These Dragon Quest games are, ultimately, "cozy" games. It's true that these are basically takes on Wizardry and Ultima, but between Toriyama's cute visuals, Sugiyama's charming compositions, and Horii's simple (or "pure", as he's called it) design, we end up with perfect "bedtime" games to play on a handheld. Some may find it boring, but this is as chill and satisfying as adventure roleplaying gets. It's no wonder these games spawned a videogame dynasty.

There's certainly a lot of charm to Esper Dream--largely due to the legendary Kinuyo Yamashita's bopping tunes--but aside from some quirk and charm, there's not much else to enjoy. A solid concept, but it falters in its technical and design choices. It's interesting to see the team at Konami play around with early JRPG concepts less than one year after the first Dragon Quest, but it doesn't really culminate into anything very fun or exciting. At least, it paved the way to a much better sequel.