Hey everybody, this is BJ. We just wanted to talk to you for one second. Before we go into your favorite new podcast Dragon Quest FM about our host anchor dot f m-- we've been using anchor since we started doing Dragon Quest FM and we have really really enjoyed the service. That's right. It's the easiest way to make a podcast. It's free. There's creation tools that allow you to record and edit your podcast right from your phone or computer. Anchor will distribute the podcast for you. You can be heard on Spotify Apple podcasts and many others and thisAnd as part of their sponsorship program where you can make money from your podcast with even minimum listenership, it's everything you need to make a podcast in one place. So if you want to do this, you can go to Anchor dot f m-- and get started. Hey everyone, and welcome to Dragon Quest FM4. We talk about and obsess over Dragon Quest. My name is Austin and I'm fidgeting and today we are going to talk about the first Dragon Quest Dragon Warrior game. So we have there's a lot of versions of this game. First of all, and I played the mobile version on iOS on my phone. I'm actually replaying it right now and BJ you played it originally on the NES when you were like six, right? Yeah, I got to the green dragon. And when I was like 7 or 8, maybe and played some of the mobile version and decided that I think I'm going to play the Game Boy Color version all the way through when it's turned on the on Mike you got you so but right now at the time of this recording neither one of us have played the Game Boy Color version, correct? You haven't played it started. You did start it. Okay. Yeah, I've started it. Actually I've gotten just a little bit too to the heroes cave up top Lodo's cave rhodos cave I can't remember what they call it and the color version Okay, cool. So so since you started playing it, is there anything you want to say about the Game Boy Color version? I like it. Like I like this version. Like I think it may be partly Nostalgia on my part because I loved the Game Boy so much as a kid and but playing this one feels a lot better than playing the NES version going. Back and it feels honestly a lot smoother maybe than the mobile version. I think that might just be because you don't have buttons on the mobile version you use this, you know, you tap your move and really the same way but the Game Boy Color version honestly feels the most solid of any of them that I've played so far and that's I've actually heard that from multiple people that the Game Boy Color version is like the best version of this game. So I'm excited then because I actually got it because I have a bit boy and I have it and I'm actually I liked it so much that I'm probably I'm going to end up going out. I've been looking on eBay to find a complete version of it with box and mon manual and everything for the Game Boy Color like it. That's the I like it so much. I really really want like a collector a collectible edition of it at you and that's why C and II missed the Game Boy Color version because I missed a lot of Game Boy Color games. Let's see. I want to say I'm not sure how old I was. I was pretty young and I remember my parents got me the the Game Boy Color. I think I mentioned this in another episode but it's like the like transparent purple Gameboy Color that looks really cool. My parents got me that and Pokemon pinball and then when I say it was for my birthday or Christmas, I want to say it was Christmas and then I was a kid, so I saved up my money and it took a long time, but with that money, I bought Pokemon Yellow my Brother ended up getting Pokemon Blue not long after for his birthday, even though it was an older game. He got it for his birthday like the following year and he and I played through that one. You know, I shared my game boy with him. If you would let me play his games like it's like it's his game, but it's my game boy. So I think that's my that was my parents way of like being sneaky and forcing us to share with each other. And so so anyway, so I missed a lot of games because a lot of Them I saved up for tried to buy with my own money. So I had to be super like selective because it would take me like a whole year to buy up a game for the Game Boy Color and then, you know after a few years it's kind of an old system. So I just kind of moved on from there. I think this came out Dragon Quest Warrior one and two and then Dragon Quest Warrior Dragon Quest Warrior Dragon Warrior 3 on the Game Boy Color. I think those were toward the end of the colors life cycle where you had already moved. And into the Game Boy Advance because one of the Game Boy Color Dragon Warrior three boxes. I looked at yesterday as of this recording had a compatible with the Game Boy Advance on so this was while people are already moved to the next generation of handheld, but they had released these on the previous one because it played that way and I remember seeing the Dragon Warrior three like box and everything like at my local I guess it was Walmart, and that's what it would have been. And like so I can picture it in my head. I remember being a kid and seeing that game. I just you know at the time my I was like so into Pokemon. It was just I was going to buy Pokemon and nothing else with my limited funds. I understand that like I've I was that way honestly with Final Fantasy games at the time. I did a lot of Final Fantasy buying so the game the NES version was released 1986 in Japan. It came to the US a while