Dragon Warrior box art
Playing Played Wish List Backlog
Add to Shelf Add to List

See more on IGDB

Dragon Warrior (1986)

Armor Project, Bird Studio, Chunsoft

Family Computer · MSX · MSX2 · Nintendo Entertainment System

3.43 from 565 ratings

1247 members have it in their collection · 32 playing now · 243 backlogged · 124 wish listed

How long? Main story 18h · with extras 15h · 100% 9h (from 18 logged playthroughs)

All is darkness. The Dragonlord has captured the Princess and stolen Erdrick's powerful ball of light. You are Erdrick's heir. To you has fallen the most dangerous task— to rescue the King's daughter and recover the mystical ball of light. Your mission is deadly, but it is your fate. Prophets have foretold your coming. Three keepers await your journey, each … Read more
All is darkness. The Dragonlord has captured the Princess and stolen Erdrick's powerful ball of light. You are Erdrick's heir. To you has fallen the most dangerous task— to rescue the King's daughter and recover the mystical ball of light. Your mission is deadly, but it is your fate. Prophets have foretold your coming. Three keepers await your journey, each ready to aid you with a mystic item of great power. Gather the three objects. Scribes will record your deeds. Use cunning and wisdom to choose your commands. Gain experience, weapons and armor as you battle your way through the world. Rest if you must. Search out the Dragonlord's lair and face your destiny. In this role-playing adventure, you are the Dragon Warrior! Read less

Details

Developers
Armor Project, Bird Studio, Chunsoft
Publishers
Enix Corporation, Nintendo
Genres
Adventure, Role-playing (RPG)
Themes
Fantasy
Franchises
Dragon Quest
Series
Dragon Quest

Release dates

  • May 27, 1986 (Japan) Family Computer
  • Nov 1986 (Japan) MSX2
  • Dec 1986 (Japan) MSX
  • Aug 1989 (North_America) Nintendo Entertainment System

Related

Bundled in

Remakes

Ports

Rating distribution

5 stars
83
4 stars
164
3 stars
250
2 stars
51
1 star
17

Community All Reviews Statuses

XanderCat

Status XanderCat Dec 19, 2024

4 years later I did a second playthrough to get a full set of achievments on retro achievements. Still a great game! I love how simple it is. I went on to play DQII and that is also a great game, but something about this being so simple actually makes it a lot of fun. Brings out the kid in …

Read more

4 years later I did a second playthrough to get a full set of achievments on retro achievements. Still a great game! I love how simple it is. I went on to play DQII and that is also a great game, but something about this being so simple actually makes it a lot of fun. Brings out the kid in me.

Read less
Permalink
WildScallion

Status WildScallion Jul 17, 2024

Decided to get all the RetroAchievements for this one, which included getting to the Level 30 cap, which is an incredible grind. Fortunately I found that using fast forward on the emulator doesn't disable hardcore mode on retro achievements (save states and other tweaks do).

I'm looking forward to seeing how DQ/DW evolved, because despite some fun unique things, it's …

Read more

Decided to get all the RetroAchievements for this one, which included getting to the Level 30 cap, which is an incredible grind. Fortunately I found that using fast forward on the emulator doesn't disable hardcore mode on retro achievements (save states and other tweaks do).

I'm looking forward to seeing how DQ/DW evolved, because despite some fun unique things, it's a step below Final Fantasy on the NES.

Read less
Permalink
SIGINT

Status SIGINT Dec 31, 2023

Started playing some Dragon Quest games recently — expect a couple reviews in the near future, deep into one and haven’t got around to reviewing the other that I finished before Christmas — and it naturally led me to try the first game in the series via its mobile port. I can appreciate its place in history and some of …

Read more

Started playing some Dragon Quest games recently — expect a couple reviews in the near future, deep into one and haven’t got around to reviewing the other that I finished before Christmas — and it naturally led me to try the first game in the series via its mobile port. I can appreciate its place in history and some of what it’s doing from a game design perspective, but it’s safe to say I’m not doing a complete run of the entire series, since I do not enjoy this one enough to finish it. The one-on-one combat that you have to grind so much for XP and money gets pretty boring, dungeons have this dark maze design that I don’t like, and some old-school limitations like the inventory size are more annoyances than interesting challenges. This stuff pretty much kills it for me regardless of other things I kinda like, since what I do like is not even that strong. Some nice fundamentals are here, but this entry just doesn’t really reflect what I got into in others, and as a result I would recommend starting somewhere later in the series.

