Purified. Distilled. Adventure, hero's journey, video game.
2 Comments
Dragon quest, both the first game, and the series as a whole is incredibly interesting especially in current year imo, although I didn't think so either until only a few years ago.
As more rpgs come out that create new takes on the idea of going on quests, slaying monsters, and meeting people, dragon quest remains I think the most clear and dignified version of it in a few very specific ways.
First, the battles are extremely simple, featuring only a single monster and a single hero, but your choices have huge immediate consequences. Each encounter has a unique tug of war push and pull feel because attacks fly off instantly and without delay, status spells have immediate consequences. With the mobile and new version of the game especially, it's been streamlined to the point where you don't need to grind at all but just playing the game normally still holds a lot of danger and tension. Death has consequence as you lose half your gold each time, so the thought of more reward but potential loss consistently lingers as you explore further into dungeons or continents. Each turn in a battle is then important, because a single miss can potentially kill you, so you might wanna buff your defense, but each turn spent buffing or healing is a turn lost attacking the enemy, and how many more enemies can you take before you're done? Casting sleep could be a huge help, but what if you miss? And equipment and items are actually pretty pricey, not the trivial obvious buys in other games, but choices to make with careful deliberation. Do I go for a new weapon, or more defensive equipment, how many towns ago has it been since I lost upgraded my offensive capabilities, and for my defensive? It's often not a good idea to go for everything a shop has, simply because a new one with better stuff is always coming up and getting everything is simply too expensive. It's incredible really how much simple choice exists in battles where you just choose one thing a turn.
Second, the story isn't funneled into you as you stumble upon specific locations or talk to specific npcs that are plot relevant. The story is carefully divided among all npcs you meet and is pieced together by inching across the land, its towns, and talking to everyone and understanding a kind of clockworkness everyone fits in. Almost all of the npcs in a dragon quest game have understated familial bonds to each other. If you pay attention, you will realize everyone is someone else's father, mother, daughter, brother, sister, etc. And unlike other rpgs where npcs simply explain something about the situation, place, or archetype they fit, DQ npcs comment on their situations and archetypes. Example, a person sitting at a bar is written not to remind the player they are in a bar and just to add to the ambience , but to use something about their archetype or setting to say something beyond that fact. Put alone, that fact isn't particularly impressive, but the fact that every npc has a small nugget of something funny, interesting, or worthwhile to say adds up and makes exploring fun just for the sake of exploring and knowing more about the world, as opposed to merely functional rewards, like potions and accessories. Even the first game, I feel, is really funny and charming in a lot of ways. There's a town where two characters are meant to meet up on a date, but they each went to the wrong spot and are furious at the other, but in order to find them both, you actually have to walk around the perimeter of the town without entering it. Usually, this forces you to leave town, but not in this one specific town. Finding one makes you want to find the other, and you kind of feel good figuring out where they are. Adding the old Shakespearean parody dialect on top of that atmosphere makes for a really good game that has 3 functions, a weighty mechanically rewarding simplified rpg, a pastiche rpg, and a parody rpg.
Third, specifically the first dragon quest, has almost perfect pitch with regards to allowing the journey of the character be a kind of metaphor for self-growth and can be interpreted multiple ways, like the Campbellian monomyth of the hero's journey itself. It's a journey of discovery across a vast but knowable continent, where monsters threaten the player not just as a show of conflict in favor of a story, but as actual obstacles meant to be overcome through traditional (dnd) means that are distilled down. It can really be taken any way you want, and the journey each person takes is a little bit different, with how open-ended the world is and with the fact that there are 3 subtly different endings (which is really a lot of forethought for 1986). At its core its simply a simulation of going out on a quest, figuring things out, getting over your fears, and learning something about the world and yourself, and in limiting itself to that simple goal, it tries to fulfill that promise as deeply as it can. Each game in the series after this one puts its own spin and focuses on specific themes by changing what mechanics they focus on, dragon quest ii focuses on a party revolving through different roles and getting to know each other across a vast world, iii on party makeup and class mastery, iv on the limitations of gold and learning to rely on others to achieve one's goals, dragon quest 5 on experience points and the journey of the phases of a life, 6 on multiclassing and figuring out one's true identity through wearing different hats. But the first one really starts it with the base and pulls that base off the best, a journey across a dark continent of divided peoples. While other rpgs will use rpg mechanics and battles as a kind of front for its own separate story, dragon quest tries to explore a story directly through mechanics and builds its themes off those mechanics, which is what I personally feel lets it continue its freshness to this day.
