History VideoGame / DragonQuestI

In Japan, however, ''Dragon Quest'' simply began ''everything''. It was there at the right time and place -- Japan of 1986 -- to get millions of people playing it, being a simple enough game for a child to play but long and difficult enough for even an adult to appreciate. While it isn't quite '''the''' true UrExample and TropeCodifier for the Japanese RPG -- that would be [[VideoGame/DragonQuestIII its second successor]] -- said successor would never have happened without this game, and it still had, and continues to have, a massive influence on the Japanese video game zeitgeist.

The game's release history is absolutely enormous - in Japan. In the '80s and '90s it was ported to virtually every platform imaginable -- the {{UsefulNotes/MSX}}, the UsefulNotes/PC98, the UsefulNotes/SharpX68000, the Super Famicom, and ''{{UsefulNotes/Satellaview}}''... the SFC port is notable, however, for introducing some significant graphical and performance updates to the game. North America never saw any of this; when a UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor port was produced in 1999, North America received it a year later... and then that was ''it'', despite a feature-phone version coming out in 2004 and the entire Loto trilogy getting a multi-version port archive release on the Wii in 2011. In 2013, a SFC-based smartphone version was produced (its visuals, however, were further updated and resemble those of the SNES remake of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII''), and this was released to the wider English-speaking world with an updated translation. The game was re-released as part of the ''Dragon Quest 1+2+3 Collection'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch on September 27, 2019.

** The cost of staying at an inn is directly proportional with the distance you have to travel from Tantegel castle to get there.
** The cheapest magic keys are to be found in the distant town of Rimuldar. This gives the player access to other, more convenient shops, with the caveat that not only are the keys from the later shops more expensive, they are locked away behind doors requiring the magic key, forcing the player to spend one in advance of shopping for more.

* DoYouWantToHaggle: Averted unlike the later entries. [[AllThereInTheManual The manual clearly explains]] that you, the player, can't haggle the price of sold items. In other words, Alefgard merchants [[KarlMarxHatesYourGuts will accept your old equipment for half its original price]] and won't haggle because they are very stubborn.

** Besides the Warrior's Ring and Dragon's Scale, you can only equip a weapon, shield and armor. The Warrior's Ring and Dragon's Scale situation is also unique because you can equip both at the same time. Later games made rings and trinkets unique until ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX''.

* FinalBoss: The Dragonlord himself is the very final enemy fought in the game on his throne in Charlock Castle. He's the only boss in the game that is a SequentialBoss, and after he's defeated, the Sphere of Light is reobtained and all enemies in the game vanish on your way back to the start.

** Aside from the enemy of this very name, there's also the Stone and Gold Golems.

** Erdrick's Sword. A +40 Attack bonus! A 12 point difference indeed and highly recommended for dealing with the absurdly powerful monsters before reaching the Dragonlord himself.[[note]]However, even with the sword, doing more than 10 points of damage to the Dragonlord's final form is difficult at best.[[/note]]
** Erdrick's Armor. A +28 bonus to armor. Same properties as Magic Armor but with 4x HealingFactor (1 HitPoint per step) and 1/3 resistances against fire breath. Additional bonuses include immunity to all terrain damage tiles ''and'' Fizzle.
* InterchangeableAntimatterKeys: All doors in the game are locked and must be opened by magic keys, which can open any of these doors ([[JustifiedTrope hey]], they're [[AWizardDidIt magic]] keys), but disappear afterwards; these keys can only be obtained from special shops. This is Lampshaded by the the magic key shopkeeper in Rimuldar if you visit after beating the game--he announces he will devote the rest of his life to making keys that will not break after one use.

* PaletteSwap: Only the Dragonlord and his true form gets an exclusive sprite in-battle.

** The Magic Temple island south of Rimuldar and the bridge north of Damdara but south of the Craggy Cave. This is the area where you will fight Gold Golems to gain 150-200 Gold Pieces (upped to 650 gold in the remakes), which would be necessary to buy the most expensive pieces of equipment: Magic Armor, Silver Shield, and the Fire Blade.
** On the westernmost continent, at the very southern tip of the western side (due south of [[spoiler: Damdara, the ghost town where Erdrick's Armor is found]]), is a strip of hilly land that has a high rate of MetalSlime encounters, mixed in with other high exp monsters. But since you cross two bridges to get there, it can be dangerous. In the original Dragon Warrior/Quest, RandomEncounters became exponentially more difficult with each bridge crossed.

