For the fifth anniversary of this blog, I am reviewing an oldie but a goodie: Dragon Warrior! My lifelong love of RPGs began with a free copy of Dragon Warrior sent to new subscribers to Nintendo Power. It's not often one gets a video game for free (I guess it didn't sell as well as Nintendo had hoped). Before Dragon Warrior, the RPG genre was not popular in the U.S., unlike Japan. I suspect this promotion helped kickstart it. Today RPGs are one of the most popular genres of video games worldwide. The series finally broke through in the U.S. with Dragon Quest XI in 2018, which became the best-selling game in the storied series. Thanks largely to that success, the original trilogy has been remade in the acclaimed 2D-HD art style, with a fully modernized remake of Dragon Quest VII coming soon.
The original Dragon Warrior/Quest is primitive even by NES standards. It pales in comparison to its three NES sequels because it is short, grindy AF, and, worst of all, has a single character, who fights one monster at a time. Keep in mind it released in '86 in Japan and '89 here, predating Final Fantasy. I must be honest: the game doesn't hold up. Even in 1990 it could be tedious. Despite having little plot (see below), the constant monster-grinding makes the game take about twenty hours. That's a lot of pressing the A button! Nevertheless, for the time, Dragon Warrior wasn't bad. It's only competitors in the NES RPG space were Ultima: Exodus and Hydlide, games commonly described as frustrating and unfriendly. Comparatively, Dragon Warrior is streamlined, friendly, and fun!
The plot of Dragon Warrior is as threadbare as imaginable. You are a hero tasked with saving the princess Gwaelin, who was kidnapped by the Dragonlord. Strictly speaking, you don't need to save her, provided you already know which swamp tile to search to find Erdrick's Token [Mark]. She is guarded by one of the game's two minibosses, a green dragon. Once the hero is level 12, he can probably slay the dragon and rescue her. A second miniboss is a golem guarding the walled town of Cantlin. The golem is easy: the Fairy [Faerie] Flute (found by the well in Kol) puts it to sleep. A third miniboss is an axe knight [knight aberrant] in the ruined town of Hauksness [Damdara]. Beating him rewards you with the best armor, Erdrick's Armor, which heals 4 HP with every step! The Dragonlord's castle can be seen directly across the strait from the starting castle, Tantegel. But to access it you'll need to create the rainbow bridge, which requires two sacred items: the Sunstone and Staff of Rain. The Sunstone is hidden in Tantegel! The Staff of Rain you trade for the Silver Harp [Lyre of Ire], the treasure inside the dungeon in Garinham [Galenholm]. To beat the Dragonlord, aim for level 20 at least. Deep in his castle is a treasure chest holding the best weapon, Erdrick's Sword.
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| The free copy of Dragon Warrior came with a 64-page Explorer's Handbook. |
The overhead world map features grassy plains, bridges (but no roads), forests, hills (which feel "bumpy" when you move onto them), desert, poisonous swamps, and impassible mountains. Random encounters are frequent and lead to menu-based combat against one foe: the hero can run away, attack, cast a spell, or use an item, such as a medicinal herb. He learns the following spells at set levels: heal, healmore [midheal], hurt [sizz], hurtmore [sizzle], sleep [snooze], stopspell [fizzle], outside [evac], return [zoom], radiant, and repel [holy protection]. Alefgard has five towns: Brecconary (a name created for the American version, to distinguish it from Tantegel castle), Garinham, Kol, Rimuldar, and Cantlin. Each has a weapon shop, armor shop (no helms), item shop, and inn. There are no houses of healing [churches] to save your game: you must speak to the king! The return spell or the wing of wyvern [chimaera wing] item returns the hero instantly to Tantegel, though he must first cast outside if he is in a dungeon, lest he bump his head on the ceiling. All towns must be walked to. Weaker enemies can be avoided by casting repel or sprinkling on some holy [fairy] water.
Alefgard has just five dungeons to explore, beginning with Erdrick's Cave [Hollow] and ending with the Dragonlord's castle, which was given the name Charlock Fortress for the NES version. You can't see anything in dungeons unless you light a torch or chant the radiant spell. You hear a bump if you try to walk into a wall. Torches burn up quickly, so you have to stock up on them until you learn radiant. This was annoying, so the series never used it again!
Alefgard and its dungeons are crawling with cutesy monsters: slimes, drackies, ghosts, chimaeras, scorpions, wizards, werewolves, dragons, and so forth. Each comes in three difficulties, as indicated by their pallette swaps. The enemy designs by Akira Toriyama were so expertly done, they have remained the same ever since! They are the element of the game that holds up best by far. I remember copying out drawings of them as a kid, I liked them so much.
The game is famous for its fake Shakespearean English, which mostly consists in using dost, thou, thee, and thy. I found it annoying as a kid, but Square Enix must think it's charming because they doubled-down on it for the HD-2D Remake! Under their leadership, all Dragon Quest games use phonetically-spelled accents. 90's Enix didn't feel the same way: Dragon Warrior 2, 3, and 4 use standard English.
I can hardly imagine someone in 2026 tolerating NES Dragon Warrior. Happily, there have been several remakes. In Japan, Dragon Warrior I and II were remade on a single Super Famicom cartridge back in 1993 (to be followed by DW3 in 1996). This became the basis for an excellent Game Boy Color remake that we did get in 2000 (followed by DW3 in 2001). It doubles XP and gold drops, greatly reducing the grind. It also allows you to take default actions (like talking to an NPC or opening a chest) by pressing A without having to open the menu every time to choose the appropriate action. (I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally tried to talk to a chest.) If you are okay with the Game Boy's graphical limitations (and the legendary hero being called "Loto," his Japanese name), this version is better than the original.
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| Alefgard looks beautiful in the HD-2D Remake. |
But it can't compare to the new HD-2D Remake! It adds a ton of locations, items, abilities, enemies (which attack in groups now!), and spells imported from later DQ games, as well as quite a few mini-bosses. It substantially beefs up the plot, adding faeries, the goddess Rubiss, dwarves, a gang of thieves, and the princess's royal guard. I've played the original NES version several times (and the GBC version and the mobile version) and practically have it memorized. For this review, I played the new version. I enjoyed it so much I did something I've never done: I immediately restarted the game and played it through a second time! This time I kept Princess Gwaelin with me after rescuing her. To my delight, I discovered she has dialogue for every plot event. Near the end of the game, she begins randomly healing the hero in battle and enabling two ultimate abilities! I can't recommend it enough.
As for the original game, well, it belongs in a museum! In 1990, it was great, and I'll never forget it. They say all good things must come to an end, but all good things also have a beginning! And this is where Dragon Quest began.
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| Grade: B- |
Linked Reviews
"Dragon Warrior is an old-school grinding RPG. Because of that, there was no rushing around; Dragon Warrior was for patient gamers only."
— IGN, #8 of Top 100
— IGN, #8 of Top 100
"The enemy design is exceptional and matches the quality of the music, which ensures the grind never gets too boring. This title's certainly worth a look for its importance to the genre."
— Pat Contri, Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the NES Library, 3/5
— Pat Contri, Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the NES Library, 3/5
"If Dragon Warrior had showed up as a holiday 1987 release, it probably could have done some damage. Those that spent more than an hour or two with their free subscription bonus copy found a game that laid down the principles of turn-based combat. Its simplicity was its strength."
— Jeremy Parish, NES Works
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