Read less
Permalink
Girafro

Status Girafro Nov 6, 2022

Just finished a replay of this, what pure RPG comfort food, I've had the world map theme stuck in my head for days now

Permalink
scoopings

Status scoopings Jul 24, 2021

its nice when one of your main complaints is how short it is (i realize the grinds are brutal, but those are semi-afk in my eyes and i love that grind culture). im anxious/sad i am almost done with the game already but i guess thats what dw2 is for!

Permalink
scoopings

Status scoopings Jul 23, 2021

absolutely love the grind heaviness of this game. plus magic armor makes mindless grinds doable and I am here for it (bumped it to a 5 star ha)

Permalink
scoopings

Status scoopings Jul 21, 2021

dang, magic armor is kinda OP for the point in game that I got it

Permalink
scoopings

Status scoopings Jul 17, 2021

welp, scratch that last one. you forgot to save derp. so you're back to saving up 800 for the shield smh

Permalink
scoopings

Status scoopings Jul 17, 2021

Definitely growing on me.

For next time I play it: need 1000 for Half Plate in either town, tho seem to prefer the west bridge could go to kol for higher chance of skeletons

Permalink
scoopings

Status scoopings Jul 17, 2021

Off to a good start. I do, after all, enjoy grinds. Still, considering FF1 came out the next year, this seems a bit bland so far.

Permalink
internpepper

Status internpepper Nov 12, 2020

An RPG that started off an amazing franchise. There's something unique about this entry as you only control one character. It definitely gives you that "legendary hero" feeling.

Permalink
Chovus

Status Chovus Mar 18, 2020

This was one of my first and favorite NES games from my childhood. I vaguely recall when my parents got it for me, and the maybe gold box. I still have the poster that came with it though I do not know what happened to the cartridge; I think it was sold after I had moved on to the SNES. …

Read more

This was one of my first and favorite NES games from my childhood. I vaguely recall when my parents got it for me, and the maybe gold box. I still have the poster that came with it though I do not know what happened to the cartridge; I think it was sold after I had moved on to the SNES. I do not remember whether or not I beat it; I probably did.

Many years later in 2012-13, I started a Dragon Quest marathon with the SNES version of this game. I grinded on the basic enemies until I could afford a copper sword and then set off on adventure. Ended it at level 22 with the best equipment. This is a fun great classic. The only real flaw is the lack of direction. It can be a chore to find the right person to talk to who will tell you what obscure thing you have to go dig up. Not sure if it is nostalgia speaking, but my opinion is that this game is better than Final Fantasy and that it was not until FF6 that the FF series caught up to and surpassed the Dragon Quest series.

Read less
Permalink
lorddon

Status lorddon Jul 12, 2019

I decided to go back and play all the classics I never finished and first up was Dragon Warrior. When I was 9 my dad stayed up all night right after we got the NES version and finished it. I wandered around in the game back then and got pretty far along but never beat it.

I picked up the …

Read more

I decided to go back and play all the classics I never finished and first up was Dragon Warrior. When I was 9 my dad stayed up all night right after we got the NES version and finished it. I wandered around in the game back then and got pretty far along but never beat it.

I picked up the Android version and the graphic--and especially soundtrack--improvements were a nice upgrade. It was somewhat simplistic but was still a lot of fun to play. It was such a nice short sweet game.

I recommend playing this if you want to go back to JRPGs roots, but play the iOS or Android version for quality of life improvements.

Read less
Permalink
hhklpbtm

Status hhklpbtm Mar 7, 2018

Just beat the game. Took longer than I thought, but it's my first ever Dragon Quest game finished. I feel proud about that.

Permalink
GigaDeathNullGolem

Status GigaDeathNullGolem Oct 8, 2016

while playing Castlevania Symphony of the Night, getting a bit lost, I remember what i did to get the most fun out of Dragon Warrior: Drawing myr own map of the world as I explore it, Christopher Columbus style.

Permalink