Two legendary JRPGs packaged in one.
I’d give 1 a 7/10 and 2 about a 5. Neither of these aged well id say but its nice to see where it all began.
I’d give 1 a 7/10 and 2 about a 5. Neither of these aged well id say but its nice to see where it all began.
Dragon Quest 1
I've previously dropped this game three times: once on NES after fiddling around a bit, once on SFC after hearing the English patch was buggy, and a second time on NES when the grind went from monotonous to torturous. It turned out that the secret recipe for finishing the game called for (1) a version of it with a content:grind ratio that can be represented as a whole number, (2) playing in Japanese so I can tell myself I'm practicing my reading, and (3) a little turbo for spice.
It's a solid enough game. The writing has these cute little flourishes: everyone talks about 「勇者ロト」, "the hero Lot," but in the message he left on his tombstone, he introduces himself as simply 「ロト」, "Lot."
It can't be overstated how many kindnesses this version* offers the player. Higher stats, more EXP and gold, stronger spells—it's gone from a brutal grindfest to something a mildly patient player could play without turbo (though the encounter rate grates). There is one change for the worse: movement is now performed in half-tile increments, despite the world (visually and collision-wise) still being made up of whole tiles. Why?
I'll probably play DQ2 eventually.
* I understand that this wasn't the first release to make these changes.
I've previously dropped this game three times: once on NES after fiddling around a bit, once on SFC after hearing the English patch was buggy, and a second time on NES when the grind went from monotonous to torturous. It turned out that the secret recipe for finishing the game called for (1) a version of it with a content:grind ratio that can be represented as a whole number, (2) playing in Japanese so I can tell myself I'm practicing my reading, and (3) a little turbo for spice.
It's a solid enough game. The writing has these cute little flourishes: everyone talks about 「勇者ロト」, "the hero Lot," but in the message he left on his tombstone, he introduces himself as simply 「ロト」, "Lot."
It can't be overstated how many kindnesses this version* offers the player. Higher stats, more EXP and gold, stronger spells—it's gone from a brutal grindfest to something a mildly patient player could play without turbo (though the encounter rate grates). There is one change for the worse: movement is now performed in half-tile increments, despite the world (visually and collision-wise) still being made up of whole tiles. Why?
I'll probably play DQ2 eventually.
* I understand that this wasn't the first release to make these changes.