after that. At and then when it came to the US, I know you mentioned this in a previous episode, but you played the NES version like about three years later. Is that right? Yeah. It came out in 1989 in the US and it did not do well Nintendo Power did a promotion where they gave everybody who registered for a new subscription to Nintendo Power. It was $15 a year. They gave everybody a free copy of Dragon Warrior. So they cleared out stock. They got the game out there. People expose them to RPGs in the west and it did well enough that eventually Dragon Warrior 2 3 and 4 were released on the NES here, but it never did well for Nintendo to actually be the publisher again as far as I remember got you. So so I know you talked did talk about a little bit about your experiences with the NES version and I think it was our first episode that we did but just as like a refresher in case nobody's listen to that episode. I sewed you said you played it with your best friend at the time. You guys spent a couple of years kind of chipping away at it and you thought you had beaten it but you really had only defeated the green dragon. Yes, and I beat the drink green dragon and as a kid like I thought you know Rescue the Princess and that was the end of the game. And so I've lived my entire life as a lie, and it was only recently that I found out when you told me that that was there was you know, Another half of the game, but also I realized that you don't even have to beat the Green Dragon in Dragon Quest one that if you don't beat the dragon, it's just the princess doesn't show up in the ending which is really cool to me that you can go on and just skip that part of the game and even for an NES game a first-generation really NES game here. It was complex enough and they put enough thought into it that that part was left out of the ending. I did not know that because in the version I played if you if the green dragon beats you he beats you. Oh, you just don't go fight it apparently. Oh, yeah, that's what I was reading. Like you just don't go and fight him and apparently you can move on through the game now. I haven't done that but it was something I was reading about I think it was on Dragon Quest dot-org on the wiki, maybe. Oh my God is looking up stuff about the hero and erdrich and every yeah, I did not know that there's there's so many things whenever we get to do in life. Episode Dragon Quest 2 I'll talk about it then but there's just there's so many things in these games and drag quest to is kind of frustrating part, but that I've done and like put a lot of effort into and then found out later that it was optional which which is something really really cool about these games is that you can you know, you can do this kind of stuff or not do it or if you fail, you know, it doesn't necessarily affect very much of the story. So just that's a really awesome thing about these games. But at the same time there's definitely a few things like in other games that I found out where optional that I'm like, I don't know if I would have done this had I known it was optional at the time because when I played my play through these games and I'm you know, I'm playing through all of them this year and when I play through these games I try not to read spoilers or like facts or anything about them. Playing them I try to just experience them and then obviously if I get stuck I you know, I use Google because I don't want to just like waste, you know hours and hours and hours not knowing what to do. So someone look it up if I need to but I try to just kind of approached them all with like, you know with just having know nothing about them and just trying to experience them and then, you know read stuff if I get stuck and so So so most of the time what will happen is I beat the games and then when I'm going before I ride up like my blog posts on them and stuff at at Dragon Quest austin.com. I like will do a little research and stuff just to fact check myself because I don't want to like put out any right wrong information. And so a lot of times when I'm doing that I will find out later that it's optional or what. I'm in the middle of a play throughout posted a picture of it on Twitter and somebody will be like, hey, you know, that's optional right and then I'll be like no. I did not so but that's really cool. I did not know that about the green dragon. Like I said, I haven't done it but it's what I had read about. So we'll see. We'll see how much I grind dragon as I go through it. But like I as a kid, you know, I remember this game and that the Game Boy Color version is very true to from what I've played so far and so was the mobile version of like the graphics making me really happy when I was a kid like I loved playing it because it was really cold. Colorful, it was bright and that was really what I loved about NES games at the time. Like I mean, I love games like Batman and Ninja Turtles and stuff that were more muted and you know, because I love Batman and Ninja Turtles, but playing Dragon Quest when I was little was like you log on well, you didn't log on at the time you turned it on and you you just get out into the Wilderness this Bright Beautiful green area. You kill some Slimes like they pop up and like I loved getting into fights with slides to this day. They're one of my favorite things about the entire Series in the entire game and I know it goes and it's a lot of people's I understand so but it was one of my favorite things about the entire game