* RecurringRiff: Many of the game's tunes (most prominently, the main theme and the level up theme) are used in all the subsequent installments, with the main theme gaining a new intro in ''IV'' and another new intro in ''IX''. The game over theme has begun to make a comeback in more recent games as well after ''II'', and several installments after it used longer and more complex game over tracks.

* SequenceBreaking: The player is supposed to rescue Gwaelin from the Quagmire Cave in order to get Gwaelin's Love/Princess' Pledge, which tells your position relative to Tantegel. You're supposed to receive a hint that a PlotCoupon can be found exactly x steps away from Tantegel on the x axis and x steps away from Tantegel on the y axis [[spoiler: (The Mark of Erdrick can be found 40 steps south, 70 steps east of Tantegel)]]. Thus, you're supposed to use Princess' Pledge to locate your position relative to Tantegel and search. However, that's not actually necessary if you already know where to look (The PlotCoupon will be there regardless of whether or not you rescue Gwaelin), you can get it and skip rescuing Gwaelin to begin with.

** Charlock Castle, where the Dragonlord dwells, can be seen right below your starting point in the map.

** Accordingly, you can go any location in the game right off the bat, except for Dragonlord's castle. Whether or not you'll survive the journey is another story.

* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: With some unorthodox inventory management, it's possible for Gwaelin to take the Staff of Rain when she gives you Gwaelin's Love/Princess' Pledge. Congratulations, you can't beat the game because you need to get the Staff of Rain to get the Rainbow Drop.

* UnlockableDifficultyLevels: An interesting case, which only shows up in the Japanese release. In this version, choosing to join The Dragonlord will have him give you a password. This password will send you to the start of the game but with lower stats than normal.

* ArtifactOfDeath: The Cursed/Death Necklace/Choker and the Cursed Belt/Wasteband. Oddly enough, if you don't equip them, shopkeepers pay good money for them. Considering how early you can acquire them, it's reasonable to repeatedly enter the (low-leveled) dungeon to acquire more Wastebands to sell for lots of cash.

* TropeCodifier: While not exactly the first of its kind, ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}}'' came first, ''Dragon Quest'' is nonetheless the first instance of a Japanese RPG, and cemented a number of traditions that remain in the genre (such as a pre-defined character, relative linearity, and so on).

* InterchangeableAntimatterKeys: All doors in the game are locked and must be opened by magic keys, which can open any of these doors ([[JustifiedTrope Hey]], they're [[AWizardDidIt magic]] keys), but disappear afterwards; these keys can only be obtained from special shops. This is Lampshaded by the the magic key shopkeeper in Rimuldar if you visit after beating the game--he announces he will devote the rest of his life to making keys that will not break after one use.

* GuideDangIt: Your name actually affects your base stats and stat growth.
** Good luck finding any of the invisible items that you can only obtain by using the "Search" command on a specific tile.

* InterchangeableAntimatterKeys: The game has one-use keys (and they are magic, which explains one key fitting every door in the world). Lampshaded if you visit Rimuldar after beating the game: the magic key-maker announces he will devote the rest of his life to making keys that will not break after one use.

* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: The cost of staying at an inn is directly proportional with the distance you have to travel from Tantegel castle to get there.

** The Japanese version lacks the chibi-style superdeformed character sprites that would become standard in the genre, instead using realistically-proportioned figures similar to those in the ''Ultima'' series.

** The Japanese version lacks the chibi-style superdeformed character sprites that would become standard in the genre, instead using realistically-proportioned figures similar to those in the ''Ultima'' series.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Flame Sword is the single most expensive weapon in the game, and costs a ''lot'' of money in an area where monsters don't drop much of it (compared to other areas). By the time you're actually able to ''afford'' the Flame Sword/Fire Blade, you'll likely be strong enough to get the Erdrick/Loto Sword, which is even better. Another issue with the Fire Blade in the remakes is its special ability when used as an item, the only piece of equipment to have this ability. It fires off a damage spell in between the strengths of the standard attack magic. The problem? Simply wielding the Fire Blade and using the regular attack will overpower this ability.

