Dragon Quest: Difference between revisions

| released= '''Nintendo Entertainment System'''<br />{{vgrelease|JP=May 27, 1986|NA=August 1989}}'''MSX2'''<br />{{vgrelease|JP=November 21, 1986}}'''MSX'''<br />{{vgrelease|JP=December 18, 1986}}'''Super Famicom'''<br />{{vgrelease|JP=December 18, 1993}}'''Game Boy Color'''<br />{{vgrelease|JP=September 23, 1999|NA=September 27, 2000}}'''Wii'''<br />{{vgrelease|JP=September 15, 2011}}'''Android & iOS'''<br />{{vgrelease|JP=November 8, 2013|NA=September 11, 2014|AUS=September 11, 2014|EU=September 11, 2014}}'''Playstation 4 & 3DS'''<br />{{vgrelease|JP=August 10, 2017}}'''Nintendo Switch'''<br />{{vgrelease|JP=September 27, 2019|NA=September 27, 2019|EU=September 27, 2019}}

| genre=[[Wikipedia:Console role-playing game|Console role-playing game]]

{{Translation|'''''Dragon Quest'''''|ドラゴンクエスト|Doragon Kuesuto}} is the original ''Dragon Quest'' game which preceded the entire {{DQSeries}}. It was developed by [[Enix]] and released in 1986 in Japan for the [[MSX]] and {{Famicom}} consoles. The game was localized for North American release in 1989, but the title was changed to ''Dragon Warrior'' to avoid infringing on the trademark of the pen and paper game ''[[wikipedia:DragonQuest|DragonQuest]]''. The North American version of the game was greatly improved graphically over the Japanese original, and added a battery backed-up save feature and 5 password systems, whereas the Japanese version used a password system.  [[Nintendo]] was impressed with the Japanese sales of the title and massively overproduced the cartridge; the end result was that Nintendo gave away copies of ''Dragon Warrior'' as an incentive for subscribing to ''[[Nintendo Power]]'', the company's in-house promotions magazine.

''Dragon Quest'' was the first turn-based role playing game to debut on a video game console and is considered a pioneer in the development of the genre. ''Dragon Quest'''s immense success proved that RPGs had a place in the industry, and would spawn a successful franchise that would become one of the de facto standards for role playing video games.

The wicked Dragonlord has kidnapped the fair Princess Gwaelin and stolen the Sphere of Light, throwing the kingdom of [[Alefgard]] into turmoil. The Hero, a descendant of the legendary saviour Erdrick, is called on by King Lorik of [[Tantegel]] castle to rescue his daughter and retrieve the Sphere of Light to save Alefgard from the Dragonlord. To do this, the Hero must retrieve several artifacts spread all across the country, including the [[Erdrick's Sword|sword]], [[Erdrick's Armour|armour]], and [[Mark of Erdrick|heirloom]] of his ancestor. The [[Staff of Rain]] and [[Sunstone]] must also be retrieved to build the Rainbow Bridge, which allow the Hero to enter the Dragonlord's castle.

 

*[[Erdrick]]: The legendary ancestor of the Hero. He rescued Alefgard centuries earlier from a [[Zoma|wicked demon]], and had left items and clues for his descendant to aid in defeating future threats to the land.

*[[King Lorik]]: The king of Tantegel, and ruler of the land of Alefgard.

*[[Princess Gwaelin]]: The beloved daughter of King Lorik. Abducted by the Dragonlord to break the spirits of the people and imprisoned in the [[Quagmire Cave]] southwest of [[Kol]].

*[[Dragonlord]]: The villain of the story, he has stolen the Sphere of Light in order to infest Alefgard with horrid monsters.

 

''Dragon Quest'' is set on a sprawling overworld with towns and dungeons to be explored throughout. The player selects actions from a menu, including talking to {{NPC}}s (non-player characters); opening doors; and opening [[treasure chest]]s. The towns have inns where the player can rest to restore their {{HP}} and {{MP}}; and shops to buy weapons, armor, and items from. Most {{NPC}}s give useful information to help the player progress.

 

The battle system is turn-based, with enemies seen in a first-person perspective. As in the overworld, the player selects actions from a menu, including attacking; casting magical spells; using items; and attempting to flee the fight.

 

*Although his sprite changes when the princess is rescued, to show him carrying her, the princess does not participate in any battle.

*There are no [[vehicle]]s; one can only traverse the overworld map on foot, or by using a [[chimaera wing]] or [[Zoom]] spell to travel to Tantegel Castle.

*The player can only save their game by speaking to King Lorik. As such, the Zoom spell can only return to Tantegel. This is because the spell's Japanese name, ''rura'', derives from the English word ''Ruler''.

