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Dragon Quest 1

LarryTyphoid

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I just started playing Dragon Quest 1, and it pretty much seems like an Ultima clone, complete with having to go to the king to level up. So should I be taking notes like in an Ultima game? Lots of NPCs are giving hints and stuff, and I'm not sure how important they are for progression.
 

Late Bloomer

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Not sure about it being an Ultima clone. You could get through DQ1 without them but if you find it fun and or you are used to quest markers then you may want to keep some notes. I find it helpful and enjoyable. Get in a bit of grinding here and there too.
 

Late Bloomer

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Yuji Horii has said on multiple occasions that the inspirations behind dragon quest were Wizardry and Ultima.

clone is to make a copy of
inspiration is more being influenced

I found playing ultima to be a much different experience than dragon quest both in theme and content. I see similarity here and there certainly. But clone? Nope.
 

AndyS

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It's not as demanding as the Ultima series, but it probably wouldn't hurt to keep a few notes.
 

Derringer

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There isn't many things you really need to keep track of note wise beyond the basic puzzles in the game they expect you to solve either with the in-game clues, friends playing it or with a guide like a casual.
 

LarryTyphoid

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I finished the game. The highlight for me was going to the southern city to get the magic keys, and then exploring the towns near the castle again with the keys. Everything after that bored me to tears, honestly. The random encounter rate is way too high and it makes exploring a giant chore. Sure, you get the repel spell later to keep them away, but that's after hours of constant trivial interruptions from slimes and ghosts, and even after you get it, reapplying the spell every 15 seconds is another kind of tedious. Besides, it only works on really low level enemies, so you'll still get interrupted by undead and mages even after they stop being rewarding to fight. The final dungeon was too easy and there's no strategy to the final boss besides constantly healing yourself. I like how you get the option to blueball Princess Laura at the ending, though, that's pretty funny, especially since she's so horny throughout the whole game after you save her. Since Akira Toriyama is the artist, I imagine every woman in the Dragon Quest world as Bulma from Dragon Ball, IE disgusting whores. Speaking of Toriyama, I wonder if he was the inspiration behind the "puff-puff" prostitute at the bathhouse, considering puff-puffs are a running gag in Dragon Ball.

I heard that Dragon Quest 2 has multiple party members, and Dragon Quest 3 removes random encounters in favor of monsters visibly wandering the overworld. So I've got those to look forward to. But I can't see myself ever replaying Dragon Quest 1.
 

Late Bloomer

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I finished the game. The highlight for me was going to the southern city to get the magic keys, and then exploring the towns near the castle again with the keys. Everything after that bored me to tears, honestly. The random encounter rate is way too high and it makes exploring a giant chore. Sure, you get the repel spell later to keep them away, but that's after hours of constant trivial interruptions from slimes and ghosts, and even after you get it, reapplying the spell every 15 seconds is another kind of tedious. Besides, it only works on really low level enemies, so you'll still get interrupted by undead and mages even after they stop being rewarding to fight. The final dungeon was too easy and there's no strategy to the final boss besides constantly healing yourself. I like how you get the option to blueball Princess Laura at the ending, though, that's pretty funny, especially since she's so horny throughout the whole game after you save her. Since Akira Toriyama is the artist, I imagine every woman in the Dragon Quest world as Bulma from Dragon Ball, IE disgusting whores. Speaking of Toriyama, I wonder if he was the inspiration behind the "puff-puff" prostitute at the bathhouse, considering puff-puffs are a running gag in Dragon Ball.

I heard that Dragon Quest 2 has multiple party members, and Dragon Quest 3 removes random encounters in favor of monsters visibly wandering the overworld. So I've got those to look forward to. But I can't see myself ever replaying Dragon Quest 1.

That sucks it was mostly boring. I remember playing it a long time ago and having enough fun to remember it fondly. About how long was your playthrough anyhow? Would you rate the game poorly overall?
 

kites

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DQ2 is great, lots of Ultima influence and exploration; once you get the boat there are very few areas you’ll be gated or skill-checked from going to. It’s too bad later jrpg generations have strayed so far from non-linearity.. I haven’t played many modern FFs so I picked up FFXIII yesterday because it seemed like a comfy rainy day game, I liked the aesthetic and music, but so far it makes the 16bit town-dungeon-boss cycle look like a tall glass of water in the desert wastes
 

LarryTyphoid

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That sucks it was mostly boring. I remember playing it a long time ago and having enough fun to remember it fondly. About how long was your playthrough anyhow? Would you rate the game poorly overall?
It took me about 8 or 9 hours to beat, I'd say, so at least it's not too long. DQ's the only JRPG I've ever played since Chrono Trigger when I was early in my teens, and I knew that it'd be a really basic game going in (a bunch of posts in the main DQ thread even suggest skipping to DQ5 or 6). It exceeded my low expectations somewhat, because the exploration was better than I thought, but overall it's just really boring to me. Feels like a watered down version of the games that inspired it, Ultima and Wizardry, and I already found Wizardry 1 to be dull. I've just never been able to like games with spontaneous random encounters. I'm playing DQ2 now, and it's quite the improvement over the first game, but the random encounters are just such a pain in the ass and the movement speed is too slow. The one thing I can give both games is that they're open-ended and non-linear, which is a far cry from later JRPGs from what I've heard.
 

Disciple

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Feb 18, 2018
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Dragon Quest II is better than its predecessor, and DQIII is better than both.

On the topic of the franchise's inspiration, I remember reading a translated interview with one of the main developers (I think it was on Shmuplations) where he referred to the ever-recurring and simple loop of fighting monsters and acquiring treasure as if he were discussing some kind of addictive slot machine-like experience. That mindset is pretty much absent in CRPG developers of that era, and it may showcase a key difference when it comes to the approaches of Japanese and Western RPG developers.
 
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LarryTyphoid

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Here's one thing I'll give Dragon Quest 1, and it's something I noticed in Dragon Quest 2 as well: you always have a clear objective. There was never really a moment when I was wandering around aimlessly. That's something to be respected in an open world game.
 

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