* BoringReturnJourney: The game does not conclude with the defeat of the BigBad. You complete the game by returning to visit the king. You can just cast return and be done with it. But you can go anywhere you like before doing this, including visiting towns to receive thanks from all the people you've saved. While getting to the BigBad involves thousands of random battles, after his defeat, there are none to be found, even in the dungeons, since defeating the Dragonlord gives you the stolen Ball/Sphere of Light, which essentially saves the realm.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This is the only game in the series with only one player character (and, conversely, you will only fight one enemy per encounter), and the only installment in which dungeons are not naturally lit, necessitating a torch or the never-again-seen Glow spell to navigate. There's even a separate command for using stairs, though its later remakes do away with this. There is also the peculiar required use of one-time-use magic keys to open 'any and every'' door you come across (eventually you'll be able to purchase keys as needed), oh and these doors reset when you leave. It's also far more open-ended than subsequent games in the series: the only place you cannot go to at the beginning of the game is the Dragonlord's island, though a generous helping of BeefGate makes toddling down to Rimuldar, Hauksness/Damdara, or Cantlin right out the gate extremely impractical.

** Besides the Warrior's Ring and Dragon's Scale, you can only equip a weapon, shield and armor. The Fighter's Ring and Dragon's Scale situation is also unique because you can equip both at the same time. Later games made rings and trinkets unique until ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX''.

** Returning to Damdara after defeating the Dragonlord will let you meet the ghost of Garin/Galen (the bard whose tomb in Galenholm you explored earlier in the game to obtain his Lyre of Ire), who shares with you the tragic story of Damdara's past as a busy, bustling town before it was destroyed.

* EvilWeapon: The Cursed Necklace/Choker and the Cursed Belt/Wasteband found in the Charlock Castle. Great stats, but they curse the Hero if equipped.

** The [[FlamingSword Flame Sword/Fire Blade]] is your sword version with a +28 boost to your attack, and it has a special action when used as an item in the remakes.
** The Magic Armor is your armor version. While it has the same +24 boost as the Full Plate, you gain HealingFactor of one HitPoint regained every four steps, and it reduces HURT and HURTMORE spells by 1/3.

** Monsters who have the Midheal spell (Cosmic Chimeras and Knight Abhorrents). Either the battle gets annoying enough that it will spam it almost every time it gets low health. Either keep on attacking and hope it doesn't use that spell or waste 2 MP on STOPSPELL and proceed. Made worse if it is the Armored Knight/Knight Abhorrent due to its massive health.

* MagicKnight: You, obviously. This game established all three traditions of making the player character a MagicKnight, tying when you learn spells to your level and learning Heal at level 3 as your first spell. You get spells such as [[HealingHands Heal and Midheal]], [[PlayingWithFire Sizz and Sizzle ]], [[ForcedSleep Snooze]] (which isn't a UselessUsefulSpell for once), [[AntiMagic Fizzle]], [[EscapeRope Evac]], [[WarpWhistle Zoom]], and [[EncounterRepellant Holy Protection]].

* MusicSoothesTheSavageBeast: ...Case in point, the Fairy Flute for the Golem, which makes it ''sleep''.

** The Magic Temple island south of Rimuldar and the bridge north of Haukness/Damdara but south of the Craggy Cave. This is the area where you will fight Gold Golems to gain 150-200 Gold Pieces (upped to 650 gold in the remakes), which would be necessary to buy the most expensive pieces of equipment: Magic Armor, Silver Shield, and the Flame Sword/Fire Blade.

* RingOfPower: The Fighter's Ring/War Ring is supposed to make some foes run away, but it doesn't work.

** The Fighter's/Warrior's Ring. Due to a bug in the item, it does not increase any stats whatsoever. Just sell it.

The first in the groundbreaking ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' series, ''Dragon Quest I'' (titled ''[[MarketBasedTitle Dragon Warrior]]'' in North America when it was first brought over) is the story of the descendant of the legendary hero Erdrick, who has been summoned by the king of Alefgard to rescue his daughter and defeat the Dragonlord, who is threatening the kingdom and has stolen the legendary [[MacGuffin Ball/Sphere of Light]].

* ArtificialStupidity: If an enemy is hit by Stopspell/Fizzle, they will continue to waste turns trying to cast spells...even though their spells are already sealed.

* TheBigDamnKiss: Princess Gwaelin/Laura shares one with the hero after he saves her from the dragon.

