User:Cukie Gherkin/Characters of Dragon Quest IV

Enix's role-playing video game Dragon Quest IV, features eight permanent player characters in the Nintendo Entertainment System version, and nine in the PlayStation and Nintendo DS versions. Throughout the game, several of these characters serve as the main character of their respective chapter, with the Hero being the main character of the fifth and sixth chapters. The cast was designed by Akira Toriyama, who does art for the Dragon Quest series. In addition to the nine main characters, there are many non-playable characters, including villains such as Psaro.

Concept and creation
The main cast of Dragon Quest IV comprises several different characters from different walks of life, some being the lead character of one of the game's five chapters, all of whom eventually coalesce around the protagonist. The character designs were created by artist Akira Toriyama. Following the success of Dragon Quest III, the creator of Dragon Quest IV, Yuji Horii, rationalized that many people may may start with IV. Thus, he wanted to make it distinct from III, which had players obtain a full party from the beginning. He did this by splitting it into chapters and having the chapters be solo quests, wanting players to experience each character's story before searching for their party members. He also intended on surprising players, introducing the characters Maya and Meena to the Hero when they are searching for the other characters first instead of Ragnar McRyan, who was the first character you played as. In the NES version of the game, the lead character was controlled directly by the player, while other characters were controlled by artificial intelligence. It was initially considered giving each character AI that matches their in-game personality, but it was felt that it would not be satisfying. They also considered allowing monsters to join the party, but decided against it, viewing the AI system as adequate. Later versions of Dragon Quest IV allowed most characters to be controlled directly. In the English localization of the Nintendo DS version of Dragon Quest IV, various characters were given different accents. The first chapter gives characters Scottish accents, the second gives them Russian accents, and the fourth gives them French accents. This is unlike the Japanese versions of the different versions, where everyone has a standard Japanese accent.

Hero
The Hero is the protagonist of the game, and can be male or female. More unique differences were planned for the male and female Heroes due to demand from Dragon Quest III players, but this was neglected after creator Yuji Horii forgot. In the original version on Nintendo Entertainment System, they could be named at the beginning, but did not appear until Chapter 5. In later versions, a prologue is added that has the player controlling them briefly before Chapter 1. They later appear in Chapter 5 as the starring character. In this chapter, Psaro's army destroys the village in the pursuit of the Hero, killing everyone except the Hero, including their friend Eliza who disguises herself as the Hero to keep the Hero safe. They venture out into the world, gathering various allies in their quest to defeat Psaro.

Ragnar McRyan
Ragnar McRyan is the first playable character in the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Dragon Quest IV. During his adventure, he is accompanied by a Cureslime named Healie.

Kiryl and Borya
Kiryl and Borya are two of Alena's retainers who accompany her on her quest to explore the world. They believe that she would not obey her father and remain behind, and thus would be safer if they went with her. In Chapter 5, Kiryl becomes deathly ill, forcing Alena to search for a cure. Once the cure is found, Kiryl accompanies Alena and Borya in joining the Hero in their quest to defeat Psaro.

Psaro
Psaro is the main antagonist of the story, with his goal being to get revenge on humankind for perceived atrocities, including the abuse of his love, Rose, an elf whose tears are made of ruby. He and his minions kidnap and kill children in order to prevent the rise of the Legendary Hero, though the true Hero ends up surviving the attack on their village. As part of his plan, he is also seeking to master the Secret of Evolution, which would give him incredible power.

Aamon
Aamon is a minion of Psaro's, one who manipulates Psaro into doing things to serve his own ends. Aamon eventually helps cause the death of Rose, which sends

Eliza
Eliza is a friend of the Hero of the game. She has the ability to change her shape, and uses it to impersonate the Hero when Psaro attacks their village to find the Hero and kill them, causing her to die in their place. At the end of the game, Eliza appears to be alive in their village when the Hero returns.

Healie
Healie is a Cureslime who first appears in Chapter 1, who desires to become a human. He is encountered by Ragnar while Ragnar is searching for kidnapped children, offering to help Ragnar. In Chapter 5, he reappears in a human form, searching for Ragnar.

Other appearances
Various characters in Dragon Quest IV make appearances in other games in different capacities. In Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below and Dragon Quest Heroes II features multiple characters as playable characters, as does Dragon Quest Tact, Dragon Quest Walk, and the Itadaki Street series.

A manga anthology titled Dragon Quest 4 Panel Manga Theater was created, featuring the cast of Dragon Quest IV. Multiple manga authors contributed to the anthology, including Ami Shibata and Hiroyuki Eto.

Reception
Dragon Quest IV has been noted as a pioneering game in character-based role-playing games. Eurogamer writer Simon Parkin enjoyed the conceit of the game having different starring characters in each chapter, particularly due to how much it diversifies the cast. Hardcore Gamer writer Chris Shive similarly enjoyed this structure, believing it successfully made players care about the whole cast.

The AI controlling the non-main characters of each chapter in the Nintendo Entertainment System version of the game has received negative reception, with Chris Shive commenting that the best improvement in the Nintendo DS version was allowing the player to control them directly. This AI design has led to issues with the AI, particularly the character Kiryl using the instant-death spell Whack on enemies immune to it, which gave him a reputation of being a stupid character. Automaton writer Takumi Nango praised the use of non-English accents in the English version of the Nintendo DS version, feeling that it was tastefully done. They praised the detail that the localization team put in, particularly how they made dogs' bark match their region as well, suggesting that they did a lot of research into the different dialects. They believed that the motivation to include different dialects was out of a desire to reflect how the main cast all hail from diverse regions, social classes, and occupations.