Dragon Warrior

[eds1275]

I live on an island, and was catching a 2-hour boat to the mainland. I was all excited to play Rogue Spear, but then remembered that I uninstalled it. I loaded up my NES emulator, and began a round of Dragon Warrior. Instantly, I was in the 80's. 2 hours later, I was sad to close my lappie. Luckily I was only gone for 3 days. On the way back I played like crazy, and then my laptop ran out of juice and died. I hadn't saved in a while. I got home, plugged it in, and it resumed right where I was. Very exciting. I transferred my save over to the Nintari (I have a thread about my console emulator computer somewhere) and am now nearing the end. Today before work I was browsing the bookshelf for something to read on my breaks at work, and instead ended up putting an NES emu on my phone and dragon warrior II which I've never played.

I love this game. It's not as difficult as I remember, just a lot of level grinding. Very simple compared to today's RPGs or even those in the 90's but a lot of fun anyways.

[Le Chuck]

I live on an island, and was catching a 2-hour boat to the mainland. I was all excited to play Rogue Spear, but then remembered that I uninstalled it. I loaded up my NES emulator, and began a round of Dragon Warrior. Instantly, I was in the 80's. 2 hours later, I was sad to close my lappie. Luckily I was only gone for 3 days. On the way back I played like crazy, and then my laptop ran out of juice and died. I hadn't saved in a while. I got home, plugged it in, and it resumed right where I was. Very exciting. I transferred my save over to the Nintari (I have a thread about my console emulator computer somewhere) and am now nearing the end. Today before work I was browsing the bookshelf for something to read on my breaks at work, and instead ended up putting an NES emu on my phone and dragon warrior II which I've never played.

I love this game. It's not as difficult as I remember, just a lot of level grinding. Very simple compared to today's RPGs or even those in the 90's but a lot of fun anyways.

My mom and I both spent hours on that series.  The first is still my fav because of the terrain associated fight screen background.  Really killed the vibe for me when the later games all went black background - played the hell out of them anyway.  Still get nervous when I think of my run ins with dragons when I was underleveled and got completely destroyed. 

[eds1275]

Run!

You started to run away
But were blocked in front.

Blue Dragon attacks!
Thy hit decreased by 76.
Thou art dead.

[Malenko]

Thanks to KLOV I think of this every time I see Dragon Warrior:

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=319888

(pretty neat story)

[pbj]

It sold so poorly that it was given away with Nintendo Power subscriptions.

I liked it okay but always wondered why you didn't just chop up Goldman when you killed him.

Also recall you could beat it at a fairly low level if you slogged through a poison swamp.

[eds1275]

You get like 200 gold when you kill goldman!

[yotsuya]

Loved those games. Those, the original Final Fantasy, and Phantasy Star on the SMS made for good times...

[eds1275]

Last time I played the first Final Fantasy, I just had 4 Warriors and beat the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- out of everything with no problems.

[Le Chuck]

Last time I played the first Final Fantasy, I just had 4 Warriors and beat the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- out of everything with no problems.

I always played with a balanced party, redmage or thief, warrior, white, black. Pain in the ass. Spells are too damn expensive. Need to go replay with a power party.

[eds1275]

To be honest the black mage was just there because he has fashion sense.

[yotsuya]

I balanced my party as well. The way to go!

[Howard_Casto]

I got it with Nintendo Power like most people did.  I remember how cool it was to get a free game and considering how expensive games were back then I was on the moon.  It totally made me blind to the fact that the game wasn't that good though.  All that grinding.... it was satisfying to finish at the time but I was ruined on rpgs from it and it's never been in my NES since. 

[yotsuya]

I got it with Nintendo Power like most people did.  I remember how cool it was to get a free game and considering how expensive games were back then I was on the moon.  It totally made me blind to the fact that the game wasn't that good though.  All that grinding.... it was satisfying to finish at the time but I was ruined on rpgs from it and it's never been in my NES since.

It's funny,  I didn't mind the grinding because my brother and I played the game together, and we spent hours together talking and hanging out. RPGS were a brotherly affair.

[Howard_Casto]

I get that, but it kind of brings home a point about boring stuff and people that like it.  They don't REALLY like the boring thing, but rather they have some nostalgic memory attached to it and they are desperately trying to recapture it.  People don't like baseball or football, they liked hanging out with their dad/mom/whatever when they were young and have attached those good feelings to the game instead of the person. 

But I'm re-railing.... Dragon Warrior is probably one of the better rpgs of that era, that just isn't saying much.  I can totally see why they had to give it away.

[yotsuya]

I get that, but it kind of brings home a point about boring stuff and people that like it.  They don't REALLY like the boring thing, but rather they have some nostalgic memory attached to it and they are desperately trying to recapture it.  People don't like baseball or football, they liked hanging out with their dad/mom/whatever when they were young and have attached those good feelings to the game instead of the person. 

Agree with the first part, disagree with the sports part. 

[pbj]

You know, Dragon Warrior IS one of those games I sat around playing with a relative all night, which seems to be a recurrent story with that title.  He was one of those suckers that paid full price for it, but Nintendo Power only sent it out to new subscribers.

I did try to play it a few years ago on an emulator and found it pretty tedious.  Particularly having to select STAIRS to go up and down stairs.

[eds1275]

I did try to play it a few years ago on an emulator and found it pretty tedious.  Particularly having to select STAIRS to go up and down stairs.

To be fair, there aren't too many staircases in the game. They also "fixed" that in DW2! I have spent the last 2 shifts at work playing it on my cell phone. RPGs that don't require precision moves work really well on a touch screen. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm hoping that my saves can be moved over to the emulator on the computer.

I also started a file of Final Fantasy. I have 4 fighters, and have been ass kicking my way through the game. Already got 2 of the orbs. I'm still working on DW but I need to grind levels for a while - at level 14 and need to be around 20.

[harveybirdman]

Great game, although I must confess that I enjoyed spiritual successors much more.