* BleakLevel: Hauksness/Damdara. Unlike other towns, Damdara was razed to the ground by the Dragonlord. High-level monsters prowl among the ruins, and toxic acid pools bubble everywhere.

* DegradedBoss: The Green Dragon guarding Princess Gwaelin becomes a regular enemy in the city of Hauksness/Damdara and in Charlock Castle. The Axe Knight/Knight Aberrant guarding Erdrick's Armor also shows up randomly in Charlock.

* DungeonTown: The desert town of Hauksness/Damdara was destroyed by the Dragonlord and is now inhabited only by high-level endgame enemies that you have to fight through in order to find Erdrick's Armor.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This is the only game in the series with only one player character (and, conversely, you will only fight one enemy per encounter), and the only installment in which dungeons are not naturally lit, necessitating a torch or the never-again-seen Radiant/Glow spell to navigate. There's even a separate command for using stairs, though its later remakes do away with this. There is also the peculiar required use of one-time-use magic keys to open 'any and every'' door you come across (eventually you'll be able to purchase keys as needed), oh and these doors reset when you leave. It's also far more open-ended than subsequent games in the series: the only place you cannot go to at the beginning of the game is the Dragonlord's island, though a generous helping of BeefGate makes toddling down to Rimuldar, Hauksness/Damdara, or Cantlin right out the gate extremely impractical.

** Besides the Fighter's Ring/Warrior's Ring and Dragon's Scale, you can only equip a weapon, shield and armor. The Fighter's Ring and Dragon's Scale situation is also unique because you can equip both at the same time. Later games made rings and trinkets unique until ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX''.

** Returning to Hauksness/Damdara after defeating the Dragonlord will let you meet the ghost of Garin/Galen (the bard whose tomb in Garinham/Galenholm you explored earlier in the game to obtain his Silver Harp/Lyre of Ire), who shares with you the tragic story of Hauksness/Damdara's past as a busy, bustling town before it was destroyed.

* FinalBoss: The Dragonlord himself is the very final enemy fought in the game on his throne in Charlock Castle. He's the only boss in the game that is a SequentialBoss, and after he's defeated, the Ball/Sphere of Light is reobtained and all enemies in the game vanish on your way back to the start.

** Aside from the enemy of this very name, there's also the Stoneman and Goldman.

** Erdrick's Armor. A +28 bonus to armor. Same properties as Magic Armor but with 4x HealingFactor (1 HitPoint per step) and 1/3 resistances against fire breath. Additional bonuses include immunity to all terrain damage tiles ''and'' STOPSPELL.

** Monsters who have the SLEEP spell. A monster can put you to sleep as a preemptive attack and then whale on you until you die. Worse if it is the [[BossInMookClothing Red Dragon]].
*** Using the SLEEP spell yourself can be this as well. Either it makes the battle a cakewalk while you whale on the helpless beast, or it either doesn't work at all or wears off almost immediately and you just wasted your precious MP for nothing.
** Monsters who have the HEALMORE spell (Starwyverns/Cosmic Chimerae and Armored Knights/Knights Abhorrent). Either the battle gets annoying enough that it will spam it almost every time it gets low health. Either keep on attacking and hope it doesn't use that spell or waste 2 MP on STOPSPELL and proceed. Made worse if it is the Armored Knight/Knight Abhorrent due to its massive health.
** Demon Knights/Dark Skeletons due to having an absurdly high evasion rate. ''It is dodging'' indeed.

* MagicKnight: You, obviously. This game established all three traditions of making the player character a MagicKnight, tying when you learn spells to your level and learning Heal at level 3 as your first spell. You get spells such as [[HealingHands Heal and Healmore/Midheal]], [[PlayingWithFire Hurt and Hurtmore (Firebal and Firebane in the GBC versions; Sizz and Sizzle in the smartphone/Switch versions)]], [[ForcedSleep Sleep/Snooze]] (which isn't a UselessUsefulSpell for once), [[AntiMagic Stopspell/Fizzle]], [[EscapeRope Outside/Evac]], [[WarpWhistle Return/Zoom]], and [[EncounterRepellant Repel/Holy Protection]].
* MascotMook: Slimes (though several others, including wyverns/chimerae and drakees/drackys, give them a run for their money).
* MetalSlime: The trope namer. There's also the Goldman/Gold Golem.

* MoneySpider: That the Goldman/Gold Golem gives a lot of wealth upon defeat makes sense. That it's all in coinage does not. Everything else also drops coins.

