Dragon Quest

a.k.a. Dragon Warrior / ドラゴンクエスト

published by Enix in 1986-05-27, developed by Chunsoft, running on Nintendo Entertainment System
type: role-play
genre: Fantasy
series: Dragon Quest
perspective: bird's-eye push-scroll
player options: single player
languages: eng jpn other
3.8/5

Personal review

"Dragon Quest" has its roots in the Ultima series, but rumour has it that Ultima was too complicated and complex for the Japanese videogaming market. So Dragon Quest, with its simple but very addictive structure, was an instant hit and the start for the most successfull RPG series in Japan. And it is pretty good. Not as non-linear and confusing than many early CRPGs. Nice graphics and music as well.

# 2013-05-26 17:03:57

Official description

Mere finger speed and sweat are no match for the challenges of this game. You will be required to use deductive reasoning, not a quick sword to defeat your enemies.All is darkness. The Dragon-lord has captured the Princess and stolen Erdrick's powerful ball of light.You are Edrick's heir. To you has fallen the most dangerous task - to rescue the King's daughter and recover the mystic ball of light.Your mission is deadly, but it is your fate. Prophets have long foretold your coming.Three keepers await your journey, each ready to aid you with a mystic item of great power.Gather the three objects. Scribes will record your deeds. Use cunning and wisdom to choose your commands. Gain experience, weapons and armor as you battle your way through the world. Rest if you must.Search out the Dragon-lord's lair and face your destiny. In this role-playing adventure you are the Dragon Warrior!

# 2018-04-28 10:08:27 - official description

Technical specs

display: raster

Editor note

Product Number: NES-DQ-CAN NES-DQ-USA
Dragon Warrior is called Dragon Quest in Japan. The Japanese version (1986) used passwords but the US (1990) and Canadian versions used battery backed save RAM
A pen and paper RPG called Dragon Quest had already been published in the United States. For copyright reasons, the name Dragon Warrior was used. However, it turns out there was also Dragon Warriors RPG in existence at the time.

The English version was translated and published by Nintendo and strictly uses Early Modern English in conversational dialogs. Often mistakenly called King James English or Shakespearian English, but those styles were in fact derived from the Early Modern style (King James style also borrows extensively from Middle English). Early Modern English is in fact a bit more understandable than King James or Shakespearian English, for those who understand the contemporary Modern English of the late 20th century. The Japanese names for the characters and locations were changed into English names that better fit with the Early Modern English and a northern Europeanish location. The changes are influenced by the Arthurian Legends. The Nintendo version also made significant improvement in graphics and game mechanics. The number of menus was reduced. The protagonist could face multiple directions (instead of south only). Direction of talking and actions was automatically based on the direction the protagonist was facing rather than needing to be manually specified. Shorelines looked a bit like breaking waves instead of abrupt hard edges into sea water.

Original/English version:

    Alefgard/Alefgard
    Bubble slimes/Babbles
    Garai/Garinhaim
    Gira/Hurt
    ?/Healmore
    Hoimi/Heal
    Hiomi Slimes/Healers
    ?/Hurtmore
    King Dragon/Dragonlord
    Lora/Princess Gwaelin
    Loto(Roto)/Erdrick
    Maira(Maila)/Kol
    Merukido/Cantlin
    Pafu Pafu girls/Puff Puff massage girls (actually removed from the US version)
    Radatome Castle(Ladataurm)/Tantegel Castle
    Radatome Town(Ladataurm)/Brecconary
    Domudora/Haukness
    Chimeras/Wyverns


Zerothis - # 2007-01-01 11:43:24

Authors / Staff

management

Koichi Nakamura (director)
Yukinobu Chida (producer)

design

Akira Toriyama (character design)

writer

Hiroshi Miyaoka (assistant writer)
Yuji Horii (writer)

coding

Kenichi Masuta (programming)
Koichi Nakamura (programming)
Koji Yoshida (programming)
Manabu Yamana (programming)
Takenori Yamamori (programming)

graphics

Satoshi Fudaba (computer graphics design)
Takashi Yasuno (computer graphics)

audio

Koichi Sugiyama (music composition)

localization

Doug Baker (translation technical support)
Scott Pelland (translation text)
Toshiko Watson (translation)

thanks

Howard Phillips (special thanks)
Kazuhiko Torishima (special thanks)

other

Rika Suzuki (assistant)
Tadashi Fukuzawa (assistant)

Contributors (7)

AndreaD
teran01
zerothis
Jacquismo
cjlee001
Sanguine
Becoro

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