Dragon Quest is a groundbreaking and iconic game from the 80's. It did what Mario and Zelda did for their genres and kickstarted the JRPG genre. The Dragon Quest series has been a modest success in recent years in the west, but it has always been a massive success in Japan.
With Dragon Quest being the first game in the franchise, it's interesting to see the roots of this important franchise. Does it hold up today? Is it a worthwhile playthrough? Well, yes and no.
The story is super basic. The Dragonlord stole the Orb of Light and kidnapped Princess Gwaelin of Tantegel. As the descendant of the legendary hero Erdrick (or Loto in the Japanese version), you are called upon by Tantegel's king to defeat the Dragonlord and reclaim what has been lost. The story is only blatantly conveyed in a few text boxes at the beginning and end of the game (there are others in the game, but more on those in a bit). The story is told through its NPC's and visually through its overworld. An amazing example of this is with Charlock Castle, the lair of the Dragonlord. It is right across a river from Tantegel Castle, but there seems to be no way to get to the castly by foot. As such, your quest already has its end goal in sight, and you just need to find a way to get stronger and reach that end goal.
Another clever thing that Dragon Quest's narrative does has to do with the princess. Most games where you save a princess at the time (i.e. King's Knight or Super Mario Bros) see you beat the final boss and then find the princess in the next room with little trouble. That's fine and all, but it's not super interesting. In Dragon Quest, saving the princess is optional. If you don't find her, you don't get the best ending, but she's still optional nonetheless. You have to search the world for her. She isn't even in Charlock Castle, and I think that's very clever.
The enemies are iconic. Slimes, skeletons, chimaeras, dragons, they're all here. Many enemies are series staples, not missing a single mainline installment, and even the more obscure enemies like Drohl Drones and Lunaticks make reappearances now and then. The only enemy that never saw a reappearance was the Prestidigitator line, which would reappear in name, but the design never returned. Akira Toriyama's work on this game's bestiary, and those of the other Dragon Quest games, is a masterclass in making lively and iconic monsters for an RPG.
Traversing the world is a large puzzle. NPC's will give you pointers on where to go, but very few paths are laid out for you. While some may find it frustrating, it aids in a sense of exploration and discovery that leaves you curious. It's also satisfying to find an important item. The worst thing you can do is play this game with a guide.
Combat is simple. You can attack, use items, defend, use spells, and run. You only have one party member and you only fight one monster. Magic is alright. Healing magic is always useful. There's field spells that can clear up your limited inventory from carrying chimaera wings or torches. However, I've always found offensive spells to be underwhelming and status spells are useless. Combat boils down to attacking and healing. It's serviceable, but there's no variety. Never in the game are you expected to be strategic and exploit weaknesses or change tactics.
The worst part of this game is the grinding. Play this game blind, I implore you. The monsters you fight going back and forth will keep you adequately leveled and you'll still feel like you're making progress. I didn't play the game blind, and when I reached the southeast corner of the map, I was too weak to take on any enemies, but too strong to get any significant gains in XP from any other enemies on the map. Grinding took an abhorrent amount of time as level up times took longer and longer and the value of the XP of weaker enemies grew smaller and smaller. I beat this game, however on an emulator with the speedup function to make it bearable. If you know what you're doing, avoid official hardware to avoid the frustration.
Does Dragon Quest hold up? Yes. While VERY simple, it was very innovative for 1986 and it's not bogged down by any game design flaws that many NES/Famicom developers fell victim to in those days. Is it worthwhile though? I don't know. One blind playthrough is a joy to experience. However once you know how to beat the game, it loses its magic and becomes a slog.
I give this game a 7/10. It's enjoyable, but not replayable.
With Dragon Quest being the first game in the franchise, it's interesting to see the roots of this important franchise. Does it hold up today? Is it a worthwhile playthrough? Well, yes and no.
The story is super basic. The Dragonlord stole the Orb of Light and kidnapped Princess Gwaelin of Tantegel. As the descendant of the legendary hero Erdrick (or Loto in the Japanese version), you are called upon by Tantegel's king to defeat the Dragonlord and reclaim what has been lost. The story is only blatantly conveyed in a few text boxes at the beginning and end of the game (there are others in the game, but more on those in a bit). The story is told through its NPC's and visually through its overworld. An amazing example of this is with Charlock Castle, the lair of the Dragonlord. It is right across a river from Tantegel Castle, but there seems to be no way to get to the castly by foot. As such, your quest already has its end goal in sight, and you just need to find a way to get stronger and reach that end goal.
Another clever thing that Dragon Quest's narrative does has to do with the princess. Most games where you save a princess at the time (i.e. King's Knight or Super Mario Bros) see you beat the final boss and then find the princess in the next room with little trouble. That's fine and all, but it's not super interesting. In Dragon Quest, saving the princess is optional. If you don't find her, you don't get the best ending, but she's still optional nonetheless. You have to search the world for her. She isn't even in Charlock Castle, and I think that's very clever.
The enemies are iconic. Slimes, skeletons, chimaeras, dragons, they're all here. Many enemies are series staples, not missing a single mainline installment, and even the more obscure enemies like Drohl Drones and Lunaticks make reappearances now and then. The only enemy that never saw a reappearance was the Prestidigitator line, which would reappear in name, but the design never returned. Akira Toriyama's work on this game's bestiary, and those of the other Dragon Quest games, is a masterclass in making lively and iconic monsters for an RPG.
Traversing the world is a large puzzle. NPC's will give you pointers on where to go, but very few paths are laid out for you. While some may find it frustrating, it aids in a sense of exploration and discovery that leaves you curious. It's also satisfying to find an important item. The worst thing you can do is play this game with a guide.
Combat is simple. You can attack, use items, defend, use spells, and run. You only have one party member and you only fight one monster. Magic is alright. Healing magic is always useful. There's field spells that can clear up your limited inventory from carrying chimaera wings or torches. However, I've always found offensive spells to be underwhelming and status spells are useless. Combat boils down to attacking and healing. It's serviceable, but there's no variety. Never in the game are you expected to be strategic and exploit weaknesses or change tactics.
The worst part of this game is the grinding. Play this game blind, I implore you. The monsters you fight going back and forth will keep you adequately leveled and you'll still feel like you're making progress. I didn't play the game blind, and when I reached the southeast corner of the map, I was too weak to take on any enemies, but too strong to get any significant gains in XP from any other enemies on the map. Grinding took an abhorrent amount of time as level up times took longer and longer and the value of the XP of weaker enemies grew smaller and smaller. I beat this game, however on an emulator with the speedup function to make it bearable. If you know what you're doing, avoid official hardware to avoid the frustration.
Does Dragon Quest hold up? Yes. While VERY simple, it was very innovative for 1986 and it's not bogged down by any game design flaws that many NES/Famicom developers fell victim to in those days. Is it worthwhile though? I don't know. One blind playthrough is a joy to experience. However once you know how to beat the game, it loses its magic and becomes a slog.
I give this game a 7/10. It's enjoyable, but not replayable.