Lousid: Heelloooo~ I'm the one who writes about JRPGs

If there’s anything important I can say doing an English Degree has taught me, it was by far the art of enjoying something you hate with a seething rage. - Me, Crying into my cereal

Whoa whoa whoa… a ‘Jay’ RPG?

Growing up I had some real issues getting to grips with the JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game) genre, friends would lend me copies of Final Fantasies, Xenosaga’s and the like and I could never get my head around it. Growing up on platformers since I was four, my idea of being immersed in a game came from a flowing state where my inputs came naturally and what I was experiencing on screen was in complete unison, probably explains why I loved fighting games so much. Thus I had some real trouble with being asked to separate that context of input from what was happening on the screen. Despite all the flashy animations I was looking at I couldn’t not separate the fact I hadn’t done owt then press X a hundred times while navigating a menu for the last half an hour of play, it was just boring to ignorant child me. I remember first finding out about auto-attack RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and losing my mind. People PAID money for a game that attacks for you? What suckers! (Context: Xenoblade is now one of my favourite series ever, so shut up child me.)

I think about how I used to view an entire ass genre of games when I think of how we currently have conversation about ‘Game Literacy’. Textbook Digital Literacies defines Game Literacy as “the ability to effectively navigate, interact with and achieve goals in a gaming environment” (Dudeney, Hockly and Pegrum, 2014: 14). More often than not however this is usually depicted by our ability to naturally engage with controls and concepts that are conventional with the genre of game we play. For example the longer we play platformers, maybe we instinctively hold Y to run whenever we play a new one? In a 3D platformer do you assume holding crouch and then jumping will result in a higher jump? If you see a wall with a different looking wall texture do you instinctively search it for a secret? That’s how we conventionally see Game Literacy.

But is that really all it takes to be literate with games? I think of a quote made by French House artist Madeon about genres: “Anyone hating on any genre (...) simply doesn’t understand the context in which it’s meant to be enjoyed.” I feel that! Games being such complex interactive things present a natural barrier in that way, you can pick up a game and understand how to control it just fine. But what is never naturally obvious is the simple question of “How is this enjoyable?”

Something that really boosted my Game Literacy was getting into Table Top Role Playing Games (TTRPG), specifically the more relaxed modern approach to Dungeons and Dragons 5e, which a greater focus on narrative and choices over mechanics. It felt like a real watershed moment where suddenly a library of beloved titles in the computer game space went from inaccessible monoliths to just making sense and being something I could, dare I say: Enjoy???

While I’ve been enjoying a lot of formative JRPG’s in the genre here and there, discovering the SaGa series has been a personal highlight for me, I thought the ultimate test of this new found literacy would be to put it against the JRPG that both started it all and is the embodiment of everything I hated about the genre as a child: Dragon Quest for NES.

But make no mistake, this isn’t a write-up about how ‘Wow I suddenly love this game and all others like it!’ Far from it, this made me objectively miserable and I would never dare call it fun, let alone: Good. But I did ‘enjoy’ playing it and the ways it added context to the legacy of JRPG’s that came after it. Understanding some of my favourite games a little more, even if it’s just understanding the ways they subvert the standards which Dragon Quest set, enriches my relationship with computer games as a whole. I supposed that’s what I’m wanting to hammer home with this article is the idea that increased literacy improves your interaction with the medium, even if it means playing an absolute slog of a dogshit RPG that you hate, but it is ultimately worth it.

The invisible DM

There is a weird phenomena in JRPG discourse when it comes to discussing the inspiration behind titles. There is a general acceptance about the legacy of JRPGs and how one title serves as inspiration to others, something akin to acknowledging a literary canon within the genre. However curiously that timeline usually stops and starts mostly with Dragon Quest itself, maybe if you’re lucky you’ll find someone acknowledging older titles like Ultima or Zork, IF you’re lucky. But the notion that inspirations can go back even further to a realm outside of computer games and into tabletop seems inconceivable to many.

