Yeah, yeah – tons of work to do and only got a fraction, but what can I say … adventure called!
I’m not sure if it’s actually legal to even admit this, or maybe I just can’t post the link to where I downloaded “the stuff”, but instead of digging out an NES that no amount of cartridge blowing in the world will fix at this point anyways, I ended up just downloading a copy of the ROM and firing up an emulator to revisit the original Dragon Warrior that I first got back in 1990 as a free gift for being a loyal subscriber to Nintendo Power! I think it can safely be said that this was the very first RPG that I ever played, even prior to the original Final Fantasy … well, something like Wizardry on our old Apple II clone might’ve predated it, but not by much…
Anyways, it’s kind of amusing to go back and revisit this one … and realize just how mind-numbingly repetitive it actually was! I mean, you literally start out fighting Slimes for 1 XP and 1 gold a piece, and you’re trying to raise enough money to buy a sword that costs 180 gold! Woof – and I’m not necessarily saying that it made me give up again after only a few minutes of play or anything because as you can see, I’m now Level 6 and am trying to earn enough for the next really expensive piece of equipment, but it’s interesting to see how far things have come since then. Leveling via random encounters is very much the majority of the entire game – I’ve been using a walkthrough to remind me where I need to go, and a typical chapter is – “Go north to XYZ Town, fight in the surrounding area until you can buy Slightly Better Sword, then travel east to Yet Another Town…” – rinse and repeat. 😯
I guess maybe I was just easily amused back when I was 10, but I suppose we had to start somewhere! Actually, the only other one I’ve even played in this series was Dragon Quest VIII a year or so ago … maybe I can use this experience as a gateway RPG to start digging into the rest starting from the very beginning once I figure out how to beat the Dragonlord or whatever the heck the point of this first one actually is… 
*cough* Also once I get some more work done, of course! *cough*
1 Comment