As the above quoted image shows, various events were used in PC RPGs.
On this page, I will introduce the first "Dragon Quest", based on the PC gaming circumstance around 1985.
# I am not used to English expressions. I beg you will excuse my poor English. The original Japanese virsion is here.
I have been writing and updating the document titled "Japanese PC games before Dragon Quest (Japanese)". Now, I tried to write a new document introducing Dragon Quest in my own way based on the knowledge I have researched so far.
Take care that this article contains a lot of spoilers about old games.
Dragon Quest is a role-playing game for the Famicom(Family Computer/Nintendo Entertainment System) released in May 1986 [*0] . The year 2021, when I wrote this document in Japanese, was the 35th anniversary of its release.
The publisher was ENIX, which was holding contests, planning, and sales of PC games at that time. The developers were "Yuji Horii" and "Koichi Nakamura", who were active in the PC gaming field, and manga artist "Akira Toriyama" and composer "Koichi Sugiyama" were responsible for character design and background music. It was one of the trend in Japanese PC gaming culture that professionals in other industries began to participate in game development [*1] . In addition, individuals associated with "Weekly Shonen Jump" were also involved in the development.
When the development began in 1985, RPGs were very popular in Japanese PC gaming culture. The first Dragon Quest incorporates various ideas and features of domestic and foreign PC RPGs. Let's introduce some of them by adding information about PC game titles in square brackets.
The game begins with a fanfare and an opening music [*2 Märchen Veil]. In the early stages, you will beat the Slimes wandering around the outdoors [*3 Hydlide] and level up your character.
The scenario outline follows a simple structure used in the "Ultima" series, "Hydlide", "Heart of Dreams II /MUGEN NO SHINZOU II" etc., in which the player collects several items and defeats the final boss. It is a so-called the structure of "YUUSYA and MAOU" which was also expressed in "Fantasian" and "ArksRoad" [*4] .
During the journey, you will rescue a princess and bring her back to the royal castle [*5 Heart of Dreams II], search several locations using coordinate information as clues [*6 Ultima IV] , etc., the scenario is simple, but you can enjoy exploring the world.
At the end of the game, you will uncover a secret of the enemy's castle without the final boss [*7 Heart of Dreams II] , fight the "big dragon" after defeating the "man with the staff" [*8 ArksRoad] , etc., these events make the story more exciting.
When you defeat the final boss and return to the royal castle, a trumpet is played in front of the king and princess [*9 Questron], and finally, the movie-style end credits are displayed, leaving you in the afterglow. This cinematic approach began to be used in adventure games and RPGs in Japan at that time [*10] .
As the above quoted image shows, various events were used in PC RPGs.
As for the game system, it incorporates many useful features found in PC games at that time, such as a multi-window style screen that was a hot topic at that time [*11 Hydlide II] , a simple level-up system with a nice sound effect to automatically increase parameters and learn new magic if possible after winning battles [*12 Heart of Dreams II] , a password-based save and load function [*13 Hydlide(MSX,ROM version)], a mechanism that the character is automatically revived in the castle even if you lose [*14 Ultima IV] , a simple menu system that can be played with only a joystick [*15 Heart of Dreams II] , etc.
In addition to these, Dragon Quest incorporates many elements from Japanese and Western PC games at that time [*16] . In other words, It was a condenced game as these PC gaming culture.
Yuji Horii, one of the developers, was a PC game writer. I think he probably applied that wealth of knowledge to the game development.
At that time, PC games were enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of people, including teenagers [*17] . On the other hand, most players of Famicom games were children in the lower grades of elementary school.
Therefore, Dragon Quest was designed to suit the characteristics of Famicom players, for example, the introduction part is like a tutorial [*18] , the villagers explain the game system although it spoiled the atmospher of the world, etc.
The first Dragon Quest, which packed the fun of PC games and focused on the children, gradually gained popularity and became a hit game, selling about 1.5 million copies.
It became one of the important games that helped popularize RPGs, which had been enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of people in the PC world, to millions of Famicom users.
After that, "Dragon Quest III" became a major social phenomenon, for better or for worse, with long lines forming at stores nationwide on the release day, problems with robbery and cross-selling, etc. It was featured in the news every day, and the name "Dragon Quest" became known even to ordinary people who don't usually play computer games.
Since Dragon Quest 3, which became a social phenomenon, the series has been released continuously, although at intervals, and each time it has become a hot topic among consumer game players. And now, 35 years later, the children who played the Dragon Quest series at the time have grown up, and Dragon Quest has come to be called one of the national games in Japan.
As described above, Dragon Quest greedily incorporated interesting ideas and easy-to-play elements from PC RPGs at the time, was implemented as a game for the Famicom which had "one order of magnitude" more players than the PC, and was adapted for children. As the result, RPG boom occurred in the Famicom world.
The first Dragon Quest is one of the important games that brought the RPG culture that was so popular in the PC gaming world to the Famicom.
The summaries of the parts marked with "*" in the above section is shown below. I have also added links to the Japanese article I previously wrote at the mark of [Details], so if you would like to know more, please refer to it.
Please note that the release dates for each game are based on sites such as PC88 Game Library. For details and precautions, please check the "List of release dates for Japanese PC games in 1980s (Japanese)".
As explained above, the first Dragon Quest incorporates many features of PC games, but there is no information to determine whether the developer consciously imitated them or not.
The developers were in the PC gaming field, so I think they probably knew most of the features listed above. But, of course, there is a possibility that they conceived the same idea at the same time, or that they were unconsciously influenced by them.
Also, I would like you to consider the specific game names listed above are just examples. I have not researched which game was the first, and I am not saying that the games listed above were the first.
The purpose of this article is simply to say "the first Dragon Quest was developed within the PC gaming culture described above, and was one of the opportunities to bring these features to the Famicom players". This article itself does not have any other critical intent, so I hope you don't misunderstand me.
I would be great if you will be interested not only in Dragon Quest, but also in the history and culture of Japanese PC games experienced by its developers. I appreciate your reading this article in spite of my poor English. Thank you.