@@MazterP28 wait ur parents got the wrong game and then who loved it. If it was you thats awesome if it was them who loved it i think they played u. I get my son games i know i will play a lot so whats why i asked for clarification lol
@@nugboy420 My mom‘s boyfriend at the time bought me a Nintendo entertainment system and the first game he got me was Darkwing duck. It was a hard game but I loved it. LOL I assumed my mom loved me but who knows
Citizenoftheall I had the opposite experience. My dad got me super Mario 64 and killer instinct gold with the n64. I don't know how he knew those were the games I wanted.
@@WilhelmFreidrich Yeah, why wouldn't it be? People do it all the time, same with the AVGN seasons, I play those and just let em run while not paying too much attention. Gaming Historian, Did You Know Gaming, Lady Decade, they all have that throw on and go to sleep quality to them.
I remember getting Dragon Warrior for free with my Nintendo Power sub, and being so enamored of the game that I went out looking for something similar where I stumbled across Final Fantasy... These two series have such a wonderful bunch of memories tied up in them in my childhood..
its funny, I have a very similar event happen in my childhood. Where my mom bought me some toys from a garage sale, and among them was a copy of Final Fantasy 10 for the PS2 (I assumed the toys and stuff was old things from someones kids stuff they couldn't hold onto) that was thrown in with everything. The day I played (and eventually beat) FFX fundamentally changed me as a person lmfao
same here, and my brother and i became obsessed with this game, and i LOVED the map that came with it (i was obsessed with maps as a kid). the Japan only SNES versions for the 1st 4 games are available on smartphones and tablets as well as Switch for pretty cheap. they also rebalanced it to tone down the grinding, as well as some other balance changes, like simplifying the character name / stat interactions to only having 2 upgrade oaths as opposed to 16 like the nes version. honestly quite worth it, as it makes going back to this classic a lot more fun and less time consuming.
It was my birthday present when I turned 8 lol. I treasured that Nintendo Power sub and I absolutely scraped DW of every ounce of content. And I still wish the series was called 'Dragon Warrior'.
@@UCanBeatVideoGames Agreed. You do an amazing job my friend, my new favourite channel. I remember the graveyard dead town and those high level enemy dragons / plus knight battle for the armour actually scaring the crap out of me as a kid it was so difficult. Thank you, you do fantastic work (plus humour).
RU-vid kept recommending it to me and I kept ignoring it and ignoring it until started getting to the point that it was making me angry.. I watched a video and then realized that the algorithm knows me too well. I am mediately subscribed.
@@UCanBeatVideoGames , I remember having this game, but, to be honest, the game franchise did not really take off until the SNES/NSFC era, and, when I got a PS2, I got Dragon Quest VIII, which is arguably one of the best entries of the game franchise (and that it also later got a 3DS/2DS/iOS/Android remaster/expansion that is also good, plus has a lot of new story lines, enemies, bosses, and two new playable characters as well). The game that is in your video is pretty good for a 1986 game, but, to be honest, Phantasy Star I really set the bar, arguably even more so than Final Fantasy I, on how the template of the JRPG subgenre was to be from the 1980s forward.
If I played the game like this I’d be fine with the grind today, but if I played it like I did when I was a kid, buying magic armor and not knowing every best grind spot (to be fair I played it a lot and did figure out most tricks) I wouldn’t have the patience to play it now. The best trick was have friends switch off to grind level and gold lol
I really appreciate the amount of time and effort you put into this. I can't imagine how tough this must've been to put together. Also, I remember playing a bit of this game when I was a kid. I didn't get very far though. If I ever start playing this game again, I'll definitely use this as my guide. At any rate, I really enjoy your content. It's absolutely fantastic! Keep up the good work!
Just wanted to say that, since discovering this channel a few months ago, I greatly look forward to the latest video each Saturday. I also enjoy the brief history of each game at the start. In another video that gave some history about the Dragon Quest series, apparently sales lagged at first because people didn't understand what RPGs were and a few 'tutorial' manga were produced to inform people.
Love that you take the time to fully play these NES games, many of which have aged along with us, and for taking the time to edit and comment on each game. Your work reminds me of a modern day GamePro magazine with tips and tricks. Since your Crystalis video I have subscribed and continue, to this day, to play these on a loop on my secondary computer in the background; after a first watch of course! Thank you again for all the hard work you and your wife put into these and I wish you both the best on and outside the channel.
Can we show some love to this mad lad who just did a 3hr in depth video to a NES game? Great video as always, thank you for your dedication to the retro gaming!
