This game isn't, by any reasonable measure, actually good, I think in general JRPGs didn't really find their stride until the SNES. But I find it useful to return to from time to time as a reminder of what the Default JRPG Experience is. Pokemon, Final Fantasy, SMT/Persona, all of it has its roots in the time that a visual novel writer and the Dragon Ball guy decided to adapt the role-playing game for a home console.
You spend 90% of the game mindlessly grinding, the combat has almost no room for strategy thanks to a single party member, the game's writing has been totally neutered in translation by getting rid of all the humor and heart for some bizarre Old English thing Nintendo of America was going for.
But all of this is on some level useful, it makes it the Default JRPG Experience, every interesting thing a JRPG does can be judged in reference to the formula this laid down, which makes this I think worth playing (with heavy use of emulator speed-up) for people who have Thoughts on the genre.

it's pretty astonishing how much they got right from the very first title, as far as the music and enemy design go, as well as setting what would be the "vanilla" jrpg story.
however, be aware that they REALLY are not kidding when people say this game is almost all grinding. i don't mean this as inherently negative --i actually enjoyed grinding out some enemies before i went to bed each night, and there's not much more satisfying than the level up jingle.

for anyone wanting to play the first in the series, i HIGHLY recommend checking out the patch "that's exactly
the same, only all enemies drop 255 experience and large amounts of Gold upon their defeat. This way, you have the option of skipping the hours of grinding and just seeing all the original game has to offer."
which you can get here: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/5554/

As important as Dragon Quest 1 is, I didn't have a lot of fun playing it. Combat is turn-based, but there are no party members and you only ever fight one enemy at a time, so the strategy is minimal. There's not much story but it still has a lot of heart to it; the really basic setting is surprisingly compelling. The music is great and so are the enemy designs, and the key system is cool too. The game is also mercifully short which is good, otherwise I would've ended up too bored and quit.

If you're not someone who's really into experiencing old games for history's sake, you're not missing much by just playing a more refined later game in the series, or better yet, just playing Chrono Trigger. I think 8-bit action games aged much better than 8-bit RPGs, because while the former have an immediacy to their gameplay which still translates well in sheer fun factor, the latter simply couldn't reach much potential on this old hardware and needed more refinement to amount to much of an interesting experience. Granted, I played the Super Famicom version of Dragon Quest I, but it is still fundamentally an NES game in construction and feel. (And that is the version you want to play, if only for the more forgiving level scaling.)

There's a lot of cool things going for the first iteration of this franchise, as well as a myriad of archaic features most will pan the turn-based RPG genre for as a whole. Excessive amount of random encounters, the literal need to grind up a numbers advantage just to progress, the need to exhaust dialogue from every NPC just to get a vague idea of where you're going.

But outside of the grind mandate, it's not all bad. Most battles are rather quick so increasing your levels doesn't feel too much like a slog. The world is open but not too big meaning you can cover the bulk of it without much hassle of getting lost or not knowing where to go. Every single spell has its usage, and some enemies can be hard countered with very basic game knowledge such as scorpions being easy to farm with Sizz or armor knights having their entire movesets shut down by Fizzle. And while there's an excess amount of dialogue needed to get a general idea of your goal, that works in its strength as you can basically surmise each goal and item location from simply talking to people, and it's nice having a game not be as cryptic as a 90s point-and-click title while also not gripping your hand walking you through the game with no resistance.

As a starting point for the journey, I have no issue recommending it. It's a very short experience that doesn't demand too much of your time to clear. I'd personally recommend either the original NES version, Famicon version or the GBC port of the game. And in the worst case, the game is still first of its kind and predates a ton of tropes and mechanics long before other more popular RPG's came up to bat, and that it really does only improve from here, so to speak.

Reviewing a game like Dragon Quest is never easy. First of all, as many of you probably do, I have a very deep childhood connection to this game, which means it’s a nostalgic trip for me every time I play it. Then there’s the fact that this is a genre-defining game, and as a result, can’t possibly be expected to be as refined as the games that followed in the path it carved out. Ultimately, this game is both a classic and a curio, a piece of history that feels like one, no matter how much Square Enix tries to pretty it up. Its age is in its fundamental structure. I think it holds up very well relative to other games from its era, but that’s perhaps faint praise, given the state of console RPGs in 1986. A completely new player without any sort of fondness for the history of the series would be better off checking out Dragon Quest IV first. That doesn’t mean that the first Dragon Quest has nothing to offer, but it’s probably not the best way to break the ice in 2023.

