Dragon Quest (video game)

titled Dragon Warrior when initially localized to North America, is a 1986 role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was originally released in Japan in May 1986 and by Nintendo in North America in August 1989. It is the first game in the Dragon Quest video game series. Dragon Quest has been ported and remade for several video game platforms. As of 2019, it has been ported to MSX, MSX2, PC-9801, Super Famicom, Game Boy Color, mobile phones, and Nintendo Switch. The player controls the hero character who is charged with saving the Kingdom of Alefgard and rescuing its princess from the evil Dragonlord. Dragon Warriors story became the second part in a trilogy, with several spinoff anime and manga series.

Dragon Quest was created by Yuji Horii, inspired by previous role-playing games such as Wizardry, Ultima, and his own 1983 game The Portopia Serial Murder Case. Horii wanted to create an introductory RPG for a wide audience. He emphasized storytelling and emotional involvement, and simplified the interface, to translate the mostly Western PC game genre of RPG to the Japanese console market. Manga artist and Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama produced the artwork and Koichi Sugiyama composed the music. The North American version features numerous changes, including battery-backed RAM save games (rather than using a password save system), larger character sprites, and pseudo-Elizabethan English style dialog.

Dragon Quest was commercially successful in Japan, but its later release as Dragon Warrior in North America was less favorably received.  The original version of the game sold more than copies worldwide, with sold in Japan and 500,000 in the United States. Later, Western critics noted the game's shortcomings but acknowledged its importance to the genre. It inspired fan-made ROM hacks with substantial changes. The game's synthesized soundtrack has been orchestrated, and its music has been performed at numerous concerts. As a whole, Dragon Quest has been credited with establishing the basic template for subsequent Japanese console RPGs.

Gameplay

Dragon Warrior is a single-player role-playing video game. Years after its release, its gameplay mechanics have been described as simplistic and spartan. The player controls a young hero who sets out to defeat a being known as the Dragonlord. The player starts with a menu to begin a new quest, continue a previous quest, or change the speed in which messages appear on the screen. In the Japanese version, continuing a quest requires a password. In the North American Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) English version, the quest is saved onto the game cartridge's battery-backup (called an "Adventure Log" in the "Imperial Scrolls of Honor"), the game analyzes the name entered to determine the initial ability scores and their statistical growth over the course of the game.

Dragon Warrior presents players with a clear objective from the start and uses a series of smaller scenarios to increase the hero's strength in order to achieve the objective. The game begins in King Lorik's chamber in Tantegel Castle, where the hero receives information about the Dragonlord, whom he must defeat, and the stolen Balls of Light, which he must retrieve. After receiving some items and gold, the hero sets out on his quest. Much of Dragon Warrior is spent talking to townspeople and gathering information from them that leads to additional places, events, and secrets. Towns contain shops that sell improved weapons and armor; general stores where the player may buy other goods; inns that allow the hero to recover his health and magic, and shops that offer keys for purchase. The player may sell items at half price to shops that provide weapons, armor, or general goods. The hero's status window is shown whenever he stops moving, displaying his current experience level (LV) and the number of hit points (HP), magic points (MP), gold (G), and experience points (E).

frame|Battling a [[Slime (Dragon Quest)|Slime in Dragon Warrior for the NES|alt=A screenshot of a two-dimensional video game that shows a monster amid a green landscape. Battle statistics and commands are displayed on the top and left sides of the image.]]

To safely progress to the next areas in the game, the player needs to accumulate experience points and gold by defeating enemies outside of towns – in the overworld and in dungeons. Apart from the Dragonlord's castle and locked doors, there are no physical restrictions on where players can roam. Instead, monsters increase in difficulty as players venture further from Tantegel castle. As the hero's level increases, the player can explore further afield with less risk. Enemies appear in random encounters and the hero fights one opponent at a time. Battles are turn-based and fought from a first-person perspective while the hero remains off-screen.

During combat, the hero loses HP when he takes damage, and the display turns red when his HP is low. If his HP falls to zero, he dies and is taken back to King Lorik to be resurrected, and loses half his gold "as punishment". Every time a spell is used, the hero's MP decreases at a different cost per spell. Both HP and MP can be restored by resting at an inn, and a non-player character can replenish the hero's MP in Tantegel Castle. The player can conservatively manage the limited inventory space. In the English version, the player can return to King Lorik at any time to save the quest.