One of my favorite games for NES. Interestingly enough you mentioned about Howard. There is also an NPC named Nester. Later when Nintendo Power started they had a comic strip in every issue called Howard and Nester.
I happened upon that trick by accident when I thought I was being clever and naming a save file the name of the hero instead of whatever my default name was at the time. I didn't even know it was because of the name, I just thought I was getting really good RNG until I heard about it in some random "10 NES facts" list video years later.
Playing a shorter, easier game: Briefly goes into lore then just plays through the game. Playing a longer RPG classic: Welp, time to commit axe knight genocide and put the fear of death into them for generations.
At my old job I had a friend who was not much of a gamer and was trying to play FF 7 for the first time and was getting stuck at a boss, I tried to explain the concept of level grinding to him and he looked at me like I was crazy and said, "so you just fight the same people over and over again? That doesn't sound like much fun.".
Actually, you can find the enemies you were fighting at level 5, near the castle. If you go south from the castle, and over by the mountains on the left (west), you can see the mountain cave on the other side, there is a spot you can go back and forth to grind there. Also, there is a chance in the mountain cave, to get a death necklace from a chest. It's cursed, so equipping isn't suggested, but it does sell for a lot of gold. (Which he covers late in the video.)
I was going to mention this to, it’s a similar situation to the Peninsula of power in the original final fantasy. Enemies from one side of a bridge or river will leak over into an area they are not normally found in
If you want to prevent getting cursed items that are difficult to get rid of, fill your inventory with Torches so that the game asks you to choose between keeping the cursed item and a Torch.
Nobody really talks about how cool the enemy sprites look in this game especially since it's pretty early in the NES library. And how the battle screen almost has a 3D effect with the way the background looks plus the good use of shadows making it almost look like a pop-up book.
I think the average modern gamer plays it for 20 minutes on an emulator and just sees slimes and shit and doesn’t get to see the crazy lion monster or whatever.
@@conzmoleman I think you could come up with a more incisive line of inquiry, that is, if you were doing anything but wasting the collective time of every unfortunate onlooker.
Thank you ... thanks to this video, I finally defeated the Dragon Lord. Grinded up to 25 before I got impatient and finished. What a wonderful, grindy, game! Great channel! You are the Bob Ross of video game reviewers.
The last time I played this was 20 years ago...all for wanting to see what the max level was. Just to satisfy my curiosity. It is level 30 btw. Max gold is 35535 as is max experience 😅
Erdrick's shield does not exist in this game. But I was convinced as a kid that if I used search on every square that I’d eventually find it. The school yard rumor was that some versions of the game had it and some didn’t. So many hours wasted looking for that shield…
ask me how many hours I spent in the forest fighting Tyranosaurs in Final Fantasy VI. there was a rumor that you could resurrect Leo if you fought a golden tyranosaur that doesn't exist.
@@thedicktator40 it was totally random too. the glitch could produce all sorts of situations. 255 of certain items and stuff. my friend had a super nes copy where the glitch was there. later cartridges removed the glitch - OR SO I HEARD DON'T QUOTE ME
Almost spit out my coffee laughing hysterically when he got into how Axe knights should be telling their children about the legend of Kylo…the butcher. I once saw the effects of a hurtmore spell exploding faces…and it scared me straight too!!
BeerCat is one of the names that gives max Strength and HP. Man, this game somehow never gets old. Also it seems like everyone pronounces Tantagel dirrefently.
For those that want to relive the magic of playing this for the first time, there is a very good randomizer for this game. It generates random maps, randomizes stat gains and spells for level ups. It can also randomize enemy skills/spells and there is a chaos mode for randomizing enemy HP and EXP if you want. It's a lot of fun and brings back that old need to hand draw a world map. (Edit: minor grammar edit)
That's awesome! On the Atari Vault collection Adventure had a level generator. Something I dreamed about for way too long. To have the same thing for Dragon Quest/Warrior gives this game replay value which means more hours playing it.
Can't wait to see the walkthrough of DraQue 2 and 3, but each time that I hear the first notes of the "Overture" theme you know that you're gonna have a freakin' good time! Can't wait also the DQ12 and DQ3's remake coming next...
I am a Sega guy so I never owned a NES back in the day but I recall when my nephews would visit and stay they would bring their NES and after they went to bed I would commandeer the console and play Dragon Warrior all night long. Awesome good fun! 😁👍🎮
Wow. I just noticed he has detailed time stamps in the description! Way to go above and beyond! Give this guy some likes! He deserves it. This is seriously the best channel I've found in a long time!
