Quest Log 1

Game - Dragon Warrior I, Log 1
Hours Played/Hours Total - I don't know!
     The game didn't record the time, but I think around 8 hours. I took my time.
Starting Point - Beginning of the Game.
Current Goal - Defeat the Dracolord and restore light to the world!

What Happened - And thus it finally begins! Final Fantasy is behind me, and the Dragon Warrior/Quest series is coming up ahead! I'll most likely get tired of typing both the Warrior/Quest part and simply switch to Quest, but I digress. The first game in the series has a couple of different remakes, but I'll be playing the Game Boy remake that features color when played on a Game Boy Color (or a fancy emulator). Without further ado, let's get this party started!
     The game opens up with a nice small scene showing some large dragon stealing an orb from a castle. Monsters come in with it, and then it flies off.

RAWR! I AM THE DRACOLORD AND STEALING THIS ORB!

For ease and my normal naming convention, I called my character Keep. After that, the game fades in, and a random King starts telling me a brief history of the game. My character is a descendant of a great hero named Loto. Long ago, Loto was given a ball of light by god, and he used it to seal way the monsters. However, the Dracolord (Dragon King originally) appeared and shut the ball of light in darkness. It's up to me to defeat the Dracolord and retrieve the ball of light!

Hey King. What's up?

     The King offers a few chests to help me along the way. I get... a torch, a key, and 120 GP. That is some cheap King for you. Don't even get starting equipment, and you have to immediately use the key to open a door so you can leave the dang room! I chat up a few NPCs for more information before I leave. The only important detail that I learn is that the princess of the kingdom, Lady Lora, was kidnapped by monsters. I leave the castle and get my first glimpse of the world map.

Tantegel Castle and nearby village of Tantegel.

     There's not a lot to see around here, but the first town is just right there! The castle didn't seem to have any shops, so I guess that's where I should go first. The measly amount of start up funds affords me some leather armor and a club. With the amount of gold you have, you can really only choose one of two starting setups that equals out to stronger attack or stronger defense. Not like I plan to go far at this point though! I need to get in some battles for experience and money. Also... I don't know where I need to go.
     As it turns out, there's a lot of NPCs to talk with, and they're fairly important for learning where you need to go. (THAT'S RIGHT! NPCs HAVE A PURPOSE HERE!) Like I said before, I heard that Lady Lora is missing, and so I figure that could be my first goal here maybe. She was kidnapped by monsters, so I just have to find out where she was taken to. Exploring the map, I head Northwest because I played this long ago and remember a town up there. That town... is Garinham, the town of folklore!

Here's Garinham!

     This town is pretty close to home, and it's already got new, expensive equipment! Seriously, it's got a good selection, but I can't afford any of it. After the first set of items, the price of equipment just shoots up from there. For the moment, I couldn't afford anything, so I just talked with all the NPCs I could. One of them actually had important information to give! A villager claimed to have seen the princess being carried to the east, and thus I head East. I don't get too far across the world map when I find a cave!
     I head into the cave and light a torch to explore. It's one of the fun details of the game. Caves are dark, so you have to buy torches to light your way. It's possible to explore without a torch, but you can't see anything so... I wouldn't recommend it. Anyways, I quickly explore the cave and discover that my princess is in another cave. This cave only contains the memorial grave to the Legendary hero, Loto. However, it also comes with a message for his descendant (me). I require three magical relics to reach Dracolord's castle. Loto entrusted the three relics to three sages, and I must seek out their descendants and obtain the relics from them.
     Since there's nothing else to do there though, I quickly left the cave and started my World Map tour once again. While looking for wherever the princess is, I happened upon one of the sage's descendants. He says he was expecting me, but he won't give me the Rain Staff immediately. I have to prove myself as a hero by obtaining the Shiny Harp first. Well... darn.
     Further exploration from there lead me to discover the town of Kol. (Yes, I realize I'm blasting through this quite fast, but events are just accelerating this fast!) In Kol, I learn of Loto's Legendary Sword, and that I can obtain it somehow. I don't get anymore information than that though, but another man brings up the princess again! (I think...) He mentions something about a beautiful woman being spotted in a cave south of Kol. Thus... I am closer to my goal.
     Or maybe not... I traveled about quite a bit, but I never found the princess or another cave. I also got super lazy and looked up a guide for the game. It's pretty open world, and I have no idea where I needed to go. I'd certainly like to beat the game eventually, so a guide is unavoidable. I grab one more thing before leaving Kol for now. A few steps south of the hot springs is the PixyFlute. I'm going to need it for later, so I grab it and head out. From Kol, I had to travel south and find the Marsh Cave to reach the southern continent.