The control pad moves the hero and the menu cursor. Other buttons confirm and cancel commands. The English version has menu commands to talk to people, check their status, search beneath their feet, use items, take treasure chests, open doors, and use stairs. In some remakes, certain commands are assigned to buttons, navigating stairs is automatic, and the hero's speed is higher. The story's background begins when the kingdom of Alefgard was shrouded in permanent darkness. The brave warrior Erdrick ("Loto" in the Japanese versions as a well as the English version of the Game Boy Color remake) defeated an evil creature and restored light to the land. In Erdrick's possession was the Ball of Light, which he used to drive away enemies who threatened the kingdom. Erdrick handed the Ball of Light to King Lorik, and Alefgard remained peaceful for a long time.

However, there is one man who shunned the Ball of Light's radiance and secluded himself in a mountain cave. One day, while exploring the cave's extensive network of tunnels, the man encountered a sleeping dragon who awoke upon his entrance. He feared the dragon would incinerate him with its fiery breath, but the dragon instead knelt before him and obeyed his commands. This man, who is later discovered to be a dragon, became known as the Dragonlord.

Characters

The two main characters are the hero and the Dragonlord. Major supporting characters are King Lorik (King Lars in the GBC remake); his daughter Princess Gwaelin (Lady Lora), and two sages the hero meets during his journey. is a descendant of the legendary Erdrick. When the hero arrives, he does not appear to be a warrior – he arrives without weapons or armor – and is ignorant of the situation. The populace thinks his claim of the ability to defeat the Dragonlord are preposterous; however, King Lorik sees this ability, which give him hope and he aids the hero on his quest. Determined to rescue the princess and defeat the Dragonlord, he discovers an ancient tablet hidden inside a desert cave; carved on the tablet is a message from Erdrick that outlines what the hero needs to do to follow in Erdrick's footsteps and defeat the Dragonlord.

Once the hero defeats the Dragonlord he reclaims the Ball of Light, eradicating all monsters in Alefgard, and triumphantly returns to Tantegel Castle where King Lorik offers his kingdom as a reward. The hero turns down the offer and instead wishes to find his own kingdom. Accompanied by Princess Gwaelin, the hero then sets off in search of a new land; this sets the stage for the events in Dragon Warrior II, which take place many years later and tells the story of three of the hero's descendants.

In a post-credit scene of HD-2D Remake, Hargon is seen on an altar, vowing to his former matron that despite her son's failure to remake the world, he will do it himself, swearing it upon his name once more.

Development

Background

When Eidansha Boshu Service Center was founded in 1975 it published tabloid magazines that advertised real estate. In 1982, after failing to establish a chain of stores, the company's founder Yasuhiro Fukushima transformed it into a software company devoted to gaming and created Enix. To find talent for the company, Fukushima held the "Enix Game Hobby Program Contest". The competition was styled after manga competitions, was advertised in computer and manga magazines, and had a  million prize for the winners. The winners were , Koichi Nakamura, and manga magazine Shōnen Jump writer Yuji Horii, who was the top winner. Horii designed a tennis game, Love Match Tennis, which became Enix's first release. While he did not believe he would win, he was motivated by his editor, who enjoyed the games and published Horii's articles on them. Later, when Enix began creating games for the NES, Fukushima held another contest. This time, Nakamura won with his "cartoonish and creative contest entry" Door Door, which became Enix's first release for the NES.

Horii's earliest inspiration for Dragon Quest is his own 1983 PC adventure game The Portopia Serial Murder Case – a murder mystery adventure game that bears some similarities to games such as Mystery House (1980), Zork (1980), King's Quest (1984), and particularly Déjà Vu (1985). Horii wanted to advance the game's storyline through dialogue. Portopia was originally released for Japan's NEC PC-6001 and was later ported to the Famicom in 1985. Thus as the game progressed, the hero would become stronger, in contrast to action games like Super Mario Bros. where Mario does not become continuously more powerful throughout the entire game. He believed that the Famicom was the ideal platform for it, because unlike arcade games, players would not worry about spending money if they got a game over, and they could continue playing from where they left off. To appeal to a larger audience, manga artist and creator of Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama, was hired. As with Dragon Ball, his artwork features characters "whose strength and cunning transcend generations", with humorous elements such as a chibi style.

Koichi Sugiyama, the game's music composer, solicited Enix via a PC game's feedback questionnaire. He was already a well-known composer of television shows and pop songs, and, upon seeing his feedback, Enix producer Yukinobu Chida contacted him to confirm that "he was the Sugiyama from television". He said it took him five minutes to compose the original opening theme, and noted the difficulty in adding a personal touch to the short jingles, but that his past experience with creating music for television commercials helped. According to Sugiyama, a composer has between three and five seconds to catch the audience's attention through music. The theme and his other jingles for Dragon Quest have remained relatively intact in its sequels. With this, the game's title was changed to Dragon Warrior to avoid infringing on the trademark on wargame publisher Simulations Publications's pen-and-paper RPG DragonQuest. The article sources the game's Japanese version for images and names, briefly explaining the backstory and basic gameplay elements, comparing the game to The Legend of Zelda. The game was later mentioned in Nintendo Power "Pak Watch" preview section in March 1989, mentioning Dragon Quest IIIs Japanese release in the magazine's premiere July 1988 issue. It again mentioned the change of name from Dragon Quest to Dragon Warrior, its inspiration of two Japanese sequels, and that its release was still distant in time.