We see a knock on effect of this when developers look back and derive concepts from TTRPG’s it can at times result in backlash from JRPG enthusiasts. The most recent example that comes to mind is the modern Paper Mario titles, which ditch experience points and levels in favour of equipment and resources based progression, a move that is framed by JRPG fans as rendering battles pointless due to no reward at the end. Meanwhile all combat in every TTRPG campaign I’ve ever played only has ever yielded the reward of ‘Being alive’ and ‘Being able to continue the game’ for combat, least Paper Mario has the decency to reward you with coins and the main resource of the game!

I feel it’s important to keep TTRPG’s in the back of your mind when playing through Dragon Quest, since under that context everything interesting about the game really thrives. Unlike it’s sequels and the contemporaries that it would inspire, Dragon Quest is a single party member adventure. This means you are not joined by other heroes at any point during your adventure and all monsters encounter you on their own in 1v1 encounters, making it very unique to play with modern eyes. This gives the game a feel of a solo tabletop campaign feeling with you as the player and the game itself taking the role of the DM.

It’s important to remember that unlike more modern tabletop campaigns, in the 80’s the majority campaigns were more rigid in their implementation of stats and mechanics. It was more standard for example to issue experience points and gold, as well as needing to record and keep notes of these numbers as the game progresses. Instantly the appeal of Dragon Quest becomes apparent in that context, instead of needing to do that book keeping, the game itself can keep track of those numbers for you!

In fact in may ways Dragon Quest places itself as the role of your DM. Compared to say your Final Fantasies where the role of calculating values and mechanics is presented in the least intrusive way possible, as to not break the immersion of your character existing in the world. Dragon Quest opts to present concepts such as combat and loot gains in a stylized format, quoting ‘Thou hath gained 3 gold’ and ‘Thou hath dealt 23 damage to slime’, bringing attention to the narration as part of the experience borderline presenting it as diegetic.

The ways in which this influences the game’s design is genuinely fascinating, in many ways despite being a computer game, thus genuinely omnipotent in it’s own world, the game binds itself to TTRPG conventions and rules. For example The King is almost presented as the DM’s proxy, being the one to start you on your quest, as well as happily going meta to inform you of how many experience points you need to the next level, as well as asking if you want to save your campaign and return to it later. Even when the player dies The King’s dialogue frames it as HIS mistake, like a DM sweeping a TKO under the rug so that the campaign can continue (“Death should not of taken you HERO") as a bonus you don’t even lose any progress, just start at the begining with half your gold revoked. Again the game is… The game! It’s the program itself in which you access playing it, it doesn’t need a ‘proxy’ to express these mechanical concepts, but as an early entry in the genre and possibly people’s first exposure to anything RPG-adjacent it’s a great method of introducing these ideas as something physically present in the universe. Think of Lakitu operating the camera in universe in Super Mario 64.

Astonishingly this ideology makes it’s way into how the RNG is implemented. Instead of pre-deciding your actions in advance before selecting an option from the menu for example, as it typical with JRPG’s, Dragon Quest instead introduces your action (“Thou attack the Slime”) and only then does it implement the RNG, to contextualise the RNG itself as a dice roll being made by the game off-screen. This can be proven by abusing save states and seeing the outcome changes every time. This is absolutely wild, because who on earth would ever catch that in typical play? It speaks almost to how this invisible DM relationship between player and game, may have been just as much for the developers, as it was for the players. It’s important to note that for some actions this one RNG roll dictates all instances of RNG. This leads to situations where hypothetical if you cast a SLEEP spell on an enemy, if you get good rolls every turn an enemy can be theoretically asleep forever, the RNG doesn’t depreciate after every turn for example. This led to me being able to beat the Green Dragon several levels below then I should have cos I got lucky, I adore that this is a possibility.

