Dragon Quest

This article is about the original game in the Dragon Quest series. For series information, see Dragon Quest (series).

Main series games Dragon Quest Developer(s) Chunsoft Publisher(s) ^JP Enix
^NA Nintendo
Designer(s) Yūji Horii
Koichi Nakamura
Yukinobu Chida Artist(s) Akira Toriyama Composer(s) Koichi Sugiyama Series Dragon Quest Platform(s) NES/Famicom, MSX, NEC PC-9801, Sharp X68000 Super Famicom, Game Boy Color (hybrid cartridge), Mobile phone, Wii, Android & iOS Release date(s) ^JP May 27, 1986
^NA August 1989
Genre(s) Console role-playing game Mode(s) Single player Rating(s) ESRB: E (Everyone) (GBC) Media ^NA 640-kilobit NES cartridge
^JP 512-kilobit Famicom cartridge
GBC/SFC/MSX cartridges

Dragon Quest (ドラゴンクエスト, Doragon Kuesuto, originally known as: Dragon Warrior) is the original Dragon Quest game which preceded the entire Dragon Quest series. It was developed by Enix and released in 1986 in Japan for the MSX and Famicom consoles. The game was localized for North American release in 1989, but the title was changed to Dragon Warrior to avoid infringing on the trademark of the pen and paper game DragonQuest. The North American version of the game was greatly improved graphically over the Japanese original, and added a battery backed-up save feature, whereas the Japanese version used a password system. Nintendo was impressed with the Japanese sales of the title and massively overproduced the cartridge; the end result was that Nintendo gave away copies of Dragon Warrior as an incentive for subscribing to Nintendo Power, the company's in-house promotions magazine.

Dragon Quest was the first turn-based role playing games to debut on a video game console and is considered a pioneer in the development of the genre. Dragon Quest's immense success proved that RPGs had a place in the industry, and would spawn a successful franchise that would become one of the de facto standards for role playing video games.

Gameplay

Dragon Quest was developed to be simple enough for anyone to understand it's intricacies, but also captivating enough to compel players to explore every inch of it's digital surface.

The player controls a single character who is able to travel around the world on a quest to defeat the Dragonlord, traversing an immense country and visiting numerous towns. He can equip various weapons and armour and battle enemy monsters in one-on-one, turn-based combat. As more enemies are defeated, the hero becomes stronger and able to explore greater distances as he completes his quest. Ultimately, the hero must confront the Dragonlord in his citadel, marking the end of his adventure. The basic gameplay formula used in Dragon Quest would be replicated countless times in similar RPG titles on home consoles after its release.

Characters

• Hero: A descendant of the legendary hero Erdrick. He arrived from an unknown location to help the land of Alefgard.
• Erdrick: He rescued Alefgard years earlier. He had left items and clues for his descendant to aid in defeating the Dragonlord.
• Lorik: The king of Tantegel, and ruler of the land of Alefgard.
• Princess Gwaelin: Daughter of King Lorik. Imprisoned in the Swamp Cave southwest of Kol, by servants of the Dragonlord.
• Dragonlord: The villain of the story, he has stolen the Sphere of Light in order to infest Alefgard with horrid monsters.

Plot

Warning: Spoilers!
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Long before the game begins, a man named Erdrick returned peace to the land of Alefgard by defeating a great demon. The peace came in the form of the sacred Ball of Light. Erdrick returned to the King with the Ball of Light and there were great festivals and celebrations. Eventually, Erdrick took his leave and was never seen again. Years passed and the people prospered, but one person was not happy with the way things were. He lived in the western mountain cave, far from Tantegel's walls. While exploring deep within the cave, he came across a sleeping dragon. Suddenly, the dragon awoke and the man was very frightened. As he closed his eyes to stop himself from seeing his demise, nothing happened. The man grew tired of waiting and threw a stick to distract it. To his surprise, the dragon picked it up in his mouth and brought it back to the man, like a dog. After that he discovered he could make the dragon do whatever he wanted. He then named himself the Dragonlord. Suddenly, a disaster occurred: Charlock Castle rose from its dirt grave, and everyone knew this was a bad omen. A few minutes later a swarm of Slimes, Ghosts, Dragons and other monsters attacked Tantegel and the villages across Alefgard. Though they fought bravely, the years of peace had made the people weak. The Ball of Light and were stolen by the Dragonlord himself.

After this terrible attack the people were terrified to walk outside again. Many men were killed traveling between places and people locked their doors at night. At night, they could hear the Slimes scratching and mumbling along the walls of Tantegel. The King fell into a deep depression over his kidnapped daughter, even though the legends told of a descendant of Erdrick coming to restore peace. The King believed it to be a myth until one day a scrawny-looking young man appeared at the King's feet and asked permission to retrieve the Ball of Light and Princess Gwaelin. Since many other hapless warriors had volunteered and failed, the King had already given up hope. But he sees a light in this young man's eyes and knew he was the descendant of Erdrick. Giving him a few items and some gold, the King sends the warrior out.

After traveling the length and breadth of Alefgard and becoming more and more powerful, the Hero eventually discovers Lady Lora in the clutches of a Green dragon, who is hiding her in a cave. After slaying the dragon, the Hero lifts her onto his back and carries her all the way back to Tantegel, to the delirious joy of everyone there.

Finally, after strengthening himself through all the battles he has fought and the mystical items he has uncovered, including Erdrick's own sword, the Hero enters Charlock Castle, the Dragonlord's domain, and kills him, temporarily freeing Alefgard from the terror of evil.

