Thoughts on the Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest series

[Alpha2099]

As a longtime fan of RPGs, particularly the Final Fantasy series, I felt that I owed it to myself to play the Dragon Warrior (or Dragon Quest, if you prefer the true title) games to get a better feel for how console RPGs were born and have evolved over time. I'm going to give my thoughts, and I'd love to hear others' thoughts if they've played any of the games.

I tried DW1 in my sophomore year of college. I thought it was fairly decent, even though it felt very bare-bones from a graphics and gameplay stance. I did like the mini windows that appeared for a battle, creating a pseudo first-person view. I didn't like the copious amounts of grinding, and whether I was just too impatient or dense to figure everything out, I played with a walkthrough by my side. I don't think that detracted from the experience, though, since it was largely educational. Bottom line: decent game.

Dragon Warrior II, on the other hand, was terrible. I played it four years after beating the original. I applauded the addition of other characters to the party, but the application was sloppy. By the end of the game, they were only good as being meatbags to take punishment away from the hero. The enemies were way too strong and the grinding was even more painful than in the first game. And beating the final boss just came down to luck. That's a game that I'll probably never play again, but at least I can say I played it once.

I just finished Dragon Warrior III about a month ago. Much better than either of its predecessors. The class system is a lot better, and I found the difficulty to be much more tolerable. The end parts required some grinding, but it wasn't as tedious as before. I also liked the day-night system and the fact that it did have a purpose at times, rather than just being thrown in for novelty.

I'm currently playing Dragon Warrior IV now, and I'm on Chapter 5. So far I don't know if I can say it's better than DW3. They might be equal in my eyes. The different stories for each chapter is a nice addition, and there's clearly more of a story than in previous games. At times I've felt like there's too much back-and-forth going on, particularly when Taloon needs to raise 60K gold to clear the tunnel. But in general, I'm liking it.

As you can tell, I'm playing the games in order. I have translated SNES copies of Dragon Warrior V and VI, and I also have Dragon Warrior VII for PlayStation. I've heard great things about DQ8 for PS2, so I'll have to get my hands on that sometime.

So, after that long-winded post, what are your thoughts on the Dragon Warrior series? Do you think it's held up over the years as a franchise?

[Little Miss Gloom]

In recent years, I've definitely felt Dragon Warrior (I refuse to call it Dragon Quest, just the same as I refuse to call Princess Toadstool "Peach") is a far better series than Final Fantasy from a gameplay standpoint.

Dragon Warrior on NES I used to have a pretty love-hate relationship with. I didn't beat it until only a couple of years ago, and since then I've really fallen in love with it as a game. I'm really hoping 7's 3DS remake makes its way over to North America.

My only gripe with the series is the re-translations on the DS are awful. Silly puns aside, the unnecessary need to give everyone an accent has caused me to unfortunately skim through the games' scripts. I love listening to Irish and Scottish dialects, but they do not bode well in phonetic text. I'll take Dragon Warrior's Elizabethan over that cumbersome shit any day.

[BlastProcessing402]

I love the accents in the DS games, especially 4 where they're most prominent. Really adds a nice flavor and makes it seem like different lands are actually different.

DQ9 goes a bit overboard on the puns, though.

[Edmond Dantes]

I own Dragon Warrior I, II, and III (on both NES and GBC) and have yet to beat the third one, however I loved the first two to death. They actually had a hand in reviving my love of RPGs, after Final Fantasy 8 and Chrono Cross had killed it the first time.

Terribly underrated if'n ya ask me.

[retroman]

I love Dragon Warrior 1-6..All great games..7 I did not care to much for...I thought 8 was very good, and 9 was ok, but I just never got into the story for 9.

[bb_hood]

I tried DW1 in my sophomore year of college. I thought it was fairly decent, even though it felt very bare-bones from a graphics and gameplay stance. I did like the mini windows that appeared for a battle, creating a pseudo first-person view. I didn't like the copious amounts of grinding, and whether I was just too impatient or dense to figure everything out, I played with a walkthrough by my side. I don't think that detracted from the experience, though, since it was largely educational. Bottom line: decent game.

