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Game Review: ドラゴンクエスト I (SNES版)
2024-Feb-29, Thursday 07:58
This is the game that made JRPGs.
Not sure that Horii Yūji knew when he decided to adapt the Wizardry and Ultima games that he loved on computer into a console RPG that he would change Japanese culture permanently. Words like クエスト ("quest"), 勇者 (yūsha, "hero"), 魔王 (maō, lit: "Demon King" but more often just "main bad guy") that are all over the place in Japanese culture now can point here as the source of their popularity. The series that rapidly grew so popular that Enix only released new games on weekends so that schoolkids wouldn't skip school--and so salarymen wouldn't skip work. It never really made it big in America, though, because Final Fantasy came out first and so when Dragon Quest came in America in 1989--a year later than Final Fantasy here, and three years after its initial release in Japan--it looked extremely dated, because it was. By then they were already onto Dragon Quest IV in Japan. Even Nintendo Power giving away free copies didn't help.
I didn't get one of those free copies because I didn't know RPGs existed. I didn't encounter Dragon Quest until I got to university, discovered how many people had uploaded things on the internet, and tried some of the games I had missed either because I had no way to play them (I never owned an SNES) or because my interests were different and I played through "Dragon Warrior." And it was fun! So when I was looking for short game, I thought about how there's supposed to be an HD2D remake of Dragon Quest III coming at some point and I wanted to play through this game and Dragon Quest II before it comes out, and I thought about how I need more Japanese practice.
Descendant ofErdrickLoto, defeat the Dragon King!
"[NAME]! The descendant of the hero Loto! I have been awaiting you!"
( Read more... )
Not sure that Horii Yūji knew when he decided to adapt the Wizardry and Ultima games that he loved on computer into a console RPG that he would change Japanese culture permanently. Words like クエスト ("quest"), 勇者 (yūsha, "hero"), 魔王 (maō, lit: "Demon King" but more often just "main bad guy") that are all over the place in Japanese culture now can point here as the source of their popularity. The series that rapidly grew so popular that Enix only released new games on weekends so that schoolkids wouldn't skip school--and so salarymen wouldn't skip work. It never really made it big in America, though, because Final Fantasy came out first and so when Dragon Quest came in America in 1989--a year later than Final Fantasy here, and three years after its initial release in Japan--it looked extremely dated, because it was. By then they were already onto Dragon Quest IV in Japan. Even Nintendo Power giving away free copies didn't help.
I didn't get one of those free copies because I didn't know RPGs existed. I didn't encounter Dragon Quest until I got to university, discovered how many people had uploaded things on the internet, and tried some of the games I had missed either because I had no way to play them (I never owned an SNES) or because my interests were different and I played through "Dragon Warrior." And it was fun! So when I was looking for short game, I thought about how there's supposed to be an HD2D remake of Dragon Quest III coming at some point and I wanted to play through this game and Dragon Quest II before it comes out, and I thought about how I need more Japanese practice.
Descendant of
"[NAME]! The descendant of the hero Loto! I have been awaiting you!"
( Read more... )
