After binging on six classic final fantasy games, I thought it’d be a good idea to also play the games that started it all, Dragon Quest. Everyone around me told me it was going to be a grindfest and that honestly scared me in preparing for the worst. Turns out, the game is alright. The most vanilla of RPG tropes and gameplay is there and that’s fine but what’s most interesting is how the game guides you in what direction to go next with the difficulty of monsters depending on the area. After a while though I found it incredibly tedious so I ended up using a guide instead but I would still praise that design choice for its time. The bosses in the late game were the worst though, as it forced me to grind from level 15 all the way to level 25 to actually be able to properly defeat most of them which did sour my overall thoughts of the game. This game is tedious and outdated, but to experience it as a historical artifact of that era, I can respect it. 4/10, I’d rather be playing Final Fantasy.