Epic Quest - Definitive Edition

I usually like games based on early Dragon Quest gameplay, and this one is no exception. Most of the way through the pacing/balancing was spot on, by which I mean, make a decent effort at finding everything in this dungeon, and then spend your gold on better equipment and possibly a new party member, and you should be just the right amount strong for the next dungeon. So no extra grinding needed in general, and also you probably won't get so strong it's not fun. Exceptions to the good pacing are right at the start (it would require lots of grinding at first except there's a shortcut to getting stronger at the start, kinda strange), and near the end you might get too strong if you take the time to explore well. It was a 9-hour game for me, fun spoof of Dragon Quest 1 but also a really decent game in its own right. Not quite everything works like early Dragon Quest -- You can see just fine in caves, you don't give items to specific party members to hold or have super-limited item storage capacity, attacks aimed at already beaten foes don't fail -- I am not complaining about these things. All in all I'd say it's an easy game. I very rarely had any of my characters go down all game, except early on when I bit off more than I could chew a couple times. I never had trouble finding anything or finding what to do next. When you're ready to move on from the first land mass, take the east bridge before the west bridge. I went west first, and a couple of little chickens totally kicked my butt. All in all, I think this game is good and fun.

Epic Quest mag ein tolles Spiel sein, aber wohl nur für eine ganz, ganz enge Zielgruppe. Leider gehöre ich nicht dazu. Andere Reviews zeigen: Epic Quest trifft bei Fans von Dragon Quest offenbar genau den richtigen Nostalgienerv. Ich hingegen kenne Dragon Quest nicht, habe es nie gespielt und verbinde damit entsprechend auch keine Nostalgiegefühle. Die Frage ist also: Funktioniert das Spiel auch Spieler wie mich? Und da gibt es wohl wiederum zwei Lager: Wer generell auf Retrogames steht, findet hier vielleicht etwas. Ich gehöre klar zum anderen Lager und kann weder mit Uraltpixelgrafik noch mit fizzeligem Retrospieldesign viel anfangen. Und beides gibt es hier volle Kanne.. Die Pixelgrafik ist, für das was sie sein will, sicher liebevoll gemacht. Aber für mich ist diese Art von Optik einfach nur uraltbacken und potthässlich. Damit könnte ich noch leben, wenn das Spiel mich spielerisch abholen würde. Aber auch da wurde ich enttäuscht. Die Story ist das übliche 08/15: Du bist der Nachkomme des grossen Helden und musst das Böse besiegen. Und das Gameplay? Extrem sperrig. Nichts wird erklärt, vieles muss man sich selbst erschliessen oder bereits aus früheren Spielen kennen. Und dann ist das Spiel auch unnötig umständlich: Beispielsweise muss man immer zum König zurücklaufen, nur um speichern zu können. Für manche ist das wohl „tolles Retrodesign“, für mich ist es einfach nur mühsam. Kurz gesagt hatte Epic Quest für mich genau nullkommanullgarnichts, dass mich motivert hätte, es länger als 10 Minuten zu spielen. Mag es vielleicht etwas für Retrogamer sein? Dafür möge man die anderen Reviews zu Rate ziehen. Für Nichtretrogamer wie mich ist es definitiv nichts. Fazit: Epic Quest ist eine sicherlich mit viel Liebe gemachte Hommage an Dragon Quest, aber für alle, die weder nostalgisch mit der Vorlage verbunden sind noch generell Retrofans sind, ist das Spiel zu altbacken, zu sperrig und zu mühsam. Für alle, die nicht genau in die ganz schmale Zielgruppe gehören, gibt es darum ganz klar keine Empfehlung.

After skimming the store page you might be wondering if this is perhaps just a NES emulator running dragon warrior/quest 2. It's not, however the similarities are deep enough that this could easily have been an extensive romhack of one of the dragon warrior games. It's actually an RPG maker game, with heavy homage and references to the first dragon warrior game both in terms of story, graphic design, and gameplay. While based in the same (thematic) universe, it's clearly it's own game with it's own story, world, and progression. For those wishing for a nostalgic trip that isn't just replaying the exact game of 30 years ago, this could be a reasonable choice. The thing is, you really need to be nostalgic. This game, probably intentionally, hasn't learned anything about how to make a JRPG from the 30 years that have passed since it's inspiration was released. As such, it's somewhat interesting to see how far we've come and how many quality of life changes have been made. But it's also kind of fun to play a no-apologies tough as nails JRPG with zero hand holding. Less fun to suffer though the ponderous menus, the lack of details about what you are buying, etc. etc. And if by some chance you never played the NES dragon warrior game ("quest" outside the USA), I would definitely suggest that first/instead. To much is left unsaid or is a direct reference to that game for this to be enjoyable without that shared experience.