As usual, though, a little bit of history first. This is the game originally known to many an English gamer as Dragon Warrior, a title adopted to avoid legal conflicts with TSR, the then-owners of Dungeons & Dragons. A lot of North American kids had this in their NES libraries, though precious few actually handed over money at a shop for it. Nintendo, the American publisher, widely overestimated the game’s potential sales and were left with tons of unsold cartridges. These were distributed as a free bonus for subscribing to Nintendo Power, something a heck of a lot of kids were doing anyway. Nintendo would take a more careful approach in publishing their next overseas RPG hope, Final Fantasy, but given Dragon Quest‘s notoriety, it’s easy to see why Nintendo was bullish on it.

Contrary to popular lore, Dragon Quest was not the actual first JRPG. It might be accurate to say it was the first really good one, however, and it certainly set down a blueprint that the genre followed. By the time Dragon Quest began development, games like the pen and paper Dungeons & Dragons, Ultima, and Wizardry were all fairly popular with a certain subset of Japanese gamers, along with Henk Rogers’ The Black Onyx and Falcom’s Dragon Slayer games. Dragon Quest series creator Yuji Horii enjoyed those games, and wanted to make a more accessible game along similar lines. Grabbing the menu system from his previous adventure game Portopia Serial Murders, the overhead exploration of Ultima, the first-person battles of Wizardry, the artist from the then-recent manga Dragon Ball, and television composer Koichi Sugiyama, Yuji Horii put together his game that would change everything.

The idea was to simplify the extremely complex systems of RPGs, but still offer the player the satisfying feeling of following the story of a character who becomes stronger the more you play. That’s just what Horii did, cutting away things like party members and job classes, leaving just a single hero with a simple goal: Defeat that jerk on the other side of the lake who’s ruining things for everyone. Granted, getting to the other side of the lake involves a trip around the world, but it wouldn’t be much fun if the hero just built a canoe or something, would it? That’s basically the game, though. You travel clockwise around the world, sniff out a few magical items, rescue a princess, get to level 17 or 19 depending on how bold you are, and knock off the evil Dragonlord.
It’s not a very long game by modern standards, and its even shorter in its current form. In its original form, Dragon Quest involved a lot of grinding. The game is basically unwinnable without the spell you get at level 17, so no matter how fast or slowly you reached the final castle, you still had to get yourself up to level 17. You also needed to grind to afford the gear necessary for survival. From the Super Famicom remakes onward, the enemies in Dragon Quest give a much better experience point and gold reward, reducing most of the need for grinding. With that drudgery removed, the game is over in mere hours if you know where you’re going. I’d be awfully surprised if anyone took longer than 10 hours to get to the end, and most will finish well before that.

Clearly, Horii’s plan to make the genre less intimidating to the average player went over very well, and later games in the series were able to slowly build complexity. It’s probably impossible to overestimate what this game did for the genre, and that makes it a very important game. Important games are not always good in a modern context, though. Dragon Quest is still a very enjoyable game for me, and I replay it fairly often, but I’m not sure how much of that is on the game’s lasting merits and how much is just my own nostalgia. It’s all very sound, if very primitive, and certain elements, like Akira Toriyama’s spectacular monster designs and Sugiyama’s wonderful music, haven’t aged a day. Other things haven’t aged as gracefully.
There are no elements of customization whatsoever to your character. The list of equipment is very small and really just consists of stuff in each new town being better than the stuff in the last town. Battles offer very little strategy. You’re either strong enough to survive, or you’re not. If you’re not, you have little recourse but to level up more or buy new gear. The closest thing to battle tactics you have at your disposal is the ability to put enemies to sleep. Abuse that, by the way, it works a wonder in this game. There are no subquests, few characters to speak of, and a whole lot of old-school design in locating the key items needed to beat the game. It’s not a particularly friendly game by modern standards, which is kind of funny given its design roots.

Dragon Quest is many things. It’s historically important, simple, fun, archaic, esoteric, nostalgia-inducing, genre-defining, focused, and mercifully brief. This port is decent enough, if not ideal, thanks to the somewhat-messy graphical style and the fiddly controls, which will be a much bigger problem come Dragon Quest 2, I promise. The price is, I suppose, about right for what Dragon Quest is. A classic, a museum piece, a nostalgia trip, and a reminder of just how much things can change, for better or worse, over the course of more than 25 years of game design advances. I think it’s a game best experienced in portable format these days, but even with that in mind, it’s still really only for those looking for a return to the most simple of times.

- Me (never)

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.

