This is a “retro review” I wrote for GamingFurever.com which, for a while seemed defunct to me, but now I guess it back up again (I just checked now)… however, my reviews don’t seem to be there anymore.
The date on the txt file I found this in was September 14, 2019, but that is not accurate at all. This was written during my deepest depression of two years about 16 years ago. That would more like 2009, not 2019.
Anyways, here it is until I have any additional info:
RetroRodentia: Dragon Warrior Review
The original NES Dragon Warrior is a special game. It brings back memories of my human childhood. My older brother played the original Dragon Warrior cartridge when it came out and actually defeated the Dragonlord! We’d listen to music from our family library instead of listen to the dinky NES acoustics. This made for some strange pairings such as Paula Abdul in Dragon Warrior or Handel’s Messiah for The Legend of Zelda 3. I like it that way.
I recently replayed the game on my handy emulation device I can hook up to my color stereo CRT (hence no original screenshots, and oh so RetroRodentia). I played this one primarily on the go however, while waiting for my human partner to get out of human class. I don’t know what they do, but it seems to involve a lot of writing.
Dragon Warrior or Dragon Quest was released in Japan by Enix in 1987. In 1989 it was released in the Americas. When it was translated into English, it was dubbed Dragon Warrior. This game is actually a landmark in the history of console RPGs. In Japan it is the premier RPG franchise, whereas here in America our imagination was caught more by Final Fantasy and so it overshadows most other RPG franchises.
The backstory to the game proceeds: It starts in this place called Alefgard, which used to be a pretty dark place. Erdrick, a brave warrior, rescued Alefgard from being so dark you can’t see your hands by defeating some evil guy bringing light so brilliant you need SPF 60. He did this with, dun dun dun, a ball of light which he gave to the King (who later unified Alefgard, but that’s another story to be told another time), since we all know that only the government can protect all powerful objects. Oh, never mind, in sixteen generations the Dragonlord steals the ball, ’cause he’s missing one, and throws the world back into deep dank darkness (though for some reason you can still see). It must be the kind of darkness that permeates my psyche during one of my hate myself parties. Now there were monsters across the land, and poisonous swamps instead of beautiful scenery, and towns and villages were destroyed by ghosts and dragons, oh my. The Dragonlord’s castle, Charlock, was a place of demise for every brave warrior who entered. Some dude named Mehetta that could see the future predicted that “One day, a descendent of Erdrick will come forth to defeat the Dragonlord.” My question is, if he can see the future, why didn’t he predict that the kingdom’s ball would be stolen? Never you mind, because a descendent of Erdrick DOES actually come along to save the world. It just so happens that it is you.
Okay, the first thing I have to say concerns the save feature, which was awesome for a Nintendo game to have, and quintessential to this title, is good. But it also blows! You can only save in your base castle (Castle Tantegal – An actual castle by the way in Cornwall. It was the castle to which the Duke of Cornwall took his wife, to keep her from getting raped by Uther Pendragon. That is where Merlin disguised Uther as the Duke so that Uther could have his way, while Uther’s men killed the Duke in battle. From that union came… Arthur. Yeah, pretty crazy stuff huh?). So, if you go out and die leveling up, you lose half of your gold points (but thankfully not your experience). Truly, unless you’re going super retro and playing this on the original machine, saving game states is a much better option and will keep you from tearing your hair out. My older brother didn’t have these options, and he developed trichotillomania. Save you hair!
Alright, second thing, the automatic window that pops up whenever you’re not actually playing the game… is hard to say, but it could get annoying for some players. I find it convenient, but rats are prone to flashy things popping up so who can say?
The controls are intuitive and easy to master. The menu system doesn’t hold many secrets but there could be a little more finesse with inventory. The only time I got stuck on the menu and inventory was when I had Gwaelin’s Love… I didn’t know what it did, and I never thought of trying to use it; ‘yeah, I feel like an idiot now too.
The flow of Dragon Warrior is pretty good, although it suffers a bit from old school RPG openness. You can move around the map freely until you die. This is great really, as it helps immersion, but it also makes it difficult to discern where you might want to go next to advance the game (other than the RPG classic use of harder enemies). It really does gel together once you get your head wrapped around the overworld, so that’s a good thing. The townspeople offer cryptic clues, and there’s some odd odd map tricks (like walking on the outside of Tantegel Castle.
The best thing about this game I would say is it’s solidity between gameplay and story. In many ways the gameplay is the story, battling your way through onslaughts of monsters and solving cryptic legends. I love this about a game, particularly in Lufia II, which is another review. I knew this was the case when I turned to my partner after he finally got out of human class and said, “I finally got to Rimuldar so I can get a magic key to save the princess from the green dragon!”
One drawback I’d have to say hands down is the dungeon view. If you have a torch, you can see a tiny bit, if you have the Radiant spell you can see much more, but it’s still constricting. I know the purpose is to make the dungeon layouts harder, but nothing is more frustrating than being on your last torch, or last spell, running to the exit and it finally quits. Then you’re left with a guy in one square on a background… I mean WTF? I know there’s a spell that can help, but it’s still a pain in the rat’s ass.
Leveling up presents an interesting mixture. It’s not gut-wrenching, but you can easily end up so leveled up that money doesn’t even matter to you anymore. And, by that time, there’s really no place to spend it! So money only matters as part of gameplay in the earlier part of the game.
The final quest necessary to defeat the Dragonlord isn’t very clear, but I won’t give it away here so you can discover it’s hidden ass all on your own.
So how would I leave this game? Is it a piece of fucking shit, or a gem to all of creation? I’d say Dragonwarrior is a valiant attempt at becoming definitive in the genre. I would play it, now having played it three times, again for fun. It’s charming, well put together, and rewarding. I give Dragonwarrior my Rat’s Ass Seal Of Approval.
Thanks for reading!
RetroRodentia