 It's Dragon Quest, the game that kicked off an entire genre role-playing game in Japan, and today we're going to be looking at the very first game in the series. Dragon Quest has always been my favorite game franchise, and the original title on the NES was extremely innovative for its time, taking inspiration from western computer RPGs and modernizing the genre for console gamers. Just a quick warning, I will be talking about some of the plot points of the game in case that bothers you, but it's a really simple plot and I don't think this will ruin anyone's experience with the game. To start off, there are many different versions of the first Dragon Quest to look at. The game originally released in 1986 for the Famicom in Japan, and it took three years for the title to make its way to the west. Finally, in 1989, Dragon Quest was localized outside of Japan as Dragon Warrior, and by this time, Dragon Quest III was already out in Japan and very successful, leading to high expectations for Nintendo America. This included a Nintendo-powered giveaway of the game that also included an adventure guide card that detailed spells, a world map and an explorer handbook. The NES port was an ambitious project that had many graphical improvements as a result. You see, the original Famicom and MSX release had static character sprites that could only look in one direction, while the NES version had improved sprites that could look in all four directions, and the NES version had a save battery doing away with the old password system. The game was even remade on the Super Famicom, the Gameboy, and on smartphones, but aside from graphical differences, it is largely the same game. For this review, we'll be taking a look at the Gameboy version, which I think is the best looking. I mean, here in the Gameboy version, the King's throwing room actually looks like a throwing room, while in the NES version it looks like the King is surrounded by Lego blocks. It's not a bad looking game, but certainly not as nice as the Gameboy version. The NES version also has a clunky menu system that requires players to go into a menu to interact with people and objects, which gets tedious quickly while the Gameboy version uses the A-button to do all of this. Not to mention, the Gameboy cartridge also includes a sequel Dragon Quest II loaded on, which may be selected from the main menu, so if you're going to play this game, get it on the Gameboy or the iPhone, but you know, buttons are nice to have too. So in the beginning of the game, you're asked to enter a name, whatever you type will be what NPCs call you from now on, which really helps you identify as the protagonist. In this version of the game, you're treated to a quick cutscene that shows the Dragon Lord stealing the ball of light and kidnapping the Princess of Alifgaard, cutting to the protagonist standing before the King. So we're basically told of an ancient conflict between the evil Dragon Lord and the mighty hero Erdric, or Lotto as he's known in the Gameboy version, who defeated him and sealed away the darkness. Now, generations later, the Dragon Lord has somehow returned and with Erdric long gone, the King entrusts the protagonist, who has descended of Erdric, to defeat the Dragon Lord once again and bring peace to Alifgaard. If that seems like a lot to take in from an era of mostly games of zero narrative or dialogue, you're not wrong. Dragon Quest is a jam-packed lore, and you'll see allusions to the time of Erdric many times throughout the journey. It's details like these that make the world of Dragon Quest feel lived in and realistic, and it's super impressive that something like this was made so long ago. One aspect of the game that will immediately stand out and serve an important purpose in the game is the dialogue of the NPCs. They all have something interesting to say that can serve as either a hint or for more lore building. The hints are especially important as there's no quest log in the game, there's no flashing map icons either, and ignoring the paper map that comes with the NES version, there's no in-game map at all. Yet to complete the game using solely your own intuition based on clues you receive from NPC dialogue. So talking to people is a necessity in this game to get hints of where to go next. When we leave the castle we enter the Overworld of Alifgaard, which is a huge open space with many towns, caves, and dungeons for you to explore. At the beginning of the game there's virtually no limit of where you can and can't go, and you can visit locations in any order you want. In a game originally made in the 80s it's surprisingly ahead of its time. This kind of open world gameplay style is a selling point in modern titles like the Elder Scrolls, but here we have the same kind of setup. So from here we can actually see the Dragon Lord's Castle, it's right there. That's where the final boss is just over the river. Unfortunately it won't be so easy to get there, you can't just cross the water, so it'll be necessary to find a way around. And you can't venture too far away from the starting point immediately because of certain areas of the map have stronger enemies that can wipe your party out in one hit. The game basically encourages going to the nearby town of Tentagill start off with and is here where we get suited up at the item shop with a proper sword and we get further exposition from the townspeople. Like I mentioned earlier, listening to NPC dialogue is extremely important. There's no in-game map aside from the one that comes in the box, so you're going to have to remember to lay out a land. Talking to NPC's weird stories about a bard named Galen who lived long ago and how he had a harp that was buried with him. This may seem irrelevant at first, but it's still where Dragon Quest really excels with the importance of its dialogue. Another NPC mentions that Galen founded a new town to the north called Galenholm. This is our first direction to go. It's really amazing how the game naturally points players in new directions through clever hints like these. Going north on our way to Galenholm, we start running into monsters who are part of the Dragon Lord's army. The game uses a turn-based combat system and is the first of its kind. Battles allow you to attack, use magic that allows you to heal, do damage, and stop spells or try to run away. There are one-on-one fights and I generally wouldn't recommend running from fights as you'll often find yourself unable to flee, thus losing a turn and getting damaged. The great thing about the combat system is how quick it is. Fights can take just a few seconds, menus scroll very fast and they can be over in an instant. Serious creator and game industry visionary Yuji Hori designed the game intentionally for quick combat so that the player can move on faster. The further you get from the castle, the stronger enemies get and the more experience they give when you defeat them. When you get enough experience, you level up and this makes your stats higher, which will give you a fighting chance to get stronger monsters and allow you to explore more of the map. So this encourages players to gradually inch their way across the land as they get stronger and are able to take on more powerful opponents. It's a simple but extremely effective style of combat and remained a staple of JRPGs since the release of this game with many modern role-playing games adopting extremely similar styles of gameplay. The monster designs are especially good looking and have a lot of charm to them, with all of the character and monster designs in the game being done by Akira Toriyama, the mangaka behind the legendary comic series Dr. Slump. Monsters include cute slimes, bad-like creatures called drachies, strange vulture creatures, skeletons, golems, and they keep getting weirder. For the most part, there are just a handful of unique monsters in the game. As you get to higher level areas, you'll notice stronger versions of the monsters you've previously fought, with the only difference being that they're a different color. Monsters can ambush you taking the first hit or they can be completely unaware of you when the battle begins and some of them can even use spells on you. So on our way to Gallenholm, we find a mysterious cave and deep within the cave is a message from Airdrick to his descendant telling him that if the Dragon Lord ever returns, he should seek out three mystical items that are being trusted to three sages. Up until now, there hasn't been much direction, but now we know what must be done. So find the first sage, he says that he'll give us the first item in exchange for a magic harp. Hmm, so now where did we hear about a harp? See what I mean? The NPC dialogue is super important. We know the harp has to be buried with Gallen at Gallenholm, but you need a key to get into his tomb. So I wonder if we can find a key. Oh, what do you know? There's a town that sells keys to the east. I think I've made it clear how the rest of the game will work out. It's a game that requires investigation to complete tasks and this kind of game is never seen these days, which is a shame because I'd much rather play a game where I need to figure things out on my own rather than have it spoon fed to me. Characters in the game seem intelligent because they aren't trapped in their own little world. They know about events going on, they refer to people they know in other towns, and you can go to those towns and find people you've heard of. I've very rarely seen this kind of attention and detail with NPCs in the game who more often than not serve no purpose but to act as background decoration. In this game they actually have a purpose and feel like they belong in the world which further immerses the player in the game world. You never feel lost in the game, every objective or hidden item in the game is hinted at by some sort of NPC somewhere in the world. Dragon Quest isn't a game that's stuck in the present. It's a game set in a world with history, characters, and events that occur long ago, and this will become very clear when you start to unravel the secrets of the world. Making our way over to Vrimaldar we find the key shop and we find out about the second sage to the south, who is a bit of a jerk and demands that we show him proof that we're the descendant of Erdrick. So now we need both the Garen's harp and Erdrick's token to trade for the next two items. When you finally get the ability to buy keys, the game opens up and lasts for more exploration. One of the sages is hidden at the basement of the castle and gives you the Sun Stone. Next we enter Gallon's Tomb which no one is said to come back alive from, and I can see what they mean. Gallon's Tomb is an extremely complex maze-like dungeon with many floors and several staircases on each floor. The monsters get stronger and stronger the deeper you get into the tomb, and some staircases can bring you to a completely wrong part of the next floor that is sectioned off on the rest of the floor, leading to dead ends upon dead ends and a player being completely lost. Without using the included dungeon map with the game, I could see players being stuck wandering around the tomb for hours before finding the harp if they don't die before getting to it. Speaking of which, when you die in this game unlike other games, you don't get a game over. You actually wake up in front of the king, keeping all of your experience you've earned. The only thing you lose is half your gold you've collected, but everything else you found you keep, which I think is a great system that is just punishing enough without discouraging players who die. My main complaint with this system is that there is only one safe point in the whole game. In order to save, you have to approach the king in tentacle castle, so that means if you die and you are on a completely different continent, you have to walk all the way back to where you were from the castle. It's beyond knowing and it gets very old and very fast. You can create a field log at any time, which is a temporary save file, but if you load up the game, the save gets deleted, so that isn't a very good way of saving either. Thankfully later games in the Dragon Quest series fix this issue by leaving a safe point within every town, which is much more forgiving. Going back to the story, after getting Gallant's harp and bringing you back to the sage, he rewards you the rain staff. So that's two of the legendary items already obtained. Near the midpoint of the game, it gets more open-ended. The princess is actually not in the Dragon Lord's castle, believe it or not. She's actually located in a cave to the east, guarded by a dragon and locked behind a door. And here's the best part, it's completely optional to rescue the princess, I'm not even joking. You can just ignore saving her entirely in the game's ending and reflect that with her being absent. Talk about a dick move, but it's this kind of choice I find very intriguing. The game doesn't force you to do anything, it's really amazing, it's a very pure open-world experience. But I'm a nice guy, so of course I saved her and carried her back to the castle. There's also great attention to details that all the NPCs will have different dialogue when you talk to them after saving the princess. So at this point, most players assume the game is over, but it's only just begun. We still only storm the Dragon Lord's castle, and that requires finding Erdric's token so the second sage will acknowledge us. So we hear about a magic flute from a man in Rimmeldar buried near the Bath House. And this bath house is extremely risky for a Nintendo game. The women here give you something called a powder cloth massage, which is very sexual in nature, and I'm amazed they got away with something like this. Speaking of which, there's another Easteric intent to go where you can get a woman to follow you around, and checking in at the inn for the night with her will prompt the innkeeper to mention how you were up late. And he does not say this if you go to the inn alone, he just wishes you a good day, so this is totally intentional. This game just keeps getting better and better. Storming the Dragon Lord's castle can be tackled in many different ways, and you'll need those three items before entering it, which will take a lot of investigation more than anything. You'll have to discover new locations by talking to NPCs and interpreting different clues. It's a very thought-provoking way of presenting the game. The Dragon Lord can be fought with a variety of different armors and weapons, and there are special armor and weapon pieces hidden in the world that can be found while listening to NPCs and figuring out secrets, linking back to the time of Erdric. Like Garen's tomb, the Dragon Lord's castle is a very complex dungeon fake and experienced, and I recommend getting to at least level 23 before attempting it. You get to heal more spell level 17, which can heal you to almost full health at any time, and at 23 you have just enough magic to keep healing yourself in a long fight. This is also where Erdric's armor comes in handy. The armor heals you every few steps you take, so you can just keep walking around and not have to waste magic and healing yourself in tough enemy encounters in the castle. Earlier I said not to buy the Flame Sword, and for good reason too, hidden deep within the castle is a legendary sword of Erdric, which is wielded by the legendary hero himself all those years ago. With this nothing can stand in your way. When we finally get to the Dragon Lord, he will at first commend you for your strength. He then offers you the opportunity to join him and take half of the world. Saying yes to him is definitely not recommended. This will give you the bad ending, and you will wake up at the inn in Vimal Dar where you find out it was just a dream. So yeah, now you have the need to go all the way back to the Dragon Lord's castle, talk to him again, this time refusing to join him, and then beginning the fight. At first the fight seems a little too easy, as you can be beaten in just a few hits, but don't be fooled. The Dragon Lord has a much more powerful form that will really give you a hard time, even at your strongest expecting to kill you many times. It will take everything you've got to beat his second formy out to heal constantly and keep fighting. At long last I finally beat him and reclaim the ball of light. When this happens some monsters in the world disappear entirely, poison bugs are replaced with flowery meadows, and the townspeople all recognize you for your bravery for defeating the Dragon Lord. The game ends with the heroes setting off with the princess to form a new nation and rule over it. The game might take experienced players around eight hours, assuming you're using the dungeon maps in Nintendo included in the NES release, but playing the game blindly the first time around, it could take much longer due to the lack of an in-game world map, no quest logs, and the overall cryptic nature of the game that requires players to piece together everything themselves. This could lead to players finding themselves lost constantly if they don't pay attention, which has its positives and negatives, as it makes for a very good adventure game that may be difficult for new players. While certain aspects of the game seem dated, the title serves as a benchmark for the entire RPG genre to come. The games have come to take inspiration from the original Dragon Warrior including Final Fantasy, Shin Megami Tensei, and Pokemon, and many Western RPGs with an open-world game style were preceded by this game as well. Overall, I liked the game. Sure it's rough around the edges, but it's very enjoyable even to today, provided that you're playing the Game Boy version which is more modernized. The game holds up, it's fun to play, and NPCs in Dragon Quest are still to this day much more roller-in than NPCs in many modern games, which adds an investigative aspect to the core gameplay, really making you feel like an adventurer discovering new secrets. If you like JRPGs and old-school games, definitely pick this one up.