In general these quirks contribute to an incredibly open feel for the entire game and opens up so many possibilities for 2nd playthroughs. Severity of encounters are determined based on location on the world map so this, together with the RNG system creates the scenario where squaring up to enemies several levels above you and getting by on luck is feasible. I genuinely love that! Outside of quests to gather items to unlock the final dungeon and to access Cantlin, nothing is gated by narrative based flags. If you know what tile the Fairy Flute or Eldrik’s Token is located you can get it immediately on a subsequent playthrough before anyone’s told you about it. I wish more JRPG’s allowed for this kind of freedom on subsequent playthroughs, it’s genuinely an area where Dragon Quest still excels.

This also creates context with how the game is paced, while very typical of the genre the dynamics of starting in a town and combat taking place as you venture to another town, resembling the pace of back to back solo TTRPG campaigns. You start in a safe town, you’re given the premise of an immediate goal, you travel until you either complete that goal or run out of resources, you travel to a safe town again and the process starts again. Sadly Dragon Quest doesn’t take advantage of random events during your trek as the only obstacle you’ll encounter is random battles with monsters. The closest the game comes to this is the final choice with the Dragonlord where he offers for you to join him, giving you agency over how the overall campaign ends.

Now… Here is where I would love to wrap up on this already Over Staying It’s Welcome article. Conclude by asserting how I only picked up on these little details about Dragon Quest due to my improved Game Literacy that I improved through playing TTRPGs. Maybe I’d end by encouraging you the reader to play a formative game in a genre or format you typically avoid. To see if your improved Game Literacy will recontextualise your favorite games and find out more to love about them! But the thing is, to write this article about Dragon Quest, I had to PLAY Dragon Quest, so if you’ll indulge me as I talk about how…

This game sucks poo poo actually

When I say Literacy involves the art of enjoying something you truly hate I meant that. This game was an absolute miserable process to endure, I’m glad I did it! But god damn. So despite it’s similarities, Dragon Quest of course does deviate from TTRPG’s in a number of ways, but all of them are bad and negatively impact the genre to this day. Of course the biggest one is: The Grinding.

Unlike playing a campaign with a human DM who can make decisions like: Doing this thing isn’t fun, let’s not do it! Dragon Quest being automated is rigid in how it regulates in campaign, even if doing something isn’t really fun or integral, tough shit you gotta do it. The biggest offender of this is grinding for levels, it is egregious.

So let’s highlight the problem, Dragon Quest is actually quite sparse with it’s monster count, there are 37 non-boss random encounters the player can come across and even then I’d argue Red Dragon is as tough as a boss, so let’s say 36. This is a problem as this means there are bigger leaps between sets of monster encounters, at the beginning of the game the jump between Slimes and Bats vs. Ghosts and Magicians is mega. Grinding on the latter two when just one fight drains your resources isn’t feasible. Especially since their Gold drop doesn’t cover the cost of staying at the Inn to refill your resources usually, thus you’ll be grinding at a loss. So yeah you’d have to stick to monsters who give out very suboptimal EXP gains, there’s no middle ground between difficulty tiers you just have to grind sub-optimally until you can grind optimally, then until even that is sub-optimal and then the cycle continues.

Except the cycle DOESN’T continue for very long, the rate in which enemies get unconscionably stronger vs. their EXP output gets unreasonable, really fast. The endgame average for EXP drops by monsters who, if the RNG dictates, can wipe you even with the best equipment… is 70. Seventy! When just one monster can send you back to the Inn, on average you’ll be batting for 70. But IT GETS WORSE, you learn spells as you level up and the pacing for learning these is eye watering. To get the second of two healing spells which lets you heal for more than 10 HP you need to be Level 17, that’s 16,000 EXP. That’s 200 fights against endgame enemies before you’re given permission to heal above 10 HP: Cringe.

