If I had to describe Dragon Quest in a single word, I would say that it's charming.
Dragon Quest, known as Dragon Warrior in the US until the mid-2000s, is one of the most popular video game franchises of all time. My first experience with the franchise was playing the Definitive Edition of Dragon Quest XI on my Nintendo Switch. I loved it. I loved Dragon Quest XI so much that it became an implicit mission in my brain to play as much Dragon Quest as a I can. This lead to me deciding that I need to "do my homework" and play the original Dragon Quest. Rather than playing the version localized in the United States as Dragon Warrior, I decided to play a fan-translation of the Super-Famicom port, released in 1993 as part of the Japanese-Exclusive Dragon Quest 1&2. Featuring beautifully updated 16-bit graphics, the game also streamlines some of the overworld menu and contains a save function which was not present in the original Japanese release, which had a password system.
At its core, Dragon Quest is a simple game. You have a single party member, all battles are fought one-on-one, you only learn ten spells. Most of the game is spent traveling from point A to point B, managing your health and mp as you grind through random encounters. If you die you return to the starting castle, losing half of the gold you're carrying on your person. You go to a town, talk to the NPCs, find out you need to go somewhere else, rinse, repeat. When put into such blunt language this might sound boring, but there was a level of charm that came with all of this. The NPCs would occasionally say something that made me laugh or I would find myself in an encounter that I wasn't sure I could survive and I would get excited when I won. These small moments made for a memorable experience that I found myself cherishing. Through its gameplay and language I saw a strand of DNA that has been present in so many games I've played before.
It'd be easy to look at Dragon Quest as a relic of the past that has been iterated or improved upon over the past 35 years. Viewing it as some antiquated experience undersells the game. I initially played it because I felt like I should do it as a new fan of the franchise. And what I found was a new appreciation for the franchise and what its done for video games since it was released in 1986. You owe it to yourself to at least try it out.
Dragon Quest, known as Dragon Warrior in the US until the mid-2000s, is one of the most popular video game franchises of all time. My first experience with the franchise was playing the Definitive Edition of Dragon Quest XI on my Nintendo Switch. I loved it. I loved Dragon Quest XI so much that it became an implicit mission in my brain to play as much Dragon Quest as a I can. This lead to me deciding that I need to "do my homework" and play the original Dragon Quest. Rather than playing the version localized in the United States as Dragon Warrior, I decided to play a fan-translation of the Super-Famicom port, released in 1993 as part of the Japanese-Exclusive Dragon Quest 1&2. Featuring beautifully updated 16-bit graphics, the game also streamlines some of the overworld menu and contains a save function which was not present in the original Japanese release, which had a password system.
At its core, Dragon Quest is a simple game. You have a single party member, all battles are fought one-on-one, you only learn ten spells. Most of the game is spent traveling from point A to point B, managing your health and mp as you grind through random encounters. If you die you return to the starting castle, losing half of the gold you're carrying on your person. You go to a town, talk to the NPCs, find out you need to go somewhere else, rinse, repeat. When put into such blunt language this might sound boring, but there was a level of charm that came with all of this. The NPCs would occasionally say something that made me laugh or I would find myself in an encounter that I wasn't sure I could survive and I would get excited when I won. These small moments made for a memorable experience that I found myself cherishing. Through its gameplay and language I saw a strand of DNA that has been present in so many games I've played before.
It'd be easy to look at Dragon Quest as a relic of the past that has been iterated or improved upon over the past 35 years. Viewing it as some antiquated experience undersells the game. I initially played it because I felt like I should do it as a new fan of the franchise. And what I found was a new appreciation for the franchise and what its done for video games since it was released in 1986. You owe it to yourself to at least try it out.