Dang, yet another childhood classic. I was one of those kids who, at maybe 5 or 6, got this game for free with the Nintendo Power subscription my parents got me. My dad and I played this game for several weeks, grinding levels and taking detailed notes until we finally finished it. I remember being terrified by the result when he picked the bad ending just to see what would happen, haha.
I definitely tried the bad ending as a kid - I had to know what happens! Maybe you get Dragon powers and get to fight the King?!? That would have been super cool
Sadly the "bad ending" is bugged in the NES version. The original the dragon lord would would give you a password, using it starts your game up with it reverts you back to level one with no equipment.
@@UCanBeatVideoGames The first Dragon Quest Builders plot is literally taken from the bad end of DW1 where you join the Dragon Lord! The angel that guides you even muses why the hero decided to join Dragon Lord! It's pretty cool!
I like how "Clothes" is the worst armor and you don't start with it. That means that you start the game unarmed and naked, locked in a room with the king, and he decides you are worthy of his support. Well, enough support to choose between a Bamboo Pole and Club.
@@charlesbrown179 yup, I believe that they are supposed to be this game's version of the gambeson - thick, durable padded clothing intended to be worn underneath to support heavy armor - and it's good enough to be armor on its own
I usually just smack around slides until I can afford the copper sword from the start. Then grind up for leather armor and depending on level go for the hand axe or small shield. I feel like in Dragon Quest games, even a minor boost to offense is better than a significant defense increase, and since this game is just shuffling gold around when you buy upgrades, the less stuff you buy, the less gold you need overall, especially for things like the flame sword and silver shield.
You should watch NEScardinality's speed run of this. The run with full RNG manipulation. There's a nice GDQ version of it here. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Bgh30BiWG58.html
...whoa. Almost 3 hours of "how to do all of Dragon Quest?" That's dedication right there. Also, I like the level of humor in this one especially. It's a long video, and there's just the occasional joke or quip to get a chuckle, none of which get in the way of the actual information being provided. Excellent work!
I’ll never understand why so many of my generation didn’t understand RPG’s back in the 80’s. This game along with Finial Fantasy and especially Finial Fantasy 3 (6) were the games I played endlessly and still enjoy to this very day.
Hmmm RPG lover here playing the fan remake currently also tried the original a few time but liking this version a little more so......personally I didn't understand them one bit I was used to sports games shooter platformers fighting etc. I played DQ in 90s this was totally different and didn't explain anything in game it was totally overwhelming....fast forward I'm in 9th grade I get a copy of FF7( 2 rpg I ever play and my favorite to this day) and I'm hooked still going back to find hidden gems I've missed this one is definitely good a little grindy and I get lost a lot but having a blast!
I can really appreciate your dedication to show off this game. However, there seems to be a few minor details you missed or were incorrect on: 1. The innkeeper's response if you stay at an inn while carrying Princess Gwaelin changes, and hints that something happened. 2. The Silver Harp's monster summoning doesn't just summon low-level monsters; it immediately summons a monster typical for the area you're in. If you look at it in the game's code, it literally calls the same code as random encounters, including using the currently-loaded random encounter table. 3. It's not stated in-game, but Erdrick's token is actually Erdrick's family crest, and has his actual name (Erdrick is actually a title! See DQ3) and the name of his wife and child on its reverse side. You recognize you're a descendent of Erdrick because those names are in your own family tree. 4. Charlock is actually north-*west* of Rimuldar, not northeast. 5. If your inventory is full when you return Gwaelin, she will keep your least-valuable item as a token to remember you by while you're away. I once used this to get her to take a torch, and make a pun that left my girlfriend in stitches - Gwaelin was carrying a torch for me. 6. In the original version of the game, Lv30 wasn't the final level! You could continue levelling, but if you did, eventually your stats would exceed 256 and although the game would still show the numbers rising, you would steadily get *weaker* instead of stronger. They patched this in later releases of the game.
Does the silver harp really summon enemies typical for a specific area? I used the silver harp a few times in the area south of Rimuldar where the Southern Shrine is located at, as well as the desert sorrounding Hauskness. Only low level enemies appeared. Am I doing something wrong? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
@@Viewer123r It's supposed to, and does in the copy of the game I have. However I do know that there's multiple versions of the Dragon Warrior cartridge, and some have minor differences, such as the lack of a max level in earlier versions of the game. This could be another version difference.