*Caves are dark, and must be lit up with a [[torch]] or the [[Glow]] spell. These have limited range, which diminishes as the spell or torch wears out. The range is effectively reduced in the remakes, since the scale of the caves is larger, but the range is not increased to compensate.

Formal development on the title began the same month of November through Nakamura's development studio [[Chunsoft]], with a staff of five men over a span of five months<ref>https://web-archive-org.translate.goog/web/20100614061622/http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/museum/meister/entertainment/vol2/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=no</ref>. The goal of the project was to combine the best aspects of computer RPGs while also streamlining the obtuse gameplay systems that prevented the genre from reaching a wider audience; even ''Ultima'' and ''Wizardry'' were only able to sell approximately 20K and 24K units in 1982<ref>https://archive.org/details/cgw_6/page/n3/mode/2up</ref>. To this end it was decided that the game would utilize the bird's eye view world map of ''Ultima'' for it's own field screen as well as in dungeons, giving players more spacial awareness than the first-person dungeons that were the genre standard at the time. Owing to the praise of the system in ''Okhotsk'' and the Famicom ''Portopia'', the command menu was also applied to the game and written in the simplest terms to make it clear to players what actions he or she could perform at any time<ref>In the 8-bit original these actions are TALK, SPELL, STATUS, ITEM, STAIRS, DOOR, SEARCH, & TAKE</ref>. In addition, the dialogue of the game was written in such a way for the player to deduce how to progress through the adventure simply by talking to the cast of characters. Said dialogue was often humorous in a way not commonly seen in games at the time, such as the [[Puff-Puff]] scene of Kol, thus injecting a strong sense of personality into the scenario and contrasting the other RPGs that focused exclusively on combat and exploration. Granting the player the option to not rescue Princess Gawelin and to accept the Dragonlord's ominous offer of half the world also added a high degree of player agency, aiding in the immersion into the game's world.

The greatest challenge in the game's development was working with in the confines of the 64 kilobyte ROM capacity, which necessitated the truncating of several aspects to fit the project into the cartridge. This included the scrapping of the traditional party of heroes for a single player character, limiting the selection of items to just 15, and only being able to display a single enemy in battle<ref>なぜなら、第1作をつくるときは本当にやりたかったことをいろいろ切り捨てたんですよ。なにしろ64キロバイトしかないので、やりたいことがすべてできたわけではないんです。パーティーも1人しかできない。アイテムは15種類しかない。モンスターもこれしか出せない。こうした制約のなかでおもしろいエッセンスだけを抽出して制作したので、逆にファミコンがどんどん進化して容量が増えるにしたがって、入れたかった要素を足していったんです。だからつくっていて楽しかったですね。</ref>. Even the language of the game was affected, limited to a mere 18 katakana instead of the full set of 50 to display the text<ref>Only イ、カ、キ、コ、シ、ス、タ、ト、ヘ、ホ、マ、ミ、ム、メ、ラ、リ、ル、レ、ロ、and ン are in the game, with the hirugana characters ヘ and り also being used due to taking up less memory than their katakana counterparts</ref>, and the exclusion of sprites showing characters walking from side to side and thus having the cast always face the player even while moving. Animation for monsters was also excluded due to this limited space, with the compromise being that the screen would shake when the player is attacked.

