Should I play Dragon Warrior?

The long and short of it: No
When was it made: 1986

Developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix, Dragon Warrior is the first of the Dragon Quest games which, while not as popular in America, are still very popular in Japan. This one features a descendant of the hero Erdrick as he ventures forth from Castle Tantegel to rescue Princess Gwaelin and defeat the mighty Dragon Lord. It's story is traditional fare and it features a fun element of exploration, but it's age shows during gameplay. This doesn't suffer from the same problems as Final Fantasy-on the contrary individual encounters are very short-but it's own flaws, namely the hours of grinding and bad interface make this not worth playing to the modern player.

This game is not only famous for starting the Dragon Warrior series, but for being the father of console RPG. It was not the first created, but it was the first to combine many of the features that would become staples of the RPG genre for the next 10 to 20 years. It is also one of the oldest RPGs for the NES system. It's also been remade several times, so some people may want to experience the original.

This game is so by the book that you almost have to flip pages to play it. You rescue a princess from a dragon, you're the descendant of a great hero, you're the only hope, etc. And it does it well, too. The exploration is actually difficult, but there was no point where I needed to look up any hints. However, the interface is very poor, and you have to use a menu to speak, use stairs, open doors, and search, instead of making these functions automatic. Also, leveling goes so slowly that there wasn't a part I didn't have to grind: no dungeon adequately leveled me for the next dungeon (or even the next level in the same dungeon sometimes). So if you want the nerd points of having beat the original, go for it. But other than nostalgia, there is really no reason to play this game.

Don't get me wrong, I liked the game. It was fun to actually have to think and explore the map, but towards the end I was playing it just so I could say I beat it. I knew where the story was going: I was going to save the maid and ride off into the sunset. Duh. I don't think I should have to level grind for 3-5 hours just to get a "congraturations" and a pat on the back. I heard that the re-release for the gameboy fixed this problem, so if you have to play this game play that version. But as for the original, it was tedious to control and tedious to finish. And combat was so repetitive that once you hit a certain level you could play the game with one of those bobbing desk toys. The boss was difficult because he was hard to damage and hit big, not because of any stunning attack combos or clever defenses-it was essentially just Nameless bashing a brick wall until it gave him the Orb of Light. It was cool to have a bad guy offer for you to join and actually let you join instead of a "but thou must" situation, but even then just ending the game instead of giving an evil ending was kind of a cop out. All in all it was good for its time, but that time has gone and let new games with better gameplay and stories take its place.