Dragon Warrior series

[Psycho Penguin]

What is everyone's opinion on this classic series? It's one of my favorite series of all time.

Dragon Warrior - One of my favorites in the series. I love that you only have one character and only fight one enemy at a time. Leveling up is a pain in the ass, and the game can get tedious, but this game is so easy to just pick up and play.

Dragon Warrior 2 - This game pisses me off. I hate its non linearity and the challenge. Plus, the characters suck and I did not like the storyline. This is one of my least favorite RPGs on the NES.

Dragon Warrior 3 - One of the better games on NES, and my favorite in the series. You can create characters based off jobs now, adding to replay value. There's plenty of bosses and creative dungeons. I love this game.

Dragon Warrior 4 - It's awesome, but chapter 5 drags on so much and I just got sick of the game by the end. The battle music got on my nerves. Otherwise, a classic with a chapter-based storyline and unique storylines that have you control various people in each chapter.

[The Manimal]

pretty much agree with you, though for me there are plenty of RPGs inferior to DW2 on the NES.


Were DW V and VI ever released in the US?

[Psycho Penguin]

No, 7 was though but I never played it. 5 was good from what I could tell.

The only RPG I can think of on NES I hated more than DW2 was Ultima Exodus, unless crap like Hydlide counts.

[jdchess]

Were DW V and VI ever released in the US?

Nope. Those were only released for the Super Famicom as far as I know.

[Daria]

Dragon Warrior: The first the original. Sure it's not the greatest RPG ever constructed but you have to give it props for being the first. I loved the game for it's simplicity, and the loved the style in which they localized the game. I might not want to see "Art and Thou" in every DW game, but for a title that didn't have a whole lot going on it was a little flair the game needed.

Dragon Warrior 2 & 3: I enjoyed them but there's not a whole lot I'd like to comment on.

Dragon Warrior 4: The best NES RPG released this side of the ocean. Dragon Warrior 4 was ahead of it's time with the chapter based senarios and 16bit storyline. Course this could be contributed to the fact the game was released so late in the NES's lifetime but its still a classic. I don't think that there was a quest or character that I wasn't interested in. And it was a nice change to be able to choose a female heroine. Not that it was all that uncommon in the 8bit days of gaming.

Dragon Warrior 5: I'd have to say this is my favorite of the series. I loved the generational aspect of the storyline. Watching your character grow up, choose a wife, have kids, then playing as the children. Real shame it was never officially localized but then maybe we wouldn't have gotten such a professional fan made job in return. Excellent game and I'd reccomend it to anyone who enjoy the series.

Dragon Warrior 7: A lot of people give the game flack for being long, tough, and ugly. Frankly I loved it though, but then I'm a sucker for any good game that does time traveling well. I love jumping back and forth between eras to witness the effects my choices have made on the towns and people living in them. And as blocky as the graphics first appear they really do start to grow on you after awhile, and look more than half way decent especially in some of the later more detailed towns. Game was also hilarious which was a plus, but really only if you properly utalized the talk feature constantly. You'll find that your party members have a say about virtually everything that happens in the game.

Dragon Quest 8: MY FAVORITE PS2 GAME. Which sadly is a statement that doesn't begin to do the game justice. I haven't been exactly thrilled with many of my PS2 RPGs. But anyways... Beautiful game, excellent story, memorable characters. Just plain fun to play.

Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Fun. I'm not a big pokemon or generic monster collecting fan but DWM does the mechanic quite well. It's especially fun since being a fan of the series these aren't just randomly cute pets I'm gathering, I know these monsters already. I already have my favorites and dislikes.

Torneko: The Last Hope: Eh. I'm not a big fan of the "Fushigo no Dungeon" style of randomly generated dungeon dwelving. The games all play the same, explore a multilevel dungeon with persisantly changing layouts, gather your equipment and items on the way down while forever searching for the next set of stairs. Die and start all over with no inventory. Not fun.

Taloon's Great Adventure: See Torneko's last hope.

Dragon Quest Plug and Play Sword game: I forget the offical name. Kenshin Sword or something. Not an RPG at all so much as a rail shooter alá House of the Dead. But instead of weilding a shotgun, you're waving around a minature plastic sword with all the finesse of a mentally challenged penguin. Fun if no one's watching though. Japanese isn't mandatory to play since you do absolutely no exploration on your own, but you eed some sort of walkthrough to figure out the magic system.

[7th lutz]

Good series.
Dw-overrated in the states in ranking of greatest games alltime. I think this good for a person to start playing rpgs back when the nes was king. Phantasy Star and Dw 1 came out the same year in the states and Phantsy Star was way better and was ahead of its time unlike dw.

Dw2- I like this one more then the first.

Dw 3-best nes dw game and best nes rpg. Very deep game.

DW 4-if it wasn't the battle system in the final chapter, I would call this the greatest nes rpg and would be tough for me to decide it Dw 4 or phantasy Star was the best 8 bit rpg of all time.

Dw7-Good game
DQ 8- very good, I think it is the best 128 bit era rpg.

[j_factor]

I thought Dragon Warrior 1 was one of the dullest RPGs I've ever had the displeasure of playing. I didn't bother trying the sequels.

