There's a common misconception that the original Dragon Quest, as most early JPRGs, is a bit on the grindier side. That, of course, is not true. The game does not have periods of grinding taking you away from the progression. Instead, the core of the game, the one way to solve all problems and what defines the progression, is grinding.
Let me back up a bit. Released in 1986, originally on Famicom, DQ1 is one of the earliest attempts to translate the complicated and rather niche CPRGs of time to a simpler template and simultaneously lower the barrier to entry by releasing the game on a home console. As a result, the first Dragon Quest is a very simple game. You control a silent hero, named by the player, who happens to be a descendant of a legendary figure of ages past. The king of the land asks you to save his daughter and rid the kingdom of a powerful Dragonlord, whose minions are terrorizing the surrounding continents. A simple premise goes along with simple game design. There's no party to control, just your one protagonist. As a result of that, there's no separation of roles -- the hero is a warrior, a mage and a healer all at once. Stats exist (strength, vitality and speed) but have no real importance beyond showing your current power level. Thus, the core gameplay loop is laid down: follow a clue and investigate the world map -> encounter new enemies -> beat the enemies until you get your numbers up/save enough for new gear/feel comfortable doing random encounters -> go to the next region with stronger enemies to pursue the plot and repeat.
The combat does not offer many options. You are limited to:
- sword swings;
- fire spell;
- stronger fire spell;
- sleep spell;
- silence spell.
The thing about the damaging fire spells is that, since there's no stat governing magic damage, eventually (just in a couple levels even) your basic physical attack with outnumber the spell. Sleep barely works (at least on the SFC version I played) and is thus a waste of a turn. Silence is situationally useful as a counter to the enemies' Sleep spell, but usually it only saves you from one or two unnecessary hits. This lack of options means that all the fights in the game can be represented as a battle of resources, where the player's actions follow a simple algorithm: exhange hits with the enemy until your HP reaches x, then heal, repeat; if no more MP, use healing herbs; if no more herbs, go and grind until your numbers are high enough to not run out of resources in the fight. The only exceptions to this seem to be the first boss battle against a dragon, whom you can apparently put to sleep, if you're lucky enough, and the second boss battle against the Golem, whom you can also put to sleep by using a key item, which is the intended way to do that fight. For the rest of the game, grinding is your only solution.
The other design choice that you might notice is that a lot of parts in the system become outdated and replaced. The initial Fire spell is a good example, as it lasts exactly a couple levels until your physical attacks become as strong as the magic spell. But there are also various items that are at some point replaced by field magic. Torches are an important part of the early game. You absolutely need them to explore various pitch black caves on the map, so you need to have a couple torches in your inventory at all times (your limited inventory, mind you). But only until you learn a spell that functionally replaces torches for good. The same happens with teleport items and holy water, an item that turns off random encounters. It's all convenient and welcome, but it also feels less like an upgrade and more like the game presenting you with solutions to a problem it itself created.
Now, I realize the paragraphs above read exceptionally negative, but it's not my intent to bash a pioneering game for having outdated design philosophy. In fact, there are a lot of things DQ1 does right and that have formed (at least part of) the skeleton of the genre for years to come, from map design and random encounters to town layouts to multiphased boss fights. But what I think the game does best is the Quest part of its title. The adventure you set out on is actually quite simple as it leads you back and forth across the rather small-scale map of the kingdom. Every step makes logical sense and talking to NPCs in towns gives you clues about where to go next. They never feel particularly cryptic, and right away you're given several clear long and short term objectives. It's never "uhhhh I need to find a generic NPC in one of the towns and show him this new key item, because apparently that generic NPC is not so generic after all".
You also constantly keep looping back to the starting castle, which in the older versions of the game, is the only place where you can save. So you're actually slowly exploring the world outwards from the center, going in alternating directions, which works quite well for a world this small and densely packed (the final dungeon is literally visible from the starting point on the world map). The whole thing feels like a tabletop short story presented for a single player, which is the vibe the developers were aiming at here, I'm guessing.
The other thing I admired about DQ1 is its character and presentation. The admittedly limited writing here manages to not only set up the general conflict and the backstory, but also not be as dry as some of the other titles of the era (looking at you, FF1). Talking to NPCs in towns often gives you little stories to go along with them instead of the generic greetings and information about the town/next dungeon. There's a couple in the castle who are deeply in love, there's a girl in the starting town who says that you're so handsome she's not gonna lose sight of you, and she then proceeds to follow you around town until you leave. Even the generic weapon shopkeeper is like "well, yes, why wouldn't you want to equip this fantastic gear you bought right away? it's only natural" every time you buy something. The protagonist is a blank slate with no standout features, except for the horned helmet. Yet I was delighted to see that, after you rescue the princess from the dungeon guarded by a dragon, the hero carries her in his arms and it's actually reflected in the spritework. The fact that you have to carry the princess back to the castle (suprising the NPCs on the way with good news) is also a neat bit of character to remember the game by.
In the end, DQ1 is more of a historical curiosity, offering insight into very early JRPG design. But its short runtime (6-7-ish hours for me) and colorful presentation counterbalance the chore of grinding, resulting in a surprisingly enjoyable experience for a game that is more than 35 years old at this point.
