DQ4 PSX TA

Dragon Quest IV PSX Version Speedrun FAQ

Why the PSX version?

There's a few reasons. The foremost is that I enjoy the PSX version the most. I think the music and fluidity of the controls and menus are superior in this version. The NES version holds a special place in my memory, but it leads me to the next point. In the PSX and DS versions, you can control your characters' actions in Chapter 5, which you cannot do in the NES version. This is terrible for a speedrun, as one could imagine, and makes the PSX version shine. The PSX and DS versions are much more friendly on run rates and encounter rates (you can buffer going into towns/stairs to manage your encounters, as opposed to NES version where you could get 5 encounters in 5 steps with bad luck, for instance.) However, in my opinion, the battle difficulty is pretty much the same, which I like.



What category?

Full runs will be with the true any% JPN end timing. This is from power-on until the "feather disappears from the 'The End'" after the credits, which is the defined term.



Are there glitches?

Surprisingly not. Most DQ games are ripe full of glitches. For instance, the NES version of DQ4 allows you to get infinite coins at the Casino with no effort, get access to the Balloon immediately after getting the ship without ever having fought Esturk, and manipulate critical hits on the final battle by using the run command (oh yes.)
PSX version has a few things, the most notable is that you can cast "Outside" to leave a dungeon to summon your wagon from anywhere, effectively making Baron's Horn useless and allowing us to completely skip it.



Metal Slime?

You bet. Luckily I can control the flow of battle with metal slimes in the second half of the game with an item called the "Hourglass of Regression." Those who have played the NES version might remember that it allows you to reset the battle (like Reset in FFV,) but only allows you to do it once per day. Luckily, the PSX version got rid of that stipulation. If metal slimes run away, as long as they aren't the only enemy left, I can refight the battle and try again.



How easy is this game?

On the spectrum of Dragon Quest games, I would rate this in the middle as far as difficulty is concerned. DQ2 (NES, impossible) and DQ5 (SFC) being the more difficult ones and probably DQ1 SFC and DQ6 being among the easier ones, and all DS versions of the games are even easier. The de facto standard for DQ runs is glitchless, which is what this is.

There are a few difficult parts of the run, which result in resets:
-  Ragnar should defeat the Chapter 1 boss at level 3/4, 3 being the fastest (obviously.)
-  Alena has to level up to level 11 off of 2 metal slimes in Chapter 2 before the Tournament.
-  Alena has to WIN the tournament (very, very hard at 11. I may level up to 12, which is still not really safe.)
-  Torneko needs some luck to get through Chapter 3 without wasting time (some rare drops to sell, good luck on selling items in Bonmalmo for good value, etc.)
-  The Alchemist Cave (west of Kievs) is really scary at level 1 sisters. Once you get Orin, things get safer, but it's easy to die.
-  Balzack sucks the Balzack. He's a difficult boss which is faced at Level 7 with the sisters.
-  Cave of Friendship is a little tough at low levels, since you have to solo Hero.
-  Lighthouse Bengal is scary, and is dependent on how lucky you get with trying to get the metal slime kills outside the tower before.
-  Esturk is a little scary, he can critical twice in a turn (if you have abysmal luck). Your party's level isn't high enough for Revive yet.
-  Necrosaro is really, really hard. Most of Chapter 5 is manageable, but this guy hits like a truck when he's fully evolved. The strategy to defeat him is really dangerous but very exciting.



True End?

Well, it wasn't in the original, so it's hard to call it that. But Psaro is pretty badass so I'll definitely consider it. It's honestly not long at all (+ ~40 minutes)


Japanese?

It's difficult at times, but once you get used to the kana, it really isn't bad. I recommend learning katakana/hiragana alphabet if you are interested in these type of runs, you really don't need much else. Some kanji appears but whatever.



Anything else?

I'm not going to complain about RNG in my real runs in this game. I think it's dumb to bitch about, since it's obviously a component of the game. You should call me out if I do. Unless it's really, really, really bad (like 2 hours of metal slime hunting in Chapter 2, at which point I should have reset a long time ago.)

Feel free to talk about DQ or ask me any questions.