when I was a kid because it was just fun to kill them that it's when I see a DQ slime anywhere like in any game. It's like I don't get mad about battling and it's like I'm gonna get a kill of slime. It's I don't like random battles anymore, but it's like, oh, here's a slime. I get a kill it. I was playing Dragon Quest swords the other day and I do not like that game it is. Not fun to play and those of you out there who like that game. I am truly amazed. You're a stronger human being than I am but it's like I got slimes coming in and a battle. I'm like, oh, yeah. I'm getting a slice limes in half and like that was fun. And I think it goes back to playing the original NES version of Dragon Quest one, like walking out or Dragon Warrior, I guess walking out of town for the very first time and being attacked by slime not knowing what it was and being like that's really cute. 11 to kill it and that's actually one thing. I like about these games like about a month ago. My oldest daughter. She's three and she I got her the PAW Patrol video game Paw Patrol is on a roll for switch, which is really a great game for kids her age. So if any of you guys have kids around that age like this is a great first game for him. It's a platformer and she was watching me play Dragon Quest 6 on my DS and she wanted to give it a try and so she knew how to use the The analog I showed her that, you know, you press a to fight and I had the tactics set on fight wisely. So everything was pretty much done for her. She just had to press a to fight and then a to attack and so she just you know walked around the Overworld and you know pressed a when she got in a fight, but she was just laughing and having such a good time because she liked the design for the monsters and just you know, they're not scary. They look cute and I even felt T because she was like they were disappearing and she was like, I'm at killing them dad and like I could tell she was getting kind of bummed out and I was like no you just they're you know, they're getting scared of you and running away and she would like keep fighting them but should be like don't be scared. Don't be scared as she's continuing to just like beat him with swords of but anyway, it was really cute. She leveled up my vocations really really well for me. I have every once in a while I checked on her. To make sure her MP was so good. So that the Healer could like keep her up. So she wouldn't die or anything and then I would I would go back to a town. I would borrow it for a couple minutes and like save it so I didn't lose progress. But yeah, but she had a good time just playing it and that makes me so happy like you sent me pictures of it and just seeing her sit there smiling playing dq6 was was just beautiful. So like you should totally introduce her like when she gets a little bit older just give her Dragon Quest one and just let her run around like see what Happened like it was when I was a kid and just see what she does. Yeah, I mean just think about how different the series would have been if like Toriyama hadn't designed these monsters this way and everything. It was just been I mean, I don't know if like, you know, I don't want to say, you know, the game wouldn't be as like loved as it is, but I do think the monsters are just such a huge important part of that and I think they are I mean the character designs are great. Don't get me wrong. Like I always loved the hero the heroes and what they do with the designs. I bought Dragon Quest Monsters Joker just because I saw the hero design I was like, he looks awesome. I'm gonna buy that and I haven't started it yet, but I was like, I want to own that because as a picture of him on the front and So like I love it, but apparently I just love Toriyama art and so seeing the monsters like this. It makes me really love seeing every monster. Even the re color palette swaps in every new game. Like I get really excited to kill crabby Tabby dues because of it being cute. I love seeing Hammer hoods all of this and I just love them and it's something that I have with a few Final Fantasy enemies like I love killing cat Karzai. I love being able to go and kill tan berries like it's and it's the cute ones. That's the thing the ones that I really like and remember so much about Final Fantasy are the cute ones that are like the slimes in DQ that got me into it. And so I just really really appreciate enemies like that that lasts through series and the slimes and everything have done that for me. Like I remember as a kid loving them. I still love them. And so yeah, it's apparently I just love Tori. Of the like I said before Chrono Trigger got me like that's one of my favorite games and he did the art and design for it. I've been a Dragon Ball Z fan for as long as I can. Remember when it was on Toonami on the Cartoon Network coming into English for the first time for me watching it. Like I have dragon quits or Dragon Ball Z videos like VHS videos over beside me that I found recently like and now Dragon Quest it was when Justin Seeing all of the Toriyama are and I was like, yes. Yes more more please and so I guess I've always loved that since I was like six years old. Oh, no, I was just gonna say what we're trying about slimes and all I think I told you this when you were down visiting me, but you know, so with the collectors edition of Dragon Quest 11, it came with this book are like an art book and then in the back there was just this there was interviews and between those interviews