System: DS
Developer: Arte Piazza Ltd
Publisher: Square-Enix
Genre: RPG
Players: 2
Dragon Quest: The Chapters of the Chosen is yet another Square-Enix remake of a classic RPG game previously only to have been released in Japan. Interestingly the DS game is titled Dragon Quest IV: The Chapters of the Chosen United States. This is the first in a trilogy of games with Dragon Quest V and Dragon Quest IV still in development. Why the name change, and drop in the game number, for the Australian market we will never know.
Dragon Quest: The Chapters of the Chosen is broken into 5 chapters – hence the title. Before you set off on your adventure you play a small role in a prologue and get a glimpse of the main character you will play in a later part of the story – the 5th chapter. The first four chapters are unrelated and isolated stories and see you play the part of a single character or group of characters and travel across the land in search of each sub-story’s ultimate quest. Whilst they appear unrelated they all have a common theme – there is turmoil in the lands of the world and monsters are on the rise. These first four chapters are short – some 4 hours a-piece – compared to the 5th and main chapter that makes up the remaining time in this 30 plus hour game. Whilst they may be short their story lines are solid and do a grand job of keeping you captivated. Keep in mind that this is a remake of an earlier version of the game. I believe that the remake holds up well after all these years since its original inception.
The game is a true RPG and of excellent quality. Lots of healthy character interaction in games gives you the edge on knowing what to do next or in what direction to head. So be sure to speak to everyone you come across. Interestingly each chapter is set in a different region of the world map. And each region seems to have it’s own dialect of broken or heavily accented English. At first glance I thought it was nothing moor than a poor translation attempt from the Japanese game, but I quickly discovered it was intentional and it adds to the fun of the game. And it is a fun RPG. Being a remade classic there is no intention here to make this a heavy and dark game to play. It is a fun and relatively straight-forward RPG with a lot of humor and light moments throughout. I would go so far as to say that if you were new to the genre, this would be a good starting point as it is not quite as punishing as modern RPG seem to have become. The chapter concept also makes it far more digestible too.
This game has interesting mini-games also. One of the first you will come accros is a Casino that is available in some of the early chapters. It sees you trade your hard won cash for tokens that you can use in a wide range of gambling activities from playing poker to betting on fighting contests. Another mini-game is to collect mini-medals along your journey and trade these for rare items with the hard-to-find King Minikin. These are a welcome and fun distraction from the story heavy progress of the game.
The 5th and final chapter sees a number of important changes to the way the game is played. In the previous chapters you never have more than 3 companions in your party. The 5th Chapter however sees that increase to the point where a handy wagon comes into play and allows you to increase your party size and swap your in battle characters from a much larger group. This chapter allows you to mix and match your party to fulfill the final quest in the game – which by nature is much longer and tougher than the first four chapters. You will need to keep your wits about you and effectively use your whole party to get through.
Exploration takes place in towns, dungeons towers and the world as a whole. The world is broken into the usual forests, lakes, plains and mountain ranges. True RPG random battles take place in all of the above with the exception of the towns. These battles are set on a 2D pane where you see your foes only. They appear in a row facing you directly on the bottom screen. The top screen shows cartoon-like images of your character or characters as well as their critical stats. Again on the bottom screen your player move options are visible but don’t overlay the attacking characters. Backgrounds are beautifully hand rendered works that vary depending on the terrain or environment you are standing in when the battle begins. The towns themselves are beautifully rendered in high quality 3D detail with brightly decorated buildings. A great aspect of this version of the game is the ability to rotate the whole town, or the building you are in, a full 360 degrees. This gives you altering views of what is located in each environment. This is achieved through the use of the L and R buttons on your DS and is smoothly achieved - graphically speaking.
In game menus are all easy to navigate and don’t take long to master at all. Be it the options presented to you in a church (where you can save the progress of your game) or the in-battle menu where you are required to choose each players move in turn. The same is true of the dialogue boxes that appear when you engage in the many conversations with characters scattered throughout the game world.
The sounds effects are a bit plain in this game but that doesn’t detract from the overall experience. But all too quickly the sound effect for using doors and stairs begins to grate. Battle sounds are equally simple and again don’t overly impact or add to the experience. The game music however is rich and showcases some classic Dragon Quest tunes that vary from one chapter to the next. This is where the audio score really adds to the overall feel of the game and its context.
The only Multiplayer experience is for 2 player multi-card play. This feels a bit more like an add on than a true multiplayer experience. Basically you need to find the pioneer town on the world map. Your task is to build the size of this new community and to achieve that you need to come into contact with other players who own a copy of the game. First however you need to set up your own envoy who will represent your town and be ‘sent out’ via DS wireless communication as a chance encounter. So if you come into contact with other players this chance encounter takes place and your envoy visits and joins their town and vice versa. I didn’t have the chance to test this in the lead up to writing this review but to be honest it had no real value or appeal. However, if done successfully, and your town grows you can reap the benefits. As the town grows shops are even established and rare items can be purchased for use in game.
Whilst not as hard-core by today’s standard of RPG’s it is a welcome addition to the genre. Dragon Quest: The Chapters of the Chosen is an easy to navigate game that is ideal for the newcomer to RPG gaming and a pleasant interlude to those die-hard RPG nuts out there. The chapter structure gently leads the player through some quicker adventures before facing off against the bigger 5th chapter. The game isn’t inventive or ground breaking by today’s standards but you need to remember that it is a remake of a ground breaking classic for its time. That alone is worth some attention.
Score: 8/10 - "Good buy"
A simple but highly enjoyable RPG with classic roots and ideals that has been made into a modern day gem. Bring on V and VI.
Review by Greg (Magus)
Scene It? Twilight