There used to be a time period where if you wanted long D&D-esc adventures to play on your own you essentially had to play PC games developed by creative programmers who also suffered from the archaic nature of software development in the 70’s-80’s with over-complicated control schemes, incredibly tedious mechanics that sounded way cooler in their head, and vague stories that basically required you to look at a piece of paper (and also write on one) while you played.

While that style of RPG isn’t even remotely bad, it was the opposite of user-friendly and it’s why we celebrate Dragon Quest so many years later because very literally it brought that style of adventure to casual players with way less memory. Obviously by the standards of today there isn’t a lot going on here but the progression of your character on a journey is something that (especially to me) pulls players in and makes RPGs unique from other genres.

Dragon Quest is a fantastic example of the importance of user interface and game design over spreading an adventure too thin.