The fascinating thing about visiting Dragon Quest, one of the seminal JRPGs from this era, is that for all the predictable garbage that comes with it--the two most obvious being the laser focus on grind and the lack of consideration that went into its save system--I was surprised to find a lot to like in its design. Maybe it's just that the years have worn on me and, while I still love to be swept up into a long and engrossing game, my preferences over the years have generally leaned towards shorter experiences. But it's not just that Dragon Quest is short, it's also that its map feels manageable and curated so that there isn't really a lot of wasted space.

Now, of course that goes out the window the second you have to deal with any sort of experience check, and my god it's never been worse to me than it is here with the final boss. I didn't time the walk from the starting castle to the final lair, but as "small" as the world is when it feels good to explore and discover, it gets gigantic when all you're doing is making your way back to where you were when you died. I still can't believe the trek you have to make just to retry the final boss of this game; as someone who loves to play games "as intended" and tries to avoid the major conveniences of emulation like save states, I can't fathom playing the final stretch of Dragon Quest without those conveniences. That is, in fact, the moment I decided to start using them, so I could simply retry the boss immediately. The expectation, I guess, is that you'll just grind and grind some more, and I think there can be something satisfying about grinding even when the combat isn't super involved, but it's not that satisfying when it's a set-in-stone requirement.

And yet I still have surprisingly positive things to say after reaching the conclusion. It's often fun to work out what you need to do next, where items are hidden in the world, and so on. Those little moments of hearing information and jotting it down for later can make the world feel rewarding in ways that too few games understand. And there's enough personality in the enemy set, as limited as it is on the NES, that you can see the charm that would ultimately capture decades of attention.

Dragon Quest I is the Ur-JRPG. It's missing a lot of what makes JRPGs what they are, and it definitely shows that this was a new type of RPG. That said.... oh my God I love this game. It's so simple, yet so fun. I went in expecting a slow, plodding grindfest, and.... that's exactly what I got.

See, you're not really supposed to play Dragon Quest I the way you play your average modern JRPG. The way I see it, you're supposed to play it in short bursts, playing only a little at a time, as well as with a dozen or so sheets of graph paper for mapping dungeons and taking notes. It breaks up the grinding and makes it less tedious. Though strangely enough, I found that I was strangely okay with grinding in this game. Though that has more to do with the combat system than anything.

The combat is nothing special, and it's even a bit simpler than other NES JRPGs. You can basically just clobber enemies until they die in most cases, so there's not much incentive to do much else. Not that that's a bad thing, at least not for me, but it makes grinding a lot easier when you can mindlessly button-mash while doing something else.

All in all, this game is really nice for what it is, and while it may be a bit primitive nowadays, I'd still recommend it to someone if they asked.

I believe that considering Dragon Quest, as MudkipTheGodly does, as the Ur-JRPG is a fundamental mistake, which distorts greatly the interpretation that one can have of the game. An approach that makes Dragon Quest a precursor of the genre neglects the earlier titles, with their already well-defined mechanics and even years ago, while giving a teleological value to the progression of JRPGs. To the modern eye, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy may represent the essence of the genre, but this sidesteps the question of what characterises a JRPG and how it defines itself in relation to other adventure game traditions.

I have already mentioned this in my review of Hydlide (1984), but JRPGs are tributary to an old history, largely connected with the Western tradition of role-playing games. Its emergence is linked to the Wizardry and Ultima series, which largely fuelled the Japanese passion for dungeon crawlers. Many games have been inspired by this approach and Hydlide is one of these titles, serving as a transition for Japanese game design. A year before the release of Dragon Quest, Enix had already released their first RPG, Chikyuu Senshi Rayieza (1985), whose mechanics may seem archaic, but are inherited from the turn-based tradition initiated by the West. The same year, Cosmic Soldier (1985) also offered a formula very close to Wizardry, but with the possibility of recruiting opponents during the fighting by talking to them. The Screamer (1985) was inspired by the same series. As for Ultima, there are many games modelled on it, such as Seiken Densetsu (1983) – not the Square series – or Ken to Mahou (1983), illustrating a real vitality for the genre in Japan, especially on PC.