The first Dragon Warrior game DOES have a huge amount of grinding needed to complete the game. It kinda makes it a hard one to complete, but not really challenging. I think its fair to consider it a 'decent' game, but considering its a very early RPG I think you can also consider it an excellent game at the same time.

All 4 Dragon Warrior games on Nintendo are excellent. I have fond memories about the 1st & 2nd especially. I got the 1st one with the Nintendo Power subscription back in the day. The second one I remember renting from the video store that was down the road from my house during a blizzard. Me and my dad hiked up there through alot of snow instead of driving and I ended up playing DW2 all weekend.

[Peonpiate]

I really loved DQ8, that game took me by surprise by how it good it was. The only other DQ game Ive played is DQ5 and that was the PS2 release of it with the English language patch that I emulated, it was good but not as good as DQ8 imo. I would still place DQ5 in my top 10 rpg list though. Ive been tempted to try out the newer games but from reading fan reviews of the series it seems like they changed them for the worst, similar to how the FF series has changed for the worse now.

[Little Miss Gloom]

but from reading fan reviews of the series it seems like they changed them for the worst, similar to how the FF series has changed for the worse now.

I don't know. I'd rather take shitty puns and incomprehensible phonetics over belts, zippers, and linear hallways.

[kupomogli]

The series has been good since the third, topped at seven, eight was alright, but the series really took a major nosedive at nine. Dragon Quest Monsters 1, 2, and Joker are good. Dragon Quest Monsters 3 kind of sucks. Torneko the Last Hope is good. Never played Joker 2, any of the other Torneko games, and none of the other spinoffs.

[parallaxscroll]

Alright this is going to be a fairly long post...


I grew up on the classic Phantasy Star series as well as Final Fantasy II (IV) and III (VI). I never really payed much attention to the Dragon Quest / Dragon Warrior series, even though I was aware of it.

First time I really took notice was when EGM published an early preview in late 1994 of Dragon Quest VI - Super Famicom. For the first time a DQ game looked really detailed, colorful and interesting because they mentioned it was the final game in the Heavens series. I had no idea what that meant at the time. That preview always stuck in my mind and only about a week ago did I locate it.

Here it is, from EGM #64 - November 1994 (Doom is on the coveR) - page 86:

http://i.imgur.com/RFswWY3.jpg

These are beta / prototype screens. The main charactors hair is different and I would assume they're other changes between this and the released version of 1995.

It would be many more years before I actually even tried actually playing a DQ game. The first time I did was in the early-to-mid 2000s. I knew exactly which one I wanted to start with: Dragon Quest VI for Super Famicom.
I easily found an english translated ROM. It was really cool. I didn't get that far into it, but leveled up / did a lot of grinding, made it to the Dream World and back. Maybe a bit further but that's it.

I also tried the Super Famicom remake of III which obviously used the engine from VI. Really liked the intro scenes but found it much too difficult. Then I tried the Super Famicom remakes of I+II and compared them to NES DW I and II. Not much of a graphical upgrade. They still seemed kinda 8-Bit. So did SFC DQ V.

Late last year I acquired the DS remakes of IV-V-VI. Really enjoying playing through IV. I messed around with V and VI, and noticed VI is much faster-paced and easier than the SFC original.

Even though I'm still really new to the series, I'm rapidly learning about the history of the series and becoming more & more informed over the last 6-9 months.

I bought Dragon Quest VIII for PS2 when I was in Florida a few years ago, but it got lost in the move back home. I'll get it again because the beautiful landscapes are the main attraction for me.

I recently tried DQ VII for PS1, said to be by far the longest game in the series. I want to play through it someday. I also hope the recent 3DS remake makes its way stateside, or at least to the english speaking world with in next couple of years but I understand there's a massive amount of text to translate so we have to be patient.

I also discovered there's a PS1 remake of DQ IV. It seems like the engine was the basis of the DS remakes of IV-V-VI.