and the interviews that were in the back of Let's see. It's the Dragon Quest illustrations art book which I also highly recommend. It has all the Toriyama art from all that. So between those two there's really interesting interviews, and I really learned a lot about Dragon Quest and so in one of those they were talking about, you know, he even forgot what color slimes were supposed to be some of the time and so on some of the promotional materials and even one of the covers. I think it might be five. I can't remember off today. Go back and check but slimes are the wrong colors. And so he couldn't remember if they were blue. So there's like some promotional art and different art out there that it shows in this book, too. So yeah, I highly advise checking it out. But you in there slimes are not blue. They're not like the orange she slimes or anything like that. And so I thought that was really funny that you know, and he was laughing about it. I saw that was just really funny that he you know was laughing and admitting that he was like, yeah, totally Forget this I just colored um, and you know, no one realized that they were the wrong color and we put this stuff out there. So I thought that was really funny. But like the NES version of this going back to that like it was hard. Like, I don't know if the Game Boy Color and the mobile versions are as hard as the NES version but this game was unforgiving back then that I'm sure it still would be if if I were to pop the copy I have into my NES again and It's like without quicksave. I know you're going to mention this little bit when you get to the mobile version of it, but not having quicksave. I cannot imagine how we as kids were able to beat this game even picking away at it over a year or two like we did like and how people did it back then like we were all just tougher more rugged Gamers and they NES get NES days. It was it was a different landscape because I can't I can't I can't Imagine doing that let quick save. Yeah, and the the iOS version is easier and the quicksave is part of that and I really like the iOS version a lot. I don't know his maybe blasphemy but I don't know if I will ever go and even try that NES Dragon Warrior, you gotta try it. I mean I've seen like videos of it and like screenshots of it. So I know what it looks like. Like but I'm not sure if I will mean a I don't have an NES anymore. I've got to it's okay. Okay. Alright. Well, maybe you'll force me to try it. But anyway, I just I don't know I you know, I mentioned this on the Block when I was talking about Dragon Quest one like six months ago. However long ago it was when I wrote the post but it's like, you know, I have three really young little kids and I just don't know that I have to I am where the energy to sit down and play an NES RPG right now like the whole thing. Just you know, when I was a kid. It's like sure I could spend a whole Saturday just sitting there and like grinding away at something but I'm not sure that I have the time or the energy to do that anymore. Maybe I'll spend my retirement playing like an NES game from the from the 1980s, but I mean there's Worse ways to spend attack retirement. Oh, there are they're entirely worse ways to spend your retirement. But the I'm I don't have kids but I don't have it in me to play NES games anymore. It's like I'll play either on an emulator or I've bought like the Disney Afternoon pack and they have rewind features and save states or the Virtual Console on on the switch or other other games or other systems and I was like, I'm gonna I'm going to rewind this slide. Don't have that the patience of a ten-year-old anymore. I just cannot sit and grind out like the same thing over and over and over and over and over again, like the end boss of Darkwing Duck. I don't I don't get it. I don't get how anyone ever beat that or Batman. Oh my so so getting into the iOS version the I've had a lot of fun with it, and I actually I started replaying it this week because this week it's been really crazy. E Work Week most of the most of the time throughout the year I work from home. So it's not too bad the summertime. I'm always on the go. There's like two two and a half months of Summer that I'm like never at home. Everything's crazy the rest of the year. I'm mostly working from home those two and a half months are just nuts. And so this is kind of been the first week of that and like I've even been too tired to like just sit and play Dragon Quest 6 or anything and play through the story of that because it's like Dungeons and everything. So I Arie downloaded the first Dragon Quest onto my phone and thought I'd play it in my free time and it's one of those games that I've talked about that love it because of the Simplicity of it. It's I mean, don't get me wrong. It's still you know, kind of grind e and you have to you know, take your time with it, but it's a very simple game and especially early on, you know, I don't really have to think too hard. I can just walk around and kill stuff and get up some levels and so I've kind of been doing that this week. Week and so it's been bringing back some good memories, even though I just, you know, beat it about six seven months ago. So I've been having fun replaying that the quicksave function, which I know you mentioned is just it's amazing and I think it's necessary for for mobile because for those of you who don't know this Dragon Quest has one safe point and the whole game you go to the king of tan ago. I'm saying