My argument is that Dragon Quest came within a context that was already punctuated by role-playing games. Its uniqueness, however, lies in the approach of Yuji Horii, who had made his mark on investigative games, notably Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (1983) and Karuizawa Yūkai Annai (1985), the latter featuring some Ultima-like sequences. A joint interview with Rika Suzuki reveals Horii's emphasis on story and guided progression in an adventure game. He stands in opposition to the very cryptic and overwhelming approach of Western RPGs, where the difficulty is very high and the levels are extremely long, often with no short term goals provided to the player. This philosophy infuses the development of Dragon Quest, which, like Hydlide, attempts to offer an adventure that is accessible to neophytes. Similarly, disliking the command system in text-based adventure games, he proposed a menu system for possible actions: this has become the hallmark of JRPGs – the idea is not new, but he provides a strong synthesis of it. It seems to me that these elements must be kept in mind to understand the flow of this first title.

The player is the descendant of the hero Roto, who once saved the continent of Alefgard from destruction. The appearance of the Dragonlord has led many adventurers to follow in his footsteps, but it is up to the descendant to triumph over this evil and save Laura, the daughter of King Lars, who has been kidnapped by the Dragonlord to be his wife. The story doesn't take much longer to present its stakes and the player is dropped into the vast world of Alefgard. While the land may seem vast, progression is limited by the enemies, who grow exponentially more powerful the further the protagonist gets from Ladatorm Castle. Unlike Hydlide, it is not possible to freely explore the entire map, since encounters are random: venturing too far is like signing one's death warrant, especially since running away from battles to progress is not a very viable option.

On the other hand, the progression of the main quest is conditioned by the resolution of small mysteries that the player must solve. Talking to different NPCs reveals crucial information to locate an object or perform an action. The player is strongly encouraged to take note of all relevant information so that they can retrieve it when the time comes, whether it is the whereabouts of an item or its use. Since the clues take the form of rumours circulating throughout the kingdom, the game forces the player to go back and forth between different locations – which also allows them to gain experience along the way – to access secrets hidden in places they have already visited. Several critics have criticised the linear nature of the title, claiming that it hides behind a veneer of freedom. It seems to me that this is a misunderstanding, considering Horii's interview. The goal is not the same as in Metroid (1986), where it is indeed possible to explore quite freely. Here, the placement of clues creates a natural sense of progression, which keeps the player interested in the immediate future.

For Horii, the combat system fulfils the same function. Even when the player is lost, they can fight enemies to pass the time. This system is unfortunately quite rudimentary. While the hero can attack or use magic, defending himself is not possible, and there is little use for items in general – except in very specific cases. Compared to the novelties of earlier games and the formula popularised by Wizardry, this is a step backwards. All encounters look the same: attacking with the weapon is generally good enough and only magic-users change this approach a little, whereby spells can be used to silence them. While this makes the experience very accessible, such an approach creates an extreme redundancy in the gameplay loop, especially since the experience grind is mandatory and tedious in its length. It is indeed possible to increase the hero's power through equipment, but it is equally necessary to reach level 20 to have a concrete chance of clearing the last dungeon and facing the Dragonlord.

This is where the title shows its weaknesses. By virtue of simplifying its design, it loses what made the charm of previous games, which could keep the player's interest for a longer period of time because of their brutal nature. Horii wanted to shift the focus to exploration and puzzle solving, but these are only minor parts of the game time. The dungeons are enjoyable sections, making good use of the darkness mechanic, but they are a far cry from the extremely complex and trap-filled floors found in Wizardry. In some ways, this may be for the better, but it makes for consistently too short experiences. Encounters with unique enemies remain memorable, but can be counted on two fingers – this includes Merkido's guardian or Domdora's hidden fight.

Nevertheless, the game manages to charm with its atmosphere. Although it is based on the western fantasy setting, Dragon Quest brings a freshness through its humour. Akira Toriyama's design still works, with expressive and easily recognisable enemies. The game also has a cheerful soundtrack, with baroque and classical accents. As a side note, the composer, Kōichi Sugiyama, is known for his far-right nationalism and historical revisionism: on this point, it is difficult to have a clear answer on where to stand. Just as Wagner is an antisemite whose work is culturally important, Sugiyama popularised erudite music in video game soundtracks. The money he made working on the franchise was reinvested in far-right propaganda, and no matter what ethical solution one chooses, this is something to keep in mind. Incidentally, Dragon Quest's soundtrack accompanies the game's sense of heroic and faux-naive exploration. The Overworld theme has a contemplative and romantic quality, which is underlined by the symphonic version with strings that swell freely in complex layers. This very innocent side is contrasted by the Castle theme, composed in a very baroque and serious style. These emotional outbursts give character to a game that may seem simplistic in its narration. As such, the discovery of the city of Domdora has a tragic feel to it, although the game never really conveys this explicitly.

