View Full Version : It took me 17 years, but I finally beat Dragon Warrior
Jasoco
01-31-2006, 12:22 AM
http://www.jasoco.net/images/news/060131.jpg
(Click) (http://www.jasoco.net/2006/01/30/beat-dw/)
Received it as part of the Nintendo Power promotion 17 years ago. Never actually got around to beating the Dragonlord.
Well, this year is the year of the RPG for me. This year I plan to beat all the RPG's I ever started but never quite finished. Dragon Warrior is just the first in line. My PSP finally gives me the time and motivation to actually play through these things. Plus, my PSP emulator doesn't accidentally lose my save game if you don't shut it off correctly. ;)
Now I'm going to move onto Dragon Warrior II. I'm also working through Earthbound (Also on the PSP), Final Fantasy VI (PSX Anthology), Dragon Quest VIII (Took a break to play this one.), Super Mario RPG. (Never quite had the strength to beat Smithy.)
So I'm late to the party. Sorry.
swlovinist
01-31-2006, 01:18 AM
Congrats man, I too have decided when I meet with my fellow gamers, that I would occasionally beat an impossible game together. For my 29th birthday I finally beat Magician Lord, and then recently beat Ghouls and Ghosts. My next challenge is Castlevania Chronicles. Good luck man on DW II, the game is tough.
Haha, that is awesome. This is just as bad as me never finishing the Bard's Tale for the PC. I am STILL paying this game and have yet to finish it. I bought it when it came out in 1985. 21 years ago! Ha! Got you beat. :D
Jasoco
02-02-2006, 11:15 AM
In keeping with my new years resolution, last night I finally beat Earthbound!
Giygas has been defeated. The world has been saved. Such a beautiful and touching story. Shame the US still hasn't gotten the GBA rereleases yet. At least Mother 3 is coming out in Japan in April. I hope NOA decides to go crazy and import the entire trilogy for us.
Amazingly, Earthbound seemed a lot easier for me this time. I want to say it's because I leveled up extra at the very beginning of the game and thus ended up being ahead the whole length, but I dunno. Maybe I'm just much better at RPG's now than I was up until 6 years ago.
Also, coming off of beating both EB and DW one after another I can say DW is much more of a pain to level. EB I'm all the way at the 70's for all the characters. And it felt like I was leveling a lot often. But DW games seem to take their sweet time. I know DW only went to level 30 and I was on 20 when I beat it. (Also the final battle seems to be set up so you really only need to be at level 20 so you have enough MP to keep healing yourself and make the battle easy. But hey, it's the first RPG, what do you want? Final Fantasy? ;))
Doing good so far in DWII though. It's just a lot different. They changed too much from the original for this one. A lot of the little touches are left out in the subsequent NES DW games. Stuff that makes you go "WTF?".
Yeah, DW II drags on a bit.. IV is my favorite of the Dragon Warriors, working on 5 right now.
Snapple
02-03-2006, 04:09 AM
My favorite DQs are 4 and 5. I think 3 and 6 are a bit overrated, personally. Especially 6. But a solid series nonetheless, even if it's one of the least innovative franchises ever.
The only DQ I haven't beaten is actually DQ8, which I got for Christmas and then put down after about 20 hours. Whoops. Well, I'll get around to it.
Congrats on beating Dragon Warrior and Earthbound. Nice screenshot, too.
Congrats! It usually takes me a good 5-10 years to sit through any RPG as well. Good luck with your new years resolution!
DeputyMoniker
02-03-2006, 10:39 AM
I've been working on this for a few months but it's very non-linear and I'm having a hard time making any progression. Congrats on beating it.
XianXi
02-03-2006, 12:00 PM
Nice Dude!! You aren't the only one that is taking long. I still have not beaten it, no time to. The only part I went up to was killing that green dragon in the dungeon and getting a key I think, thats all I remember then I was fighting werewolves.
XianXi
02-03-2006, 12:00 PM
edit:double post.
Chainsaw_Charlie
02-03-2006, 01:47 PM
Dw 2 's end boss took me 5 times to beat
The-Bavis
02-04-2006, 12:04 AM
Every time I try to play Dragon Warrior again, I get as far as pullling up the menu to use "stairs" and then quickly turn it off. Used to love that game...
Jasoco
02-04-2006, 12:17 AM
Every time I try to play Dragon Warrior again, I get as far as pullling up the menu to use "stairs" and then quickly turn it off. Used to love that game...At least they fixed that with DW2. But you shouldn't let a little stair telling stop you! I got used to it very quickly and it became second nature. A, Down, Down, A isn't a lot you know.
Every time I try to play Dragon Warrior again, I get as far as pullling up the menu to use "stairs" and then quickly turn it off. Used to love that game...At least they fixed that with DW2. But you shouldn't let a little stair telling stop you! I got used to it very quickly and it became second nature. A, Down, Down, A isn't a lot you know.
