Dragon Quest: Difference between revisions

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''Dragon Quest'' was one of the first turn-based role playing games to have widespread success and is considered a pioneer in the development of the genre.  Along with Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest would spawn a successful franchise that would become one of the de facto standards for role playing video games.

Dragon Quest was one of the first console role-playing games (RPGs). The player controls a single character who is able to travel around the world on a quest to defeat the [[Dragonlord]].  He can equip various weapons and armour and battles enemy monsters in one-on-one, turn-based combat.  As more enemies are defeated, the hero becomes stronger and able to explore greater distances as he completes his quest.  Ultimately, the hero must defeat the Dragonlord, marking the end of his adventure.  The basic gameplay formula used in ''Dragon Quest'' would be replicated over and over in similar RPG titles on home consoles after its release.

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Long before the game begins, a man named Erdrick returned peace to the land of Alefgard by defeating a great demon. The peace came in the form of the sacred [[Ball of Light]]. Erdrick returned to the [[King Lorik|King]] with the Ball of Light and there were great festivals and celebrations. Eventually, Erdrick took his leave and was never seen again. Years passed and the people prospered, but one person was not happy with the way things were. He lived in the western mountain cave, far from Tantegel's walls. While exploring deep within the cave, he came across a sleeping [[dragon]]. Suddenly, the dragon awoke and the man was very frightened. As he closed his eyes to stop himself from seeing his demise, nothing happened. The man grew tired of waiting and threw a stick to distract it. To his surprise, the dragon picked it up in his mouth and brought it back to the man, like a dog. After that he discovered he could make the dragon do whatever he wanted. He then named himself the Dragonlord. Suddenly, a disaster occurred: Charlock Castle rose from its dirt grave, and everyone knew this was a bad omen. A few minutes later a swarm of [[Slime]]s, [[Ghost]]s, Dragons and other monsters attacked Tantegel and the villages across [[Alefgard]]. Though they fought bravely, the years of peace had made the people weak. The Ball of Light and were stolen by the Dragonlord himself.

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Being the original game in the series, ''Dragon Quest'' has been remade and re-released on a variety of different platforms.  Most notably, these include a remake for the Super Nintendo and the Game Boy Color systems.  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 levelling 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.

Note that only some of the remakes have been released outside of Japan.  For a full list of releases and dates, visit [[List of Dragon Quest releases]].

As the first game in the series, Dragon Quest has served as a significant influence in almost every spinoff game. In particular, many of the enemies developed for Dragon Quest ([[Slime]], [[Dracky]], [[Chimaera]], etc.) are featured in almost every other game in the main series and otherwise.

* The bonuses awarded for leveling up depend on the name chosen for the hero.

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

* Enemies attack the hero 1-on-1, never in groups.

* Caves are dark, and must be lit up with a [[torch]] or [[Radiant|Radiant 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.

* In the original versions, there are special menu commands to climb stairs and open chests (done automatically in later games), and in the Japanese version to select directions for certain commands, since characters do not have facings in these versions.

* Whether a treasure chest has been opened or not is never recorded.  By reloading the game, you can collect a chest multiple times.

* The [[Game Boy Color]] release had a more accurate translation of many character and town names.

* Loto's Sword is used during an optional boss fight in ''Final Fantasy XII'' and is also the prize for winning that battle. This also marks the first time the mix of ''Final Fantasy'' and ''Dragon Quest'' has happened in the light of both Square and Enix merging to be noticed in the Western world (though the crossover had happened a few time previously in ''[[Itadaki Street]]'', a set of board game video games only available in Japan).

[[Koichi Sugiyama]] served as composer for the soundtrack. He would go on to write most of the music for the entire Dragon Quest series.  Dragon Quest I's symphonic suite was bundled with Dragon Quest II's symphonic suite and a disc of original compositions as ''Dragon Quest in Concert''. Here is the track listing for the Dragon Quest I portion of that release:

# Finale (フィナーレ/''Finale'') (2:40)

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