* MusicSoothesTheSavageBeast: ...Case in point, the Fairy/Pixie Flute for the Golem, which makes it ''sleep''.
* {{Nerf}}: Remakes removed the Stopspell/Fizzle immunity from Erdrick's Armor.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'', it is revealed that the Golem that you defeated [[spoiler: was created by one of Cantlin's/Mercado's townspeople to protect the town. Oops.]]

** The Magic Temple island south of Rimuldar and the bridge north of Haukness/Damdara but south of the Craggy Cave. This is the area where you will fight Goldmen/Gold Golems to gain 150-200 Gold Pieces (upped to 650 gold in the remakes), which would be necessary to buy the most expensive pieces of equipment: Magic Armor, Silver Shield, and the Flame Sword/Fire Blade.
** On the westernmost continent, at the very southern tip of the western side (due south of [[spoiler: Hauksness/Damdara, the ghost town where Loto/Erdrick's Armor is found]]), is a strip of hilly land that has a high rate of MetalSlime encounters, mixed in with other high exp monsters. But since you cross two bridges to get there, it can be dangerous. In the original Dragon Warrior/Quest, RandomEncounters became exponentially more difficult with each bridge crossed.
** The Grave of Garin/Galen, the area around the town of Cantlin, and the lower levels of the Dragonlord's castle (although the enemies here are the rather tough EliteMooks).

** Hauksness/Damdara itself once you have the Healmore/Midheal spell. The tile where you fight the Axe Knight/Knight Aberrant is infinite, so you can keep walking a tile away and back to the tile to continuously fight it. This is one of the best ways to level grind, although you must watch out for the Sleep/Snooze spell. If you can manage to hit it 2 times, then you are golden. If you are exhausted and want to continue fighting stronger enemies, you can always walk back to Cantlin to replenish; you can go back to Tantegel castle, but you would have to use Repel/Holy Protection to ward off the weaker enemies.

* PinataEnemy: The Goldman isn't exactly a pushover until you get to around level 12 or so, but once you're strong enough to take them on they give out between 150 and 200 gold each, making them a great choice to grind for money (not so much for XP).

* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The only reptilian creatures who show up in the game are the Dragonlord and his minions like Chimaerae and Dragons.

* SequenceBreaking: The player is supposed to rescue Gwaelin from the Quagmire Cave in order to get Gwaelin's Love/Princess' Pledge, which tells your position relative to Tantegel. You're supposed to receive a hint that a PlotCoupon can be found exactly x steps away from Tantegel on the x axis and x steps away from Tantegel on the y axis [[spoiler: (The Mark of Erdrick can be found 40 steps south, 70 steps east of Tantegel)]]. Thus, you're supposed to use Gwaelin's Love/Princess' Pledge to locate your position relative to Tantegel and search. However, that's not actually necessary if you already know where to look (The PlotCoupon will be there regardless of whether or not you rescue Gwaelin), you can get it and skip rescuing Gwaelin to begin with.

* UniqueEnemy: A {{Golem}} guards the gate into Cantlin. Unlike the other "mid-boss" enemies that guard something important (Axe Knight, Green Dragon, etc.), once it's defeated, you'll never encounter another.

** Averted! The good news: Yuji Horii was, and more than likely still is, a fan of ''Wizardry'' and ''Ultima'', both of which had useful status spells. Stopspell/Fizzle and Sleep/Snooze were two very handy spells taken from them. The bad news? Your enemies can also use them.
** The Axe Knight/Knight Aberrant, which guards your armor, tends to cast Sleep/Snooze and constantly attack while you are sleeping. This alone shows that the status effect is very dangerous. If you get lucky with your own Sleep/Snooze spell it becomes possible to {{Sequence Break|ing}} the game by getting the Erdrick Armor almost right off the bat. The Dragonlord is also ''not'' immune to being Snoozed, as shown by the speedrun done at AGDQ 2019.

* WeHaveBecomeComplacent: The stated reason why Alefgard's soldiers were defeated so easily by the Dragonlord is that the long years of peace since the defeat of Zoma had made the people weak.

* PinataMook: The Goldman isn't exactly a pushover until you get to around level 12 or so, but once you're strong enough to take them on they give out between 150 and 200 gold each, making them a great choice to grind for money (not so much for XP).

