Hot take alert: the first ever NES JRPG is wildly obtuse and grindy! I used a guide, a map, and like 4000% speed and it made the game not awful. Granted, it was effectively a waste of like 10 hours, but it was far more bearable than the first couple Final Fantasies. Instead of backtracking all the time, you just kind of go all over the place. I'm not sure how much of the navigation issues were with the game itself and how many were with the order the guide was taking me in, but the game itself has no direction at all so it's probably the former. The grinding is awful, but unlike Final Fantasy it doesn't pretend that you can beat it without grinding your ass off. I think the honesty and humbleness of Dragon Quest 1 is what makes it better than the game it directly inspired. Still sucks tho lol