There is something so special about Dragon Quest aside from it being the origin of JRPGs. I've played so many inventive, unique, creative and strange JRPGs before I played Dragon Quest, yet this game managed to capture my heart. It accomplished this by being so incredibly simple, and while that is a really cliche thing to say about the game, I think there's so much more merit to the "simple" description than meets the eye. That is to say, by being so simple, the game takes advantage of what I consider the most important thing to any RPG, imagination.
From the days of Dungeons & Dragons, imagination played a key role in making an RPG fun. And when the genre made their jump to computers and consoles, this remained true for some of the earliest iterations. Games like Wizardry, Ultima and Akalabeth had such rudimentary graphics and stories that it left room for the player to fill in the blanks and make these worlds feel alive. And sometimes, the player's imagination can do some real heavy lifting.
I can attest. I was the kind of kid that grew up as a fan of Earthbound and would strike poses, holding my hands out at the TV screen acting like I was Ness casting PK Rockin at the opponent. This was in 2008, when console graphics were progressively getting better and better. While the visual fidelity of the PS3 and Xbox 360 were capable of telling stories with amazing graphics, for some reason I always preferred that dusty, old obscure SNES game before anything else simply because my imagination, with the game being the foundation, took me on an adventure I still hold onto so dearly as a core memory.
I had played Dragon Quest around that time as well, but I was so Earthbound-crazy that it didn't really capture my attention for too long. I decided to return to the game with a fresh mind recently. Going into it, I was no longer that kid excited for Earthbound. I was an adult, who had gone through so many things. I didn't become cynical or anything, I just wasn't so easily excitable about games like back then.
Yet, when I played Dragon Quest, something happened. The game had various moments that activated my imagination and began to reel me in. The first one happens the moment you leave the first town. When you set foot into the overworld you are able see the final area of the game. It's far out of your reach but well in sight. That suddenly made the world feel big to me. I was some shlump with basic equipment, struggling to fight slimes, but with the final castle in my view, I knew a greater potential for me was possible. It was just a matter of how to achieve it; maybe I could grind enemies, chart out the world, get better equipment, go into a cave that was beyond my level but get a lucky critical hit to conquer it. These all are simple things in RPGs now but in DQ, it made the world feel open and it all started with the game dropping you into the world, showing you your final objective and just let's you go from there.
The second moment was as I was exploring the overworld, I came across a town that was completely destroyed. There was no inhabitants left to explain anything, hardly anything to interact with. Yet because there was very little information, I was left wondering "What happened here? Why is this town the only one destroyed?" It's such a simple thing, with an obvious explanation but I think the reason it caught me by surprise was because the game gets you in a loop of exploring, conquering a challenge and then resting in a new town for bit, repeat. This destroyed town was probably a choice to break up the pace. But it goes a long way to suddenly making you feel uncomfortable, in danger and curious.
The final moment was when you defeat the Green Dragon to save the princess. She asks if you can take her back to her castle and you agree. I was expecting her sprite to follow you, or something simple but no. The game displays an entirely new set of sprites of you carrying the princess. THIS IS THE MOST CLICHE FANTASY RPG TROPE EVER! And yet when I saw that they made this moment, they went through the trouble of making a whole new sprite set for this scene, it gave me this feeling of "Hell yeah! I SAVED THE PRINCESS."
Writing all of this out makes me sound like a bit of a man-child getting hyped about such a silly generic RPG such as Dragon Quest, but you know what, having that kind of imagination and excitement for a game is fun. Having that kind of excitement tells me that there's still so much more to life. That even in the smallest things, something amazing can be found. And I just gotta go out there with an open mind to find it.
Dragon Quest would go on to refine the formula they established here and would consistently up the quality with each new game. Every DQ game is so wonderful and it all began with the very deliberate design choices the developers made here. They clearly wanted the player to feel like they're on an adventure and for someone like me, they passed with flying colors.