** The [[FlamingSword Flame Sword/Fire Blade]] is your sword version with a +28 boost to your attack, and it has a special action when used as an item.

** Demon Knights due to having an absurdly high evasion rate. ''It is dodging'' indeed.

** The game is full of these. Besides the famous coast of Rimuldar, there is the "Scorpion's Nest", a row of hills southwest of Tantegel with enemies from the Craggy Cave region, and a strip of land northeast of Damdara with enemies from the Dragonlord's island. [=DQ1=] even has reverse [=PoPs=] - areas with much weaker monsters than you should be fighting (the mouth of the Mountain Cave, a strip northwest of Damdara, the entrance to the Dragonlord's island, and a huge area of hills southeast of Cantlin).

* ArtifactOfDeath: The Cursed/Death Necklace/Choker and the Cursed Belt/Wasteband. Oddly enough, if you don't equip them, shopkeepers pay good money for them. Considering how early you can acquire them, it's reasonable to repeatedly enter the (low-leveled) dungeon to acquire more belts to sell for lots of cash.

* ChokepointGeography: Appears twice: The only way to reach Rimuldar and the Southern Shrine is via the Marsh Cave and the only way to reach Charlock Castle is via a narrow channel with the bridge created by the Rainbow Drop.

** Besides the Fighter's Ring/War Ring and Dragon's Scale, you can only equip a weapon, shield and armor. The Fighter's Ring and Dragon's Scale situation is also unique because you can equip both at the same time. Later games made rings and trinkets unique until ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX''.

** The Magic Temple island south of Rimuldar and the bridge north of Haukness/Damdara but south of Mountain cave. This is the area where you will fight Goldmen/Gold Golems to gain 150-200 Gold Pieces (upped to 650 gold in the remakes), which would be necessary to buy the most expensive pieces of equipment: Magic Armor, Silver Shield, and the Flame Sword/Fire Blade.

** The game is full of these. Besides the famous coast of Rimuldar, there is the "Scorpion's Nest", a row of hills southwest of Tantegel with enemies from the Mountain Cave region, and a strip of land northeast of Damdara with enemies from the Dragonlord's island. [=DQ1=] even has reverse [=PoPs=] - areas with much weaker monsters than you should be fighting (the mouth of the Mountain Cave, a strip northwest of Damdara, the entrance to the Dragonlord's island, and a huge area of hills southeast of Cantlin).

* SequenceBreaking: The player is supposed to rescue Gwaelin from the Marsh Cave in order to get Gwaelin's Love/Princess' Pledge, which tells your position relative to Tantegel. You're supposed to receive a hint that a PlotCoupon can be found exactly x steps away from Tantegel on the x axis and x steps away from Tantegel on the y axis [[spoiler: The Mark of Erdrick can be found 40 steps south, 70 steps east of Tantegel]]. Thus, you're supposed to use Gwaelin's Love/Princess' Pledge to locate your position relative to Tantegel and search. However, that's not actually necessary if you already know where to look (The PlotCoupon will be there regardless of whether or not you rescue Gwaelin), you can get it and skip rescuing Gwaelin to begin with.

** Princess Gwaelin is in the Marsh Cave that you enter early on in the game. The reason you can't rescue her the first time you enter is that one, you do not have a key, which is required to open up the door to her cell, and two, there's a dragon guarding said door that [[BeefGate you won't be able to beat at your current level and equipment]].

** The Fighter's Ring/War Ring. Due to a bug in the item, it does not increase any stats whatsoever. Just sell it.

* ArtifactOfDeath: The Cursed/Death Necklace and the Cursed Belt. Oddly enough, if you don't equip them, shopkeepers pay good money for them. Considering how early you can acquire them, it's reasonable to repeatedly enter the (low-leveled) dungeon to acquire more belts to sell for lots of cash.

* EvilWeapon: The Cursed Necklace and the Cursed Belt found in the Charlock Castle. Great stats, but they curse the Hero if equipped.

** Monsters who have the HEALMORE spell (Starwyverns/Cosmic Chimerae and Armored Knights). Either the battle gets annoying enough that it will spam it almost every time it gets low health. Either keep on attacking and hope it doesn't use that spell or waste 2 MP on STOPSPELL and proceed. Made worse if it is the Armored Knight due to its massive health.