that right tan Ogle time to gal and I don't know. Yes intangible. I don't know. I've never heard it like pronounced anything mechanical Castle you go to the king and he saves the game for it you he tells you like how much experience you have to go and all that. So what happens is, you know, the world of Dragon Quest one is not just super big but it's big for only having one safely and you know, there's some times that you know, you really have to walk back for a long time before you get to the king to save. That so the quick save function is great for mobile and makes the game a thousand times easier. I took advantage of the quick save function a lot like not even just to like because I had two quick save it to turn it off really quick something was going on. But I mean just to like I would just quick save before going into like a dungeon or a cave and stuff that way. I just wouldn't get completely wiped out because you know, the thing about Dragon Quest one is like you don't know. Like you don't know if it's going to be hard or not, like even the beginning of the game. It's like you start off and if you go outside of the castle, you can kill like a slime where she slime it's not too bad. And then you wonder just like, you know, just a few inches to the right there and go like literally on the map like just a little bit like Southwest then you might run into like some ghosts and things and they can just like kill you so fast if you haven't leveled up enough and so so I would always you know, No quicksave that the quicksave function saved my butt like multiple times. The number one time the that I like so thankful. I did. This was in Charlotte Castle Car Lot Castle. However, you want to pronounce it the final Castle there with the Dragon Lord is there's apparently like an infinite Loop like you can just keep going like through this like endless staircase infinite Loop, whatever you want to call. And you just will constantly like get stuck there if you don't realize it. So I was about you know, probably less than 30 minutes, but definitely more than like 10 or 15 minutes in and I was like, huh? I'm not really seeing not really seeing any new stuff. It seems like I'm just repeating the same areas. I tried I tried getting out and wasted another like our trying to get back to like the me. Main area on my own and so finally so that's one of the times you know, like I was talking about for I just kind of Googled it and sure enough. They were like, yep. If you go this way, you know, there's going to be infinite staircases in the castle. And so I quick saved it. So I restarted and backup at the quick safe from outside of the castle and went back in and I followed a guide very closely to get through to the dragon lord just because I wanted to There and I just didn't want to take the time to get lost again. So it's really glad ring that time. But sorry, no go ahead like during that time of you doing that where their bosses are not bosses but monsters were you getting randomly attacked as well? And it's been so long. But yeah, I mean, I know there's random battles like because you have to walk so here's the thing you save it at tentacle Castle, right? And I'd always try to do hard saves as often as possible just in case the quicksave mess. It up and it never did. But so you save their when less time you do like the Rainbow Bridge to get over to the island and all that stuff you go into the castle and there's yeah, there's random enemy encounters. There's not there's not any bosses or anything till you get to the Dragon Lord, but there are like random enemy encounters. And so it's like during the infinite part I want to say so yeah. I mean, I don't know why there wouldn't be I haven't gotten to that part. Replaying it. But I remember getting attacked the entire time I was in there. So so I want to say yeah, there are random enemy Encounters in there because it's just like it's I mean, it's a part of the dungeon. It's not like anything really special. And so yeah, I want to say I was just like getting attacked and just the whole time which makes it even harder which I guess yeah. That's what I was thinking. Yeah, wow was asking because that would be so annoying. Yeah. The other thing the other thing about one as much as I have loved one thing. I'm so glad that they got rid of was the Torches Having a large words indicate like and once you get the glow spell it does the Torches don't matter. If as long as you have MP and you want to keep using the glow spell like which is what I really did. I can always kept a torture to as backup. But like once you come to learn the glow spell less important, but like seriously the Torches and the beginning part of that game before you learn glow was like, I definitely I got lost one time. So I'm pretty sure I talked about this on the blog, but there's one time That I was saving up. I want to say it was a broadsword there. Was there something like I'm trying to remember the town. It was the town it starts with a g. I want to say it's after like the city of coal. Anyway, I do not remember anyway, so so I think it was a broadsword. I was trying to save up for and it's like 1500 gold or something just like crazy expensive for that point in the game. And so I was trying to save I'm up for it. So I was trying to you know, only use my money on an end when I needed to heal up and also just can't kill a bunch of like enemies for gold but I needed to get back through. There's that cave, you know, it's the cave