Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior - Chunsoft/Enix/Square - 1986/1989

One of the first RPGs I remember watching my Brothers play, other than Final Fantasy, was Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior in the US until later installments). Although I didn't remember a good deal of the game, and over the years have gotten into RPGs even more than they ever were, I hadn't actually sat down to play it until recently, when I decided I wanted to see what some of the earliest and original RPGs were like.

Dragon Quest was put out back in 1986 in Japan, and 1989 in the US. It was released originally by Enix (now of SquareEnix) in Japan, and by Square in the states.

In the game you play as a Descendant of Erdrick, the brave warrior who slew the Dragonlord years and years before, and are told that the Dragonlord has returned and stolen the Orb of Light, the one thing which has been holding the world in peace since the time of Erdrick. You must now go forth and retreive the Orb, and defeat the Dragonlord. And with this information, the game begins.

Other than this piece at the beginning of the game, and any information supplied in the booklet, the story isn't what you could call deep, but it isn't totally un-involved either. Every town is populated with multiple NPCs who, when spoken to, give you tidbits of information. Some of this information isn't very useful in the way of helping you figure out where you need to go next in the game, but it fleshes out the world and gives you a lot of hints.

The gameplay in Dragon Quest is fairly simple overall. In towns, you can use one button to call up your menu, which includes commands like Talk, Search, Stairs, and others which allow you to talk to NPCs, buy armor, weapons and items, use any magic you can use outside of battle, or stay at an Inn. The other button cancels the menu screen in case you called it up on accident, and you can even pause the game, although this isn't very useful in this game.

Outside, on the world map, as you walk around you will get into random battles. These will call up a small screen where you can see your opponent, and your menu appears automatically. All the options presented on the battle menu are battle-oriented only and include: Fight, Run, Spell and Item. Most of these options are self-explanitory, and so long as you keep track of how much damage you're doing compared to how much the enemy is doing, and your Magic Points, you shouldn't have any issues with the system.

When you defeat an enemy, you will gain Experience Points and Gold (sometimes even a chest), and after you've gained enough Experience you will level up, and possibly learn new spells to help you on your travels. Each enemy gives different amounts of EXP or Gold, and the second you cross a bridge you will find harder enemies. (Note: The Bridge = Tougher Enemies would become a staple-post for most of the Dragon Warrior games).

One element of the gameplay that stands out is that this game was very much set up to make you have to level grind, as well as travel back and forth across the world map (made easier later when Princess Gwaelin gives you her love, allowing you to teleport back to the castle when you choose, and also the Return Spell), not only to get Keys to open various necessary
doors, but also to save, since the only place you can save is the castle.

I can't say a whole lot about the music. For the most part, I had it turned off while I played the game. It isn't that it's bad music, far from it, but it's very repetitive, especially when one tends to spend a lot of time playing, or level grinding.

There's also not a lot of variety in the music. I remember only three tracks, one for towns and the world map, a revised rendition of that for the battles, and the music when you save. Taken seperately, they're each very nice in their way, with the battle music quickening the pulse a bit, the town and regular world map music is very slow and almost attempts to make you feel like you're on a long journey, and the save music has a nice little ring letting you know the game is saving, while also sounding much like fanfare for you returning.

There's nothing special about the sounds in Dragon Quest, I'm afraid. In fact, the only ones I really recall are for when you go up and down stairs/into caves, and that's a sort of ch-ch-ch sound. The others are really basic whooshes or thumps, as one dodges or attacks. But, I have recalled that up and down sound since I was little and still like it, so maybe there are some special things about it?

Overall, I like the graphics of Dragon Quest. Although not highly shaded, a lot of personality was put into the monster
sprites, as well as the regular ones, and it's easy to identify everything on screen, which is always a good thing. During
battles, there is also a background for the creatures to rest upon (sadly, the same one no matter what area you're in),unless you're in a dark dungeon, where the creature shows against a black background (also occurs in one town overun by evil).

Unfortunately, I found nothing to really wow me, and I don't remember ever actually being wowed when it came out either. Still, they're colorful and I really do love the afore mentioned personalities!

Even with the fact this game has repetitive music, and I know what I'd hear from today's gamers, I really enjoyed playing through Dragon Warrior, though I must say: Thank goodness for Walkthroughs. Even back in the day, the game wasn't easy, and I remember giving up on it in frustration at not knowing where to go, and not being able to get my Brothers to tell me either.

But those aside, as I said, I enjoyed the game. It was challenging, without frustrating me too much (I only had maybe one section I grumbled over the intense grinding), I enjoyed the little tidbits that the NPCs gave out about the world and it's history, and when it was all over, I felt accomplished.

Oh, and yeah, I did learn some stuff about older RPGs and where they began... Ah, how wonderful!