Bah, gamers are lazy these days ;) Imagine if we had to put up with all those TEXT adventures!
I'd be pissed if I couldn't spell!
Jasoco
02-04-2006, 02:06 AM
Every time I try to play Dragon Warrior again, I get as far as pullling up the menu to use "stairs" and then quickly turn it off. Used to love that game...At least they fixed that with DW2. But you shouldn't let a little stair telling stop you! I got used to it very quickly and it became second nature. A, Down, Down, A isn't a lot you know.
Bah, gamers are lazy these days ;) Imagine if we had to put up with all those TEXT adventures!
I'd be pissed if I couldn't spell!Didn't some text adventures have a spell checker? I know "Win Lose or Draw" did. (I know it's not a TEXT game. But it did use text and checked spelling.) You could type "a bx f jelybeens" and it would know exactly what you meant. And that was a DOS game from like 20 years ago.
kainemaxwell
02-04-2006, 10:27 AM
Congrats on beating the first game. I've beaten 1, 3 and 4. never beat 2 yet cause like previously mentioned, it tends to drag on too much with little sense of coherency till near the end.
The-Bavis
02-04-2006, 02:54 PM
Every time I try to play Dragon Warrior again, I get as far as pullling up the menu to use "stairs" and then quickly turn it off. Used to love that game...At least they fixed that with DW2. But you shouldn't let a little stair telling stop you! I got used to it very quickly and it became second nature. A, Down, Down, A isn't a lot you know.
Bah, gamers are lazy these days ;) Imagine if we had to put up with all those TEXT adventures!
I'd be pissed if I couldn't spell!
It's not that I'm lazy, it just takes me out of the experience and lose interest. I know it's nit-picky. I'll just have to get over it someday by playing it all the way through again.
Every time I try to play Dragon Warrior again, I get as far as pullling up the menu to use "stairs" and then quickly turn it off. Used to love that game...At least they fixed that with DW2. But you shouldn't let a little stair telling stop you! I got used to it very quickly and it became second nature. A, Down, Down, A isn't a lot you know.
Bah, gamers are lazy these days ;) Imagine if we had to put up with all those TEXT adventures!
I'd be pissed if I couldn't spell!
It's not that I'm lazy, it just takes me out of the experience and lose interest. I know it's nit-picky. I'll just have to get over it someday by playing it all the way through again.
Wasn't calling you yourself lazy, just being general, since I hate it when I have to hit a command to take some stairs. :(
Buyatari
02-06-2006, 10:45 PM
DW1 was a great game. Its not the same playing it on a handheld though.
Jasoco
02-06-2006, 10:52 PM
It was for me. I'll tell you what's not the same. Playing it on a computer. Down with computer emulation.
It was for me. I'll tell you what's not the same. Playing it on a computer. Down with computer emulation.
Let's be fair, some of us found our way into collecting FROM discovering emulation.
I once got the feel for some River City Ransom one day (I last played it when I was 7.) I was about 18, and I did a search on it, found a "ROM" and had no idea how to use it, came home and found I couldn't use it :(
Then, I found out I needed an emulator after looking for "how to install a ROM", and man oh man, that was a kick ass memory day, it all came rushing back!
I'm glad ROM's are preserved here, and we know all our games are safe for future kids to discover!
Jasoco
02-07-2006, 04:22 AM
Whoosh! You do know what a joke is, right? ;)
Still, I'd much rather play something on a console than a computer. Even if it is being emulated on the console.
Whoosh! You do know what a joke is, right? ;)
Still, I'd much rather play something on a console than a computer. Even if it is being emulated on the console.
Oh yeah, same here, way better on real hardware and a nice big screen! Computer sucks for playing, it's just cool it preserved those games, I was amazed to find out all the kick ass games I had I could get again, and try out the ones my parents were too smart to buy me!
NE146
02-07-2006, 01:32 PM
I received the original Dragon Warrior back in 1989. At the time no one had ever heard of an RPG. Thusly no one was buying a game known as an RPG. At least not in the US.
That's a pretty sweeping statement and although probably true, I'm sure there are many of us here (including myself) who had already played through Phantasy Star, Y's etc long before DW1 on NES came out :)
Speaking of which.. THAT'S a game you should try playing really if you're on an old school console RPG binge.. The one and original never to be surpassed PHANTASY STAR. DW1 was such a dissapointment when it came out purely because of how good Phantasy Star was :D
kainemaxwell
02-07-2006, 03:25 PM
Doesn't matter to me how I play something I enjoy. if I play the rom first, then I try to get the actual game. If I like the game, or had it at one point, I play the rom when I don't have said system hooked up.
Tetris Grand Master
02-10-2006, 12:03 PM
Congrats of beating one of the first RPG's.
