Dragon Quest IV Review Part 1: The Ugly
When I first played Dragon Warrior IV on NES, long long ago, I loved the game! A great story, filled with rich characters, each with his or her own motivation. I felt the villain's pain, even as I knew I needed to stop him. It was wonderful, and I played for endless hours. It even managed to escape some of the cliches of the genera.
I have recently completed my first play-though of the remake, Dragon Quest IV on DS, and...
I hate to say it, but I was disappointed by several things about the game. I remember this as the great game of my youth, and was excited about the ways the DS version could be EVEN BETTER! Alas, it feels like the game failed to live up to its potential. On the other hand, what it did do, it did very well.
First off, the interface is fundamentally unchanged from the original; you have walking around, and menus. But that is not why I am disappointed. The menus are still navigated the same way, with the d-pad, an 'accept' button, and a 'cancel' button. This is used both for managing the party between battles, and in the battles themselves. The only new thing I found was a button to exit all menus and get back to the map mode. There is nothing else new. The game makes no use, at all, of either the touch screen or the microphone, and no use of the shoulder buttons in the menus. This is especially irksome on the "name your character" screen at the start of the game.
The stylus could have been used to choose menu entries, letting you input a name faster and more easily, and the shoulder buttons could have been used to move "laterally" through character inventories. These would not be innovative concepts, just borrowing established features from other games.
The other thing that extremely bothers me is the cut scene, after the final battle. Graphically... the villain's death sucked.
First a bit of reference: the game consists of 2d sprites on a 3d rendered background. This manages to work very well; the sprites are detailed and pretty, and manage to mesh smoothly with the textured backgrounds. Anyway, out of combat the sprites are small, and in battle much larger. The battle sprites were done very well, as it happens.
ANYWAY. Before said battle, you see the villain, and you know this guy is huge. How do you know this? Because he is the third 3d rendered character in the game. This manages to communicate "awesome" and "imposing" very nicely.
Fight starts. You're facing a large, well made, sprite version of the final boss. In this fight the boss goes through several forms. The transition between these forms is BEAUTIFULLY done. I can't stress that enough; these changes look like something out of an anime. Then you win. Boss fades out like all foes do at the end of combat.
Back to the walkaround view. Final boss is there, represented by the combat sprite of his final form. A static sprite. A sprite that is way too big to look realistic against the rendered background.
It was a real letdown; the boss looked more awesome before the fight.
Anyway, while I still like the game, and will be playing it again, I know that I'm going to be playing for the gameplay, the characters, and the story, not for the ending.
If I get the time, I'll make another review post, about the things I like about the game, and the remake. (That is to say, judging the game on its own, and judging it next to the original.)
I have recently completed my first play-though of the remake, Dragon Quest IV on DS, and...
I hate to say it, but I was disappointed by several things about the game. I remember this as the great game of my youth, and was excited about the ways the DS version could be EVEN BETTER! Alas, it feels like the game failed to live up to its potential. On the other hand, what it did do, it did very well.
First off, the interface is fundamentally unchanged from the original; you have walking around, and menus. But that is not why I am disappointed. The menus are still navigated the same way, with the d-pad, an 'accept' button, and a 'cancel' button. This is used both for managing the party between battles, and in the battles themselves. The only new thing I found was a button to exit all menus and get back to the map mode. There is nothing else new. The game makes no use, at all, of either the touch screen or the microphone, and no use of the shoulder buttons in the menus. This is especially irksome on the "name your character" screen at the start of the game.
The stylus could have been used to choose menu entries, letting you input a name faster and more easily, and the shoulder buttons could have been used to move "laterally" through character inventories. These would not be innovative concepts, just borrowing established features from other games.
The other thing that extremely bothers me is the cut scene, after the final battle. Graphically... the villain's death sucked.
First a bit of reference: the game consists of 2d sprites on a 3d rendered background. This manages to work very well; the sprites are detailed and pretty, and manage to mesh smoothly with the textured backgrounds. Anyway, out of combat the sprites are small, and in battle much larger. The battle sprites were done very well, as it happens.
ANYWAY. Before said battle, you see the villain, and you know this guy is huge. How do you know this? Because he is the third 3d rendered character in the game. This manages to communicate "awesome" and "imposing" very nicely.
Fight starts. You're facing a large, well made, sprite version of the final boss. In this fight the boss goes through several forms. The transition between these forms is BEAUTIFULLY done. I can't stress that enough; these changes look like something out of an anime. Then you win. Boss fades out like all foes do at the end of combat.
Back to the walkaround view. Final boss is there, represented by the combat sprite of his final form. A static sprite. A sprite that is way too big to look realistic against the rendered background.
It was a real letdown; the boss looked more awesome before the fight.
Anyway, while I still like the game, and will be playing it again, I know that I'm going to be playing for the gameplay, the characters, and the story, not for the ending.
If I get the time, I'll make another review post, about the things I like about the game, and the remake. (That is to say, judging the game on its own, and judging it next to the original.)