Dragon Quest IV remake bridges generations

Being a port of a Playstation remake of the NES game, Dragon Quest IV falls between the old-school presentation of the older Dragon Quest games and the more detailed 3D in Level-5's Dragon Quests VIII and IX. The environments are all 3D, but your party is composed of sprites.

Nowhere is the somewhat awkward dichotomy more evident than in the battle system. While exploration takes place in the aforementioned 3D landscapes, which can be fully rotated, you're sent right back to the beginning of the series in a battle. 2D monster sprites, narrative text windows, and all.

It would be interesting to see how the DS audience reacted to having both IV and IX on the market at the same time, as we thought would happen for a while, but that's not to be. This way, we'll have plenty of time to buy both.