As more rpgs come out that create new takes on the idea of going on quests, slaying monsters, and meeting people, dragon quest remains I think the most clear and dignified version of it in a few very specific ways.
First, the battles are extremely simple, featuring only a single monster and a single hero, but your choices have huge immediate consequences. Each encounter has a unique tug of war push and pull feel because attacks fly off instantly and without delay, status spells have immediate consequences. With the mobile and new version of the game especially, it's been streamlined to the point where you don't need to grind at all but just playing the game normally still holds a lot of danger and tension. Death has consequence as you lose half your gold each time, so the thought of more reward but potential loss consistently lingers as you explore further into dungeons or continents. Each turn in a battle is then important, because a single miss can potentially kill you, so you might wanna buff your defense, but each turn spent buffing or healing is a turn lost attacking the enemy, and how many more enemies can you take before you're done? Casting sleep could be a huge help, but what if you miss? And equipment and items are actually pretty pricey, not the trivial obvious buys in other games, but choices to make with careful deliberation. Do I go for a new weapon, or more defensive equipment, how many towns ago has it been since I lost upgraded my offensive capabilities, and for my defensive? It's often not a good idea to go for everything a shop has, simply because a new one with better stuff is always coming up and getting everything is simply too expensive. It's incredible really how much simple choice exists in battles where you just choose one thing a turn.
Second, the story isn't funneled into you as you stumble upon specific locations or talk to specific npcs that are plot relevant. The story is carefully divided among all npcs you meet and is pieced together by inching across the land, its towns, and talking to everyone and understanding a kind of clockworkness everyone fits in. Almost all of the npcs in a dragon quest game have understated familial bonds to each other. If you pay attention, you will realize everyone is someone else's father, mother, daughter, brother, sister, etc. And unlike other rpgs where npcs simply explain something about the situation, place, or archetype they fit, DQ npcs comment on their situations and archetypes. Example, a person sitting at a bar is written not to remind the player they are in a bar and just to add to the ambience , but to use something about their archetype or setting to say something beyond that fact. Put alone, that fact isn't particularly impressive, but the fact that every npc has a small nugget of something funny, interesting, or worthwhile to say adds up and makes exploring fun just for the sake of exploring and knowing more about the world, as opposed to merely functional rewards, like potions and accessories. Even the first game, I feel, is really funny and charming in a lot of ways. There's a town where two characters are meant to meet up on a date, but they each went to the wrong spot and are furious at the other, but in order to find them both, you actually have to walk around the perimeter of the town without entering it. Usually, this forces you to leave town, but not in this one specific town. Finding one makes you want to find the other, and you kind of feel good figuring out where they are. Adding the old Shakespearean parody dialect on top of that atmosphere makes for a really good game that has 3 functions, a weighty mechanically rewarding simplified rpg, a pastiche rpg, and a parody rpg.
Third, specifically the first dragon quest, has almost perfect pitch with regards to allowing the journey of the character be a kind of metaphor for self-growth and can be interpreted multiple ways, like the Campbellian monomyth of the hero's journey itself. It's a journey of discovery across a vast but knowable continent, where monsters threaten the player not just as a show of conflict in favor of a story, but as actual obstacles meant to be overcome through traditional (dnd) means that are distilled down. It can really be taken any way you want, and the journey each person takes is a little bit different, with how open-ended the world is and with the fact that there are 3 subtly different endings (which is really a lot of forethought for 1986). At its core its simply a simulation of going out on a quest, figuring things out, getting over your fears, and learning something about the world and yourself, and in limiting itself to that simple goal, it tries to fulfill that promise as deeply as it can. Each game in the series after this one puts its own spin and focuses on specific themes by changing what mechanics they focus on, dragon quest ii focuses on a party revolving through different roles and getting to know each other across a vast world, iii on party makeup and class mastery, iv on the limitations of gold and learning to rely on others to achieve one's goals, dragon quest 5 on experience points and the journey of the phases of a life, 6 on multiclassing and figuring out one's true identity through wearing different hats. But the first one really starts it with the base and pulls that base off the best, a journey across a dark continent of divided peoples. While other rpgs will use rpg mechanics and battles as a kind of front for its own separate story, dragon quest tries to explore a story directly through mechanics and builds its themes off those mechanics, which is what I personally feel lets it continue its freshness to this day.
mellorine
3 years ago
it's probably among the most quintessential examples of what a video game is, especially within their genres, but i don't think it's really all that interesting especially in (present year) unless there's a spin on it, like with tetris 99 or sequels that actually do anything with their gameplay (i've only played bits of II and XI and finished chrono trigger, with that said).