Play With Me: Dragon Quest IV
So we all had a good laugh watching me bumble through Chrono Trigger, didn’t we? Yes, I suck and am terrible at JRPGs. So in the spirit of good sportsmanship, I figured I’d put another personal epic failure up for public mockery. And after all, this past week’s experiment sure served as some much-needed incentive for me to break through a mental wall and clean a game out of my back-log, and lord knows I’ve got a stack of unfinished games that could tower over my house.
I figured I’d begin with Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen. Yes, another JRPG. Here’s a summary:
A prestigious army captain, an adventurous princess seeking to test her skills beyond palace walls, a humble merchant aspiring to open his own shop, and two sisters who wish to avenge their father’s death…These seemingly unrelated individuals will soon cross paths when fate brings them together to journey alongside you, the hero. Dive into this unique adventure, and discover an epic tale told through the experiences and emotions of characters from all walks of life.
DQIV consists of five total chapters, and in each chapter you play as a different character so that by Chapter Five each character in your party has been given a fairly in-depth backstory. When I last played the game, I was at five hours and thirty-five minutes and had just begun Chapter Three: Torneko and the Extravagant Excavation. Up to this point, I had completely fallen in love with the game, which is strange because all of the conventions that usually disgust me about JRPGs (linear gameplay, random battles, turn-based combat) had somehow become endearing in DQIV. Perhaps it was because of the way the game is presented with it’s charming characters and wonderful art style. Or perhaps it was because all these simplistic RPG conventions weren’t masked by never-ending side quests, incomprehensible plots, painfully-long cut-scenes, and complicated battle menus, item-building, food-cooking, or some ridiculous job system with infinitely branching paths. It was “just” an RPG, plain and simple. And if I was having difficulty clearing a certain area or knocking off a particular boss battle, I didn’t need a special elemental armor or to backtrack and find some convoluted side quest. The answer was simple: grind.
So with that in mind, I suspect finishing DQIV may not cause me as many headaches as Chrono Trigger did. But that wouldn’t be fun for you to watch, now would it? You rubes wanna see me suffer and fail. Well, the good news for you is that the game is by all reports around twenty hours long and I’ve got the attention span of a gnat. And that’s where the title “Play With Me” comes in. As with Chrono Trigger, I’ll be updating my progress via the DGR Twitter Feed. There you can feel free to harass me, poke fun at me, or even attempt to finish the game before I do purely out of spite. Trust me, I’ll need all the help and prodding I can get.
Wish me luck.
Or not.