[Daria]

I thought Dragon Warrior 1 was one of the dullest RPGs I've ever had the displeasure of playing. I didn't bother trying the sequels.

Your loss really.

[nik]

DW4 is one of my grails, god help the soul who gets in my way at a garage sale or bids on a complete copy I'm after

Coolest thing I've done so far on my copy is I have enough coins in the casino I can afford 4 metal babble shields

[7th lutz]

I thought Dragon Warrior 1 was one of the dullest RPGs I've ever had the displeasure of playing. I didn't bother trying the sequels.

It was dull to me also. I remembered see someone playing dw, and it looked lame. Enix changed the series by having more party members along with making each game deeping then the last one.

The problem was people the states a nes along with the fact dragon warrior came with Nintendo power I believe if your a subscriber back in the day.

[tmlfan]

Dragon warrior 1 was the first rpg game that got me hooked. I borrowed a friends copy, started playing and couldnt get enough, I had never really played this style of game before at the time. (maybe 1990) I finished that and searched for the second, couldnt find a copy but on xmas of that year my mother somehow got me a copy and I freaked, finished that one shortly after. I cant remember where I got #3, but completed that one too. I managed to find a DW4 on a yard sale several years later (say 1997), i have only played half way through #4. But I would say I enjoyed #1 the most, just because it got me hooked on the series. I have also played 1/2 of #7, found it challenging without a walkthrough and a little confusing at times going between times. I am a huge fan of the series and playing them brings back great memories

[NE146]

I thought Dragon Warrior 1 was one of the dullest RPGs I've ever had the displeasure of playing. I didn't bother trying the sequels.

Your loss really.

I liked it but it was definitely dull. I'm surprised more people didn't think of it that way especially since Phantasy Star 1 on the SMS blew it out of the water and it was obvious right off the bat. For DW1 to come out after that incredible opening act that PS provided, well.. it was just outclassed.

But if anything, that just tells me that a lot of U.S. people who really liked DW1 didn't have an SMS or play Phantasy Star at the time

[j_factor]

I thought Dragon Warrior 1 was one of the dullest RPGs I've ever had the displeasure of playing. I didn't bother trying the sequels.

Your loss really.

I liked it but it was definitely dull. I'm surprised more people didn't think of it that way especially since Phantasy Star 1 on the SMS blew it out of the water and it was obvious right off the bat. For DW1 to come out after that incredible opening act that PS provided, well.. it was just outclassed.

But if anything, that just tells me that a lot of U.S. people who really liked DW1 didn't have an SMS or play Phantasy Star at the time

Yeah, I guess part of it was that I had a Master System, and Phantasy Star was my first RPG. But I enjoyed other RPGs on NES, particularly Crystalis.

[NeoZeedeater]

Phantasy Star and even Miracle Warriors made Dragon Warrior 1 much less impressive for me too. Still, I can appreciate how cool DW1 must have been Japan upon its release.

DW8 seems like the best in the series although I haven't put much time into it yet.

[Daria]

For DW1 to come out after that incredible opening act that PS provided, well.. it was just outclassed.

After? Umm... Dragon Warrior was released before Phantasy Star.

[NeoZeedeater]

After? Umm... Dragon Warrior was released before Phantasy Star.

In Japan, yes. In the West, no.

[Daria]

After? Umm... Dragon Warrior was released before Phantasy Star.

In Japan, yes. In the West, no.

Doesn't really matter whent when game was localized. But I see what NE146 was saying now.

However to clarify when I said "Your loss" I was referring to the fact that j_factor missed out on some really fantastic games based on his lackluster experience with the first Dragon Warrior. The has series improved greatly with each new installment.

[Psycho Penguin]

The series actually took a huge step back with part 2, IMO. The addition of the boat was fine, but the clues provided were awful and since there were no FAQs back then, it took way too long to figure out what the hell to do.

I forgot DQ8. That game is the bomb. I really love the characters and the battle system, even if they changed some of the spell names.

[Beefy Hits]

DW1 was good at the time, but hasn't aged well.

DW2 was hard as hell because we didn't have the Internet back then. It didn't add much other than more party members.

DW3 was a great game on the NES wih some replay. The GBC remake was an even better game with the personality system, I also loved the test at the beginning.

DW4 is the best RPG on the NES. Most of the chapters were entertaining, with Taloon's chapter worth saving at the beginning in a separate file just to re-play.

DW7 drags on horribly at the beginning and stay s that way throughout the game. The job system was cool. I'd never want to play through this again, but it is worth playing the first time.

DW8 was decent with colorful graphics and a good story, but lost some air at the end.

[j_factor]

After? Umm... Dragon Warrior was released before Phantasy Star.

In Japan, yes. In the West, no.

Doesn't really matter whent when game was localized.

If you don't speak Japanese, it kind of does.

However to clarify when I said "Your loss" I was referring to the fact that j_factor missed out on some really fantastic games based on his lackluster experience with the first Dragon Warrior. The has series improved greatly with each new installment.

Oh well. I might give DQ8 a try someday... but RPGs have moved down in priority on my game-playin' list. It seems that as time goes by and the more games I get, the less I care about RPGs and the more I want to play action games.