“Radatome Castle” became “Tantegel Castle”, “Radatome Town” became “Brecconary”, “Garai” became “Garinhaim”, “Maira” became “Kol”, and many others. Many of the other names have changed too – the legendary hero “Loto” became known as “Erdrick”, and almost all of the town names are completely different. The spells were given completely different names – “Hoimi” became “Heal” and “Gira” became “Hurt”, with the more powerful spells becoming “Healmore” and “Hurtmore”.
The translation is also significantly better than practically other NES game out there, probably because there’s a lot more text here than most video gamers were probably used to at the time. “Thou hast killed the slime!”), which might sound a little bit pompous and silly, but adds quite a bit of character. All of the dialogue, including the battle narration, is written in old-style Elizabethan English (i.e.
Nintendo put a lot of effort into its English translation, hoping that the massive success it found in Japan would be replicated overseas. The Japanese version also used passwords, which were replaced with a much simpler battery backup save system for the American release. In the English version, the hero has been redrawn and can now face in any of the four directions when walking – so even though it’s cumbersome as it is, it was much worse in the original Japanese version. It also caused other issues, like when you select “Talk” from the menu, you need to specify the direction of the person you want to talk to. The hero always faces downward regardless of what direction you’re moving in. It always looked kind of silly all of the characters looked like they were walking even when they were standing still, but the original Japanese version was even more ridiculous. The graphics were improved slightly, adding extra details like shoreline tiles, which make it look a little bit less awful. When Nintendo published the game in America three years later in 1989, they made a number of upgrades to make it a little less irritating. The MSX version has since become quite a collector’s item.
The graphics and music are pretty similar, though there are some vague differences in quality. It’s pretty much the same as the Famicom version, except your character always remains in the center, and the screen shifts around him whenever you move. If you accept, he puts you to sleep, and the game freezes, requiring you to reset the console to start again.ĭragon Quest was originally released for the Famicom, and ported to the MSX shortly thereafter. When you finally reach the Dragonlord, he gives you the option to switch sides and join him on his evil conquest. Amusingly enough, the Dragonlord’s castle is visible from right across the river at the beginning of the game, but you need to travel the whole world in order to finally gain entrance. Once you rescue the princess, you carry her from her jail cell all the way back to the castle, which feels pretty triumphant. Still, in spite of its age, there are a few cool touches. You can only save the game at the king’s castle at the beginning of the game, although you can still heal at inns found throughout the land. If you run out of either, you need to stumble around in the pitch black until you find an exit.
And even then, it only lights a single block around your character, so you’re still stumbling around blindly, at least until you get the spell later in the game that increase your sight. The few caves you explore are completely dark, requiring that you bring a torch along. The same thing goes with talking to people, opening doors and using stairs. It’s not enough to move over to a treasure chest to open it – you need to step on top of it, open a menu, and then select the “Check” command. The graphics are ugly, the movement is clumsy, and the interface is cluttered with far more menus than necessary. About all you can do is grind until your character reaches level 30, at which point your hero’s stats are maxed out. There are only a handful of spells – including two attack and two healing spells – and the only real strategy involves grinding so you’re strong enough to take down more powerful foes. Here he is pictured with the princess, named Gwaelin in the English version and Laura in the Japanese version. This is your avatar, a strong, brave warrior off to do battle.
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