Lora proposes to him and King Lorik offers him the throne; he accepts the former offer but declines the latter, opting instead to venture to lands unknown and found his own kingdom.

Legacy

Influence on the Video Game Industry

Before the release of Dragon Quest, the video game marketplace consisted of fast-paced, reflex dependent action titles. The majority of these were originally developed as arcade quarter-munchers, and retained the immense difficulty of such even when ported to a home console. Storytelling was sparse, if text was even programmed into a game, and titles relied on the player's imagination to fill in the gaps.

When Yuji Horii's dream project proved to be a smashing success, the entire perception of what a video game could be changed. Countless RPGs flooded store shelves to cash in on the newfound hype surrounding the genre, and action titles began to experiment with deeper plotlines and character interaction instead of merely pushing level complexity.

A humble title from a small publishing company changed everything for games.

Remakes

Being the original game in the series, Dragon Quest has been remade and re-released on a variety of different platforms; most notably for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Most of the remakes feature localizations which differ from the original, as well as additional features such as an item/gold vault and streamlined menu system. Other changes include tweaks to the leveling system to make it easier to gain levels without excessive grinding. Most fans consider almost all remakes to be easier than the original release for this reason. See List of version differences in Dragon Quest I for a listing of version differences.

Note that only some of the remakes have been released outside of Japan. For a full list of releases and dates, visit List of Dragon Quest releases.

Sequels

Dragon Quest was closely followed by Dragon Quest II which met with similar success. Dragon Quest II featured the same timeline and setting as the original, a concept which was further extended into Dragon Quest III. Together, the first three games comprise what is known as the Erdrick Trilogy. All three games were designed for the Famicom/NES and share similar artistic styles.

Spinoffs

As the first game in the series, Dragon Quest has served as a significant influence in almost every spinoff game. In particular, many of the enemies developed for Dragon Quest (Slime, Dracky, Chimaera, etc.) are featured in almost every other game in the main series and spinoffs.

Trivia

• The stat improvement algorithms depend on the player's name, deciding if the player will be more proficient in strength, agility, or magic (MP).
• There is no party, only a single player character.
• Although his sprite changes when the princess is rescued, to show him carrying her, the princess does not participate in any battles.
• Enemies attack the hero 1-on-1, never in groups.
• There are no vehicles; one can only traverse the overworld map on foot, or by using a Chimera wing or Zoom spell to travel to Tantegel Castle.
• Tantegel is the only save location in the game. Likewise, the Zoom spell can only return to Tantegel. This is because the spell's Japanese name, rura, derives from the English word Ruler.
• Acquired weapons, armor and shields will automatically replace the previous item, which is then discarded or sold to the store. This is changed in the remakes.
• There is no equipment slot for helmets, despite the iron helmet, leather hat, and helm of Ortega being featured in official illustrations.
• Keys are consumed when used; new ones can be purchased at one of the "key houses" in Tantegel, Rimuldar, or Mercado. The first key in any quest must be purchased in Rimuldar, since the others are behind doors that require a key to open.
• There are separate shops for buying holy water, unlike later games where it is sold in item shops.
• Caves are dark, and must be lit up with a torch or Glow spell. These have limited range, which diminishes as the spell or torch wears out. The range is effectively reduced in the remakes, since the scale of the caves is larger, but the range is not increased to compensate.
• In the original versions, there are special menu commands to climb stairs and open chests (done automatically in later games), and in the Japanese version to select directions for certain commands, since characters do not have facings in these versions.
• The original Japanese Famicom and MSX versions of this game (and Dragon Quest II) have a "Spell of Restoration" (password system), in place of the "Imperial Scrolls of Honor" (battery save system). The password does not save current HP and MP, or the contents of the chests. So all of these will be reset on a reload.
• Whether a treasure chest has been opened or not is never recorded. By reloading the game, you can collect a chest multiple times.
• The Game Boy Color release had a more accurate translation of many character and town names.
• A myth persists that the term for the heal spell, Hoimi, became the official term for heal in Japan, though this is not actually the case. Around the release of Dragon Quest IV, Enix held a public ceremony to "induct" the word into the Japanese language, but this was for publicity only, and the word is not officially recognized as a part of the Japanese language.
• Erdrick's Sword is used during an optional boss fight in Final Fantasy XII and is also the prize for winning that battle. This also marks the first time the mix of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest has happened in the light of both Square and Enix merging to be noticed in the Western world (though the crossover had happened a few time previously in Fortune Street, a set of board game video games only available in Japan).

Soundtrack

Koichi Sugiyama served as composer for the soundtrack. He would go on to write most of the music for the entire Dragon Quest series. Dragon Quest I's symphonic suite was bundled with Dragon Quest II's symphonic suite and a disc of original compositions as Dragon Quest in Concert. Here is the track listing for the Dragon Quest I portion of that release:

1. Overture March (序曲/Overture) (3:59)
2. Château Ladutorm (ラダトーム城/Castle Ladutorm) (3:25)
3. People (街の人々/People of the Town) (3:36)
4. Unknown World (広野を行く/Going in Plain) (2:07)
5. Fight (戦闘/Fight) (2:12)
6. Dungeons (洞窟/Cave) (3:40)
7. King Dragon (竜王/King Dragon) (3:08)
8. Finale (フィナーレ/Finale) (2:40)

Gallery

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  Famicom box art

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  NES box art

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  Famicom guide

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  Novelization

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  Adventure novel

• Dragonwarrior battle.jpg
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  25th Anniversary wallpaper