Dragon Quest certainly set new standards, although it was not the earliest precursor to JRPGs. Its success in Japan, thanks to its accessibility, made it a classic title, widely imitated thereafter. However, it is a title that suffers from certain design choices. While exploring and discovering the world, through puzzles and discussions, is still very enjoyable, the game breaks its own rhythm through the experience grind. The title is far from unpleasant and has some really clever moments, where the player can feel a real sense of accomplishment, when a secret is discovered. But these euphoria are too scattered and drowned in a rather ponderous monotony. Nevertheless, it is still easy to recommend the title to someone who would like to discover some early JRPGs without having to deal with a title that is impossible to finish, due to a decidedly too intense difficulty.

I am not going to sugar coat this. Dragon Quest is an absolute relic of its time. Overtly simplistic, agonizingly slow and painfully generic. I absolutely adore this game but I am not here to just say how much fun I had with this game but instead determine if I should recommend this game to a hypothetical person.

"Dost thou wish to play Dragon Quest?"

Console JRPGs are a rather storied genre in current year. A genre that has had many an iteration, development and splinter. A genre with many a setting and world to explore. Most though can trace their genetic ancestry to this title right here. The developers accomplish what most only dream of, pioneering an entire genre. Generally speaking though the first of a kind is almost never perfect and many a series and genre went through rapid but painful growing pains. Console JRPGs are no exception.

Fundamentally the largest flaw of Dragon Quest, a true make it or break it feature is its own simplicity. You have only a single party member and do battle with only single opponents. This game embodies the concept of "1v1 me irl". You play as a jack of all trades adventurer on a quest to defeat an evil dragon lord. You are not going to see anything here you haven't seen before.

The simplicity alone wouldn't be as big of an issue if the progression were just a tad faster. I have over 14 hours clocked on my save here and I spent probably 11 of those grinding. The amount of tasks required of you are shockingly few. Basically what I am saying is that if you want to play this game be sure to have alternative entertainment available if your attention span is below that of a bored seven year old shut in with no friends.

Thankfully though this adventure is rather casual compared to other quests found on the same console. The simplicity is almost a boon in this regard. You aren't going to get kicked in your proverbial genitals. If anything you are going to leave a bloodbath in your wake.

Another positive aspect of this game definitely lies within the bells and whistles. The visuals and sound are both extraordinary and iconic. Akira Toriyama's designs matched with Koichi Sugiyama's musical prowess is synergy incarnate. These elements take the rather dark and gritty atmosphere of something like Dungeons & Dragons and gives it a rather whimsical interpretation. Incredibly stylized and unique.

Ultimately though this review isn't the most in depth. Primarily because I don't think mentioning turn based battles presented with menus and a first person perspective along with random battles is something one wouldn't know going in.

I will bring things back for a second though by asking again:

"Dost thou wish to play Dragon Quest?"

Yes
>No

"But thou must!"

>No

"But thou must!"

>NO

"But thou must!"

Memes aside. I do highly recommend playing Dragon Quest with one single caveat. Just don't play the NES version. Super Famicom and Gameboy are a much more satisfactory experiences. Hell even go Mobile or Switch as long as you are okay with the graphics looking dumb.

For the uninitiated though let me explain why you should NOT play the NES version with an example. There is a rather early game enemy aptly named "Skeleton". Killing one in the NES version nets the hero 11exp and 30g while other version you would get 25exp and 42g. That should articulate my point better than any long winded diatribe about numbers. Ultimately the re-releases aren't full priced affairs so they can afford to trim the fat.

Also like, bro, just save the princess. I know saving her is optional but canonically your superior chad genes get carried on for future generations. Just do it. Thou must afterall.

Considerando a época em que ele foi lançado, é algo incrível, os designs de Akira Toriyama foram inacreditavelmente bem feitos no hardware limitado do NES, as músicas são boas, com destaque para as melodias curtas com da flauta, arpa e da declaração de amor, e a jogabilidade é bem estruturada.

Mas há problemas, o grind excessivo ficou algo muito muito maçante, isso poderia ser resolvido simplesmente aumentando a quantidade de níveis e ajustando a quantia de xp entre eles, assim dando incentivos mais frequentes ao player. E a existência de vários itens e passagens em locais escondidos me incomodou bastante, acredito que eles exageraram nisso, teve partes que fiquei 1 hora andando pelo mapa procurando o próximo passo e só fui achar com a ajuda de um vídeo, uma boa execução de "segredo" foi no puzzle do 40 70, esse eu achei genial, mas poderiam amenizar nos outros casos.