Random shot from Kol! YEAAAAH

     It's a pretty terrifying journey after the Marsh Cave. I have to hurry and fight my way through some pretty tough monsters before I reached the town of Rimuldar. The most notable thing about Rimuldar is that you can buy keys here. Throughout the game, you need keys at various points to unlock doors. In this case, I need the keys so I can obtain the Shiny Harp. I buy all the keys I can (6), and then head up to Garinheim to obtain the harp.
     The Shiny Harp belonged to a bard named Garin. He formed the town of Garinheim, and supposedly, his tomb lies beneath the city. The Shiny Harp is said to be buried with him, so guess where I'm going? With the keys in hand, I'm able to open a few doors in Garinheim and enter Garin's Tomb. At this point, this is where things got pretty dang difficult. The monsters were all very powerful, and I feel vastly unprepared as far as levels and equipment go.
     Around this time, I had a Copper Sword, Iron Shield, Chain Mail, and a D-Scale for equipment. It wasn't bad, but I needed better. I figured I needed levels to improve most of my chances, so I kept going back into Garin's Tomb. I had to keep going back because I died several times while exploring the dungeon's depths. As you go deeper, the monsters get harder. Thankfully, the only thing you really lose from dying is half your gold and having to make the trip back to wherever you died at. I died two or three times before I finally reached the bottom of the tomb and acquired the SHINYHARP!
     With the ShinyHarp in hand, I returned to the old man I met previously at the random shrine. He trades me the Rainstaff for the ShinyHarp, and that's one item down! Only two more items to go.... but I'm pretty much clueless of what I should do now. In all seriousness, I didn't have much of an idea of where to go. The only clues available in-game require that you talk to every NPC you meet. I had spoken to a few, but what little information I had at the time didn't say much. From here, I went into random exploration mode. I needed a few encounters to gain gold and experience, and thus begins exploration time!
     That is, I would have explored normally, but I'd rather try to wrap up this game than spend forever exploring. I look up a guide and begin my trek through the rest of the game! After the Rainstaff, the game seems to have a couple small Side Quests you can do. Okay fine! It's ONE Side Quest that I know of, but you get a sort of interesting item out of it. Time to head to the Mountain Cave!
     Where is the Mountain Cave? Well, it's located on the South Western continent in the middle of some mountains. It's not easy to describe how you get to it, but it's basically halfway through the map as you travel along the west coast. The Mountain Cave is home to a special item called the War Ring. Equipping the War Ring reduces the overall number of random encounters in the game. It's both a good and bad thing. You miss out on extra encounters for more experience, but I prefer the fewer encounters because travel is faster and safer now!

Here's the War Ring chest if that intrigues you!

     Unlike the previous dungeon, the Mountain Cave was only a few floors, and the monsters weren't nearly as hard. I made good use of the guide to collect all the items I found as well as navigating the cave. Things were going pretty well until I made one small mistake. I found a treasure chest that the guide hadn't mentioned, and inside that chest was a an item called a Choker. Not thinking about the implications of what that could mean, I immediately used the item and was cursed. GO ME!
     At this point, I was just trying to find my way out of the Mountain Cave, but then I got confused and lost. I had used the guide to get in, but I tried to get out by myself. It sounds stupid, but doing the exact opposite of how the guide tells you to get in can get confusing. It didn't help that I somehow kept getting back to the original staircase. I spent at least twenty to thirty extra minutes in that cave. The enemies weren't overly powerful though, so I wasn't defeated down there. And now with the War Ring on hand, I can travel a little safer and quite a bit faster!
     Next on the list? I need to go and rescue the Princess, Lady Lora! The only clue I had up until this point was that she's in a cave to the east. If I followed clues I had, the only cave available to have her would be the one labelled as the Marsh Cave.

