Dragon Quest 4: Chapters of the Chosen (ongoing)

DQ4 on the old Nintendo was the favorite game of my childhood. I must have played it dozens of times. I had never played these remakes of those old classics and I am delighted to share my first time through with you. We kick off with a brand new prologue that was not in the 8 bit game. We are introduced to a young hero in training and learn he has grown up in a secluded mountain town. We meet the colorful people who live there and 0:00 Intro 0:43 Character creation 1:05 Prologue 2:39 Amphibian hijinks 4:07 Eliza the prankster 5:19 First pun of many 8:20 Mom's house 9:56 Chapter 1 10:24 Scottish brogue 13:00 Foreshadowing 13:55 HUD play 15:01 Back to it 18:00 Burland town 18:31 Old squire 20:57 Aigneas 26:04 Overworld 29:26 First lvl up 31:35 Burland at night 37:20 Outro

We start by spending a little time grinding up to level 4 to give us plenty of power to survive the coming trials. Feeling strong enough, we take the tunnel passage to Strathbaile. Here we spend some time with the townsfolk gathering all the information we can on the missing children. It's important to come back at night and talk to the teacher at the school. 0:00 Intro 0:20 Grinding 9:00 Tunnel to Straithbaile 11:36 Straithbaile 18:52 Angus 19:39 Straithbaile night 21:40 Perv 23:05 Back to Burland 25:56 Couple reunited 27:26 Secret playground 30:10 Magic shoes 33:48 Healie! 37:57 Back to rest and shop 39:40 Outro

Now it's time to save those kiddos. Equipped with the magical Talaria shoes, we can fly to the top of the tower in the lake. We descend the floors, fighting increasingly deadly monsters, and encounter some soldiers also hot on the trail. All the way in the basement we find the missing children and confront the monsters responsible. We learn they are working for a monster named Psaro who is trying to thwart a prophecy of a chosen one who will save the world. Returning a hero to Burland, we request as our boon of the king that we be given leave to travel the world and find this chosen one to protect him. 0:00 Intro 1:05 Tower on the lake 5:50 How'd you get here? 9:04 Cautery sword! 11:40 Back to the store 13:51 Back to the tower 16:45 Bairns found! 17:52 Boss time! 20:45 Escaping 23:00 Reuniting families 26:00 Back to Burland 28:46 King's gratitude 31:05 Outro

We kick off chapter 2 by meeting the princess Alena. She is a rough and tumble tomboy and wants to escape the gilded cage of her fathers overbearing protection. She has taught herself some martial arts and breaks out of the castle to go out an prove her strength. Some close friends suspect her plan and rather than discourage her they join in. Our old tutor Borya the mage, and the castle cleric Kiryl (who is nursing a crush on Alena) round out the abilities of the self trained monk. We head to the nearby town to gather local gossip while incognito and we spend some time building our strength by clearing out local monsters. 0:00 Intro 0:20 Meet Alena 2:10 Meet Borya 5:12 Meet Kiryl 8:57 Escape 10:50 Zalenagrad 15:55 A spot of grind 30:05 Zamoksva at night 33:04 Zalenagrad at night 35:33 More grind 42:40 Outro

Having increased our powers enough to brave the wide world we head north to the town of Tabarov. They are beset by monsters and forced to sacrifice young women to them or be destroyed. Obviously Alena is no distressed damsel and she will not stand for this in her kingdom. We quickly dispatch the fiends and head northeast looking for more opportunities. The town of Vrenor has someone pretending to be us! Imposter princess gets kidnapped for ransom right as we go to confront her. 0:00 Intro 0:59 Journey north 3:23 Tabarov 7:34 Anastasia 10:07 Sacrifice volunteer 11:22 Sacrifice fights back 14:31 Grateful village 18:43 Grind 27:15 Tabarov at night 30:09 Journey north 31:10 Vrenor 34:55 Kidnapping 38:47 Outro