Special consideration was given to younger players, whom Horii knew would have no familiarity with RPGs at all. To this end the opening portion of the game was crafted so that the player would stand in the throne room of Tantagel castle: in order to progress from this screen, the player will have to speak to King Lorik, open a treasure chest to retrieve a key and use it to open the chamber door, and then use the stairs command to descend to the ground floor of the castle―every action necessary to traverse the game's overworld is conveyed to the player in a single, unobtrusive moment<ref>「戦って強くなっていくんだよ」「文字でやりとりしながら物語を体験するゲームだよ」と言うと、じつは子どものほうが興味をもつし、たとえ難しかったとしても、それを「おもしろい」と言ってくれましたね。『ドラクエ』を出すまではアクションゲームが主流だったので、どうなるのかなあという気持ちはありました。そのために、とっつきやすくなるような工夫はいっぱいしましたけどね。まずゲームの最初は、王様の部屋にとじこめられていて、とりあえずコマンドをいろいろ入れないと出られない。でも部屋を出たときには、宝箱をあけて、人と話して、ドアを開けて、階段を降りるといった、ゲームに必要なコマンドをだいたい覚えられるようにしたんです。</ref>. To teach younger players the importance of leveling up and becoming stronger, the threshold for reaching level 2 was dropped from 20 experience points to just 7<ref>戦闘になれば、相手が襲ってくるので「たたかう」を押していればいい。そうすれば経験値があがって、レベルアップして、どんどん強くなっていく。早い段階ですぐレベルアップするようにして、強くなることが気持ちいいっていう感覚を味わってもらいたかった。</ref>. In addition the penalties for losing a battle were greatly reduced compared to computer RPGs, with players only losing half their gold and being sent back to King Lorik instead of suffering a game over that voided all of their gold and experience points and thus wasting the time spent playing the game<ref>HIPPON SUPER編集部・編『ドラゴンクエストIV MASTER'S CLUB』（JICC、1990年）pp.4-9 堀井雄二インタビュー</ref>. The presence of the status screen was implemented at Yukinobu Chida's request, who insisted that all information pertaining to the Hero's capability be conveyed to the player when it was obscured in computer RPGs. His basis for this argument was an incident after the Famicom release of ''Portopia'', where elementary-aged children called Enix to ask for tips. Chida could overhear the children happily chatting with the Enix representatives during these calls, leading him to conclude that video games were not just entertainment, but a communication tool for people. As such he insisted that the Hero's capabilities be displayed via the status command, certain that children would discuss which areas of the game could be explored at a given level and thus increase the word of mouth amongst the target demographic<ref>PCでのRPGのプレイに慣れていた堀井や中村は、開発中の『ドラゴンクエスト』のレベル表示について「レベルの強さはいつでもコマンドで見られる」「自分が今レベルいくつかはだいたい分かる」と主張し、ウインドウ内の表示を出来るだけ少なくして、画面を見やすくすることを提案した。しかし、それに対して千田は「レベル表示は絶対必要だよ」と反論。千田の弁によると、『ポートピア連続殺人事件』が発売されたばかりの頃、エニックスに小学生のプレイヤーから質問の電話がかかってきて、電話の向こうでわいわいとにぎやかに楽しんでいる声が聞こえてきたという。それを体験した千田は、「ファミコンはパソコンのようにひとりで遊ぶゲームではない」「ゲームセンターのようにみんなでワイワイやりながら遊ぶ、パソコンとは異なるコミュニケーションメディアだ」と力説。それを聞いた堀井と中村は、「なるほどコミュニケーションメディアですね」と返答し、その提案を受け入れることになった。Source: ドラゴンクエストへの道 page 129~133 ISBN 978-4-9005-2726-3</ref>.

Chida was also responsible for involving maestro [[Kōichi Sugiyama]] with the project. Sugiyama had witnessed the emergence of technology in the music industry over his career and became interested in computers as a result, purchasing a PC-8801 in the early 80's to experiment with and subsequently developing a hobby for playing games. An Enix title called ''Kazuo Morita's Shogi'' (森田和郎の将棋) caught his interest at one point, and Sugiyama filled out the customer feedback questionnaire in a cheeky manner for fun. Leaving the card on his desk as he left  for other business, his wife Yukiko would slip it into the family mailbox as she stepped out to go grocery shopping<ref>"（笑）。そのアンケートはがきには 「終盤は強いけど、序盤の駒組みがイマイチ」みたいに、 ちょっと生意気なことを書いて、 そのままほったらかしにしておいたんです。 そしたら、たまたまうちのカミさんが それを見つけて、買い物に行く途中に ポストに放り込んだみたいなんです。" https://archive.fo/pz7E3</ref>. The questionnaire was presented to Chida, who was shocked to see that the celebrity had written his answers in hiragana like an elementary school student, and an Enix representative was quickly dispatched to Sugiyama's home to negotiate a working contract for the company: Sugiyama was officially hired on to compose the music for ''Wingman 2: The Resurrection of Kitaklar'' (ウイングマン2 -キータクラーの復活).  

As ''Dragon Quest'' was in development at the same time as ''Wingman 2'', Chida proposed having Sugiyama compose the music for the title as well as he felt the score provided by Chunsoft was inadequate. This decision was met with harsh resistance by Nakamura and Chunsoft though, as the group of men in their 20's were certain that a man in his 50's would not be able to write suitable music for a video game. Horii was not opposed to Sugiyama's involvement however, and he and Chida would act as intermediaries until an agreement could be reached. Sugiyama himself dissolved the tension by speaking casually to Chunsoft of the times he would drive to Yokohama after work just to play pinball, his obsessions with backgammon, and other anecdotes. The programmers would relent, coming to see Sugiyama as a fellow gamer who just happened to be a tad older<ref>ニンテンドードリーム2005年11月号</ref>. The actual production of the game's soundtrack took one week to complete, with Sugiyama giving special attention to the overworld and battle themes due to how often the player is bound to hear them<ref>すぎやまこういち VS 田尻智」『ドラゴンクエストIV マスターズクラブ』JICC出版局、1991年2月10日、13頁。ISBN978-4-7966-0084-2。</ref>.

