Still likely the definitive version of the inaugural Dragon Quest journey in my eyes. A game so simple in everything it does that it's easy to overlook the genius in that design. See, the great thing about Dragon Quest is that the "archaic" aspects have only to do with its humble and perhaps rudimentary approach to fleshing out its foundation, nothing to do with the foundation itself. Removed from context, it's easy to overlook just how much this game got right. Thankfully, I feel the Super Famicom release does a lot to present many of those aspects with the 8-bit fat carved down to a surprisingly beautiful result. The Super Famicom's soundchip really allows Sugiyama's score to sound absolutely gorgeous - for as much as you'll hear "Unknown World" in the few hours you spend with this game, it's never tiring. Toriyama's character designs are allowed more range in color and shading which really allows his genius and knack for iconic designs to shine even greater. And the game itself?

Centering your sole save point at the center of the map, for a game that needed the accommodations to exist as Dragon Quest does, is rather smart. It allows for each leg of your brief journey to feel like a separate quest altogether, regrouping and taking stock of your progress before embarking on the next stab at defeating the Dragon King and saving the princess. With so few adjustable stats, each grind and resulting piece of equipment purchasable feels like a big step forward in building Alef into the legendary warrior deserving of Loto's blood in his veins. The story doesn't wow, but it does crack smiles. There's a lot of cute, ultimately meaningless dialogue for such a short little game. Humble beginnings, indeed, but deserving of its reputation as the granddaddy of the modern RPG all the same.