Fun game, lot of pixels, cool story

Я придбав цю гру, розраховуючи на щось дійсно гідне серії Dragon Quest, але був розчарований. Сюжет нудний і мало захоплюючий. Гра до оманливості нагадує класичні тайтли, можна навіть сказати, що зачіпає плагіат. Не знаю, що автор мав на увазі, випускаючи гру в такій формі. Після покупки ми отримуємо аватари, які оманливо схожі на персонажів з інших ігор на NES. Якби цього було мало, розробники навіть не потрудилися впровадити фони під час боїв з монстрами. Ще за часів NES ігри мали такі елементи, а творець цього "монстра" пішов на легкий шлях. Також не розумію концепції "антисексуальності", яка просувається як головна ідея в описі гри в магазині. Мені здається, що гра є вигадкою малоздібного творця, який хотів заробити легкі гроші за рахунок фанатів Dragon Quest. Оригінальна гра 1986 року на NES була простою і класичною у своєму підході до нарації та змісту, зосереджуючись головним чином на героїчній пригоді, боях з монстрами та дослідженні фентезійного світу. Єдиним елементом, який може бути слабко пов'язаний з романтичною тематикою, є сюжет порятунку принцеси Гваелін. Після її порятунку з підземель Dragonlord, принцеса висловлює подяку героєві, а в американській версії гри ("Dragon Warrior") навіть пропонує стати його супутницею, що можна інтерпретувати як тонкий романтичний акцент. Однак цей сюжет представлений дуже невинно і тонко, без жодних відсилань до сексуальності. Загалом, "Dragon Quest" зосереджується на традиційній фентезійній нарації, боротьбі добра зі злом, дослідженні світу та розвитку персонажів, уникаючи при цьому більш дорослих і контроверсійних тем. Тим часом ця нова гра вводить відчужену тему "антисексуальності", яка, на мою думку, не пасує до такого типу ігор. З прикрістю не можу рекомендувати Epic Quest. Судячи з дати публікації та швидкого випуску продукту, здається, що комусь дуже поспішалося, щоб заробити легкі гроші

My first impression was a shot-for-shot remake of Dragon Quest; the story beats and even the layout of the world are intentionally very similar (apparently the original release was much moreso). Fortunately, the multiple party members, various large and well-decorated dungeons, and absence of any kidnapped princesses set this at least a little apart from its inspiration. Ultimately, it's no more complex and certainly less difficult than DQ1, but can still be fun to check out if you're in the mood for a DQ-like. My biggest complaint here is about the dungeons. The layouts are fine and there are a lot of placeables to give them a bit more atmosphere, but exploring them and especially buying keys to open doors is not rewarding at all. Even in the post-game dungeon, you will rarely find anything but basic consumables, trivial amounts of gold, and mimics (the developer loves this trick). This also extends to the blue and black locked doors, which are found in every dungeon but can't be unlocked until the very end of the game. Aside from one required quest item, all you'll get for trudging back through low-level dungeons (and there's no consumable to reduce encounters, by the way) are a few modest equipment upgrades and stat seeds. It's really not worth the time to go back to all these doors unless you're going for completion. This is also not a very difficult game. The early levels are respectable enough, but once you have all four party members the challenge drops significantly, and by the mid to late game, encounters are just speed bumps. There aren't many tactics to choose from here, nor are any needed; just holding down the attack button will get you through most of the game. There's also very little need to speak to NPCs to gather clues. Just wander until you find the next dungeon, and you'll do fine.

This isn't terrible, and the definitive edition is an improvement. Still has some problems though. 1. QoL: Walking speed is very slow, and there's no run option or button. 2. Enemies hit very hard (which I like), and damage mitigation is limited... but given how easy it is to randomly die, and the old-school can't-save-anywhere setup, and the lack of signposting for dungeons that are 30 levels harder than the overworld by their entrance... the fact that dying wipes ALL progress on death (rather than eating half your gold and returning you to definitely-not-Tantegel), it's overly brutal and too easy to lose an hour of progress. 3. Minor, but the interface makes some things needlessly obscure. e.g., you have to press cancel in combat to unearth the run command. This makes sense with a party, but with 1 PC, it's not at all obvious (especially since it is such a blatant DQ1 clone that it's not even obvious other PCs exist). 4. Most of the things behind locked doors are cheapter than the keys you have to spend to open the doors. A lot of other locked doors only hide very minor shortcuts. Keys just feel very unrewarding considering how pricey they are early on. 5. Even with the DE changes, it's a more direct DQ1 clone than the original crop of famicom DQ1 clones were.