I feel I must stress it’s not just about there being a grinding requirement at all, that I’m complaining how I’m walking back and forth and mashing the A button mindlessly, although that does blow. It’s again the enemies are so strong against the pittance of EXP and gold they drop, when grinding optimally you get go back and forth in a field like, five times on average before your resources run out and you have to go back and spend a huge chunk of your earnings to heal regularly, most often grinding at a loss! It’s such a demotivational experience.

The biggest kicker is that the game clearly knows this sucks! There are special enemies who specialise in increased EXP and Gold gains: The Metal Slime and the Golden Golem, who give out a base 110 of their respective gains. But oh, if only it were as simple as grinding on these enemies as the shortcut, Gold Golems for Gold is fine enough and works as it should, but Metal Slimes… Woof. First of all their stats are set up so that regardless of your level you need to successfully attack a Metal Slime four times to beat it, during that time so many fun little things can happen. One you can miss, which you regularly do due to a high speed stat and second the Slime can just run away!

So let me spell this out to you, the game knowing that the EXP gain isn’t sufficient, created a way to bypass this process, but made it so you have a 1 in 32 chance of actually getting it, on a monster that’s a rare spawn. Even better it spawns in an area surrounded by monsters which are sub-optimal EXP gains (around 20) after around the level 10 mark. This is actual dogshite game design. Even better the game isn’t feasibly beatable even with the best luck in the world until level 20 (with a cap up to level 30 mind). That’s 26,000 EXP, which would mean 260 successful encounters with Metal Slime is the bare minimum requirement to beat Dragon Quest. I hate this game so much with every strand of my DNA.

BUT EVEN THEN that’s not the worst of it, because the actual experience of the grind itself is absolute piss. Navigating even the menus to select anything is a needless hassle, there is no context sensitive input so you have to navigate a menu of eight options on the map if you want to do anything. There’s a STAIRS option you have to select, friggin STAIRS, but meanwhile if you walk onto a cave entrance tile you go through automatically! But you have to choose STAIRS. Your avatar is stiff as hell, often needing me to mash a direction several times before he considers possibly turning around. No matter where you are there’s only one background for random encounters and if you’re in a cave it’s just darkness. The music is absolutely grating on the ears with only like 5 tracks all which feel like 10 second long monotone loops, I cannot stand to have the sound on for more than a minute at any point. The map is also profoundly ugly, with single tiles being represented by little sprites leaving the map looking like an untidy bedroom floor that looks more Rogue than Zelda. All this while enduring the absolutely mind numbing grind is genuinely upsetting.

The absolute cherry on the cake? I didn’t have to go through any of it. Not even 7 years after these games were released Enix went “This is absolute garbage” and released a SNES remake which fixes… Everything. I’ve played a few mins of the Game Boy Colour release and it turns out I am the massive big clown who could’ve been playing these objectively better versions the entire time. Reasonable EXP/Gold gains, you walk down stairs when you approach them, in general there’s a context sensitive button to interact and talk. The art is more dynamic, there’s more side events to do while in town and even the music is more tolerable in it’s game boy renditions (the composition is still absolute ass they couldn’t fix that lol). It even has a little introduction cutscene at the start! I feel better in the harshness of my criticisms knowing that the people who made the bloody thing agree.

But despite the egg on my face I feel that’d be missing the point. What I actually got out of Dragon Quest wasn’t a good game but a greater lens in which to appreciate and understand the JRPGs I actually did come to love growing up and in that scope… Yeah I had fun, please never play this version of Dragon Quest. Instead as I said before take this as inspiration to expand your own literacy! Maybe within your comfort games you keep brushing arms with a genre or keep noticing references to a formative title you’ve yet to try. Even if you find the game naff, you may just find yourself understanding and appreciating what you already loved that little bit more. As for me? Going through this was the threshold. Not only did I end up playing and loving more Dragon Quest titles, but I don’t feel like there’s a JRPG out there I can’t tolerate anymore and I’ve had some of my favourite gaming experiences going through the JRPG backlog. So y’know, thank you Dragon Quest! Fuck you!