Dragon Quest in retrospect: The grandfather of the console RPG genre
Dragon Quest is one of the greatest RPG franchises of all time, and without it, role-playing games as we know them today may not exist. Though Yuji Horii was inspired by some of the Western RPGs of the day, the way he and his team at Enix designed Dragon Quest would ultimately inspire the overarching design of JRPGs, even in the modern day.
Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and even Pokemon have Enix and the Dragon Quest franchise to thank for how they approach aspects of their gameplay and design. Whether in large or small ways, turn-based JRPGs, and even turn-based Western RPGs, owe a debt to Dragon Quest.
We’re starting a new series of retrospective reviews here at Sportskeeda. We’re going to take a look back at some classic games and examine how they hold up to this day and what their overall impact has been on video games.
As a lover of JRPGs, I’m going to look back at not only my first RPG but a series that has immutably changed RPGs forever — Dragon Quest.
In the late '80s, RPGs were not especially popular in the United States on consoles. Many RPGs were on the PCs of the era, and some of them were ported to the NES, but they were simply not making a serious impact.
My introduction to role-playing games began with Nintendo Power. The first issue came with a copy of Dragon Warrior, which the Japanese would know as Dragon Quest.
Dragon Warrior was this new, fascinating thing that was so different from the other NES games I had been playing. Batman, Kid Icarus, and Super Mario Bros. 3 were mostly straightforward experiences.
A friend of mine up the street didn’t think it was worth anything, so he gave me his copy of Dragon Warrior. I was already in love with reading, so I quickly fell for Dragon Warrior. It was obtuse,
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