I had my first Dragon Quest experience recently. As a big fan of RPGs, particularly those of the J-variety, Dragon Quest was a gaping hole in my knowledge that I’d never gotten around to filling. Until now!

I’ve been giving the DS remake of Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen a go first of all. (Technically I’ve also played about half an hour of the Game Boy Colour version of the very first game.) So far my feelings are a little mixed, but overall leaning in a positive direction, though I will happily admit I am very early in the game so far and thus haven’t had an opportunity to see all its systems at work.

From what I understand about Dragon Quest from speaking to others, its main distinction from its longstanding rival Final Fantasy is that there’s less emphasis on characterisation and plot — at least as far as the main playable characters are concerned — and more in the way of mechanical and strategic depth. Thus far in my time with Chapters of the Chosen this would at least partially seem to be the case: the game features a number of different chapters focusing on an individual or small group of characters before the plot “proper” gets going in the final chapter, and these playable characters never speak a word. Nonetheless, you do get a decent sense of who they are through a combination of their character art and the way other people react to them.

The first real chapter of the game focuses on a soldier called Ragnar who is called in by the pseudo-Scottish king to find out what’s been happening to a number of children that have gone missing recently. The actual solution to this issue isn’t all that complicated, but Ragnar’s roughly hour-long quest acts as a good introduction to what Dragon Quest appears to be all about. There’s a bit of world map wandering, a bit of dungeoneering — and Dragon Quest dungeons aren’t at all linear, featuring numerous branching paths and secret areas filled with treasure — and lots and lots of fighting.

So far so RPG, though I did find Ragnar’s quest a little lacking in mechanical depth: as a straight fighter-type character, he didn’t have access to any interesting abilities whatsoever and his main role in the party appeared to be exclusively confined to hitting ATTACK every turn and dealing damage. Things got mildly more interesting when he recruited a friendly Healslime called Healie into the party, but there still wasn’t a lot to it.

I understand that the “chapters” of Dragon Quest IV are primarily intended to act as an introduction to the characters and their mechanics, but starting with the barebones simplicity of Ragnar isn’t the strongest of openings. Combat wasn’t interesting with just Ragnar and the entirely automated Healie in the party, and boy is it frequent in Dragon Quest; for many people I can see that being a turnoff. That said, it’s worth remembering that we’re essentially dealing with a remake of an NES game here, where the main overhaul the DS version received was with regard to its visuals rather than mechanics.

I’m also not one to write off a game after an hour of play, either, so I fully intend to continue my Dragon Quest adventure; I’m just hoping the characters that come after Ragnar are a bit more interesting to play, and I’m confident that once all the characters are together in one big party with the “real” protagonist, things will get a lot more interesting.

Mixed feelings aside, it’s been an interesting experience so far. It has a markedly different feel to Final Fantasies of the same era, giving it its own distinctive identity. There’s a pleasant air of whimsy about the whole thing, helped along by a humorous localisation featuring lots of regional accents and dialects. And the focus on the ongoing story — as compared to the focus on the main characters as in most Final Fantasies — is a noticeable shift in perspective.

I’m looking forward to getting to know the series a bit better. I feel it may have a slightly stronger barrier to entry than Final Fantasy, but I also know that people who love Dragon Quest really love Dragon Quest, so I’m intrigued to see what gets them so passionate about this long-running series.