Dragon Quest 1 was much shorter than I was expecting.
This has got to be one of the most straight forward RPGs I’ve played in a while, and I don’t mean that in a bad way at all.
The DQ series in general has added so many staples to the RPG genre that it’s scary to think of what it’d be without them alongside FF, and one of the things I have a habit of saying about them despite all the ‘new and incredible’ features they’ve incorporated over the years is that DQ always and repeatedly shows that simple isn’t a bad thing. That simple can make the games accessible and fun. And I’d say this is one of the first instances of Enix proving that. (Or should I point attention towards Chunsoft for deving this, as they helped pave the way other devs like Level5 would continue for the series)
Whether from technical limitations, or avoiding overextending themselves, the game seems to bend over backwards to AVOID straying from the main goal.
Save the princess, build a bridge (with 3 artifacts, only one of which needs an additional item to attain) defeat the Dracolord.
It’s pretty sweet to see how focused the game remains.
This spills over into the rest of the design, for better or worse in some areas, and overall made the game feel charming in it’s simplicity.
One party member, few weapons, few armor pieces, TWO accessories, ONE optional dungeon with a single reward, ONE hidden piece of equipment that you could ‘maybe’ call a side quest due to how the npcs talk of it.
It’s incredible to see how big an adventure this is when not only are there so few parts, but there isn’t artificial filler dragging those parts along either. Each was given attention and the end result is better for it.
It’s just fun.
Simple and fun.
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