The Dragon Quest games have always been in the shadow of other RPG’s in the West due to rarely being released outside of their homeland. Dragon Quest VIII did make it across on the PS2 and garnered enough interest for Square-Enix to consider releasing their back catalogue. From 2008 to 2011 Dragon Quest IV, V and VI were remade for the Nintendo DS. Collectively known as the ‘Zenithia Trilogy’ (The name of the castle in the sky found in each game), they were renamed as ‘The Chapters of the Chosen’, ‘The Hand of the Heavenly Bride’ and ‘Realms of Reverie’ respectively.
Each of the three games is fairly similar in terms of core
mechanics. Combat is turn based with party members having the option to attack,
defend, use items or flee. Four party members can be used at once with others
being able to be swapped in and out to allow the player to configure different types
of configuration. Combat is initiated through random encounters as your party
travels around dungeons and the world map
There’s nothing particularly complex to learn and the games
represent a good starting point for gamers who want to get into RPG’s for the
first time. They are also quite forgiving with death as players will find
themselves back at the last save point they visited when they die with any
experience points they have earned intact – though your gold will be halved.
This means that you are never really losing any progress and if you stick at it
long enough you will eventually overcome any obstacles. It’s a system that
works well as it never punishes the player severely for pushing forward or
exploring.
The stories of the games are based around the idea that a
great evil is awakening and a nameless hero will eventually vanquish it. This
involves traveling the world and finding sacred weapons and armour which allows
entry to Zenithia. You will then be able to access the underworld where the
evil awaits to be defeated.
There are of course differences between the games and they
each have their own way of telling the tale and offer up different gimmicks to
keep things interesting. ‘Chapters of the Chosen’ is split into five chapters
with the player experiencing the story of different party members as they find
their way to the hero. The fifth chapter then puts the group together for the
final battle. An extra chapter becomes available after completion which
furthers the story and allows a new character to join the party. There is also a town building sub-game where
players can persuade villagers to move to their town. However, this requires some
input from other players via sharing which will be difficult now.
‘Then Hand of the Heavenly Bride’ follows the Hero through
three stages of his life as he grows up. You will also pick a wife and your
eventual child will also join the quest. Monsters can also be recruited to the
party and players can find and display various knick-knacks that have been collected
from around the world.
‘Realms of Reverie’ changes things up a bit by giving
players the ability to train their party in a wide range of different roles.
It’s a similar job system to something like Final Fantasy III and alters the
characters core stats and gives the unique learned abilities to them. Once a
certain job has been completed more advanced vocations can be taken on which
lead to some very useful tools for players to play with. Monsters can no longer
be recruited at random by there are a host of slimes to be found in the world
who you can talk to and get to join your party. There’s a dragon hidden away
somewhere as well. There’s also a slim combat arena and fashion parade to get
involved with if you so wish.
All the games contain the same visual style, shops and
enemies. There is a church to save your game and resurrect party members, the
inn, casino and various shops which serve the same purpose throughout the
series. There are also wells which can be looked into and the mini-medals to be
found which can be taken to a specific castle and exchanged for rare prizes.
Each of the games is focused on its main story and though
there are things like building the town and slime arena there isn’t much out in
the world in terms of real side quests. This is generally ok as each town you
visit tends to be different from the last and the games move along at a pretty
good pace. Each game takes around forty hours to complete and each then gives
extra content like dungeons after completions for players to dive back into.
Overall, the three games in the series are pretty much all
on a par in terms of their quality. They each offer up a solid adventure which
has some good and bad moments as you go along. All the games are great for both
newcomers and hard-core RPG fans and they all have great localisations with
accents and humour coming through perfectly. If it’s a traditional RPG that you
want then the three games here should offer up more than enough to keep you
interested.
Overall –
Dragon Quest IV: The Chapters of the Chosen 8/10
Dragon Quest V: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride 8/10
Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie 8/10
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