that if you take the wrong turn you can end up with the green dragon and the princess a little earlier than you wanted to but you have to use that case to get between the two areas. And so so I was having to get go into that cave and I realized I didn't have a torch with me because wanting to save up for money and I was wandering around in the dark just bumping into stuff the whole time didn't know where I was going, you know found the the door, you know that leads to the dragon so new to turn around there because I knew I wouldn't be ready yet for the green dragon and just you know, I spent so much time just being lost in the dark right there and that's not even a hard cave once you know the layout of it especially because because in that game, you know, you're required to run back and forth through their quite a bit. And so I stopped using torches like at one point where now that I've gotten there and I know the layout of that cave I just stopped with torches. Oh, yeah. It's like I know how to do this. It's like this stinks, but I am going to not waste my money in inventory and I did the exact same thing eventually, but this was still early and just early enough in the game that like, I wasn't quite used to the layout of that cave. Yeah, so So I got lost for a long time. But but yeah, like you said once you know, the layout of the cave you can run through there not even waste a torch and then eventually you get the glow spell and so it didn't matter for me anymore. But they I'm very very thankful. You know, people talk about how tough Dragon Quest 2 is and I know I'm going to talk about it one of these days as well. Just how hard Dragon Quest 2 is but I'm glad that I'm glad that they did not stick with keeping the has around for at least they didn't you know, the mobile versions out of the original Dragon Quest 2 still had torches, but I know the iOS version doesn't but but yeah, so the Torches I'm very thankful that that is no longer a thing. I also really like paint you guys weren't aware. He's very very happy. Those torches are gone. Oh, yeah, so totally and one thing I did like about the iOS version though, especially it was the obviously there's graphic upgrades. There's the minor like story and dialogue tweets. I really like I can't remember if I mentioned it in this episode or has one of the previous ones but but you know, they they added in the change some dialogue and stuff like that so that everything kind of fits together like erdrich is back to being urged Rick and that kind of thing. He's not load over Roto and they mention in the iOS version they mention I cannot think of her name it starts with an r Um, this is only our I can think of is Roto off the top of my head. This is gonna kill me. I don't know I'm gonna look it up and mention it in like next week's episode or something because this is going to kill me but I'm not gonna waste like a bunch of time right now trying to Google it, but I know that they added in some other stuff just to make it like more concise and that's one thing I really liked about the mobile versions and it's kind of like now that all the Dragon Quest games are here. It's like they're trying to be more Consistent with all the translations and everything so that kind of tweaked tweak'd dialogue and story so that it all kind of flows smoother, I guess and I assume it's, you know, try to get everything into like one like canonical kind of like timeline and just so the terms all match up with people. And so so, you know, I do like the that they've you know done those like tweaks and upgrades and everything. in there So so so Dragon Quest one. I told you I would talk about this a little bit. So right before we started recording we were talking about first jrpg. Right, and I thought that drug was bragging. Well, yeah Dragon Quest was the first jrpg that it established the formula that everyone was emulating. Yeah, because I know that you know, Final Fantasy was looking at it as being like we can't beat this but we can do better graphics. Right? And so and so what we were talking about and you know told you I would mention at some point is, you know, and I often say Dragon Quest first-ever jrpg, you know, I say that too I think so those things that So it's not really the first jrpg. It's the I would say I guess it's it's arguably the first good jrpg and it's the jrpg that like kind of like inspired all the other jrpgs, you know, it's kind of like it's kind of like Lord of the Rings right? There were like fantasy like high fantasy stuff before Lord of the Rings. But Lord of the Rings was the one that got made that you know after it was written. Everybody was like, oh this is awesome. And then everybody copied it. So you have Dragon Quest is kind of like that. It wasn't the first one. But it was the first like good one that had like everything in it that people started copying and like using as like a template to make all the other jrpgs after that and so really quickly. I was going to look it up because I told you I had this book and so so this book and and right now if you have Kindle unlimited you can totally read it for free as well. I grabbed it on Kindle a few years ago the first First one and what's it called? Its called. Sorry. I was getting that having to flip over. It's called The Untold History of Japanese game developers, but I was looking for the guys name. So it's bad. It's by SMG. I do not know how to pronounce his name. It's like says Pontiac it's like s zc z EP a-- Niña