#40: Dragon Warrior

Released In: 1989
Developer: Enix
Publisher: Nintendo

      A great darkness has settled over the land of Alefgard. The evil Dragonlord has stolen the Ball of Light and kidnapped Princess Gwaelin. As a descendant of the legendary hero Erdrick, you are the only one who can restore peace to the land. Set forth from Tantegel Castle, save the princess, and recover the weaponry of your ancestor. Then it's off to the ruined Charlock Castle to confront the Dragonlord and retrieve the Ball of Light for the forces of good.

Syd Lexia: The original Dragon Warrior holds a special place in my heart because it was the first RPG of its type that I played. In retrospect, aspects of it are pretty annoying. Specifically, I have some pretty traumatic memories of the wandering through the darkened maze in Garinham, searching for that goddam Silver Harp. I had it. I had the harp in my hands, only to discover that I no longer had enough MP to cast Radiant and my torch supply had long since been depleted. So there I was, blundering around in the dark, desperately trying to find something I recognized; it was just like prom night. To make matters worse, I was carrying a cursed item that drew baddies to me like flies to shit. I tried to my best to fend them off, but eventually the onslaught of Warlocks, Poltergeists, and Drakeemas proved to be fatal when coupled with my inability to find the fucking exit. I leveled up and tried again, but I met with the same result. Then, on my third try, I successfully retrieved the harp. At that point, I vowed to myself I would never repeat that experience again. And yet, I've played through the game at least a dozen times.

While I may have spent a little too much time trying to obtain the harp, I was spared some time in other areas of the game. Back in the day, it was pretty much common knowledge that the Stones of Sunlight were in basement of Tantagel Castle, Erdrick's Token was somewhere in the giant marsh, and the Fairy Flute was four spaces south of the fountain in Kol, so I didn't have to waste my time chatting with every fucking character in the game.

Valdronius: Truth be told, I didn’t play through this game until some time around 1997. I don’t really remember a lot about it, aside from fighting obligatory slimes, and spending hours fighting Goldmen, trying to save up enough money to buy the better weapons and armor. Dragon Warrior is not a bad game overall; it’s just not one of the best.

Rycona: This is a great RPG, and it's the first RPG that I played with turn-based battles. It has great music too; I still listen to some of the tunes from it nowadays.

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