Game 5: Dragon Warrior (NES) - Finished!

How wrong I was to think this was a quick night. At level 19 I was in no way prepared enough to take on the Dragonlord. At the start of the night, I remembered a man in Kol that kept telling me to come back when I had found the ultimate weapon. I figured he'd reward me in some way by finally collecting all the pieces of Erdrick. No, sadly, he's nothing more than a troll for insisting I come see him as soon as I have the most powerful weapon.

That's cool man

After this let down I moved on to Charlock in order to grind on the enemies near the entrance. It only took an hour to get the two levels I planned, so I continued to think this would be an easy end to the game. Here is where I was proved wrong. The enemies on my way to the Dragonlord had other plans for me. Red Dragons with their sleep lock, and Armored Knights were the worst of the bunch. It seemed running from these two caused me the most grief. In order to even have a chance against the Dragonlord I needed to have my full health and magic, which wasn't happening at this level.

Because he has more armor than the other knights

Even on my best attempts when I did reach the Dragonlord, it seemed like I just wasn't landing enough hits. By this time the chat had a whole five people at least, and many were helpfully looking up HP totals. I was told that he had anywhere from 100 - 150 depending on the source they referenced. Many times the Dragonlord's first form wore me down enough that I was opening with a Healmore in the main fight. I wonder if this is the game that started the whole "more than one form for the final boss" thing.

Who was fooled by this?

Hitting my head against a wall for an hour is fun and all, but I decided to ease the pain a bit and grind up another level. Getting to 20 didn't take long even with the additional 1,000 experience requirement; only 25 minutes, which tempted me to gain one more, but I decided I'd stick to the original plan of gaining one level and trying again. This time I gave it a valiant effort.

I arrived in front of the Dragonlord mostly unharmed, and dispatched his first form with ease. The true dragon emerged, and he didn't even take the first round hit like usual. Things continued to go well throughout the fight, and I felt like this was the one to do it. Then, I used my last Healmore; he hit me again. A quick calculation in my head told me I only had two hits against him before I was toast. Was it really supposed to be this hard? Someone in chat mentioned that I'd gotten really bad luck with hits and damage this time, but I still couldn't see how I could have beaten him at level 19. Luckily, my next hit ended him.

For real this time, right?

After the battle, I retrieved the Ball of Light(s)--an automatic thing--and was transported out of Charlock with full health and MP. Good thing too because I wanted to get to the victory feast without having to walk all the way back. Waiting for me was the King who offered me rule of his realm. Thinking on it, I turned him down because his realm was much too small (and something about blazing my own trail). I decided Princess Gwaelin should accompany me as my bride because she's just the coolest (help me). The game fades out as the hero leaves the castle with Gwaelin in his arms.

I don't think I've ever actually seen the ending, at least I don't remember it. It's nothing exciting, but it definitely gets the job done. There are even hints of a sequel, which I wonder if this was in the original. It's easy to say there are more games coming when in Japan they're wrapping up DQ IV at the time this was released. For those looking forward to the sequel, it's coming in 15 games.

Session Time: 2h35m (Total: 12h30m)

Until next time...