Dragon Warrior

Dragon Warrior
Also known as: Dragon Quest (JP) Developer: Chunsoft Publishers: Enix (JP), Nintendo (US) Platform: NES Released in JP: May 27, 1986 Released in US: August 1989 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prerelease article This game has a Data Crystal page

Dragon Warrior was released in Japan as Dragon Quest, and sparked a long line of popular games that completely redefined the role-playing game genre...at least over there. It took a while elsewhere, and Europe tended to get screwed over.

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Prerelease Info

Unused Graphics

Town Overworld Tile

An overworld tile for a castle that strangely goes unused.

(Source: The IT from the Sprite Database)

Unused Text

If you attempt to enter a downward stairs or town tile which has no destination, this message appears. This can not happen without hacking the game, making the text unused.

Regional Differences

Title Screen

Japan	US

First and foremost, the name alteration: while called Dragon Quest in Japan, in America there were some trademark issues over that name; as a result, the American releases began as Dragon Warrior.

Dragon Quest has the logo on a solid-color background, while Dragon Warrior has a more generic logo on a somewhat more interesting background. It also moves all the options to menus following the title screen.

Saving

Japan	US

While Dragon Quest used a password-based system, for Dragon Warrior Nintendo replaced it with a battery-backed SRAM system.

Sprites and Graphics

To do: Add comparisons between the Japanese and American's different sprites.

Japan	US

Dragon Quest used sprites much like older PC RPGs (such as the early Ultima games), in that characters did not face in a particular direction, but instead always face forward. Dragon Warrior uses more space for graphics, so characters are able to face in all directions. The graphics were also given a bit of an upgrade in order to match Dragon Quest 2 and 3, which were already out in Japan by the time the first game was localized. Also, the English font was updated, and the window showing the player's stats was moved a bit to the left due to the command window being expanded.

Japan	US

Further, when you talk to someone in Dragon Quest, you have to choose a direction first. Due to the new sprites, Dragon Warrior removes the concept and the direction you face is used. Additionally, in the command window, the locations of "SEARCH" and "DOOR" {しらべる and とびら, respectively} were switched due to the longer English text.

Japan	US

The directional differences apply to all mobile NPCs as well.

Japan	US

Further, the additional graphic space allowed for actual coastlines, instead of the somewhat more abrupt water-land transitions of the Japanese release.

Ending

Japan	US

The text before the end credits was rewritten for the North American version.

Other Differences

• If you decide to join the Dragonlord in the Japanese version, he gives you a password in addition to ending your journey. The password he gives you will return you to the beginning of the game but with slightly lower stats compared to a new start of the game.

Revisional Differences

The two American releases are mostly the same, minus two text changes.

Revision 0	Revision 1

The title screen corrected an error, changing "to" to "of" in the Revision 1 version.

Revision 0	Revision 1

The battle damage was changed from "Hits" to "Hit Points".

(Source: Acmlm)

Dragon Quest Leftovers

In Dragon Quest, the same graphics bank contains all the graphics for the townspeople sprites and monster sprites. The first 32 tiles of the graphics bank contain only graphics for the townspeople, and these were clobbered and replaced with animated sprites for the title screen, but some of the now-unused townspeople sprites remain in the graphics bank.

These sprites can be reconstructed from the tiles left over: