I understand why it's beloved, having finally played it. There's surprising depth, a lot of hidden paths and puzzles, and you just can't beat Toriyama's monster designs for the series. But otherwise it's aged as expected and that much can't be helped. The RPG genre was flooded between the NES and the PC-Engine eras, and both ends of that spectrum offer amazing titles and so almost anything can get lost in the flood.

Dragon Quest, thankfully, falls an inch or so closer to marvel than mediocrity by modern standards, ensuring that it will rightfully endure the test of time to some degree for as long as the medium exists.

A remake of the OG JRPG, and almost certainly the earliest version of this game that I'd recommend playing due to the numerous quality of life and pacing improvements in this port. It's a simple premise: we are the descendant of the legendary hero Loto / Erdrick and we've got a villainous Dracolord to stop. It's old-fashioned but then again, so is Dragon Warrior as a franchise, and it's partly what it keeps it so popular over all this time - you can always rely on a Dragon Quest game to give you a solid high fantasy time.

Gameplay is precisely what you'd expect from the Ur-JRPG. Our hero wanders about towns across the land, fighting monsters and hoovering gold to exchange for better equipment, and occasionally you come across some legendary items to help your quest. Combat is strictly turn-based and very menu-heavy. It might not be a game for everyone, but as a lover of both JRPGs and of pieces of videogame history, I think Dragon Warrior (or at least its later ports) hold up remarkably well.

A very basic and by-the-numbers RPG. Very grind-heavy, but finished at level 19. Still don't really care for the save system, but it's so short that it's not too much of an issue. The limited item slots (only 10) were also a bit of a pain a couple of times, but again, the game's short, so it's not a real problem for most of the game. The Game Boy/Color version (it's a dual compatibility cartridge) is a decent way to play DW1 on the go, though. The field log is a bit awkward and doesn't replace a hard save, so be careful when using it.

+ Classic RPG
+ Actually hide a lot of puzzles / quests really well
+ Enemy design(s) are iconic
~ World was incredibly big for it's time
~ Princess isn't even in a castle
~ Growth stats were based on your name
~ Older Versions have you use the menu for every command
~ Older Versions are far heavier on grinding
- No matter what version, grinding is the key to this game
- A lot of the later game items are too cryptic to find on your own