After pilfering the priests petunias we head south in search of the armlet for the ransom of our fake princess. As urgent as our mission is, we get distracted by a desert bazaar and go shopping! After earning some quick cash and buying better gear we finally delve into the armlet cave. In short order we have paid a ransom and saved a faker. 0:00 Intro 0:32 Heading south 3:36 Desert Bazaar 8:20 Explore the map 9:35 Bazaar at night 10:33 Teleport denied 11:23 Grinding time 27:00 Borya in a box 31:21 Armlet cave 50:28 Paying ransom 54:43 Outro

Not sure what to do next we head back to the bazaar. A royal messenger meets us there and tells us to return home immediately. Our father has been stricken dumb. The chancellor knows of a bard that had also lost his voice and sends us to find out how he cured himself. The bard's cure was nectar purchased from the desert bazaar. The lady running the item shop is out but she says the elves have plenty and they frequent the tower to the south. Finally a goal! After a quick journey to meet those elves, who run away, we obtain the nectar and heal our father. The king has troubling news. He has been having dreams of the apocalypse and thinks he was cursed to keep him from sharing his prophetic dreams with others. Convinced of the severity he grants us leave to travel beyond our borders and seek salvation for the world. 0:00 Intro 2:20 Royal messenger 3:00 Return to Zomaksva 5:13 Wise old guy 6:57 Bard's tale 7:50 Rare wares 9:16 Elf Tower 15:42 Snooty Elves 17:33 Silent king speaks 20:00 Teleport to Endor 21:03 Exploring the region 36:33 Outro

We explore the magnificent city of Endor - the hub of the world. This place will be one of our primary stops for quite a bit of the remainder of the game. This is also where the casino is. We will do plenty of gambling in chapter 5 but Alena is too focused on her mission for diversions. The king of Endor has allowed his enthusiasm to get the better of him and he has promised the princess' hand in marriage to the victor of the tournament. We wish to prove our strength and the king and princess are rooting for us. If we win the tournament he won't have to marry his daughter off to some brute. As Alena is a princess herself, the marriage proposal would be null. Ever ready to prove her strength, Alena quickly agrees. As the hour of our fight approaches we hear many tales of Psaro the Manslayer, the frontrunner in the tournament who has slain many great warriors. He is cruel and viscous, taking bouts to the death even when it isn't necessary. We are starting to understand why the king wouldn't want his daughter to marry this creep. We advance up the ranks, defeating ever stronger opponents, until the championship bout against Psaro is next. The Manslayer never shows however, thus forfeiting the title of champion to us! Overjoyed at our success, the king and princess pledge any resource they can to help us in quest. Now that we have a royal benefactor the chapter ends with us going home to a horrifying revelation. All the people of Zomoksva are missing. The entire castle is empty of all life but a single cat. The chapter ends with us setting out to search for our people. 0:00 Intro 0:30 Endor town 6:06 Casino 18:44 Coliseum grounds 21:55 Endor Castle 28:31 Fight till night 34:29 Endor at night 41:37 Locker room 43:32 Attila the Hunk 44:54 Quickdraw McGore 45:30 Licking my wounds 46:45 Attila the Hunk 2 47:32 Quickdraw McGore 2 48:15 Prima Donna 49:25 Samson Knight 50:50 Abominable Snowman 54:30 Psaro Noshow 55:46 Basking in glory 1:03:24 A missing people 1:04:30 Outro

