Published 20/06/2025

Dragon Quest (GBC)

It’s rare that I’ve written a sort of ‘chain’ of reviews like this. I reviewed Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, which led to me playing and reviewing Megami Tensei: Last Bible. Which, in turn, amped up my curiosity and led me to today’s game of choice: the true grandaddy of all Japanese RPGs, the evergreen and ever-present Dragon Quest - specifically, the Game Boy Color edition of the game (which also comes bundled with Dragon Quest II!). Much like Last Bible, I approached Dragon Quest as more of a curiosity (and no small amount of trepidation, due to its age), but I found myself genuinely enthralled by its open nature and almost puzzle box-esque nature. It’s certainly aged, and there are elements that were probably just part of the experience back in the day then how it can be frustrating today, but the rather simplistic debut of Dragon Quest pulled me in far, far more than I expected.

Rather than playing one of the many, more advanced remakes and remasters of the Dragon Quest debut title, I opted to play the Game Boy Color edition (which comes bundled with Dragon Quest II, as well), simply because I’ve been diving into a lot of turn-based RPGs on the handheld on my phone. Perfect for playing a good fifteen minutes on the bus, or cozy up in bed whilst listening to a podcast, it was worth getting through the more archaic elements of Dragon Quest that were fixed in later versions of the game.

After a quick recap of the general, ‘end-of-the-world’ situation, Dragon Quest, like many RPGs of the time essentially just tosses the player into an open world with the simple goal of reaching the DragonLord’s castle and defeating the fiend before he conquers the world. Of course, it’s never that simple, as not only do you need to find a variety of ancient artefacts of the old hero Erdrick to pave the way to the castle - and more importantly, gain the equipment, and the strength to accomplish all this. Without a map, the game is essentially an open-world experience, with only the real roadblocks being core, endgame items you’ll be working towards across the entire game - and, of course, the growing power of enemies the further you emerge from your home base. You can go anywhere, work towards any goal you’d like within your means, and it’s kind of amazing for a game this old - though, you should keep that statement tempered by the fact I really haven’t played many RPGs of this age.

Many of Dragon Quest’s goals are, surprisingly enough, usually rather accessible and out in the open - it’s just about finding them. Incredibly non-linear, Dragon Quest almost feels like a treasure hunt at times. Half the time, key progression items will be hidden on a specific, hidden square, or just tucked out of sight, really only camouflaged by your lack of knowledge. I very quickly learnt that slaying Slimes and Drackys in truly old-school RPG combat was only half of what early Dragon Quest was - I didn’t know it was a game of true adventure, seeking your path through the information of strangers. Y’see, as someone who admittedly hasn’t played a ton of RPGs older than the early 90s, I’d never really gleaned just how important it is to talk to each and every NPC you come across. The vast majority of NPCs will provide some sort of clue or indication as to something you either need to do or will need to do at some point across your quest. Sometimes these will be as simple as “I hear there’s something going on down at that Southern Shrine!”, whilst others will be as simple and direct as “Walk four steps south of this tree for a cool item!”. In all honesty, just in the interest of my own time economy, I did occasionally use a guide when I was stuck, but whenever I found something seemingly ‘hidden’, I made sure to at some point find the NPC that hinted at its location. My overall point is that I love that hunting down the various NPCs to find all the secrets this game holds turns it into a little bit of a puzzle box. The hints are there, and always accessible, as long as you’re willing to put the work in to find it - and of course, willing to get lost along the way. There are one or two items that I feel are a little *too* secretive, or not enough indication is given to you as to where they exactly are, but there are few and far between.

Whilst I don’t recommend using a guide for this game unless you really need it, I do recommend finding a map of the world just so you’re not completely lost. Whilst Dragon Quest is notably smaller than it appears, it’s easier then it should be to just miss a town or another kind of landmark that you really need to progress, and a map would’ve gone a long way to rectify it. At the very least, the Hero learns a spell that allows you to warp back to the central location of the starting city, but if you’d been able to teleport to any of the major cities getting to and fro would’ve been made a lot easier because of how damn high the encounter rate of the game is.

Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Enix would’ve liked to include a map in this version of the game, but cramming Dragon Quest II alongside this on the same cart on the GBC resulted in having to cut back on a lot of elements just to make it fit. This ranges from the likely lack of world maps, to even shortening and renaming characters and locations to save on space. Even Erdrick, arguably the most iconic name in all of Dragon Quest, doesn’t escape these memory cuts, being renamed Loto. In all honesty, I don’t mind most of the changes, especially as someone not particularly familiar with the series as a whole, but I can imagine this throwing off a lot of people more familiar with versions that came before or after. Whilst the exceedingly lack of storytelling isn’t a surprise for such an early Dragon Quest title, I’m not sure if there just wasn’t a lot of charm in the dialogue as in later titles, or if these witisims that are so integral to the western Dragon Quest translations had to be carved away to keep file sizes down. I’m not sure, but outside of a handful of charming encounters - especially DragonLord or the ever iconic Puff-Puff - I can’t really remember any dialogue in this game whatsoever.

