Dragon Warrior -One of my personal favorites
Who doesn’t have fond memories of one or more of the classic NES role-playing games? There’s one for just about every taste and style of role-playing game enthusiast. These games are sometimes called “RPGs” and the basic style entails taking on the role of another character be that swash-buckling dragon slayer or futuristic robot. Generally you can more powers and skills as the game progresses and there’s some level of decision making involved with how these powers and skills progress. There’s nothing like these classic NES roleplaying games!
One of my, and many other’s, favorites is the Dragon Warrior series. In the United States this was a series of four titles which finished up with the ground breaking Dragon Warrior IV which was one of the first games to have a multi-party system in which you swapped out characters throughout the duration of the game, depending on what skills you needed for a particular mission. This style of party management would be made famous in the Final Fantasy VII for the Play Station. Switching party members in and out at will created a brand new dynamic which many gamers enjoyed. Speaking of Final Fantasy this legendary RPG franchise also began on the NES.
The first installment of this game took you all over the game world on an epic adventure and had you using multiple vehicles during this travel. It also introduced the “class change” where you characters essentially “grew up” and you were able to evolve them into a brand
This is where the Final Fantasy dynasty began
new class with new abilities and skills. This created an added incentive to pass levels and is highly enjoyable to reach this pinnacle in the game. You’re also faced with the basic good guy/bad guy class dynamics. Thief or paladin? Black mage or healer? You’re even offered a blended choice, the jack of all trade character. I know what you’re thinking… WHAT ABOUT ZELDA?!?!
I’ll tell ya what, that game is one RPG that appeals to many gamers who don’t normally enjoy the grind and dungeon crawl of a typical RPG. In Zelda you play the part of an intrepid adventure and navigate through the game world killing monsters and gaining new powers while working to both save the princess (Zelda is the princess, you’re Link) and the world by assembling the so-called Triforce. Zelda is another one of those game dynasties that spans across the Nintendo generations but it all started right here on the NES and it’s one of the best RPG even today.