Release

Dragon Quest was released in Japan in 1986 for the Famicom, the MSX, the MSX2, and the PC-9801.

Dragon Warrior was released in North America by Nintendo of America under the direction of Satoru Iwata with help from Horii in August 1989 – months before the Japanese release of Dragon Quest IV. Because the game was released in North America more than three years after the original release in Japan, the graphics were improved. Instead of lengthy passwords with kana characters, the North American version has a battery-backed RAM savegame.

Katsuya Terada created some of the artwork for the early Dragon Warrior articles in Nintendo Power. Neither Terada nor those editing the artwork for the instruction booklet followed Toriyama's work; they instead used the settings and character poses to create alternate artwork in an American style. The Japanese hero has a chibi manga style, and the English version's appearance is based on "the West's template of a medieval hero". Nintendo Power provided three feature articles on Dragon Warrior for issues between May and October 1989 The March–April 1990 issue of Nintendo Power has a map of the game world, with a poster of Super Contra on the other side, and a Dragon Warrior text adventure.

In late 1990, Nintendo reportedly strategized the unloading of unsold game units by sending free copies of Dragon Warrior to Nintendo Power subscribers, At the time, the game cost approximately at retail and the magazine's subscription fee was only . The series would eventually see greater success in North America more than a decade later. In 1998, Enix released BS Dragon Quest for the Super Famicom via the Satellaview peripheral exclusively in Japan. The latter consists of four one-hour scenarios downloaded on a weekly schedule. The player is tasked with leveling the character, collecting medals, and completing scenario-specific conditions with special real-time events.

The compilation was re-released for the GBC, developed by Tose and released by Enix on September 23, 1999, in Japan and September 27, 2000, in North America. It uses an entirely new translation, discards the pseudo-Elizabethan English style and uses names closer to those in the Japanese version. and Dragon Quest VI.

On September 15, 2011, the Dragon Quest 25th Anniversary Collection compilation for the Wii was released in Japan, containing the Famicom version, Super Famicom version, Dragon Quest II, and Dragon Quest III. It includes original copies of the games' strategy guides, original artwork, and development material. In November 2013, the game was released for iOS and Android in Japan, based on the 2004 mobile remake. The United States and Europe mobile versions were released on September 11, 2014.

In the Nintendo Direct in September 2019, Nintendo confirmed that Dragon Quest I, II and III, would be released on the Nintendo Switch on September 27, 2019. In June 2024, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake was announced for release on October 30, 2025, for Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.

Dragon Warrior has inspired related media in the form of a manga series, which has been adapted to anime, and a symphonic video game soundtrack.

Anime and manga

The manga series, , was written by Chiaki Kawamata and Junji Koyanagi, with artwork by Kamui Fujiwara, and was published between 1991 and 1997 by Monthly Shōnen Gangan. Enix compiled the series into 21 volumes, which were later released on compact disc in 1994. It was released on December 11, 2009 for the PlayStation Store as part of the initial launch of Sony's digital comic distribution. In 1996, an anime movie based on the manga was released on videocassette. Square Enix started publishing a sequel series, , in 2005. wrote the first four volumes, and Takashi Umemura wrote the last five; Yuji Horii supervised the manga, and Kamui Fujiwara contributed the artwork.

Dragon Quest Saga: Emblem of Roto takes place between Dragon Warrior III and Dragon Warrior. After monsters possessed Carmen's king for seven years, the kingdom fell to the hordes of evil. The only survivors were Prince Arus and an army General's daughter, Lunafrea. Meanwhile, in the Kingdom of Loran, a child is born and is named Jagan in accordance with the demon lord Imagine's orders. Arus and Lunafrea set out to defeat the monsters and restore peace to the world. The sequel, To the Children Who Inherit the Emblem, takes place five years after the events in Dragon Quest Saga: Emblem of Roto. The world is again in chaos and a young boy, , sets out to gather companions to help him save the world from evil. The pieces were arranged and incorporated into later Dragon Warrior games' soundtracks. Super Famicom Edition Symphonic Suite Dragon Quest I, published by Sony Records on January 12, 1994, followed; the soundtrack featured orchestral versions of the tracks played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the original versions of the tunes. The game's classical score was considered revolutionary for console game music. The soundtrack's "eight melodies" approach set the template for most RPG soundtracks released since then, hundreds of which have been organized in a similar manner.

