allies, the hero, and a few other allies at disposal. Only four can battle at a time, and can be switched in and out frequently. One run through can be played with different characters in different points in the chapter as other run throughs. This isn't quite the same as playing the game as different characters altogether, but there's still some value there.
Dragon Warrior IV repeats the formula of past Dragon Warrior games and adds an impressive background story to it. The additions of the chapter system and battle tactics add flavor to a solid and working gameplay engine that fits to any Dragon Warrior fans delight. Fans will enjoy the same Dragon Warrior atmosphere that they know and love, but adds new elements that gives skeptics of the game a chance to try the series out once more. Dragon Warrior IV is the culmination of the Dragon Warrior games NES that should be in any RPG fan's collection.