I got it for free too with that Nintendo Power promotion. I did beat it as a kid, its a fun game but i think DW was a stepping stone for the next few games. The game made exploring one of the best parts cause the story was kinda bland, but you always wanted to know what was after that next bridge.
Jasoco
02-21-2006, 04:25 AM
Congratulate me again. I just beat the third RPG of the year. Super Mario RPG. The only other time I ever "beat" it was on an emulator back in 2001. I had the game since it came out but never was able to really beat it on the SNES. Eventually the game went by the wayside and became forgotten when we got our N64. When I beat it on the emulator, I cheated. I used save states throughout the final battle and it made me feel so dirty. I've hated myself ever since. So a few days ago I told myself "Self," I told myself, "It's time to beat Super Mario RPG on the platform it was created for." So I hooked my SNES back up and loaded it up (All the old games are still there.) and started a new game.
My New Years resolution is coming true. I'm so happy. I'm an RPG player now!
So which game should I move onto now? I still have Final Fantasy VI on the PSX saved at the beginning of the Floating Continent. I also have Dragon Quest VIII at Rhapthorne but will require a few more hours of painful leveling up before I can actually go after him... again.
Like the moon over
the day, my genius and brawn
are lost on these fools. ~Haiku
drcurtis
02-21-2006, 12:18 PM
I did the exact same thing last November and December, Dragon Warrior I using my PSP. I'm working on Final Fantasy I at the moment.
Fun times!
Jasoco
02-21-2006, 08:06 PM
I already finished Earthbound. Man that was an awesome game with an awesome ending.
I do also have Earthbound Zero for NES (Famicom translation) on here though. I'm doing pretty well on it. It's amazing the differences between the two games though. The first one has random battles. And your character moves one tile at a time. I was so used to Earthbound and on-screen enemies and moving wherever you want. Such a difference.
I'm just afraid of that "Copy Protection" thing they built into the older game that would make it randomly choose a spot to stop working if it detected a copy device. I know some ROM's of Zero had this bug so I am afraid I'll play for hours then encounter this dead end and have wasted all my time.
Lozza
02-22-2006, 07:12 AM
I read that Dragon Warrior was a rare NES game, but I used to own it... It was the first RPG ever made, but was it rare?
jcalder8
02-22-2006, 10:51 AM
The first one isn't rare at all but the next 3 get more and more rare.
Man I wish that I could say that I have beaten it. I started to play a game but then my NES died and now I have to wait until I get the toploader that I bought arrives.
Daria
02-22-2006, 11:40 AM
I read that Dragon Warrior was a rare NES game, but I used to own it... It was the first RPG ever made, but was it rare?
Actually it's the Mario/Duck Hunt of NES RPGs.
Lozza
02-22-2006, 03:53 PM
I read that Dragon Warrior was a rare NES game, but I used to own it... It was the first RPG ever made, but was it rare?
Actually it's the Mario/Duck Hunt of NES RPGs.
I thought so, but I don't know much about NES games, just what I have and haven't played. After seeing the NEX though, I might buy a YOBO and start looking for games soon.
I already finished Earthbound. Man that was an awesome game with an awesome ending.
I do also have Earthbound Zero for NES (Famicom translation) on here though. I'm doing pretty well on it. It's amazing the differences between the two games though. The first one has random battles. And your character moves one tile at a time. I was so used to Earthbound and on-screen enemies and moving wherever you want. Such a difference.
I'm just afraid of that "Copy Protection" thing they built into the older game that would make it randomly choose a spot to stop working if it detected a copy device. I know some ROM's of Zero had this bug so I am afraid I'll play for hours then encounter this dead end and have wasted all my time.
Secret of mana?
Paladin's quest had really unique music, I enjoyed that one.
Jasoco
02-23-2006, 11:39 PM
Secret of Mana wouldn't work on my PSP. :( Anyone have a cheap copy of the SNES game?
Though Secret of Evermore does work. But I'm looking for more traditional turn-based battles.
bangtango
02-24-2006, 06:50 PM
Does anyone know if the Japanese gamers still get worked up into a lather over those games (Dragon Quest), like all the game magazines used to claim back in the 1980's and 1990's? I'd read how people would camp out all night and others would mug/shake down little kids who might happen to be carrying a copy. Others would pay hundreds of dollars to get a game early. It was a literal stampede. Just sheer pandemonium. Anyone else remember that?
I thought Dragon Warrior was fairly easy given that the Dragonlord battle isn't super tough if you build your character all the way to the top (Level 30). Most of the time, you can reach him between Level 15-20 (maybe a conservative guess).
I noticed over time that the best way to raise your levels is to buy the armor and weapons in order, even if it takes longer. You don't get as many defense points, for instance, if you go straight from the leather armor to half plate as you would if you follow the correct order. Sounds strange, but just something I picked up on having played the game for over 10 years.
This was the first real rpg I ever beat, so it will probably always be listed among my favorites, regardless of what else comes up.