que. Anyway, that's the guys name. I had to look up the guy's name was one of the title is the untold story of He's game Japanese game developers and there's multiple Woods. There's multiple ones at I I picked up one because it was like on sale on Kindle like years ago, right and then I picked up to a little while later and now I'm seeing after looking it up. There's also a third one, which I didn't know about. But if you're interested in this kind of thing like this, this is pretty cool because it has like interviews with Japanese game developers. And it also has like, you know, just some backstory on different games a lot of this stuff that I'm mentioning is in volume to it, maybe in volume 1 I'll include links to these in the show notes so that you guys can just click and find them as well. Either way. They're really good. If you're a fan of you know jrpgs, especially but just like gaming history. I think they're pretty neat. You know, I like those kind of books and I read so anyway, but I thought one thing It was interesting because I looked back because you and I talked about how Dragon Quest was the first jrpg, but then we were like well was it and so I'm pulling it up on my Kindle app right here. So so it does talk about some that I guess would have creased like proceeded. Yeah Dragon Quest like I know one of the ones that he talks about in there is the dragon and princess. I don't know that one at all. And so that one is am looking into right now is 1982. So it would have been you know about four hours earlier and it was the first one for like basically you had a party you have. Okay, you had a party and you went on like a quest for a key. And now that was for the NES though. The NES hadn't been released at that point the famicom had nearly no. No, I'm just talking about like jrpgs in general here. Okay jrpgs in general not necessarily any sjr. Correct. Yes. So so that one would have been like 1982 you mentioned some other ones that I can't cannot think of off the top of my head because I didn't bother doing research before now just kind of mentioned it and now I'm winging it but I know there was one I want to say it was called dungeon that they talk about in the book that I said. I remember done did essentially just stole all their like monster designs from Dungeons and Dragons and put it like on the computer. So so that one I think it was a little bit earlier. The one that I thought was really interesting is there's one that was called the black onyx so I just Googled it to make sure I got that name right? It's called the black onyx that was like the first kind of jrpg hit like an initially I think it was a failure and then it kind of sold pretty well like I think like hundreds of thousands of copies and is basically from a guy who wasn't Japanese like, I guess he moved to Japan or something and he so he made this. Game and to my knowledge. It was the first game. I believe that had like the colored health bars. Okay on it. And it also let you can talk to NPCs and get them to join your party. And so that game I think was like a failure initially and then I want to say he the guy that made this game. He like hired some light Japanese translators and some other things to try to make it more Japanese because I assumed it was like really assumed it was like Western, you know fantasy and stuff. So he hired some some Japanese people to help him out on it and then Redistributed or whatever and then it was kind of a big hit. So I think all of those are like technically considered jrpgs. I know that in this book, at least it calls them jrpgs, but I think they were also more kind of like Dungeon Crawler type games as well. And that's what dungeon is. It was a dungeon mapping. I think if I'm if I'm not wrong it may have been a first-person dungeon map dungeon mapping dungeon. Crawler and it looks like the dragon and Princess was actually done by koi koe. I've never known how to pronounce that Chloe but it's it looks like it was like the beginning of like tactical RPGs is what these articles that I'm seeing right now if they so yeah. So all that to is to say there were technically Japanese RPGs before Dragon Quest by think Dragon Quest was like the one that you know, it came out and it was like the best one and it was This fantastic one and then everybody that came after copied Dragon Quest. So I think the Everquest of jrpgs where well actually it's the World of Warcraft of jrpgs where it took everything that the other games before it had done did it. So well that people tend to forget that it wasn't the one that started the whole thing. And so anyway, I just want to talk about that for a little while because I know you and I a lot of times we just say it was the first jrpg and I guess I guess we need to like at that and say it's the first ever like good jrpg or maybe like the jrpg template. I don't know but it either way and you know, I just thought that was kind of interesting because when we recorded last week whenever it was I knew we're talking about it and I think at some point where even like what is it? We know we say it is but is it really and so anyway, I just pulled up. I don't know why I didn't Google it. Apparently, I'm just like I forget that it's like not like 1993. So I like turn to my book. So I'm like I have this book. I'm going to look into its from I don't make fun of him all the time y'all because he is a he's like a 90 year old man in a 29 year olds body. It's like he gets grumpy and crotchety and like