** Monsters who have the HEALMORE spell (Starwyvern and Armored Knights). Either the battle gets annoying enough that it will spam it almost every time it gets low health. Either keep on attacking and hope it doesn't use that spell or waste 2 MP on STOPSPELL and proceed. Made worse if it is the Armored Knight due to its massive health.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Flame Sword is the single most expensive weapon in the game, and costs a ''lot'' of money in an area where monsters don't drop much of it (compared to other areas). By the time you're actually able to ''afford'' the Flame Sword, you'll likely be strong enough to get the Erdrick/Loto Sword, which is even better. Another issue with the Flame Sword in the remakes is its special ability when used as an item, the only piece of equipment to have this ability. It fires off a damage spell in between the strengths of the standard attack magic. The problem? Simply wielding the Flame Sword and using the regular attack will overpower this ability.

* CuteSlimeMook: The slimes are the TropeMaker.
* DegradedBoss: The Green Dragon guarding Princess Gwaelin becomes a regular enemy in the city of Hauksness/Damdara and in Charlock Castle. The Axe Knight guarding Erdrick's Armor also shows up randomly in Charlock.

** Besides the Fighter's Ring and Dragon's Scale, you can only equip a weapon, shield and armor. The Fighter's Ring and Dragon's Scale situation is also unique because you can equip both at the same time. Later games made rings and trinkets unique until ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX''.

** Hauksness/Damdara itself once you have the Healmore/Midheal spell. The tile where you fight the Axe Knight is infinite, so you can keep walking a tile away and back to the tile to continuously fight it. This is one of the best ways to level grind, although you must watch out for the Sleep/Snooze spell. If you can manage to hit it 2 times, then you are golden. If you are exhausted and want to continue fighting stronger enemies, you can always walk back to Cantlin to replenish; you can go back to Tantegel castle, but you would have to use Repel/Holy Protection to ward off the weaker enemies.

** The Axe Knight, which guards your armor, tends to cast Sleep/Snooze and constantly attack while you are sleeping. This alone shows that the status effect is very dangerous. If you get lucky with your own Sleep/Snooze spell it becomes possible to {{Sequence Break|ing}} the game by getting the Erdrick Armor almost right off the bat. The Dragonlord is also ''not'' immune to being Snoozed, as shown by the speedrun done at AGDQ 2019.

* VariableMix: The cave/dungeon music decreases in pitch and tempo as you travel to lower floors.

* DungeonTown: The desert town of Hauksness was destroyed by the Dragonlord and is now inhabited only by high-level endgame enemies that you have to fight through in order to find Erdrick's Armor.

** The [[FlamingSword Flame Sword]] is your sword version with a +28 boost to your attack, and it has a special action when used as an item.

** The Magic Temple island south of Rimuldar and the bridge north of Haukness but south of Mountain cave. This is the area where you will fight Goldmen/Gold Golems to gain 150-200 Gold Pieces (upped to 650 gold in the remakes), which would be necessary to buy the most expensive pieces of equipment: Magic Armor, Silver Shield, and the Flame Sword.

* RingOfPower: The Fighter's Ring is supposed to make some foes run away, but it doesn't work.

** The Fairy Water minimizes RandomEncounters, but only against enemies that don't pose any threat to you. It's somewhat convenient if you don't want to be hassled by several weak baddies while traveling, but not only does it ''not'' ward off the lethally strong enemies you're desperately trying to avoid, but it also seems to piss them off and make them even stronger.

* WeCanRuleTogether: The Dragonlord makes this offer to you when you confront him. Most players just select no and get on with the battle, but if you accept, and you must accept more than once, you get a NonStandardGameOver (except in the SNES and GBC versions where he wakes up in the town next to Tantegel Castle, where the innkeeper says that he had a bad dream). This is quite jarring considering the time it took to get to the castle and then go down to the lowest floor. The Dragonlord then says "ICanRuleAlone," though; the very next thing you see is red text.

* BleakLevel: Hauksness/Domdora. Unlike other towns, Domdora was razed to the ground by the Dracolord. High-level monsters prowl among the ruins, and toxic acid pools bubble everywhere.
* BoringReturnJourney: The game does not conclude with the defeat of the BigBad. You complete the game by returning to visit the king. You can just cast return and be done with it. But you can go anywhere you like before doing this, including visiting towns to receive thanks from all the people you've saved. While getting to the BigBad involves thousands of random battles, after his defeat, there are none to be found, even in the dungeons, since defeating the Dragonlord gives you the stolen Ball of Light, which essentially saves the realm.

