IV

Again, the offset put the release date on Dragon Warrior IV to 1992, a time when already, the NES's days as a mainstream console wee numbered. By then, people were clamoring over Super Mario World, Mario Kart, the Super Nintendo, and The Legend of Zelda: A link to the Past - or more often Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Again, RPGs were taking a backseat to action filled titles, and now a new obstacle was there, the 16-bit Console War (Sega vs. Nintendo vs. Turbografix vs. Neo Geo). So almost nobody bought this game, making it the rarest of the Dragon Warrior releases on the NES. Super sad because to me, this is my favorite, and it's a bloody masterpiece.

In Dragon Warrior IV, known also as "Chapters of the Chosen" in Japan, you play a 5-chapter story that tells the backstories of all of your commrades for the named hero of prophecy who is about to save the world from a revival of the ruler of evil using the secret of Evolution. **SPOILERS START** It all starts when some poor guy has his elvenn girlfriend who cries ruby tears beaten to death, so he becomes a misanthrope, and declares to destroy the world and humankind once and for all after he revives the ruler of evil. A great prophecy says that a special child will be born in the world - the character you name at the beginning - and this somehow ubiqutously known yet unknown "hero" is the main goal of the first 4 chapters (for the most part). You follow Ragnar, a royal soldier from Burland who saves Izmit village from child abducting monsters in an isolated tower. In Chapter 2 you play the very feminist Princess Alena who wants to fight in a competition in Endor to prove her strength, all the while her sexist father makes his royal soldier and clergyman wizard follow you around to "protect you" (when really she needs to protect them, LOL). In chapter 3 the beloved Taloon appears for the first time wanting to start a shop of his own someday, and goes on various political and business pursuits to raise money to open his own shop, and use money to commit more good acts in the world such as allowing inter-island transport via a tunnel. In Chapter 4, Sisters of Monbaraba Nara and Mara are out to seek avenge the death of their father at the hands of a student who killed him - who just so happens to be the evil Necrosaro, that same Misanthrope widow of the elf who cried ruby tears. And all this crammed into a 512 Kiolbit cartridge for the NES - holy smokes!

Skip ahead a few years, now I'm 13-14, just starting high school, I landed a place in Mr. Megaphones Southern Sweat Marching Club Band. So starting in August, I would go to the makeshift football field behind Opelika High School and march in the 110 degree 92% humidity Alabama sun for four hours, go home for two, and come back in the afternoon for another four hours. On a weekend, a friend in Auburn, William, had this game, and loaned it to me. Little did I know my perspective on RPGs would change forevermore. Because the game I refused to buy all those years ago, was to become the game that would get me to love RPGs.

So strangely the timeline was Chapter I - which I quickly forgot about, was the beginning of JRPGs for me. SO every day during the two hour lunch break I'd cram Gatorades and play Dragon Warrior IV. And imagine my dissappointment when I beat up that eye thing that was taking children like some kind of alien Howie Epstien creature....Seriously, I fought an entire tower in flying shoes full of anime Platypuses called "Duckbills" (woo-ooh) for this? And then you tell me the game is over....

But it wasn't another and another and another chapter kept on coming. So between the guitar, trumpet practice, daydreaming impossible shit about girls, ignoring homework, and guitar, I was playing Dragon Warrior. After school, you'd find me almost every day slapped in front of my 20" Zenith TV with the NES, a large Papa John's Pepperoni Pizza, cheap soda, a guitar in my lap, and eyes fixed on the screen trying to find my way through this ginormous Nintendo game. Seriously, the sheer space and size of Dragon Warrior IV was somethign that impressed the heck out of me because it was Illusion of Gaia level big (I also had a SNES at the time). I managed to rip through the game, even in such a size, in only six or so months. BUt by the time I was done, I was hooked - I wanted the other three games. I gave this one back and sought my own copy.

But The NES Collecting scene was just taking off and I watched as every single Dragon Warrior game aside from the first one was like, 4-6 times the cost of all the other NES Games. I got my copy of Dragon Warrior at K-Mart, I bought ALL of William's NES carts when their NES died, but DRagon Warrior IV was not among them (!!!). I bought Dragon Warrior III from a ex Cock of the Walk Co-Worker when a new independant game store opened in town in 2004 - for $35. It took me almost 20 years to get Dragon Warrior II and IV from another local independant shop where I live now. IV was such a big deal...this is what I did..

I literally dragged down BOXES of my once huge gaming collection - because they wanted $156 for the loose cart (which is, I admit, in great condition for a 30 year old NES game). It took Cap N' Games something like a week and a half to sort through all of it and find out I was over the cost and had more shop credit. But finally, 20+ years of chasing Dragon Warrior IV, and the actual cartridge is mine now. And it's been all I can do to hold off on this LEt's Play for my semi-retirement-from-youtube Year of 2026 because I've so badly wanted to bypass II and III and get straight to IV. But I felt it'd be apropriate to be my FINAL scheduled video.