Dragon Quest Critic Reviews

The Erdrick Trilogy still holds up as some of the best RPGs to this day. While copious amounts of grinding, a lack of direction, and gross new artwork hold these games back from true greatness, they are still worth playing through to see the roots of the JRPG genre. They’re charming, fun, silly, and just a little bit sad.

Dragon Quest has beautiful graphics, an official modern translation, and plays great portably. The Nintendo Switch is the perfect way to experience this classic. So for those who are into retro gaming, or are curious about game history, Dragon Quest is a must-play.

Dragon Quest is a fun, light-hearted JRPG with simple and enjoyable combat and classic Dragon Quest charm, though the lack of play time mixed with its other flaws leaves something to be desired, though at just £3.99 you really can’t go wrong.

Dragon Quest I, II and III on the Switch are great picks, especially if you enjoyed the recent eleventh entry and wanted to experience the origins of this great series. However, these are ports of the mobile versions with some audio and visual enhancements. So if you have them on your mobile phone already, there is little point in picking them up on the Switch again, unless you really want to play them on your TV in full glory.

A historic role-playing game appeared in 1986, now re-staged on Nintendo Switch console.

The first Dragon Quest feels like a relic from the past with its incessant grinding and tiring dialogue. But it’s hard not to recommend: it does have that Dragon Quest appeal that many games in the series have, and the soundtrack and visuals (save the character models) give this release a great classic feel. There’s no doubt this 33-year-old game shows its age, but Dragon Quest presents a simple, straightforward experience that’s worth playing if you can forgive its dated flaws.

There's no denying that Dragon Quest is a massively important RPG yet enjoying it without nostalgia in mind is tricky in this day and age.

Unfortunately, the technical issues and art do take away enjoyment from playing this otherwise fantastic retro throwback. While diehard fans of the series may enjoy it, a more casual player might be a little bit lost when faced with its 30-year old design.

I give Dragon Quest a point as a piece of video game history, a point for the music, another for its DNA in Fortune Street, and one more because I’m feeling charitable. But beyond that, I just think this is a subpar port of a dated game, especially with no nostalgic value attached to it. It’s definitely not for me. With the graphical issues, I’m not even sure it’s for fans either.

I love the classic Dragon Quest titles with a passion, but there is nothing that redeems these poor ports. They fail as an archive of classics, since the redesign fundamentally changes them. They fail as pieces of entertainment, because they're so ugly and poorly made. Finally, they fail as Dragon Quest, because Dragon Quest fans will be insulted by this trash being passed off as their memories.