Development became a whirlwind of balancing adjustments near the end based on feedback provided by play testers, leading to the game's release being pushed back by one week. The changes were so drastic that monster behavior was completely restructured from the ground up, effectively leaving Chunsoft to reprogram half of the game all over again. The Hero himself was also rebalanced as he was deemed to be lagging too far behind the strength of the monsters after level 15<ref>Source: ドラゴンクエストへの道 page 234 ISBN 978-4-9005-2726-3</ref>.  

While busy developing on the game, Horii was still taking freelance work as a writer and was working on the ''Famicom Shinken'' section of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine under the pen name of Emperor Yu (ゆう帝). ''Famicom Shinken'' was the video game section of the magazine, created by editor [[Kazuhiko Torishima]]. Horii and Torishima met years prior when introduced by their mutual friend [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%95%E3%81%8F%E3%81%BE%E3%81%82%E3%81%8D%E3%82%89 Akira Sakuma] and quickly became friends themselves, which led to Torishima learning of the development of ''Dragon Quest'' in passing. This was the news the editor needed to hear, as Shonen Jump was struggling to compete with rival magazine [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoroCoro_Comic CoroCoro comics] when it came to video game coverage, and being able to use ''Famicom Shinken'' to provide coverage on the development of a brand new title would give Jump an unprecedented advantage. Torishima convinced the skeptical management of Shonen Jump to provide page space for the unreleased and experimental title in the magazine, using his authority as the editor of [[Akira Toriyama]] to assign the rising star artist to the project as chief illustrator. The game's title screen was designed by [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%89%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B4%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AF%E3%82%A8%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA Kazuo Enomoto], also a Shonen Jump employee, who suggested adding the silhouette of the dragon to the logo due to being in the game's title and the importance of the beasts in the game's setting. As Enomoto did not know what an RPG was at the time, he used films as a point of reference and created a title screen that resembles a wide-screen lens to replicate the cinematic effect.

''Dragon Quest'' would first be shown to the world in the February 11, 1986 issue of Shonen Jump, which continued providing behind the scenes coverage of the game until it's May 27 release.

==Legacy==

A humble title from a small publishing company changed everything for games.

 

===Remakes===

{{Main|Dragon Quest I & II}}

 

Being the original game in the series, ''Dragon Quest'' has been remade and re-released on a variety of different platforms; most notably for the Super Famicom.  Most of the remakes feature localizations which differ from the original, as well as additional features such as an item/gold vault and streamlined menu system.  Other changes include tweaks to the leveling system to make it easier to gain levels without excessive [[grinding]].  Most fans consider almost all remakes to be easier than the original release for this reason. See [[List of version differences in Dragon Quest I]] for a listing of version differences.

A special free version of the game known as ''[[BS Dragon Quest]]'' was available to play on the [[Satellaview]] peripheral during the early months of 1996. This version of the game used the art assets of the 16-bit remake, included voiced dialog for additional scenes, and additional features not seen in any other version since.

''Dragon Quest'' was closely followed by {{DQ2}} which met with similar success. ''Dragon Quest II'' featured the same timeline and setting as the original, a concept which was further extended into {{DQ3}}. Together, the first three games comprise what is known as the [[Erdrick trilogy]]. All three games were designed for the Famicom/NES and share similar artistic styles.

As the first game in the series, ''Dragon Quest'' introduced several monsters that proved instant favorites among fans. In particular, the [[Slime]], [[Dracky]], and [[Chimaera]] are featured in almost every other game in the main series and spinoffs.

==Credits==

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|+ Original Famicom version

! Role

! Staff

|----------

| Scenario writer

| [[Yuji Horii]]

|----------

| Character design

| [[Akira Toriyama]]

|----------

| Music composer

| [[Kōichi Sugiyama]]

|----------

| rowspan="3 | Programming

| Koichi Nakamura

| Koji Yoshida

| Takenori Yamamori

|----------

| CG design

| Takashi Yasuno

| Tadashi Fukuzawa

|----------

| Title screen design

| Kazuo Enomoto

|----------

| Instruction manual illustrator

| Takayuki Doi

|----------

| Special thanks

| Kazuhiko Torishima

|----------

| Director

| Koichi Nakamura

{{Videos|The original TV commercial for ''Dragon Quest''.|{{#ev:youtube|D2ve2cpcLi4|340}}

|The original TV commercial for ''Dragon Warrior''.|{{#ev:youtube|1qL5_3EhqK8|340}}

[[fr:Dragon Quest (jeu)]]

[[es:Dragon Quest (juego)]]