Dragon Quest was the first big RPG franchise out of Japan. The original was a hit worldwide (thanks to being given away for free via Nintendo Power) and spawned many sequels. Today I’m here to look at the first one. The thing is, the version I’ve been playing isn’t on the Nintendo Entertainment System, nor is it the cartridge released on the Japanese equivalent hardware. This is the version of Dragon Quest released on the MSX computer. Let’s take a look.
The land of Alefgard (not sure what it’s called in Japanese) is being threatened by a nefarious baddie named Dragonlord. Using a magical artifact called the ball of light he takes control of a dragon sleeping in a cave. He attacks Tantegel Castle, kidnaps the princess, and all seems to be lost. Enter you. You’re playing as a descendant of the legendary hero Loto, and are a warrior spoken of in prophecy to defeat the Dragonlord and restore light to Alefgard.
Let me start by saying that this is not Dragon Warrior. That was the game we got in North America, and it was an enhanced version of the Japanese release. Dragon Quest is a port of the original Famicom title, and it’s a lot less polished. Let’s start with the fact that your character always faces the same direction on the overworld and in towns. That’s right, no matter which way you move they’re always looing back at you. This makes it feel more like an old PC game, and it’s kind of startling to be honest.
This causes a problem that wasn’t in the original game. Whenever you choose to the ‘talk’ option from the menu you have to choose which direction the character is that you want to interact with. It doesn’t sound like a big deal but you’ll be talking to a lot of people throughout your quest. It may only add a few seconds to the game, but those definitely feel like they add up after a while. The interface was always pretty clunky, and this does Dragon Quest no favors.
With that out of the way there’s not a lot that’s changed from Dragon Warrior to here. The big difference is that it’s in Japanese, but there’s not much we can do about that. I know the game so well that a simple translation guide was enough for me to jump in and play. Dragon Quest is still your basic traditional turn based role playing game. You trek across a world map containing within it caves, towns, and other dungeons. Outside of populated areas you’ll be attacked at random by monsters. From here you’re whisked away to an overlay showing your enemy and you input commands like attack, magic, in order to reduce their hit points to zero. Victory grants you money (used to upgrade equipment and buy tools such as herbs and torches) and experience to gain levels and become stronger.
What holds Dragon Quest back is its lack of options. At the same time it also makes the game easier to play for those who don’t speak Japanese. This boils down to the fact that you don’t so much have a traditional party as you do a lone wolf. No characters join your cause. The protagonist, descendant of Loto, is all you’ve got. You can equip armor and a weapon, and gain magic spells at specific levels. These are terribly limited to healing and attacking. There just aren’t a enough options here. There’s a small handful of equipment that’s to be found, and only a couple of magic spells to use.
So where does the challenge come in if your options are so limited? Enix opted to just make the singular enemies you encounter significantly more difficult with each new area you reach. Because there’s not enough options to allow for strategy your survival depends entirely on what level you’re at. Most Dragon Quest games don’t require grinding. This is actually the only one, and that’s only because the gameplay doesn’t offer room for any real tactics. It’s level up and buy the best equipment, and then move on to the next area. I generally forgive the NES version for this because it’s fun, but the extra frustration brought about here in the MSX version doesn’t help it out at all.
It’s not all bad however. The world of Alefgard is a fun one to explore with memorable towns and scenarios. If you aren’t a native Japanese speaker this MSX version will require the use of a translation guide, and even then you’ll need to have a pretty good idea of what to do in the game. Progression can be vague often requiring an item found by following subtle clues. The dungeons are a little more brutal than in your typical RPG because you need torches to light the way. It’s just one more item you need to save up for. Dragon Quest isn’t a super long game. It does feel a little slower on the MSX than it did on the NES however.
Dragon Quest is a rough game visually. The NES release wasn’t exactly pretty, and so imagine that but downgraded. I just have a real tough time with the fact that your character faces the same direction no matter how you move. It’s rough, and took me a while to get over it. The backgrounds are super simple with very basic tiles. Things such as towns and caves on the world map are easy to distinguish, but very crudely drawn. The highlight is in the monster designs. These are timeless and add a lot of character/atmosphere to Dragon Quest. Unfortunately the scrolling here is a little rough. That’s pretty typical for MSX games, but it’s a little jarring here. The music is also a little downgraded. It just sounds like there’s less channels of audio here.