I... forgot to get a proper screenshot. It's located around this spot in the game, but it's slightly to the Southeast of here.

For those who paid attention, the Marsh Cave is the one you have to pass through to reach the Southern Continent (the Eastern one). Meaning I've been through the cave a couple times now, and I've passed by the princess already!
     All I had to do was move to the eastern side of the cave and look for an offpath. It's a small cave, so it's pretty easy to find her.

Random door in a cave... Probably the right place!

And that would be the monster guarding her, a dragon.

Time to fight this giant lizard!

And this would be the part where I yell, BOSS BATTLE TIME! However, I'm willing to admit that I tried a few times here and failed every time. This game is no pushover, and I was going to need to improve my equipment as well as my level to beat the dragon.
     At this time, I was only level 11, so I figured I'd need at least two more levels if not more. The best town to get new equipment at this time was Rimuldar. They sell Steel Swords and Magic Armor (both part of my master plan of equipment). My trek through the Mountain Cave gave me enough money for a Steel Sword (1500 gold), but I needed 7700 gold for the Magic Armor to be in my possession... CUE THE GRINDING MONTAGE!

Here's one of the enemies I had to fight, the ferocious WOLFLORD!

The training montage of monsters lasted around an hour. I wasn't keeping good track of time here and earning money is quite slow. Most monsters only drop around 100 gold each, and the one monster who gives you more is the Gold Golem at 650 gold, but I wasn't meeting them very often. On the plus side, I was level 13 by the time I had the money, so I was going to be MORE than enough challenge for the dragon!
     It was time to head back to the Marsh Cave for OFFICIAL BOSS BATTLE TIME! It's time to beat this Dragon.

Rawr! I'm a Dragon! A GREEN ONE!

Even with the few extra levels, the dragon wasn't going to be a complete pushover. The main attacks he has are straight up physical strikes and the ability to breathe fire. The fire breathe is the most prominent attack in his arsenal and generally does at least 20 damage. This is a specialized dragon and is quite a bit tougher than your average dragon of the same kind.
     As with most battles in the game, fighting the dragon was mostly just a back and forth between dealing damage and healing damage. At this point in the game, the healing herb is basically useless, so I simply made use of Heal every two to four attacks from the dragon. It was a fairly close battle, but I still managed to defeat the dragon.
     With the dragon defeated, I approached the Princess and spoke to her.

And there's Lady Lora!

She thanks Keep for defeating the dragon and rescuing her. Dracolord was planning to make her his wife, so I came just in the nick of time. It's time to take her back to Tantegel. Keep picks her up, and I get a fun little sprite of the hero carrying Lady Lora.

That hero's a real prince charming here. Animation doesn't look stupid either!

     Now, I could walk all the way back, but I decided to cheap it out and do the quick method. From the cave, I used the Outside spell to exit. Once outside, I used a Warp Wing to return to Tantegel Castle. I carried the Princess through the castle and set her down in the throne room. The King thanks me for rescuing her, and Lora has a bit more to say after that. She proclaims her love for the hero Keep and gives him her love... in the form of an item! The LoraLuv.

Physically received but not in the way you think!

     It sounds weird, but the item provides a you with two things. No matter where you are, you can use it to learn how much experience you need, and it also tells you how many steps you are from the castle on the map. It sounds pointless at the moment, but that secondary property has a use later on. Anyways, the Princess is saved, hurrah, and time for the next goal.
     The next location I need to head towards is Mercado. Once there, I'll learn more about what I'm needing to obtain. As far as the guide goes, I've got three major items to find... Loto's Legendary Armor, Loto's Seal, and the Sun Stone. (Technically, the armor is a side quest, but I think it's important enough because of what it does. I'll explain more later when I get it.) I save my game in Tantegel Castle and head back out into the world.
     The journey to Mercado is quite a long one. From Tantegel Castle, you have to cross almost the entire map to reach it. You head south along the western border first. Along the way, I bypassed the Mountain Cave from earlier, a ruins of a decimated town, and a lot of tough monsters along the way. Now, when I was trying to find Mercado, I actually got a little lost again. There's a point where you hit the southern border of the continent and turn to the Northwest to reach the town. There's two bridges along this path, and I was supposed to take the second one. However, I ended up crossing the first bridge and that led me to a massive marsh area.
     Now, I have mentioned marsh a couple times in this post, but I have yet to fully explain them... Marsh-type panels damage you as you walk on them. The amount of damage differs sometimes, but the general amount in most places is 1 damage per panel. My Magic Armor counters this somewhat because it heals me 1 HP for every two steps I take. In other words, it halves the amount I take from walking through large patches of marsh. I walked all the way through and around the marsh before I realized that... I took the wrong path. I had to backtrack a small ways and head a little further along before I located Mercado. However, Mercado wasn't about to just let me come in, and I had to deal with their protective friend first!

