There's a style to 80s video game RPGs that doesn't really exist anymore but is exemplified by the original Dragon Quest. The game world is more or less wide open - there are a few lock-and-key puzzles that require the player to get a certain key item or clear a certain dungeon to open up another chunk of the map, but those are the exception to the rule; were those checks not there, it would be theoretically possible for a gutsy player to wander from Tantagel clear to the lowest sub-basement of Charlock Castle as soon as the game opens. The limiting factor is the player's avatar strength - at Level 1, you're barely strong enough to clear the Slimes and Red Slimes outside Tantagel. Don't even think about roughing it with the Starwyverns and Dragons in the end game. No, all there is to do is to GRIND.
Normally I'm opposed to excessive grinding in my RPGs. I'm impatient, I have better things to do in video games than wait around until the numbers go up. But there's something to how it comes across in the original Dragon Quest that's super cozy. I think, because the sum total of the experience is the grind, once the player comes to realize that's all there is, they're able to enter into something of a zen state. Progress in the overworld is checked organically by the challenge posed by random encounters. More than make the numbers go up, every level expands the player's access to the game world, bit by bit. There's something extremely empowering to how much of a difference Level 2 makes over Level 1, then again for Level 3 over 2 (HEAL opens up SO MUCH of the map). Even then, the game never stops posing a challenge - Charlock Castle is brilliant in just how long it is, requiring the player to traverse seemingly endless floor after floor of endgame monsters slowly whittling away at your resources.
I think it's easy to be turned off by how simple and grindy the original Dragon Quest is these days, but I dunno - there's a purity of form to it that makes it still a nice, cozy playthrough for me.
Also, I know Dragon Quest's fondness for silly accents is a localization quirk from after the Square-Enix merger, but it's cute that even in the early Enix days of it being Dragon Warrior, it had fun with its excessive "thou hast"s and "thy"s.
Normally I'm opposed to excessive grinding in my RPGs. I'm impatient, I have better things to do in video games than wait around until the numbers go up. But there's something to how it comes across in the original Dragon Quest that's super cozy. I think, because the sum total of the experience is the grind, once the player comes to realize that's all there is, they're able to enter into something of a zen state. Progress in the overworld is checked organically by the challenge posed by random encounters. More than make the numbers go up, every level expands the player's access to the game world, bit by bit. There's something extremely empowering to how much of a difference Level 2 makes over Level 1, then again for Level 3 over 2 (HEAL opens up SO MUCH of the map). Even then, the game never stops posing a challenge - Charlock Castle is brilliant in just how long it is, requiring the player to traverse seemingly endless floor after floor of endgame monsters slowly whittling away at your resources.
I think it's easy to be turned off by how simple and grindy the original Dragon Quest is these days, but I dunno - there's a purity of form to it that makes it still a nice, cozy playthrough for me.
Also, I know Dragon Quest's fondness for silly accents is a localization quirk from after the Square-Enix merger, but it's cute that even in the early Enix days of it being Dragon Warrior, it had fun with its excessive "thou hast"s and "thy"s.
Reviewed on Jun 02, 2023