For as much as we like to bitch and moan about innovation in gaming, sometimes it's just nice to be face-deep in a big ol' nostalgia pie--especially if said pie was almost given to us six years ago and then snatched away without the promise of future pie time. What I'm trying to say with this strained analogy is that the remake of Dragon Quest IV is finally coming to the US on September 16th, and we should all be thankful.
If you're unaware of the scandal behind the Dragon Quest IV remake, it's important to know that we almost got it six years ago; released for the Playstation in Japan, Enix promised to bring the game to the States on the back of the US-released Dragon Warrior VII's instructions. Unfortunately, Heartbeat, who "programmed" both VII and the IV remake, folded, making the necessary localization re-programming more trouble than it was actually worth. But honestly, Heartbeat's implosion was really for the best; it allowed Enix to pass the franchise to a much more qualified team (Level 5), and Heartbeat's take on the series kind of buried the magic of Dragon Quest under a load of crummy graphics (even for a game rooted in nostalgia) and sloppy, buggy menus. VII was already a turd of a game, but Heartbeat didn't help matters much.
My favorite Dragon Quest game is III, just because it feels like the absolute peak of old-school RPGs; it's sprawling, complex, and even self-referential, tying up what could have been contained in a trilogy. IV makes some different choices, scaling back on the globetrotting a bit to offer up charming, individual stories that eventually tie into each other for an epic finale with a fittingly epic amount of party members. But the neatest parts of Dragon Quest IV are strictly non-epic, like the chapter that throws you into the shoes of an RPG merchant; you're forced to tend shop and sell goods before you can set out on any kind of quest.
The game still looks a little rough around the edges; but things are crisper on the DS screen, and for some reason the amatuerish 3D graphics feel more at home on Nintendo's handheld than on a system capable of handling Vagrant Story and Metal Gear Solid. Whatever the case, it's all very charming, and seems far less bloated and swimmy than Final Fantasy IV's recent remake. Check out the trailer and dare to tell me that it won't warm the deadest of hearts:
Related Links:
Square-Enix: Reeling in the Devotees For More, Playing the Console Market With Aplomb
Would You Play a Final Fantasy VII Remake? Hmmm?
Final Fantasy IV DS: Love, Hope and Betrayal For the Busy Commuter