Despite the fact that their mobile games are generally quite expensive compared to other developers Square Enix has made me pretty happy with a lot of their iPhone ports. The fact that you can download, and play on your phone the first six Final Fantasy games is a cool premise. This year the house of chocobos and slimes has finally started bringing Dragon Quest to the platform, and because this is my favorite RPG series of all time I couldn’t have been happier to hear this news. In a rather odd twist they started with the eight installment, and then released the fourth, and finally just now we’re getting the original Dragon Quest. Square-Enix has remade the game before, and this mobile version isn’t based on any previous release as far as I can tell. This remake is a competent one, but it’s missing some of the original NES version’s charm.
The story here has not been altered in any significant ways. You play as a knight who is the direct descendant of a hero named Erdrick who once saved the kingdom of Alefgard from a shroud of darkness. Our protagonist is called to action when the land is threatened by a new bad guy called Dragonlord. He has kidnapped the princess, and threatens to destroy Alefgard. Naturally it’s your job to venture out into the world and collect magical artifacts to create a bridge leading to the antagonist’s castle. This version of the game is a brand new translation, but unfortunately it suffers some major issues. While the original release was full of old style English this mobile edition takes this to a new level. It actually becomes obnoxious after a while, and the translators went a bit too far in my opinion. It’s also a little surprising to me that they went with the ‘Erdrick’ name instead of ‘Loto’ as he’s called in Japan especially when you consider that the Game Boy remake did not.
Dragon Quest is the game that pretty much defined the modern Japanese RPG, but by modern standards it’s very basic. You’ve got your basic overhead view, and guide your character (this is a solo adventure so no other characters join your cause) across a world map which contains towns, caves, dungeons and a variety of terrain. Battles occur randomly with a window suddenly popping up showing the enemy. The action is strictly turn based, and you have only four basic commands which include attack, spell, item and run. It’s pretty self explanatory, and this game doesn’t throw any curve balls. Unfortunately enemy encounters are very limited because you don’t have a whole lot of options. There are only a few spells, and none of them increase your stats other than hit points. This means that your best means of success is by grinding experience and money. The best equipment is usually extremely expensive, and whenever you get stuck a new piece of armor or shield can be the difference between absolutely struggling and breezing through. This is one of my favorite aspects of the game; I’ve never played another RPG where new equipment and level gains are so significant and make you feel so much more powerful right away.
The game is pretty short by genre standards. You can complete the main story in around ten hours, and a significant amount of that time will be spent fighting battles to earn money and experience points. Like the other remakes of this title the difficulty has been toned down quite a bit. Items in shops now cost less money, and victory in battle generally nets you more experience points as well as gold. In addition the enemies just plain seem to have less hit points and lower stats. Some players prefer this, but in my opinion it diminishes some of the charm from the original. On another note your goals are explained more clearly in this version which makes it significantly more accessible for new players. Many will be disappointed to learn that this game contains no landscape mode. That means you have to hold the phone upright, and the vertical viewing area is far from optimal. The game uses a virtual joystick for movement that can be aligned to the left/right or center, and you input commands by tapping them in battle. The touch screen controls are competent, but the game would be significantly better with a landscape mode.
What’s interesting about this version of the game is that the graphics aren’t ported from the Super Famicom version as I initially expected them to be. Instead they’re based off of a former cell phone release, and the game looks really good to be honest. The sprites are highly detailed, and in screenshots it looks significantly better than the source material. Unfortunately the scrolling is extremely choppy here; the game never seems to run particularly smoothly. Another problem is the fact that the battle display box is very small and it makes the game look like an amateur project. The graphics are okay and the good levels out the bad, but the soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal. It’s all synthesized, but it was done so in super high quality. The music almost sounds orchestrated, and that’s a very impressive feat. This is my favorite version of the first Dragon Quest’s soundtrack by a long shot even if the battle theme does sound a little off here.
While this port does have some issues the novelty of having the first Dragon Quest on your phone, and for only a few dollars, makes this well worth a purchase. While it’s a little jarring at first it didn’t take long for me to get past the vertical screen orientation and choppy scrolling. These are the only big issues, and honestly the good evens out the bad. This is a decent release.