Let me back up a bit. Released in 1986, originally on Famicom, DQ1 is one of the earliest attempts to translate the complicated and rather niche CPRGs of time to a simpler template and simultaneously lower the barrier to entry by releasing the game on a home console. As a result, the first Dragon Quest is a very simple game. You control a silent hero, named by the player, who happens to be a descendant of a legendary figure of ages past. The king of the land asks you to save his daughter and rid the kingdom of a powerful Dragonlord, whose minions are terrorizing the surrounding continents. A simple premise goes along with simple game design. There's no party to control, just your one protagonist. As a result of that, there's no separation of roles -- the hero is a warrior, a mage and a healer all at once. Stats exist (strength, vitality and speed) but have no real importance beyond showing your current power level. Thus, the core gameplay loop is laid down: follow a clue and investigate the world map -> encounter new enemies -> beat the enemies until you get your numbers up/save enough for new gear/feel comfortable doing random encounters -> go to the next region with stronger enemies to pursue the plot and repeat.
The combat does not offer many options. You are limited to:
- sword swings;
- fire spell;
- stronger fire spell;
- sleep spell;
- silence spell.
The thing about the damaging fire spells is that, since there's no stat governing magic damage, eventually (just in a couple levels even) your basic physical attack with outnumber the spell. Sleep barely works (at least on the SFC version I played) and is thus a waste of a turn. Silence is situationally useful as a counter to the enemies' Sleep spell, but usually it only saves you from one or two unnecessary hits. This lack of options means that all the fights in the game can be represented as a battle of resources, where the player's actions follow a simple algorithm: exhange hits with the enemy until your HP reaches x, then heal, repeat; if no more MP, use healing herbs; if no more herbs, go and grind until your numbers are high enough to not run out of resources in the fight. The only exceptions to this seem to be the first boss battle against a dragon, whom you can apparently put to sleep, if you're lucky enough, and the second boss battle against the Golem, whom you can also put to sleep by using a key item, which is the intended way to do that fight. For the rest of the game, grinding is your only solution.
The other design choice that you might notice is that a lot of parts in the system become outdated and replaced. The initial Fire spell is a good example, as it lasts exactly a couple levels until your physical attacks become as strong as the magic spell. But there are also various items that are at some point replaced by field magic. Torches are an important part of the early game. You absolutely need them to explore various pitch black caves on the map, so you need to have a couple torches in your inventory at all times (your limited inventory, mind you). But only until you learn a spell that functionally replaces torches for good. The same happens with teleport items and holy water, an item that turns off random encounters. It's all convenient and welcome, but it also feels less like an upgrade and more like the game presenting you with solutions to a problem it itself created.
Now, I realize the paragraphs above read exceptionally negative, but it's not my intent to bash a pioneering game for having outdated design philosophy. In fact, there are a lot of things DQ1 does right and that have formed (at least part of) the skeleton of the genre for years to come, from map design and random encounters to town layouts to multiphased boss fights. But what I think the game does best is the Quest part of its title. The adventure you set out on is actually quite simple as it leads you back and forth across the rather small-scale map of the kingdom. Every step makes logical sense and talking to NPCs in towns gives you clues about where to go next. They never feel particularly cryptic, and right away you're given several clear long and short term objectives. It's never "uhhhh I need to find a generic NPC in one of the towns and show him this new key item, because apparently that generic NPC is not so generic after all".
You also constantly keep looping back to the starting castle, which in the older versions of the game, is the only place where you can save. So you're actually slowly exploring the world outwards from the center, going in alternating directions, which works quite well for a world this small and densely packed (the final dungeon is literally visible from the starting point on the world map). The whole thing feels like a tabletop short story presented for a single player, which is the vibe the developers were aiming at here, I'm guessing.
The other thing I admired about DQ1 is its character and presentation. The admittedly limited writing here manages to not only set up the general conflict and the backstory, but also not be as dry as some of the other titles of the era (looking at you, FF1). Talking to NPCs in towns often gives you little stories to go along with them instead of the generic greetings and information about the town/next dungeon. There's a couple in the castle who are deeply in love, there's a girl in the starting town who says that you're so handsome she's not gonna lose sight of you, and she then proceeds to follow you around town until you leave. Even the generic weapon shopkeeper is like "well, yes, why wouldn't you want to equip this fantastic gear you bought right away? it's only natural" every time you buy something. The protagonist is a blank slate with no standout features, except for the horned helmet. Yet I was delighted to see that, after you rescue the princess from the dungeon guarded by a dragon, the hero carries her in his arms and it's actually reflected in the spritework. The fact that you have to carry the princess back to the castle (suprising the NPCs on the way with good news) is also a neat bit of character to remember the game by.
In the end, DQ1 is more of a historical curiosity, offering insight into very early JRPG design. But its short runtime (6-7-ish hours for me) and colorful presentation counterbalance the chore of grinding, resulting in a surprisingly enjoyable experience for a game that is more than 35 years old at this point.