I just had a feeling of dissatisfaction with the games I was playing and decided what I wanted was a more traditional JRPG, so I picked up DQ1 for Switch after some deliberation expecting it to be like FF1 so good to start but I'd soon get bored of the grind.

It is not like FF and what really sold me was the simplicity of having one party member and one enemy at a time. I don't really know why I love this so much, but I just had so much fun wondering back and forth talking to people and figuring out where to go. The running around exploring part means you're fighting enemies all the time and you don't really fall behind in lever so much, so no walkthroughs - I just completed it in about 8-9 hours over one night and afternoon.

Just didn't know where else to share this, really - I'm going to start playing through every Dragon Quest game now, I think - but I know this is the only one with that simple 1v1 combat, so I'd love to know if anyone knows or any more similar games. I know Pokémon is like that technically, but it's not the same.

It would be weird if DQ1 ended up being the DQ I had the most fun with xD Anyway, I had so much fun and I could escape the world for almost 10 hours and I'll never have that experience again with the same game, and that's a shame. I totally shared the experience with every kid in the 80s exploring the genuine wonder of running around as a knight saving the land. Wonderful!

P.s. waxing philosophical, but: I also think it's interesting that people don't recommend these oldest versions of these games As they are not good representations of the series - but sometimes it might be worth being aware that maybe something of the old-school exploration wonder has been lost in these newer games. And sometimes maybe that's what some people are looking for.