The Golem is bigger than the town!

     Need I say it? BOSS BATTLE TIME! The Golem is a fearsome boss to behold. He has quite a bit of HP and a fairly strong attack. Unfortunately for him, he has a huge weakness that is exploited through a secret. Remember the PixyFlute item I found waaaay back there? It's located in Kol, but it has a particular use in the game.
     If you try to fight the Golem straightforwardly, you end up with a very rough and tough battle after a looong stretch of walking. This would make it quite hard fought and unfun. However, if you play the PixyFlute during battle, it puts the Golem right to sleep!

All golems love flutes... It puts them right to sleep!

Once the Golem is asleep, you can just constantly wail on him until he wakes up. Then you play the flute and put him to sleep again. That was the entire battle. There's basically no challenge if you have the flute here. Anybody who attempts and conquers this without the flute, I would like to say "congrats" because you have more patience than I do. With the Golem defeated, it's time to enter the walled city of Mercado!
     Mercado is the last city available in the game, but it brings in some the best selection you could possibly have.

Here's a random shot of Mercado that shows basically none of the city.

Mercado has several shops within it's walls. Many of them are the exact same shop for some reason. However, one shop offers some crazy powerful equipment, but of course, it's for a hefty price. I don't really have the money or patience to get them right now, so I just walk around talking with NPCs for the moment.
     The main information I get is learning about the town of Domdora. I seemed to have passed it on the way here, but it was destroyed by the Dracolord and his minions. Among the ruins of Domdora is buried a great treasure though. It's hidden by a tree behind one of the shops in town. Only other details I know is that the shop was on the far east side of town. Whatever the item is, it seems to be of importance, so I guess I'll get to backtrack a bit. I leave Mercado, teleport back to Tantegel, and proceed along the same path I used to get to Mercado.
     Of course, I do stop part of the way there because Domdora is located in a desert area about halfway to Mercado. I head into the ruins of Mercado and begin my search. Search isn't really the right word though because I know exactly where I need to go. I head around the eastern border of the town and head into the shop. I step on the panel in front of the panel in front of the tree aaaaand BOSS BATTLE TIME!

YAR! I BE THE MADKNIGHT!

     I'm assaulted by a rather large fellow in armor called the MadKnight. I really give it my all to fight him, but I can't heal fast enough to counter his strong blows. On top of that, you have to cast StopSpell on him at the beginning of the battle, or he'll put you to sleep. Long story short, he slaughtered me without a second thought. Turns out, I get to experience even more GRINDING TIME! I reload and head back out into the wilderness to fight monsters, earn gold & xp, and beat that damn knight!
     My current level is 15, but I figure I'll need at least a level or two before I can beat him. On top of that, I'd like to improve my equipment another step. At this point, I was using the Steel Sword, Magic Armor, and Iron Shield. Mercado sells a fancy Silver Shield, and considering that's the best shield in the game, I figure it's time to upgrade to it. The only bummer here is that the Silver Shield costs 14800 gold! That's a lot of battles, but I guess I need a lot of battles for levels.
     While I'm grinding up a few levels, I decide to knock something else out while I'm at it. A key component to finishing the game is Loto's Seal. It's not really even directly needed though. You need it so that this old guy wants proof of your lineage at a later point. Regardless, I have to find it. The only clue to getting the Loto Seal is that it's located 70 south and 40 east of the castle. Under any other circumstances, this would be an impossible task. If you remember though, there's a certain item that tells you exact details that would help in getting it, the LoraLuv item.
     Using the LoraLuv item, you can pinpoint how many steps you are from the castle. The coordinates are 70 south and 40 east. For the LoraLuv item to work, you have to do the opposite coordinates to find the right spot. (70 north and 40 west) It's pretty far into enemy territory, and I actually happened by the location earlier on while looking for Mercado.