The orchestral albums for Dragon Warrior I and II were combined in Symphonic Suite Dragon Quest I•II, released by SME Visual Works on August 23, 2000, King Records reprinted it on October 7, 2009. The orchestral tracks were again released in the Symphonic Suite Dragon Quest I album, including orchestral versions of the game's sound effects.

Reception

Bill Johnson compared Dragon Warrior to modern RPGs and noted the game's lack of replay value, which is due to the game's requirement of total completion and to its overall difficulty. He noted the game's historical importance, saying, "[Playing Dragon Warrior is] a tough road to walk, but reaching its end will instill a new appreciation of what today's RPGs are all about." Nintendo Power said the game's historical significance is its greatest aspect, and noted that "playing Dragon Warrior these days can be a bit of a chore".

Remakes

The Dragon Quest I & II remake for the Super Famicom yielded 1.2 million copies sold in Japan. Famitsu gave the Super Famicom compilation remake Dragon Quest I & II a rating of 35 out of 40. The Satellaview remake was given a mixed, but overall positive review by Microgroup, saying that the touches such as the real-time event and voicing were appreciated but their implementation was lacking. They praised the medal collection as a nice way to compete with friends. GameSpot gave it a 9.6 out of 10, citing the great improvements to sound quality and the appeal of playing both games in succession, and GameRankings reports an 82% overall score. Comparing it to its NES counterpart, RPGamers Derek Cavin awarded it 3 out of 5, saying that the game is above average in all aspects, and particularly praised the visual elements. He criticized its repetitiveness, but said that it is short enough that most players should finish the game before repetition becomes an issue. With the remakes' good sales performances, Enix released Dragon Warrior III for the GBC in 2001, which was based on a previously unreleased SNES update of Dragon Quest IIIs English version.

Square Enix Music Onlines Juan2Darien reviewed the game's symphonic scores: Dragon Quest Suite; Dragon Quest I Remix Symphonic Suite (London Philharmonic Orchestra); Dragon Quest I & II Symphonic Suite (London Philharmonic Orchestra Remastered); and Dragon Quest I Symphonic Suite (Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra). Comparing each of the suites, he gave all ratings ranging 7 through 9 out of 10, and found the Tokyo Strings Ensemble recording superior. He praised efforts by Koichi Sugiyama and the orchestras to compose an above-average piece beyond the flatness of the source material. Gamasutras Kurt Kalata also praised the symphonies' melody, commenting that "the overworld theme... is pretty simplistic and grating, but actually sounds pretty beautiful when played by a live orchestra". For the week of February 24 to March 2, 2009, volume 8 was ranked 19th in Japan, at 76,801 copies. For the week of October 26 to November 1, 2009, volume 9 was ranked 16th in Japan, at 40,492 copies for a total of 60,467. Its popularity in Japan is synonymous with RPGs. According to Shigeru Miyamoto, the success of Dragon Quest changed the nature of video game development by making scenario writers far more important. The game introduced an element of romance, where the player character is given a dialogue choice to respond to the princess's question of whether he loves her; romance has since become a commonplace feature in the genre. The game's 2D graphic style was used by most RPGs until the advent of 3D graphics, Reviewers said that, though Final Fantasy has been considered more important due to its popularity and attention in North America, Dragon Warrior laid the fundamentals on which Final Fantasy was based.

Dragon Quest became a national phenomenon in Japan, inspiring spinoff media and figurines. Horii, who was linked through his Shonen Jump articles, increased in celebrity status, and become a household name in Japan, as well known in Japan as Steven Spielberg is in the US; in contrast Miyamoto, creator of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, is not nearly as well-known. Several games such as Glory of Heracles, Legend of the Ghost Lion, and Mother were inspired by the Japanese version's success. Shigesato Itoi was a fan of Dragon Quest, and Miyamoto was a detractor of the RPG genre, so in developing Mother, they subverted the Dragon Quest template by changing the setting and themes from the Middle Ages to those of the US. Dragon Quest became so popular in Japan that, if asked to draw slime, a Japanese person is likely to draw a shape similar to that of the game's Slime creature. On April Fools' Day 2012, Google added a Dragon Warrior-inspired 8-bit option to Google Maps.

In 2016, the spinoff Dragon Quest Builders was released as an alternate sequel to the first game. The story is set after the "bad ending" of the first game, where the Hero accepts the Dragonlord's offer to join him and rule half of the world.

Notes

References

External links

Official Dragon Quest for smartphone site
Official Dragon Quest site
Official Dragon Quest for smartphone site