where's his car? In talks about Youth and he literally sends me text messages about Youth and so it's it's not just him I did saying, it's your it's your it's your because you mainly run the Dragon Quest FM Twitter account and I'm like stop it you're embarrassing me with all of your like talk about using bam and like I can Haz and all of this stuff. I'm just like stop it just stop and that's kind of our stick, you know you it is You are embarrassing and I'm a stick in the mud. That is that is that's hard Dynamic just so you guys know and it all and it all goes back to I'll just tell a story right now. It doesn't really have to do a Dragon Quest. But do you remember we all went to go see Guardians of the Galaxy together like years ago? Yeah, and I remember like other people. I can't remember where your wife was she was there, but other people were gone and me my wife Grace and you we were holding our place in line and there's a line that you know, why Find out the doors. They're obviously it's a line to go see a movie and you ask the people in front of us. You're like, hey, is this the line for Guardians of the Galaxy and a normal person me or a normal person would have probably just you know, when they said yes say, okay cool. Thanks or like thank you, whatever but your life. Well hot-diggity-dog. This sure is where I need to be and you like do a little clap and snap. And anyway that that's his personality you guys if you want to know why the deejay is like he's the Clap snap hot diggity dog person. I really do say hot diggity dog. You'll yeah, I know you do. That's literally what he said that that night and um and like you totally just, you know Grace and I just kind of both looked down and we're like, we don't know if that is this is the strange dude that just walked up to us. Um, but anyway, I know it doesn't have to do with Dragon Quest. I just thought it was a funny story. So so before we finish here, I know you're going to put those links in. Is there anything else you want to add about Dragon Quest one? Like I'm just really excited to actually get through it. You know, it's being able to play the the GBC version of it actually has me excited because I've been playing these DS versions and they are you know way way enhanced versions of The Originals, especially Dragon Quest for and so I'm super excited to get back to playing one of these old. Shh no one's playing, you know a 33 year old game, but it's interesting to me even looking at the Game Boy Color version, which is is an updated version of the of the original it still feels far more modern than going back and playing other RPGs on the platform on NES that kind of age where I have a really hard time going into Final Fantasy 1 like I do love the final fantasy series and I do love RPGs and games from that era, but it is really hard for me to even go back and play the original. Miles Elda and I'm not having nearly as hard a time going back into dq1 as I thought I was going to so it's interesting to me. Just how well they hold up for games of that era. Yeah, and I totally agree. I think they hold up really great. So once again, you can visit our site, it's Dragon Quest dot f m you can talk to us on Twitter at Dragon Quest FM. You can read my blog. Since Dragon Quest Quest that is at Dragon Quest austin.com. You can talk to me personally on Twitter at underscore Austin underscore King, and I'm on Twitter as at Professor beej that's beads with two e's I'm on another podcast called The Geek to geek podcast that you can find at geek to geek cast.com. So thanks for listening, and we'll see you guys next time. Bye everybody. Bye.
 Support DQFM on Patreon at patreon.com/dragonquestfm  This week, Austin and B.J. explore early JRPGs and also talk about the first Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior in the West). First, they discuss the different versions of the game. B.J. played the NES version when he was a kid, thought he beat it, but has been really been living a lie--he only got halfway through the game! We talk about the graphics, music, and why we think the game wasn’t initially successful in the States. Austin played the mobile version and is replaying it right now. He talks about the various pros (and cons) related to playing the classic game on mobile. The Quick Save function is a very nice addition that makes playing DQI easier. He also really, really, REALLY dislikes the torches mechanic in the game. Be sure to listen to him repeat this fact, like, a dozen times. They also talk about the Gameboy Color version, which neither has played yet...although, B.J. plans on playing the GBC version whenever he goes through the Erdrick Trilogy. Publicly shame him for not playing the Edrick Trilogy yet. But do it nicely. Lastly, we discuss early JRPGs and even try to track down what’s really the first. And what really defines a game as JRPG anyway? Plus, we talk about the book The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers by S. M. G. Szczepaniak, which shares some interesting stories from those early days of Japanese gaming. You can find links to some of the things we talked about in the show right here: Link to the book: https://amzn.to/2WfVFyz  The Dragon and Princess: https://www.giantbomb.com/the-dragon-princess/3030-42510/ Dark Age of JRPGs: http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2013/04/dark-age-of-jrpgs-dragon-princess-1982.html  ---   This episode is sponsored by  · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. 