"My first Dragon Warrior game... and I loved it!"

I grew on the other side of the tracks, so to speak. Instead of playing Dragon Warrior on my NES in the late 80s, I was playing Phantasy Star on my 8-bit Master System. Now with the old rivalries between Sega and Nintendo long gone, I have found myself owning a GameBoy. Since I love RPGs, I was willing to give this a look. And what did I think?

Graphics: 9

For a GameBoy color game, they were quite solid. The enemies have at least two animations, which is a nice touch. Some of the monsters look suspiciously like other monsters, but this is not done enough to really bother me. Akira Toriyama's character designs and monsters all have a very DragonBallZ-ish flavor to them, but that was not unpleasant either. None of the spell effects were amazing, but they were at least somewhat fun to watch. And there are a couple ''cut scenes'' that aren't beautiful, but sort of fun.

Sound: 7

The sound is a little repetitive and never exactly memorable. It is, however, always appropriate for the situation. There are some nice touches, like towns have different music during the day and at night and things like that. Honestly, I played most of the game with the music off.

Gameplay: 9

This game is an absolute pleasure to play. The battle system is nothing new, but I have no problems with the standard bread and butter RPG battle system. Marching around from town to town collecting items and such is the sort of thing I love to do. But this game does it well. Several of the towns have unique features. And many of the towns are very different depending on whether you visit them at night or during the day.

One thing that really adds a little bit of spice to the game is the variation of characters you can bring with you on your journey. With plenty of classes to choose from, multiple personalities and two unique genders, your party is almost assuredly different than your friend's. This can also be used to set the difficulty to your own standards. If you want to try to beat the game with just the hero, then go for it! A party with a Jester, a Dealer and a Fighter would definitely be more challenging than a Cleric, a Mage and a Warrior. But it helps you customize your team - and while that may sacrifice character development, it's still a nice touch.

Also worthy of note are the side games. You can bet on monster battles (monsters that appear in the game, of course) and play a side game that is somewhat like a board game that will help you in your main quest. Both of these games are addicting and very pleasant diversions. In addition, there are plenty of things to do once you actually beat the game, such as collecting the Monster Metals or fighting some optional enemies. This is also a very, very nice touch.

Story: 7

While there are some twists at the end, the story line is really pretty cookie cutter. And if you want to become attached to the characters, you may be disappointed to find out there is practically no character development, mostly because the characters can change. It's not bad, it's just pretty average.

Odds and Ends: 10

This game would be great if they set you out on your quest with 4 stock characters. The fact that you get to design your characters and name them whatever you want is very satisfying. And if the game becomes a little tiring, you have several mini-games or other goals to pursue. There is a very large world to explore, and exploration is a must. The puzzles are not terribly difficult, but neither are they a cakewalk. Also, characters you encounter may say different things to you, depending on your gender and personality. I think it's the little things like these that really make the game stand out.

Reviewer's Tilt: 9

A completely satisfying RPG experience for me, even without character development and a deep story. This is rightly called a classic, and any RPG fan that does not buy this is cheating themselves. Even those with only a mild interest in role-playing games might want to consider taking a look at this, to see what a great old-school RPG is like. And remember, it's also compatible with your GameBoy Advance ^_-

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/14/01, Updated 08/14/01