Dragon Quest is so basic and foundational - non pejoratively - that even the combat is as simplistic as you can imagine. You play as a single character, with the ability to either swing your weapon in a melee attack, or use a number of spells - offensive and defensive - you’ll learn as you level up. All enemies encountered will consist of just a single opponent, and you’ll take turns slapping each other upside the head until one of you dies. You get some EXP, some gold, combat over. That is, 100% the jist of combat of Dragon Quest, incredibly simplistic, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Assuming you’re correctly geared and levelled, most fights are only a few rounds long, and getting that new sword to make fights even faster is ridiculously satisfying, especially during grinding sessions. Sometimes, stats are all you need.

The combat also serves as its own way of guiding you through the open world of the game; whilst the game occasionally calls for a bit of grinding - normally to buy a new piece of equipment then just levels - the game early on tells you that crossing a bridge generally indicates that newer, stronger enemy spawns will start to appear. So, simply put, if you stroll across that bridge and get absolutely decimated by an enemy in two turns? Yeah, whatever you’re looking for to progress next with probably isn’t that way. Really basic, but perfectly serviceable gameplay design. The only real issue with such simplistic battle is that it really turns the game into a stat race; even with the best gear in the game, the majority of players simply will not be able to defeat the DragonLord until you’re *at least* Level 20 - as of the times, grinding in the game’s finale is a requirement, not a suggestion. The simplicity of the game’s combat does run a little bare by the time of the finale; If you have at least an idea of where you’re going, Dragon Quest isn’t a ridiculously long game, but the repeated pattern of grinding with one character, against one enemy, only holds water for so long, and so at least in my time with it, it ended exactly when it needed to. I have sympathy for those who got stuck in any of the caves…

Speaking of, whilst much of the combat the game has to offer appears when you’re travelling the world’s countryside, there’s also a handful of dungeons to trawl within the game world, and I’d be quick to make the argument that they’re the weakest element of the game overall. Like with the open world but amplified, dungeons in this game just feel like endless corridors of stone without any of the open worlds charm, mostly obscured even *with* a torch of the light spell, and unless you’ve got a really good memory (read: I do not) it’s very easy to get lost in their twisting passages. Also, with the game’s old-school, hilariously high encounter rate, these sections are good for getting a good amount of EXP and stay ahead of any grinding segments, but they get so monotonous and are visually so much less interesting than the rest of the game, any time I had to enter a dungeon after the first one left me uttering a sigh of annoyance.

Few elements of Dragon Quest are retained in the popular gaming consciousness more so than the audio-visual experience of the series, and whilst the visuals maintain all the charm present from its original NES appearance, the audio suffered amongst the much weaker sound chip of the GBC. All of the classic, iconic tunes are here, but it sounds *rough* at times and I did frequently play the game either with the sound down or outright on mute as I grinded here and there. Whilst I do think the NES version of Dragon Quest ‘pops’ a bit more, I think the overall aesthetics of the GBC version win out, especially with using white over black in the battle screens. Also, whilst having a slightly zoomed out viewpoint in the open world (or a map!) would’ve helped in navigation, it pays dividends in making the world feel that much larger and vibrant despite its actual small size. Creature design - drawn by the legendary, late Akira Toriyama - is a standout, with the iconic Slime and ridiculously adorable Drackys being standouts in that department. I wish there were a handful more creature designs throughout the game, with a decent chunk being palette swaps as you move deeper into the title - but it’s understandable since it’s the series first showing.The audio quality, however, does not impress, with many of Dragon Quest’s iconic themes getting muddled and crunched by the admittedly weak hardware of the Game Boy Color. I certainly don’t blame Enix for it - again, throwing two genuinely ‘big’ RPGs onto the same GBC cart is incredibly impressive, but certain corners were cut, and I’m sad to say the audio is one of them. In all honesty, I had the game on mute after the first hour, opting to use it as a podcast game - your mileage may vary, but it’s a bit of a stain on an otherwise surprising game.

Whilst I obviously missed out on seeing how revolutionary Dragon Quest was at the time of release, my time with the GBC version of the game still surprised me with how accessible and unique it is as an experience; Dragon Quest feels more free and adventurous then many of the much larger, much more bloated open-world titles of the past, and even it’s incredibly simplistic combat managed to keep it’s hold on me almost to the very end. Don’t get me wrong - it is certainly an aged experience, with sections that genuinely frustrated me with its repetition and high encounter rate. And even if you love getting lost in such a big-small open world, playing without a guide will result in at least a few moments of genuine frustration. But it’s rare that a game really does, even if only for a few moments here and there, makes me feel like the kid on his Game Boy that I was over twenty years ago, wandering around in a world that felt a lot bigger than the little screen between my hands. I don’t know if I’d ever play Dragon Quest again, despite my praise, but I’m beyond overjoyed that I finally gave it its due, and understand its place amongst gaming’s true pantheon.