After the first 3 Dragon Quest games and the first 3 Final Fantasy games, none of the games had being able to combine a overall package like fans were waiting for, Dragon Quest 4 was a really nice upgrade tho, taking us a few steps closer to that goal, it was able to combine a really good story, well designed and thought out, with interesting and diverse gameplay. Making you have your own character, and then play each chapter of the game in a different part of the world with different characarters. And later making them cross the road with each other as well as your main character. Forming a large and interesting group of people as your party.
What holds the game short of being a 5/5 for me is the amount of grinding you need in specific parts of the game, as well as the item management, when each of your characters have the itens on their bags that they can use, not having a universal bag like in Final Fantasy.