This is why, in spite of being a 37 year old game, with so many other games having done the JRPG formula better, Dragon Quest being simple shows why and how RPGs are fun, even in their most pure, fundamental form. And that is why I am going to love this series for the rest of my life.
From the days of Dungeons & Dragons, imagination played a key role in making an RPG fun. And when the genre made their jump to computers and consoles, this remained true for some of the earliest iterations. Games like Wizardry, Ultima and Akalabeth had such rudimentary graphics and stories that it left room for the player to fill in the blanks and make these worlds feel alive. And sometimes, the player's imagination can do some real heavy lifting.
I can attest. I was the kind of kid that grew up as a fan of Earthbound and would strike poses, holding my hands out at the TV screen acting like I was Ness casting PK Rockin at the opponent. This was in 2008, when console graphics were progressively getting better and better. While the visual fidelity of the PS3 and Xbox 360 were capable of telling stories with amazing graphics, for some reason I always preferred that dusty, old obscure SNES game before anything else simply because my imagination, with the game being the foundation, took me on an adventure I still hold onto so dearly as a core memory.
I had played Dragon Quest around that time as well, but I was so Earthbound-crazy that it didn't really capture my attention for too long. I decided to return to the game with a fresh mind recently. Going into it, I was no longer that kid excited for Earthbound. I was an adult, who had gone through so many things. I didn't become cynical or anything, I just wasn't so easily excitable about games like back then.
Yet, when I played Dragon Quest, something happened. The game had various moments that activated my imagination and began to reel me in. The first one happens the moment you leave the first town. When you set foot into the overworld you are able see the final area of the game. It's far out of your reach but well in sight. That suddenly made the world feel big to me. I was some shlump with basic equipment, struggling to fight slimes, but with the final castle in my view, I knew a greater potential for me was possible. It was just a matter of how to achieve it; maybe I could grind enemies, chart out the world, get better equipment, go into a cave that was beyond my level but get a lucky critical hit to conquer it. These all are simple things in RPGs now but in DQ, it made the world feel open and it all started with the game dropping you into the world, showing you your final objective and just let's you go from there.
The second moment was as I was exploring the overworld, I came across a town that was completely destroyed. There was no inhabitants left to explain anything, hardly anything to interact with. Yet because there was very little information, I was left wondering "What happened here? Why is this town the only one destroyed?" It's such a simple thing, with an obvious explanation but I think the reason it caught me by surprise was because the game gets you in a loop of exploring, conquering a challenge and then resting in a new town for bit, repeat. This destroyed town was probably a choice to break up the pace. But it goes a long way to suddenly making you feel uncomfortable, in danger and curious.
The final moment was when you defeat the Green Dragon to save the princess. She asks if you can take her back to her castle and you agree. I was expecting her sprite to follow you, or something simple but no. The game displays an entirely new set of sprites of you carrying the princess. THIS IS THE MOST CLICHE FANTASY RPG TROPE EVER! And yet when I saw that they made this moment, they went through the trouble of making a whole new sprite set for this scene, it gave me this feeling of "Hell yeah! I SAVED THE PRINCESS."
Writing all of this out makes me sound like a bit of a man-child getting hyped about such a silly generic RPG such as Dragon Quest, but you know what, having that kind of imagination and excitement for a game is fun. Having that kind of excitement tells me that there's still so much more to life. That even in the smallest things, something amazing can be found. And I just gotta go out there with an open mind to find it.
Dragon Quest would go on to refine the formula they established here and would consistently up the quality with each new game. Every DQ game is so wonderful and it all began with the very deliberate design choices the developers made here. They clearly wanted the player to feel like they're on an adventure and for someone like me, they passed with flying colors.
This is why, in spite of being a 37 year old game, with so many other games having done the JRPG formula better, Dragon Quest being simple shows why and how RPGs are fun, even in their most pure, fundamental form. And that is why I am going to love this series for the rest of my life.