All that marsh... SO BLARGH!

And that above is the exact location of Loto's Seal. Why in the heck is it in the middle of a razed landscape? All I can figure is that it was randomly placed there before and then the place was all messed up. Anyways, that's another item down, and now all I need is the Silver Shield and level 17.
     Again, I can't figure up how much time I actually spent on this, but it was close to another hour of grinding time. The Silver Shield greatly boosts my defense by another step. (About ten points I think?) And now it's time to get the Flame Sword!... is what I would say, but I don't care to spend another pile of time earning 9800 gold for a sword I don't drastically need. Time to return to Domdora and defeat the MadKnight.
     BOSS BATTLE TIME! (Repeat) This time, I have zero trouble fighting the MadKnight. Just have to start off with StopSpell to prevent his Sleep spell, and then it's just a downhill slope with lots of physical strikes. With MadKnight's death, I'm able to take that extra step to search for the mysterious item that's buried behind the shop!

Hurrah for ultimate armor!

All my time and work has earned me Loto's Legendary Armor. It's a pretty good boost to defense, and I gain a few other nice little features. I can walk over marsh panels without taking damage now, and I heal 1 HP for every step I take. Awwww yeaaaah~
     With the armor acquired, I only need one more item, the Sun Stone. Unlike Loto's Armor, the Sun Stone is directly required to get to Dracolord. As it turns out, the Sun Stone has been right under my nose for the entire game. It's beneath Tantegel Castle in a secret basement area. If I had some keys, I could have gotten it at the first of the game. You simply go through the top right of the castle, use a key to enter, walk along the wall, head south to the mote, and enter the random stairs located there.

Oh look at this crazyrandomhappenstance!

     The random basement is the home of an old man. He tells me that he has watched over the Sun Stone for all this time and steps aside to let me claim it.

And what has that old man done with his life? Basically nothing.

With the Sun Stone in my hands, I'm officially the proud owner of all three relics! All I need to do now is head to the shrine in the far far south (Southeastern Continent's far southern tip), and then I can acquire the final item needed to finish up the game.
     I head out from Tantegel Castle and to the Southeastern Continent. It's quite a journey to find that southern shrine. It's pretty much all the way at the tip of the continent.

There it is!

I head inside and talk with the sage. Now, if you tried talking with him before this, it's quite possible that he immediately kicked you out. Why? Because he doesn't believe you are Loto's descendant without the Loto's Seal item. However, with the proof in hand, he's more than happy to do his duty. He takes the Sun Stone and Rain Staff from me and fuses them together. With his deed done, he steps to the side and lets me take hold of the RAINBOW DROP!

Evrybdy luv RainbwDrp!

     Now that I have the Rainbow Drop, I'm finally able to head for Dracolord's Castle. You might be wondering what difference a strange item could possible make at this point... And you are more than right to be wondering. What the heck could a Rainbow Drop possibly do? Now, if I didn't have the guide, I'd probably be a little clueless. True, I might be able to figure it out eventually, but this isn't the most straightforward of game. You HAVE to talk with every single person around to get the full story and all the hints of what is going on. Even with that in mind, you still have to play the part of a detective to figure things out. It's pretty much the bread and butter of games this old. You're given some direction but not all of it.
     And this is what you do with a Rainbow Drop.

SO CLOSE! Whatever shall I do?

Turns out the Rainbow Drop fixes that with a magical bridge!

Seriously though, how are you supposed to figure that out? It's kinda random if you ask me, but I might have just missed out on the conversation that explains this. I could rant about this a bit more, but I should probably just move past it now. For those wondering where that spot is, from the Southern Shrine, you have to head to the most Northwestern tip of the Southeastern continent to find that spot. You simply use the Rainbow Drop at the very edge, the game has a lovely little animation, and the bridge appears.
     With the bridge there, I can cross over and get into Dracolord's Castle. It's quite a fearsome looking place, but I'm more than prepared for this. So... LET'S DO THIS! I cross over the Rainbow Bridge, trudge through the marshes surrounding his castle, and then enter into the villain's castle.

