Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen for the Nintendo DS. This is my first time through Dragon Quest IV. I had originally played the Dragon Quest series as rentals on the Nintendo Entertainment System when it was called Dragon Warrior in 1989. I played through Dragon Warrior II in 1990 and Dragon Warrior III in 1992. I tried to make it through Dragon Warrior IV in 1992 but just couldn't do it. Do you want to know what it was that prevented me from finishing the game? Dragon Warrior IV didn't allow you to have direct control over the other members of your party. You could only set tactics as basic guidelines as to what the AI should do with those characters. And to put it bluntly, the AI sucked big time. A simple heal would have saved the day, but more times than I could count the AI controlled characters wouldn't do what they should obviously do in said situation. I'm glad to say that Dragon Quest IV on the Nintendo DS fixes this fatal flaw and I was finally able to see the game through these sixteen years later. So was it finally worth it? Yes, it was. Dragon Quest IV retains the charm the series has always shown. The classic and streamlined Dragon Quest battle system is in full force. Dragon Quest IV's battles scream by feverishly fast. Especially with the battle speed set to one. The standard non-boss battles last roughly fifteen to twenty seconds in total. And they rarely see the need to reach three rounds. By comparison, some Final Fantasy summon spell animations last upwards of ninety seconds alone. The Dragon Quest IV battles are filled with lots of incidental animation in the creature attacks and spells, along the lines of Phantasy Star II. They're great to watch. The graphics are very good. They're easy on the eyes for a Nintendo DS game using 3D. Far better looking than the 3D in Final Fantasy III on the Nintendo DS. The sound and music are classic Dragon Quest and the Nintendo DS does a good job with them without too much loss in quality. The story is definitely from the 8-bit era. Although it's greatly spiced up by an excellent translation that features over ten dialects along the lines of Australian, Cockney, Irish, Scottish, and Romanian. The story is also rather bizarre at the core. It's a strange take on religion and evolution. I truly enjoyed Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen and I can't wait for Dragon Quest V and Dragon Quest VI to make their debut in the west later next year. I'll be there for them. I'm giving Dragon Quest IV a rock solid 8. Here are my finished stats...

Time Taken Till Ending: 30:55
Battles: 1,362
Monsters Defeated: 3,601
Total Gold from Battles: 162,427
Victories 1,348
Times Wiped Out: 0
Times Fled: 13
Maximum Damage in One Hit: 317
Clear Level: 39
Title: Anti-Resurrectionist