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In chapter two, players follow the adventures of Princess Alena who is utterly bored of palace life, and wants to see the world. This leads to her trying to help get her father's voice back with the help of her aides Borya and Kiryl, as he lost it after having a dream that foretold the end of the world. She eventually succeeds, and shortly thereafter enters a tournament where she does quite well, making it to the final battle where she is supposed to face off against someone named Psaro the Manslayer. For whatever reason he never shows up, so the princess and her companions return home only to find that the palace is inexplicably empty. With that the chapter ends, as the trio set out once more to find out where everyone went. Alena is comparable to the fighter class in Dragon Quest III, as she is fairly good at hand-to-hand combat, and can equip a decent amount of armor Meanwhile Borya is a magician specializing in offensive magic, and Kiryl is a priest who takes care of the healing.
Above: (Left) The original NES version of Dragon Quest IV; (Middle) The
PlayStation version of the game; (Right) The DS version of the game
With the third chapter, players are introduced to the merchant Torneko (referred to as Taloon in the American US version of the game). This is the same Torneko that would be the focus of the first three Mystery Dungeon games. In Dragon Quest IV he has learned of a legendary set of weapons that he decides to try and find. As a character class, Torneko is a pretty interesting guy, combining a bunch of abilities common to dancers, jesters, and thieves, with his own special skills making for a surprisingly useful character that also brings comic relief to the game.
For the fourth chapter, we are introduced to the sisters Maya and Meena who are trying to avenge their father's death. These sisters make for an interesting pair of magic users. Maya is a dancer who specializes in explosive fire attacks, while Maya is a fortune teller who can cast healing spells, and wind-based attack spells, with a few support spells thrown in for extra flavor. It's an unusual mix of abilities split between two people that would normally be handled by one in most other games.
Finally, in chapter five we reach the main hero of the game. As it begins, the hero's home town is under attack by monsters commanded by Psaro the Manslayer, the mysterious combatant that failed to meet Alena in the tournament in chapter two. Thankfully the hero escapes the attack, and in time joins the various characters from the previous chapters. Together they learn that a terrible evil called Estark has awakened, and it is up to them to defeat him.
Complicating matters is that Psaro wants to take Estark's place, and use its powers to destroy all humans everywhere. As it turns out he holds a big grudge against humans after his girlfriend and elven brethren were killed at the hands of humans. He plans to do this via the Armlet of Transmutation, which will allow him to evolve into a much more powerful being. In order to stop him, the hero and his companions travel to Zenithian Castle where the Zenith Dragon helps by taking them to Psaro in far off Nardiria. This eventually leads to a final showdown between him and the adventurers. Interestingly, the DS remake of the game even has a sixth chapter where the party goes on to avenge Rose's death, which, as it turns out, was actually one big setup by one of Psaro's underlings who was working for an even more evil being.
Gameplay remained largely the same as Dragon Quest III here, with the various characters representing the classes introduced in that game. There was also a day-night cycle again, and a variety of methods for travel (boats, balloons, and teleporters). Players also get to bring a wagon around with them later in the game. This acts as a way to swap out various characters that one may want in their party for combat, while the others relax in the wagon, waiting to be called up.
Dragon Quest IV also marked the first time in the series that players could rummage through furniture in search of items, as well as occasionally finding medals that could be exchanged for fancy items.
One interesting addition was a form of AI that could be applied to party members so that they fight in a particular way during combat. This would make their actions automated during a fight where they would act as the player wanted on their own instead of needing to be micromanaged. This function could also be turned off for those who preferred a more hands-on approach.
Just like its predecessors, Dragon Quest IV has seen its fair share of remakes, first making its way to the PlayStation in November of 2001 in Japan. This remake actually came quite close to seeing a North American release, but the company doing the localization would up closing its doors, ending that possibility. However, Dragon Quest IV was remade yet again for the DS in 2007, and this version indeed did get a North American release.
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