DUN DUN DUUUUUUN!

And thus begins the descent into the depths of evil! With Loto's Armor and the Silver Shield, my defenses are more than prepared for the fights ahead. However, I am lacking in the weapon power department... As it turns out though, Loto's Sword is actually hidden in Dracolord's Castle. I couldn't tell you WHY it is hidden there, but it is for whatever reason.
     The first part of the castle was just a general castle's floor. I had to work my way from the entrance to the throne room. In there, you can inspect the throne and find out that a hidden passage is nearby. A little searching and...

Now THAT is a throne!

Beneath the castle is a dark dungeon-y cave. Without guide directions, I'd probably get lost down here pretty easily. Being how this game does encounters, the second floor of monsters really isn't too tough. They aren't pushovers by any means, but this game tends to make enemies harder at deeper levels as opposed to the same grouping all throughout. It's a nice touch.
     Anyways, let's find Loto's Sword! I could go into full detail here, but... I'm not going to. Using the guide, I navigated the dungeon, fought off monsters, and worked my way through a secondary path to find Loto's Legendary Sword!

Awesome Sword is Awesome.

Awww yeaaaah! In my hands is the most powerful weapon in the game. It is two times more powerful than the Steel Sword that I've been using for most of the game, so I'm going to see quite a bit of difference in damage. After just a single battle, it's already quite clear that the sword was worth my time.
     However, I'm running short on HP after at least every other battle, so I end up using a lot of MP along the way. Even proceeding from the chest with Loto's Sword, I'm only like halfway through this dungeon. It makes you backtrack a ways to get back on the right path. When I finally do, I'm only a few floors away from the bottom floor of the castle.
     The final floor looks kinda like I'm back outside again... I mean I was going downwards and even had to cast Radiant to see my way around. Suddenly this floor is all lit up, and it even returns to the inside-a-castle look.

Dem Creepy Statues!

I work my way along this creepy castle pathway and come around to a throne room. And who is that sitting upon the throne? I finally come face-to-face with DRACOLORD!

Doesn't look TOO menacing at the moment mind you... BUT THAT IS THE EVIL DEMON HIMSELF!

     Now, this actually comes into an interesting scenario here. When you approach and talk to the Dracolord, he asks your character if you'd like to rule the world with him. You can answer yes or no here. Unfortunately, I'll have to pop that bubble immediately and reveal that saying "Yes" to his question turns the screen black. Then the game reloads with you at Castle Tantegel. Even when you answer "No" to the question though, he immediately asks you again. He really wants you to rule the world with him. (I think this is more of a punishment for someone who's just mashing A constantly to speed through things.) You answer no again, and then the Dracolord comes out swinging for...
     FINAL BOSS BATTLE TIME!

DracoLord is ready to battle!

 And then I die.
     No seriously, I die on my first attempt to beat Dracolord. I overspent my MP, and by the time I made it to him, I didn't have enough to keep myself fully healed. He does a decent amount of damage, but the real kicker here is that he can heal himself. Without my own supply of magic to keep myself in fighting fit, I quickly went down and was out. The game kicks me back to Tantegel Castle, and I get to make the journey back to Dracolord's Castle.
     Of course, this trip goes quite a bit faster since I have Loto's Sword to help me. Any enemy I come into contact with during my trip dies in a couple turns if not a single turn. When I reach the castle, I get to make the trip back down into the dark depths. Of course, I also don't have to make the side errand in the castle of finding Loto's Sword, so this goes quite a bit easier. And when I reach the Dracolord a second time, I've got nearly all of my MP to use on the battle. Need I say... FINAL BOSS BATTLE TIME! (Retry Edition)
     Okay, the Dracolord isn't any kind of a pushover. My current level comes out to around Level 19, and I'm probably pushing it to beat him at my level. (The max level in the game is 30.) His attacks aren't really anything special, but he seems to have a near infinite supply of Magic and can heal himself almost constantly. You just have to keep after him while healing yourself to avoid dying. With enough diligence, the Dracolord will eventually go down!

Of course it does!

     However, the screenshot above already reveals that, like most final bosses, it's not just a single form here. FINAL BOSS BATTLE TIME! ROUND TWO! THE TRUE FORM EMERGES!