We kick off Chapter 3 as the humble aspiring merchant Torneko Taloon. With his wife and son, he lives in the village of Lakanaba. In a twist on the adventuring formula, we spend some time working a normal job as a clerk at the town weapon shop. But the mundane retail life is not enough for Taloon. Well liked around town, and with the full love and support of his family, he still aspires to greater mercantile heights. We learn that there is a strongbox in a cave to the north, a valuable treasure for one trying to protect their capital. After we make enough money on our day job to afford some basic equipment, we kiss our wife and son goodbye and head out on our first adventure. The cave is filled with monsters and dastardly traps, but the plucky Taloon perseveres and obtains a strongbox of his own. Now his future investments can be protected against theft. Heading south in search of mercantile opportunities, we come across a village in the middle of a forest where everyone dances and plays. An architect is in love with a barking woman. We accept their hospitality and stay the night. When dawn breaks we awake alone in a field. The town is gone. If not for our new strongbox, so too would our coin be. Leaving this for a later day we head further south to the kingdom of Ballymoral. The king there is preparing for war with Endor to the south and wants to outfit his army with any overprice armor you can sell to him. We find Old Man Finn's son imprisoned in the castle dungeons for petty theft. We smuggle in a chimera wing for him and break him out. We will check up on him later, but first we want to check out the Ballymoral night life. 0:00 Intro 0:34 Meet Taloon 3:14 Exploring Lakanaba 10:04 The retail experience 22:08 Out of things to say 22:57 Lakanaba at night 26:10 Zipping through work 29:06 Gearing up 30:28 A spot of leveling 37:24 Strongbox Cave 38:35 Chain Sickle 40:40 Boulder trap 41:36 Weighted trap 44:12 Home for a bit 46:29 Disappearing village 52:08 Ballymoral Castle Town 55:14 Ballymoral Castle 58:50 Stealthing in the dungeon 1:02:05 Outro

This time we complete Taloon's chapter. Entering Ballymoral at night, we clandestinely meet with the prince. He and the princess of Endor are carrying on a secret romance and he doesn't want to invade. He gives us a letter to bring the Endor royals warning them. Well, we need to be able to get there to deliver the letter so that bridge needs to be fixed. We must save the architect from that disappearing town so he can complete the bridge. We head back to Lakanaba and young Finnegan let's us borrow his dog in gratitude for helping him escape the dungeons. We take our furry friend to the disappearing town, where Fido quickly sniffs out the truth. The inhabitants are magical foxes who have bewitched the architect. The dog disrupts their glamor and the spell is broken. Archie O' Tect immediately runs off and repairs the bridge. Before playing matchmaker we engage in a little war profiteering. No reason we can't all get something out of this. When our purse is sufficiently full we broker peace by talking to the king and princess of Endor. The king is happy of the match but says his country is ill equipped for war. Seeing an easy solution he proposes to make the courtship official and sends us back to Ballymoral with a letter declaring his desire for a wedding. The king of Ballymoral is delighted to be taking over Endor with a bloodless marriage and so the war is averted. In gratitude for saving the kingdom, the king of Endor grants us a license to open a shop in town. There is an old man selling one for 35k. Coming up a bit short of that impressive sum, we hear a rumor of an old ruin with a valuable treasure. We put on our explorin' pants and go get that treasure. The cave is filled with traps and puzzles but we come away with a valuable goddess statue. The rich man in the big house of Endor is a collector of fine antiquities and pays us 25k for it. Adding that to our arms dealing cash we can afford the shop. We move our family over and Tessie starts working the counter while we go out looking for inventory. The king of Endor has had recent cause to consider the readiness of his soldiers and puts in an order with our new shop to equip them. While out looking for stuff to sell we hear rumor of a great and powerful sword. This Zenethian sword would be the ultimate acquisition for someone with ambitions of becoming the greatest weapons merchant in the world. Our ability to seek treasures is geographically limited sadly. What luck! There is an old man digging a tunnel from Endor to port town to the east. A port will let us seek this sword the world over! The tunnel man has run short of funds and needs an investment of 60k to get work on the great tunnel going again. That staggering sum just so happens to be the exact amount that Endor pays for equipping the soldiery. The tunnel is finished in no time now that it's funded and we kiss our family goodbye as we set out in search of mythical weapons to sell. 0:00 Intro 0:20 Ballymoral at night 3:20 Putting together the clues 5:00 Borrowing a dog 8:33 Dispelling the glamor 12:40 Returning the dog 14:30 War profiteering 17:02 Endor at night 25:00 Endor daytime 35:25 Delivering the letter 38:38 War profiteering with the boys 42:41 Old man and his tunnel 43:38 Statue cave 1:02:20 Antiquarian 1:04:14 Haggling 1:07:38 Matchmaking 1:09:33 Endor's gratitude 1:16:39 Buying the shop 1:21:18 Government contract 1:29:36 Fulfilment for 60k 1:33:40 Funding the tunnel 1:39:41 Saying goodbye to Tessie 1:41:35 Outro