n Japan, the Dragon Quest series is just as, if not more popular than the Final Fantasy series (or so I’ve heard). This being my first Dragon Quest game that I have ever played I was a bit sceptical, as I did not think that it would be as good as my first, and favourite Final Fantasy Game, Final Fantasy III for the DS.

So far the game is very, very fun. There are five chapters in the game, in each chapter you play a different hero. Hence the name Chapters of the Chosen. I have played the game for around four hours, and I have just started the second chapter. So in all, I don’t think the game will take very long to beat.

The battle system is very classic RPG. On the top screen it displays a picture of each party member, with corresponding HP, MP, LV, and who they are attacking/what their battle command is. On the bottom screen it displays a pretty little sprite of your enemy and your command options. The commands are fairly generic, seeing as how it is a very generic RPG. Not that there is anything wrong with that, in fact I prefer my role players that way. Options such as Attack, magic, item, and run are available.

The cool thing about the game is that all the buildings, bushes, montains, trees, etc are in 3D, but all characters are sprites. And these sprites are somply beautiful. They are clear, colourful and sharp. What I really hate about most SNES RPGs is that you cannot walk diagonally, but what I first noticed in this game is that you in fact can walk diagonally. This made me really happy. All angles of the sprite are really beutiful, I really appreciate this aspect of the game.

When walking in a town or in a building, you can rotate the camera with R or L. This adds to the experience because as you obviously know, you can usually search cupboards, baskets, bushes etc with the A button. But to see the front of some objects you must rotate the camera.

The characters are interesting, the game is beautiful, there is really no reason for you to not pick this game up. I am really enjoying it, and I don’t really want it to end.