Welcome back! Dragon Warrior...holy moely, I love this game. I remember renting it multiple weekends and repeatedly trying to find all the hidden secrets. Takes me back to sitting on the floor, with my siblings, staring at our old tube TV for hours on end. Time to sit back with my favorite bowl of cereal and enjoy another episode. Thank you again, for your hard work.
Another wonderful memory from my childhood, so many years ago. Thank you for helping us relive all these retro games...while giving us some tricks and tips we many have never knew about. Curious if you will eventually move on to some SNES games. Still plenty of NES games out there I'd love to see you cover(Milon's Secret Castle, Super Pitfall, Golgo 13...all games that gave me fits), but I can think of a ton of SNES games that would be so awesome to be done in this format.
Last week: "Aw, the U Can Beat Video Games guy didn't release a new video. I hope he's okay." This week: "Ye gods, a 3 hour video? No wonder there wasn't an upload last week. The poor dog's paws are probably bleeding."
I always used to think this game was very difficult. Many years later, especially since I know how RPGs work now, I would love to play it again. Keep doing these classic games. I look forward to them. Great job!
To be fair, the difficulty scale in Dragon Warrior has always been based on grinding out levels, so for a lot us who didn't know any better, we accidentally made the game much harder than it needed to be by being impatient and charging into higher level areas than we were ready to tackle.
I can't do the grind. The randomizer allows you to decrease XP requirements to level up - without changing anything else - so that's where I will start my kids.
I really enjoy the design of the erdrick's armor encounter. You'd be dreading walking back through the poison after having defeated an extremely hard enemy, but would then be pleasantly surprised to find out it's no longer a danger. It's a clever way to teach the player an important mechanic.
When I play, I name my character Kefka, in honor of HCBailly's LP all those years ago. Although I'm not sure it's a name with an optimal stat build now that I have a name generator in front of me lol.
I remember playing this this when it first came out. I saw a commercial and was enthralled. Saved my paper route money and then played it over an over again. By todays standards it is trite, but back in the day it was quite ground braking. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Can we get an outtake reel for this walkthrough? There have to be some bonkers encounters that you got wrecked with. It would be fun to watch some of the more brutal RNG this game can offer.
I remember getting this free (along with the full color walk through/strategy guide) from Nintendo Power and sure, if it was free I'd gladly play it. And my love for the RPG was born.
I would imagine you're my age, give or take a year, and for the life of me I had no idea how I came to own that game until today. I remember my cousin (8 years or so older than I) always coming over and playing video games with me, and he was super stoked to play Dragon Warrior because we were both nerds (still am) and it appealed to both of us. He'd play that game for hours on end and I'd watch, probably having never played it myself until my 20s when I got way into emulators. But, I had been subscribed to Nintendo power since the 3rd or 4th issue, and that has to be how I got that game because my mom wouldn't have bought that for me because she wasn't a nerd (still isn't) and would probably think an RPG is a procedure you have done at a hospital.
This video brought so many great memories. I got this game when it came out but it was my dad who got addicted to it. I remember many late nights he would still be playing it. For a long time he got frustrated because he couldn’t find the way to cross over to the Dragon Kings island. Finally he got it but was completely maxed and OP’d so it was bittersweet because he succeeded but by then it was not really a challenge 😂. My dad passed away a few years later but it is a great memory to have and my cartridge still has his game file. ❤
You can xp grind against the magidrakee, scorpions, and magicians just southwest of the castle instead of crossing the bridge. There are hills along the mountain chain. Much safer since you are closer to help.
I wanted to say well done on these videos! They are amazing! I also wanted to add a pro tip here. If you buy the dragon scale in the beginning, you can equip it and immediately sell it back to the vendor and recover 10 gold which is useful early on. You will retain the +2 defense the item gives you and free up your item slot by one. Buying a new dragon scale and doing it again would permanently cancel this effect though!
I played Dragon Warrior back in 1990. Knowing about the naming convention is knowledge I'd kill for back then. I found this game getting me deeper into it with every turn.
Yeah I probably just picked a name that sounded, to me, like it would be a cool name for a dragon warrior, like duh, hello, lololol, and got horrible starting stats. But then I was a born RPG grinder with a strict household, and math was in my blood, so me figuring out how to min-max and grind came natural at an early age. So I probably just spent a few extra nights worth of hours fighting slimes and scorpions to level up a few extra times and didn't know the difference. And that was fine.
