I've completely lost my mind, so before finishing up the lengthy Final Fantasy series I've jumped into its biggest rival/competitor/whatever- the Dragon Warrior/Quest series. Depending on the installment this series switches names, so just assume the words 'Warrior' and 'Quest' are the same thing for the rest of these bloggings. Why would I take on such a monumental task? Well, the truth is, almost the entire series of nine games is available to play on a handheld system, and I find that rpgs lend themselves especially well to handhelds. There's something easy about picking up a game and sort of paying attention while grinding but also watching something on tv in the background. The first three games in this series got ported to Game Boy Color, then IV - VI and IX as well are available on DS. Eventually when I get down to Dragon Warrior VII and Dragon Quest VIII I'll have to play them on a console. I'm not quite sure how I'll even play VII at the moment because it has not reached downloadable PSOne Classic status but it's also kinda expensive online. I'll worry about that later; for now, let's talk about the first installment in the series: Dragon Warrior. This is a decently tough little rpg that has only a few things to do but a lot of grinding in between major events. I'm okay with this, I know it's a staple of the series. And the grinding seems expecially worth it in this game- you see some pretty significant upgrades every time you gain a level, even though there's a good amount of time between levels. The game also features a one-man party- your character is on his own, searching for a kidnapped princess and eventually killing off some bad guy who's trying to take over the world. You can technically save any time, but this quits you out of the game, and every time you load that save it immediately deletes itself. In addition you have a sort of home base with permanent saves. Basically that means if you ever suddenly have to put down the game for a bit you can pick it up hours later in the same spot, but there's no saving right before a boss and reloading every time you die. This really wasn't so bad, as traversing the world map doesn't take long and I rarely had to fight any boss more than three times; it's pretty easy to tell if you're going to be powerful enough or not. The combat it also fairly simple but very quick. Overall Dragon Warrior is not a particularly great game, but it seems like a very good port of a very old-school rpg to the point where it doesn't feel entirely devoid of interesting content. For such an early installment, that's good enough for me.March 6, 2012
Dragon Warrior
I've completely lost my mind, so before finishing up the lengthy Final Fantasy series I've jumped into its biggest rival/competitor/whatever- the Dragon Warrior/Quest series. Depending on the installment this series switches names, so just assume the words 'Warrior' and 'Quest' are the same thing for the rest of these bloggings. Why would I take on such a monumental task? Well, the truth is, almost the entire series of nine games is available to play on a handheld system, and I find that rpgs lend themselves especially well to handhelds. There's something easy about picking up a game and sort of paying attention while grinding but also watching something on tv in the background. The first three games in this series got ported to Game Boy Color, then IV - VI and IX as well are available on DS. Eventually when I get down to Dragon Warrior VII and Dragon Quest VIII I'll have to play them on a console. I'm not quite sure how I'll even play VII at the moment because it has not reached downloadable PSOne Classic status but it's also kinda expensive online. I'll worry about that later; for now, let's talk about the first installment in the series: Dragon Warrior. This is a decently tough little rpg that has only a few things to do but a lot of grinding in between major events. I'm okay with this, I know it's a staple of the series. And the grinding seems expecially worth it in this game- you see some pretty significant upgrades every time you gain a level, even though there's a good amount of time between levels. The game also features a one-man party- your character is on his own, searching for a kidnapped princess and eventually killing off some bad guy who's trying to take over the world. You can technically save any time, but this quits you out of the game, and every time you load that save it immediately deletes itself. In addition you have a sort of home base with permanent saves. Basically that means if you ever suddenly have to put down the game for a bit you can pick it up hours later in the same spot, but there's no saving right before a boss and reloading every time you die. This really wasn't so bad, as traversing the world map doesn't take long and I rarely had to fight any boss more than three times; it's pretty easy to tell if you're going to be powerful enough or not. The combat it also fairly simple but very quick. Overall Dragon Warrior is not a particularly great game, but it seems like a very good port of a very old-school rpg to the point where it doesn't feel entirely devoid of interesting content. For such an early installment, that's good enough for me.
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I will be embarrassed as shit if you end up beating the eighth game - meaning, in addition to the first seven - before I can. You already did in 2 years to the Final Fantasy series what I haven't done in 20, which is beat ten games from the main series. So, you know, anything is possible.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a note on the naming conventions here. The nine Dragon Quest games have all been released in Japan under the name "Dragon Quest." When the first game was released in the U.S. in 1989, there had already been a series of board games named "DragonQuest," so they changed the name to "Dragon Warrior" just to play it safe. Finally in 2005 they were like, this is dumb, and just paid off whatever fee the "DragonQuest" trademark holders wanted. So VIII and IX were always "Dragon Quest" everywhere and never "Dragon Warrior." The interesting thing is that V and VI were never released in America until recently as DS enhanced remakes (think FFIII) so those were also never technically titled "Dragon Warrior." But there WAS a "Dragon Warrior VII," as it was released in America before the "DragonQuest" issue had been settled.
ReplyDeleteOf course, none of this is as confusing as what happened early on with the Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy II and III were never released in America until they were remade on the GBA and DS respectively, so the second Final Fantasy game to see a U.S. release was IV; it was known here on the SNES as "Final Fantasy II." Then V wasn't released here either, so VI became "Final Fantasy III" here. The fourth American release was Final Fantasy VII, but by this time apparently people had figured out that this was all confusing as shit, so it was released worldwide as "Final Fantasy VII," and the previous two misnomers were corrected in all future releases. But you probably already knew all that. The REAL fucked up part involves two entirely separate series: SaGa and Mana. (Perhaps you've heard of "SaGa Frontier" and "Secret of Mana." Anyway, the first three SaGa games were released in America as "The Final Fantasy Legend" through "Final Fantasy Legend III" simply to piggyback off an established brand name. The first Mana game, similarly, was "Final Fantasy Adventure," except in Europe where it was merely "Mystic Quest." Said European release came after there was an entirely different game released in America called "Final Fantasy Mystic Quest."
In short, it is nice to live in an era where the rapid and constant exchange of information over the Internet prevents gaming companies from trying to market video games under different names or different numbered installments in different countries.