Even though it’s always been the Far East’s #1 fan favorite, Dragon Quest has had a hard time striking a chord with the majority of western gamers. Aside from the undeniably classic Dragon Quest VIII, most DQ games that weren’t given away for free were mild commercial failures and even though it’s a remake of a 15+ year old NES RPG, Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen feels surprisingly fresh and current considering its advanced age. From the little touches like an improved translation and character development, to the huge graphical and musical overhaul, this is a remarkable revision of an undeniable classic worth experiencing for the first, second, or thirtieth time.

As anyone with eyes and ears will likely notice, Dragon Quest IV is one impressive DS game. Featuring entirely overhauled 3D backgrounds and vibrant character sprites, a completely redone soundtrack, and a totally redesigned script, the game feels like an entirely new experience. Even though it’s hardly the first archaic game to be completely overhauled for the DS, it feels like one of the freshest due to its commendable gameplay innovations and remarkable pacing that stand strong almost two decades after its initial release.

Dragon Quest IV tells the interlocking tale of eight adventurers as they come together to bring peace back to their world and send the King of the Underworld back to his rightful domain. Instead of building up your party by traveling and conventionally recruiting warriors, DQ4 uniquely tells its tale of the chosen Hero through five distinct chapters. Each of the chapters features a different set of adventurers and makes their happenstance meeting in the fifth chapter reminiscent of a movie like Babel rather than the usual trite RPG fare. Even though it sounds simple, each chapter features an entirely new subset of characters with their unique dialects and surroundings, making your motley crew all the more diversified and interesting when they finally band together in the latter half of the game.

Many DS RPGs have a problem with pacing in some form or another. Whether it’s cumbersome inventory management (Rune Factory, Pokemon), slow battle speed (Final Fantasy III), or just slow speed in general (Etrian Odyssey), there seems to always be something stopping handheld RPGs from being as breezy as they ought to be. With that said, if there’s one thing that Dragon Quest IV absolutely excels in, it’s pacing. From the chapter-based progression that always keeps things fresh and moving, to the teleportation and autofight features that take the monotony out of traveling and fighting, the game is an absolute delight to breeze through.

If you’ve been feeling badly burned by fiendishly difficult and overwrought recent titles like Final Fantasy IV and Etrian Odyssey II, don’t let the ancient nature of this one pass you by. Clocking in around 30-40 hours with only mild-to-moderate grinding, DQ4 feels fully-featured without overstaying its welcome. While the original game’s slow pace was only exacerbated by its tiresome Olde English script, the remake features entirely redone dialogue. Even though the faux-Russian dialect in the second chapter felt a little lazily translated from English to Russian (and then back again) for my tastes, I never found myself nodding off mid-conversation like I did so frequently throughout the NES version.

The majority of annoyances are the exact same “touches” that the series faithful have come to adore. For starters, Dragon Quest has always used the church as the hub for practically everything vital to the game ranging from saving your progress to resurrecting your characters—this means that whenever you want to save or bring a character back to life, you must trek all the way back to the nearest city instead of using plentiful save points or potions in a pinch. While you can perform a quick-save on the game map and eventually learn spells to quickly warp back to towns (and occasionally bring comrades back from the dead) later on in the game, having to trudge back to the dungeon entrance because a mob of seven Skeletons annihilated half your party is a huge annoyance that will likely frustrate anyone as they learn the ins and outs of the system.

In addition, certain aspects of challenge in the game come off as mildly artificial. Even though it shouldn't add much to the challenge, having to use certain underpowered members of your party because of their necessary "buff" spells means that you're really only taking on some bosses with three usable characters. Most bosses are also "blessed" with two turns to your one, meaning that many of the tougher bosses can easily knock out half your party if you aren't on top of your game. While it does a pretty good job of streamlining the grinding process, you’ll undoubtedly be bested by a boss a time or two.

Even though it sounds rough, the game is actually extremely forgiving considering that you only lose half your gold (and no experience/items) if your party meets their demise. This coupled with relatively quick leveling (thanks to brisk dungeons and high experience) means you rarely enter an area you can't handle after a few battles. It sounds simple, sure, but it's refreshing to have a game that has a good balance for hardcore and novice RPG gamers alike.

For every complaint lobbed against the game, it’s hard not to overlook how amazingly ahead of its time Dragon Quest IV was back in the day. Subtle niceties like a large (but not too large) party of characters, an “autofight” tactics system and a multi-focal storyline all make it one of the most playable remake I’ve ever touched. With great pacing, clever character development, and phenomenal presentation, this relatively forgiving RPG is likely to convert fence-sitters into fully-fledged RPG fanatics. Even though it might be considered “by-the-book” by today’s standards, Dragon Quest IV should be considered required playing for any role-playing fan out there.

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