DragonQuest/DragonWarrior III

 Rating: 15/10 😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻

Ages 8+, violence (but not animated), some scary bits of the story, but mostly it's all still cartoons, a few very mild innuendos and gambling but those aren't necessary to the story

DragonQuest III is seriously one of the best RPGs I've ever played.

The game is a huge open-world experience that just keeps giving. You think you're down to just one last area, but wait! There is more, lots more. And that final boss? Not the final boss, there's more. The ending is hands-down the most satisfying ending I've experienced. That said, I'm not sure it would have had the same impact if I hadn't played the first two games. So go play DQ 1 and 2 first, then get ready to spend hours with this one. The story is that big, the world is that big, the whole experience is that big. Very little of it is grinding for levels. That happens organically as you search for the next pieces of story.

In this one, you are the HERO. You can't change your class. I tried. But you get to pick three friends to travel with you - names, classes, abilities, and all the rest. And if your friends aren't what you want for a particular area, you can swap them out with other friends. In fact, there's a whole inn in the first city just for your friends you create to hang out and wait for you. There are so many subtle things you can do with your characters in this game. If you want to micro-manage them in combat by picking what they do, you can. Or you can have them play automatically. You can set their preferred strategy for the auto-combat mode, too, so they will focus on healing or buffing the party or just slaughtering whatever monsters you are fighting.

They did some tweaking to the balance in this update which just made it that much better. I loved all of the story, although I really hate the apes. Still.

The world has very few hard barriers. You can explore whatever you can reach. The worst that happens is that your party gets slaughtered, but then you resurrect back at the first city. That only happened to me twice in the entire game. Usually if one of the other members of my party died, that was my cue to run away and get higher level characters before I attempted that particular challenge again.

There are some strategies to what class you choose for your companions and when to switch them to other classes. But mostly it was just fun to experiment and see what happened. A lot of the newer jRPGs get really complicated when it comes to combat. DQ3 keeps it on the simpler side, which I appreciate.

There are fun side stories and side quests to complete, that are actually part of the main storyline. The whole thing was just such a joy to play. It ticked off all my boxes for a good game - rich storyline, fun characters, some silly moments, monsters to fight that weren't too hard, a few boss fights that stretched my strategy muscles, and not too much grinding for levels or resources.

I'm a fan for life of the first three games in the DragonQuest series. This one was the perfect culmination for the trilogy. I actually cried over the ending, partly because I wanted it to keep going but mostly because it was such a satisfying and emotional arc over all three games.

Seriously, if you like the old-school exploration RPGs, go buy these three.

NES DragonWarrior 2, aka DragonQuest 2

 Rating: 9 😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸

Ages: 5+, requires some reading, simplified combat, epic storyline, a few mild innuendos (watch out for the bunny ear bikini women!)

So, when I bought DragonWarrior 1, I also picked up DragonWarrior 2 and 3. Then played through all three.

DragonWarrior 2 is a much larger game than DragonWarrior 1. They took the success of the first one and made it bigger and better. The story is much deeper and more complex. They added in two other characters to join your hero on his quest. That was one of my major beefs with the game, though. In adding more characters and more story, they made it more confusing. It took me too long to figure out I had to go several different places looking for the lazy prince to get him to join my party before I could progress farther. The open-world had a few more hard barriers to progressing, one of which was recruiting the prince and princess to my party which was hard when I couldn't find them and couldn't remember who gave me the hints about it. This is where Google and walkthroughs can help, but I also like figuring it out for myself. Until I get too frustrated. So it got dinged one star for being just a bit too obtuse about things.

It plays very similarly to DragonWarrior 1 - simple controls, turn-based, and all the rest. There is more strategy involved in how you line up your party and what attacks and equipment you use. The game requires more brains than coordination, which I appreciate.

The story is satisfying. This time you are saving a larger world, a century after you saved Alefgard from the evil DragonLord. Now you are facing off against a bigger, meaner, bad guy. And it will take more quests, more battles, more buffing before you have the strength needed to save everyone and bring back life and light to the world.

I have the cartridge for this one for my NES. The original version requires a LOT of grinding. The upgrade is a huge improvement allowing the player to focus more on the story and less on marching around in circles near the towns so when the monsters almost kill you, you can run fast into town and heal up before heading out to grind more.

One of the best improvements was the ability to name the Prince and Princess. The game does have a random list of a few names it assigns them, but I like to type in my own names. So my hero is always named squid (yes, I don't capitalize it because that requires more typing with the joystick which is a pain in the butt and my least favorite part of the game), and I named the prince Fred and the princess Arbodee.

So pick up a sequel that is everything bigger and better than the original.

NES DragonWarrior 1, aka DragonQuest 1

Rating: 10 😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸

Ages 5+, requires some reading, simple combat, epic storyline

 

This game holds a very special place in my heart. This was one of the first games I ever really played; well, not counting Telengard, Solitaire, and a bunch of weird ones we had on our Commodore-64 years and years ago.

For the history of this game, first released in the US for the NES in August 1989, check out the wikipedia article. And a note on the name: DragonQuest was the name in Japan, DragonWarrior was the name it was released under in the US.

I played through this game back in the 1990s on an NES we borrowed. I still have the cartridge with the system in my other room. It captivated me. I could wander around and explore, fight monsters (and usually die when I wandered into an area too difficult for my character's level), talk to townspeople, go on quests or not, as I chose. It really was one of the very first open-world games. No hard barriers, except the one for the final boss, just soft barriers to steer you along the path of the storyline. But even that storyline wasn't linear. I could fumble around without clues and hope to stumble into a piece of story or I could talk to people in the game and get the clues and try to figure it out from there. But it didn't make too much difference what order I did things in.

I also loved that combat was totally turn-based and only required me to push the A-button then choose my action from a very short menu. The monster would patiently wait for me if I needed to run to the bathroom or take care of a screaming child (which happened many times during my game play over the years).

I was thrilled to discover DragonQuest/DragonWarrior 1 recently on the Nintendo Switch. And bonus! It was a few dollars to buy. That was a no-brainer purchase.

Just a side note: I adore the Switch. I can sit in my recliner and play games without worrying about cables. The controllers feel like old friends. The buttons are still pretty simple, especially for the retro games.

My son played the original cartridge on the NES while I played the Switch version. Other than adjusting the balance of experience points, money, and leveling mechanics, the game is the same. Okay, most of the art and sprites have been updated because those 8-bit graphics would look horrendous on the ginormous tv I play the switch on. Pixels as big as your face! Nope, not gonna happen. But they did clean it up and it's a pretty game, very retro pixelated graphics reminiscent of the original. They also switched the music to a more orchestral version.

With the re-balancing, they reduced the amount of grinding needed to gain levels and money for equipment. Monsters give you more gold and more experience per fight, so you don't need to chase down and slaughter quite so many. Of course, if you have had a bad day and need to work out some frustration, spend a few hours hunting down slimes and mashing A until they die. It's very therapeutic.

The story for DragonQuest 1 is pretty simple and short, but it still has surprising depth. There are a couple of dragons to fight, a princess to rescue, and a world to save. And loads of other monsters to battle, peasants and merchants to talk to, secrets to uncover, and the whole world of Alefgard to explore.

If you enjoy games where you don't have to have good reflexes and enough coordination to make tricky jumps, where the story is an epic fantasy quest, DragonQuest/DragonWarrior 1 is a great choice.

Available on the
Nintendo Switch as a download. You might be able to locate a cartridge for an NES system, if you own one of those, through GameStop or eBay or other collector's sites.