Dragon Warriors 1 (Gameboy Remake) Part 1 of the Erdrick/Loto Series

I didn’t play the original Dragon Warriors, but I did play the remake of Dragon Quest 1 on the Game Boy that also came with Dragon Warriors 2. Being the first of the Erdrick/Loto Trilogy, I had high expectations.

Story-10/10

The story is so generic... NOT! This game made this story generic for RPGs to come. The princess is captured by the evil Dracolord and to top it off, you need to find a light orb to stop him. You are the descendent of Loto(in the Game Boy version), or Erdrick(in the original version), and have been ordered by the king to rescue his daughter and stop the Dracolord. You would assume that he would give full access to his armory, but… he gives you a key to exit out of his throne room. And thus, you start your adventure.

Gameplay-8/10

Because I played the Game Boy version, everything was so much easier. But, why a 8/10? Grinding. That one word should be sufficient enough to fill in most of your playtime. The Game Boy version had its difficulty lowered. More EXP and gold is given from monsters. The encounter rate depends on what type of terrain you are walking on. Grass is has the lowest rate, where as the desert has the highest. The menu system was changed to be more like Final Fantasy. The major plus was the quick save option. Instead of walking all the way back to the King’s Throne Room from Dracolord’s lair just to save, you can now just stand outside to do a quick save and come back to resume the game anytime.

Graphics-9/10

Some people complained how the Hero didn’t look how he should have looked, but I thought it was okay. The world was colorful, which was important because you needed to know what type of terrain you were walking on, as stated above. The monsters looked great in this game because of their details. Overall, the graphics was good enough to pass for a Game Boy game.

The Good:

-The translation is more accurate than the SNES remake.

-Quicksave system is a major help for this long game.

-More EXP and money gained from battles.

The Bad:

-Grinding… but it’s a RPG, what did you expect...

Final Score:8/10