Now that's more appropriate for the name "DracoLord" (Japanese name is actually Dragon Lord.)

Now, unlike the first form, you won't have to worry about any self-healing, but the trade-off here is that Draco Lord's true form has more powerful attacks. He has a couple different attacks to choose from, but the real problem is when he breathes "intense" flames on you. Regular fire only did around 20-30 damage, so with a max of 100+ HP, I would be more than fine. However, his "intense" flames tended to do more around the 40-45 range of damage. Now, with that damage range in mind, you've probably figured out that I didn't have an easy time here.
     The first battle sapped nearly half of my MP, so I was left with very little at this point. My spell of choice for healing was the spell Healmore because it... healed more, but each casting of the spell cost me 8 MP. It would heal me for quite a bit, but it also meant losing a turn to healing rather than damaging DracoLord. Even with a steady set of attacks, it was coming down to the line. I had one last heal left in me, and I was afraid I was going to get to walk the same path once again! As it came around to my last heal, I knew it was a make or break moment. I was afraid I was going to lose when... I struck the Final Blow!

     After a long and harrowing adventure, I finally defeated the DracoLord! He wasn't any kind of a pushover here, and it would have still been a challenge with even a couple extra levels behind me. Dracolord is a tough cookie, but with him gone, I can finally reclaim the Orb of Light! Keep takes the orb in hand and a blinding flash of light shines out. And thus the world has been saved! It doesn't seem like anything has changed at first, but upon leaving the castle, I am met with an already different image of the world.

Marshes turned into flowers. Hurray!

     The marshes aren't the only thing that have changed in the world. I come to find that the monsters have fully disappeared, and I'm not getting into any random encounters. I already know I need to head back to Tantegel Castle, but I figure it can't hurt to revisit a few places along the way. This was planned into the game of course, and revisiting the few towns gives you a nice feeling of accomplishment.
     Every person you talk to congratulates you on defeating the Dracolord or are all in praise over the world being saved and once again in the light. You can actually travel to everywhere in the game and speak with people. Most of the end messages from them end up matching up, but it's still a nice gesture. At this point, I was ready to beat the game though, so I didn't dilly-dally too much.
     When I reach Tantegel, I'm greeted by the King who offers me his Kingdom as thanks. My character finally speaks up though and declines the offer. Rather than take the King's Kingdom, he wishes to go out and start a kingdom of his own. Of course, he isn't about to go alone. Lady Lora comes out and declares her eternal love for Keep. She joins him, and the two slowly leave the castle together.

Yay for new beginnings!

And now we leave Tantegel...

~Fin~

And thus ends the very first Dragon Warrior title. 

     I had a good time, and the game was pretty short as well. I've had the game done for several days really, and I should have had the post done sooner. Of course, my life is quite busy with the holidays and life in general though... Not a real excuse, but I'm taking it. I apologize for the massively long post, but there's lots of pretty screenshots, so you can forgive me... right? Expect a quick summary of my thoughts on the game within the next few days. I won't do a full review since it's such a short game, but I figure I'll share some thoughts on it at least! If you made it this far, I'd like to thank you for reading. Heck, if you just scrolled down this far, congrats! That's a lot of post to scroll through, so you have accomplished something. That's enough rattling out of me. /end post

Ending Point - End of the Game.
Screenshots - Imgur album.
Keep's Level - 19
Goals Accomplished - Obtained the Shiny Harp. Traded the Shiny Harp for the Rain Staff. Grinded a lot of gold and experience. Found the War Ring in the Mountain Cave. Rescued Lady Lora from the Dragon. Found Loto's Seal randomly in a marsh. Obtained Loto's Armor in Mercado. Found the Sun Stone underneath Tantegel Castle. Got the Rain Staff and Sun Stone combined into the Rainbow Drop. Use the Rainbow Drop to reach Dracolord's Castle. Made my way through Dracolord's Castle. Defeated Dracolord. Beat the Game.
Next Goals - Start Dragon Warrior II.



Side Note - YES! I know this took me a long ass time to beat, but I've been busy with life and other games. I should be able to throw together a summary/review in my spare time, and that should be up before the year ends. I'll begin Dragon Warrior II shortly after that. Apologies for the lack of posts this month, but I've been trying my hardest to keep with it.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~