Apesar dos defeitos, foi disparado melhor jogo de NES que joguei até essa data, a história simples e honesta conseguiu me sugar para aquele mundo, me fazendo sentir confortável mesmo sendo um mundo feito há mais de 35 anos atrás.

Dou nota 5/10 considerando no geral e levando em conta minha expectativa para a franquia, mas para a época seria uma nota 9 sem dúvidas.

I'm gonna be nice to this dinosaur of an RPG. Because honestly despite the low score I'm giving it (reflecting my personal enjoyment of the game), I don't think it's all that bad for the time it was created in. In fact, it's pretty great when you consider when it came out. I just don't think it holds up very well for someone like me, who already isn't a massive fan of RPGs. I'm hoping to change that by going through this series but hooo boy this was a bit of a rough start. The guide I read while playing certainly helped me with knowing where I needed to go.

Overall, the progression follows a simple rule : If you go there, will you get your ass kicked? If that's the case, then go to an area where you won't get your ass kicked, grind for a few hours, and try again. That's more or less the gameplay loop. Effective in 1986, but in 2023, I would say it leaves a bit to be desired. The size of the map helped the game never get too annoying at least, since it's easily completable in an afternoon.

Also, and that goes without saying, but the monster/character design done by Akira Toriyama is absolutely incredible. The music is also pretty good, though the limited amount of tracks means that it didn't get to shine as much as I assume it will in later entries.

Used a hack that doubles EXP and Gold gain. I also utilized an online map to help guide me, and save states to ensure I wasn't losing too much progress.
Even so, the first Dragon Quest feels like a more luck-based RPG than any I've ever played. You're all alone, with no party members to speak of, so dying is a death sentence with no backup plans. Through persistence, you will eventually make it through, it's just... not a particularly deep gameplay system with just one playable character to speak of.

The decision to make every dungeon require a light source was also a questionable one. It's a neat gimmick for one dungeon, but for all of them, it gets pretty tiring. There's also the matter of what you name your character influences your starting stats, which led to a pretty miserable playthrough my first time.

It's a rough entry, but an admirable starting point. The later games will go on to be more fleshed out and fun, though it might take a little while for them to get there. I would personally recommend Dragon Quest 4 as your starting point, but, if you're patient, seeing how the series evolves might be an interesting challenge too, as long as you bring some outside help in.

Experience farming turned into an art form. Widely considered outdated and tedious, the design of Dragon Quest/Warrior is actually increasingly relevant with the proliferation of "incremental" RPGs intended to waste time on phones and browsers. Yes, the majority of the gameplay is spent repeatedly fighting monsters and waiting for the next level-up. However, I have always considered so-called "grinding" to be a legitimate mechanic for RPGs that can be utilized well or badly. Dragon Quest games in particular stand out as beacons of well-paced progression, where you are obstructed not by artificial barriers or long story beats but the simple necessity to survive the route to the next town. As soon as you start this game, basically the entire overworld is open to you, you are simply far too weak to reach beyond a small stretch surrounding Tantegel Castle. The evil Dragonlord's fortress is visible just across the river, shamelessly teasing the player. The core of the game consists in becoming strong enough to actually walk all the way there and survive the encounters. This simplicity, only broken up by a couple of optional side quests, is what cements this as a classic experience. Any frustration the player might feel after dying is heavily mitigated due to the mechanic of losing half of your gold and being revived in Tantegel castle. Essentially, you are always gaining experience, whether you die in the final stretches of a dungeon or five tiles away from a town. This simple design choice streamlines the game enough to be compulsively playable more than thirty years after its release. The American NES localization of the original Dragon Quest was already a sort of remaster, giving the player battery saves and some improved sprites, and removing the tedious necessity of choosing a direction every time you talked to a NPC (rotating character sprites were apparently not invented in 1986).

Simply put, this game is incredibly charming and evokes the feeling of a medieval fairy-tale, something that would thankfully persist in future sequels and form one of the core attractions of the series. When it comes to the Japanese RPG genre which this game largely inaugurates, I have found that less is usually more, and extended plotlines or fancy combat animations would only harm the integrity of this experience. The entire game can be finished in about 12 hours, which decisively refutes the complaints aimed at the slow character progression - after all, I would rather replay Dragon Warrior than a plodding, 100-hour monstrosity frequently found among the later incarnations of the genre. It may not be the best RPG found on the NES (that honor I grant to Dragon Quest 3) but there's never been anything else quite like it.

Results:
Completed the localized NES release and a fan translation of the SNES remake