The Fighter's Ring is supposed to increase your fighting ability somehow. It is said that due to being mis-programmed that it actually does nothing except for changing the dialogue of other characters in Rimulder if you chat with them while it's equipped.
This and Final Fantasy were my favorite games as a child. I'd love to see a video on final fantasy, if you have the time for it since it's a hell of a lot longer to complete than DQ. I'm still amazed how they fit that much game into an NES cartridge.
The history deep dives you make for each game is just fantastic! I played and enjoyed Dragon Warrior as a kid, sinking many an hour back in the day. Final Fantasy was always my first and ultimate JRPG love though but the first Dragon Warrior was still a great game!
Watched the entire vid. Loved it. I remember playing this in 89 and oh man was it the best ever. After all this time I never knew about the name stats and max MP at the inn. WOW!
Love the inclusion of the monster profiles in every area of the game. Played this game since Christmas of '89 and didn't know about the treasure chest glitch. I would recommend grinding in Charlock castle at level 17 instead.
If you stop by an inn with Gwaelin before returning her to the castle, the Innkeeper's dialogue the next morning is different. 'Cause they reaaaally sneaked something past the censors there.
There is a spot by the castle good for leveling\gold, you go about 10-15 steps left from the castle then go south as far down as you can go down between the mountains and the water there is a small 3 block strip of hills you can find higher level enemies
There's something I've always wondered, but never tried. You technically don't need to rescue the princess to beat the game... but what if you rescue the princess, and simply never return her to the king? What if you continue carrying her around for the rest of the game? ...what if you bring her to the Dragonlord?
I really appreciate you doing this, as a child I wasnt able to play the other games you share here with their walkthroughs. I hope you get to play Final Fantasy Mystic Quest sometime. More power to your channel, and thanks for sharing these games. :)
This is the first RPG I ever played and I still like to replay it often. I ended up with 3 copies of it on the NES so I have 9 save files handy. I also play it on my phone, switch, game boy color, and the japanese super famicom version. Good game!
I never understood these games when I was young so I'd just try to walk to the next destinations without grinding or buying equipment, and would never understand what I was doing wrong when the monsters would easily beat me
This is impressive. Very impressive. Guides like these make me appreciate this series. I just wished that Enix released it sooner than waiting three years.
This is really cool. The way you talk about this game and the grinding you have to do gives me a totally new perspective on grinding in general. It’s almost exciting to grind for levels this way, strategically and make your way further and further out of the homebase.
Welcome back! It's Saturday, time for 3 hours of nostalgia! Special thanks to Kylo, that's a looong gaming session for mans best friend. Growing up, i remember making all the DW towns/castles out of Legos, and "borrowing" a bamboo pole from a neighbor's garden. It was the only "weapon" from the game I could keep in my room...I was 7. Had NO idea about the naming stats, now I'm wondering how many extra hours of grinding that cost me.... edit: I've read some comments talking about doing the rest of the Dragon Warrior series (I'm American, it will always be DW to me). I fully support this. I was never able to complete any of the sequels, I only ever rented them and I remember them being HARD (also expensive).
Just beat it for the first time! I had 6HP. SIX. I went into the fight with 76MP. I got swamped hard by stonemen and red dragons right at the end so I had to use way too much magic. Used my last healmore and got hit taking me to 6HP, then I got a solid last hit off and was yelling when I saw I’d beat the Dragonlord haha. Amazing game 👏🏻 Love your guides and will watch all of this one tonight as I go to bed.
Now do one on the sequel, Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest) II. A confusing and often punishing game with one of the most unfair bosses on the NES, but one which is still an amazing RPG that introduces many concepts such as party-on-party combat and different roles for different characters. I would consider STR/HP builds to be better, because hitting harder actually does matter in several cases, especially on the Dragonlord himself, which is the whole point of the game. As such, a simple capital Z is all you need. This can save you grinding one or more levels by having enough Strength to damage the Dragonlord sooner. And by level 19, that's a substantial grind you are avoiding.
I was 6 years old when I beat this game after I played this and beat it. I got hooked I always checked when more came out and asked my mom for it I'm 41 now and I still play them.even the new one. I love this game I will never get tired of this game. I have beaten everyone since.
Near the beginning, when you are grinding to get the 180 gold, you can just go directly south, and the southernmost row of hills. It's closer to return to the castle than going over the bridge, in case you're in trouble, or to revile MP/HP.
Well after watching this, I finally sat down and beat this game. I came close years ago, but got tired of the grind. Now the Dragon lord has been defeated!