There is also a wonderful looking PS2 remake of DQ V. It's got a complete patch by DQ Translations. Been playing it the last few days.
It was this trailer of PS2 DQ V (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3smfBzIJcH4) that made me seek it out, a much-watch for fans of V and DQ in general!


Currently have no interest in trying DQ IX for DS, and only mild interest for DQ X released on Wii, Wii U and coming to Windows PC (all 3 are still Japan-only). The PC version at least opens up hope for quicker translation patching to english but there are so many other games and remakes in the series that it's really of little interest to me right now.

[TheRetroVideoGameAddict]

I've played and beaten Dragon Warrior 1-4 on the NES with parts 3 and 4 being played through about 3x each and while I've enjoyed them all I do heavily favor the last two. Part IV was a true masterpiece and I can revisit that game any old time, part 3 has that effect on me too and I just adore them both. Too bad they're so expensive on eBay and in the wild, but they're totally worth it in my opinion.

[badinsults]

I've recently been playing Dragon Quest VI on the DS. Brilliant game, though I don't like how they cut out the monster capturing aspect that was in the original Super Famicom version. I've played through 1, 2, 4, 5 and 9, plus played a good chunk of 3 and 7. I loved 7, though about 35 hours in I got stuck in a place where my levels were too low, and I had just changed jobs for most of my characters, so I was in a bit of trouble. Never did get back to it, as I moved (the game belonged to my brother). I really hope they localize the 3DS version, otherwise I will have to learn Japanese. Dragon Quest IV is still my favourite, I guess I have fond memories of it on the NES. I didn't care for the DS version as much, as I thought it was unnecessary to force crappy accents on the characters (especially the Santeem characters and their "Russian" accent). The bonus chapter was great, though. Dragon Quest V has an awesome story, and it is pretty close to being on par with DQ4.

[Black_Tiger]

The original Dragon Warrior will always be my favorite. I appreciate how much the games in the series continued to evolve, but I still appreciate the simplicity and style of the original, separate from nostalgia.

I played through it as a rental when it came out, but wound up owning it after it was given away with Nintendo Power subscriptions. I asked for a two year subscription to get anither copy for my friend and they screwed up and sent me two copies of the magazine each month for the next year, before my second year continued correctly. I gave the extra issues to the friend I got the extra game for.

It was worth getting DW this way just for the exclusive bonus materials.

[Alpha2099]

I just beat Dragon Warrior IV yesterday. The final boss was pretty tough, especially with seven forms. But overall I enjoyed the game. The automated tactics system worried me at first, but I felt like the AI was pretty smart in handling battles.

So now that I've played all four NES titles, I'm comfortable enough to rank them from most enjoyable to least:
Dragon Warrior IV
Dragon Warrior III (This was close, but IV just beat it out.)
Dragon Warrior I
Dragon Warrior II

[bigbacon]

I was a fan of 2 and 3. 1 was great back in the day but was so limited. 2 and 3 expanded a lot. I own 4 but I haven't actually played it.

The only fault with DW was the grinding and some of the BS enemy attacked that just destroy you so quickly. I don't think I've actually beaten 2 though. I have a save game on my cart from who knows when, probbly the 90s, that is in Rhone and I just can't beat Hargon because just getting to him is a chore and then I stupidly equipped that sword that sometimes freezes you.

[Alpha2099]

The only fault with DW was the grinding and some of the BS enemy attacked that just destroy you so quickly. I don't think I've actually beaten 2 though. I have a save game on my cart from who knows when, probbly the 90s, that is in Rhone and I just can't beat Hargon because just getting to him is a chore and then I stupidly equipped that sword that sometimes freezes you.
The grinding is a common thread throughout all the games. DW4 seemed to have it in the smallest quantities, or so I felt as I played through it. For the others, it was like, "Well, now that I've made it to a new town, I need to stop the plot for 2 hours to run in circles and gain levels so I don't get eaten alive in the next dungeon."

And I know how you feel about Hargon in DW2. Of all the RPGs I've played, that may be the first one where I felt that beating the final boss came down to luck, not skill. It also doesn't help that the prince and princess are utterly useless by that point in the game, so only the hero is doing reasonable damage.