* {{Cap}}: The level cap is 30, which you would reach at 65,535(16 bits) EXP, with 255(8 bits) for the stats. You stop learning new spells at level 20, but the additional experience for each new level doesn't change. You can gain levels faster and faster as your stats rise until you hit the cap. Given that you can beat the Dragonlord at level 19, with some luck, anything beyond about level 25 is overkill anyway. If you reach the level cap of 30 in the NES version, the king will ask why you haven't yet slain the Dragonlord.

* DegradedBoss: The Green Dragon guarding Princess Gwaelin becomes a regular enemy in the city of Hauksness and in Charlock Castle. The Axe Knight guarding Erdrick's Armor also shows up randomly in Charlock.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This is the only game in the series with only one player character (and, conversely, you will only fight one enemy per encounter), and the only installment in which dungeons are not naturally lit, necessitating a torch or the never-again-seen Radiant/Glow spell to navigate. There's even a separate command for using stairs, though its later remakes do away with this. There is also the peculiar required use of one-time-use magic keys to open 'any and every'' door you come across (eventually you'll be able to purchase keys as needed), oh and these doors reset when you leave. It's also far more open-ended than subsequent games in the series: the only place you cannot go to at the beginning of the game is the Dragonlord's island, though a generous helping of BeefGate makes toddling down to Rimuldar, Hauksness, or Cantlin right out the gate extremely impractical.

** Returning to Hauksness after defeating the Dragonlord will let you meet the ghost of Garin (the bard whose tomb you explored earlier in the game to obtain his Silver Harp), who shares with you the tragic story of Hauksness's past as a busy, bustling town before it was destroyed.

* MagicCompass: Gwaelin/Lora's Love, which gives numbered coordinates to Tantegel based on the player's location on the outside map.

** On the westernmost continent, at the very southern tip of the western side (due south of [[spoiler: Hauksness, the ghost town where Loto/Erdrick's Armor is found]]), is a strip of hilly land that has a high rate of MetalSlime encounters, mixed in with other high exp monsters. But since you cross two bridges to get there, it can be dangerous. In the original Dragon Warrior/Quest, RandomEncounters became exponentially more difficult with each bridge crossed.
** The Grave of Garin, the area around the town of Cantlin, and the lower levels of the Dragonlord's castle (although the enemies here are the rather tough EliteMooks).

** The game is full of these. Besides the famous coast of Rimuldar, there is the "Scorpion's Nest", a row of hills southwest of Tantegel with enemies from the Mountain Cave region, and a strip of land northeast of Hauksness with enemies from the Dragonlord's island. [=DQ1=] even has reverse [=PoPs=] - areas with much weaker monsters than you should be fighting (the mouth of the Mountain Cave, a strip northwest of Hauksness, the entrance to the Dragonlord's island, and a huge area of hills southeast of Cantlin).

** Hauksness itself once you have the Healmore/Midheal spell. The tile where you fight the Axe Knight is infinite, so you can keep walking a tile away and back to the tile to continuously fight it. This is one of the best ways to level grind, although you must watch out for the Sleep/Snooze spell. If you can manage to hit it 2 times, then you are golden. If you are exhausted and want to continue fighting stronger enemies, you can always walk back to Cantlin to replenish; you can go back to Tantegel castle, but you would have to use Repel/Holy Protection to ward off the weaker enemies.

* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The only reptilian creatures who show up in the game are the Dragonlord and his minions like Chimaeras and Dragons.

* SequenceBreaking: The player is supposed to rescue Gwaelin from the Marsh Cave in order to get Gwaelin's Love, which tells your position relative to Tantegel. You're supposed to receive a hint that a PlotCoupon can be found exactly x steps away from Tantegel on the x axis and x steps away from Tantegel on the y axis [[spoiler: The Mark of Erdrick can be found 40 steps south, 70 steps east of Tantegel]]. Thus, you're supposed to use Gwaelin's Love to locate your position relative to Tantegel and search. However, that's not actually necessary if you already know where to look (The PlotCoupon will be there regardless of whether or not you rescue Gwaelin), you can get it and skip rescuing Gwaelin to begin with.

* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: With some unorthodox inventory management, it's possible for Gwaelin to take the Staff of Rain when she gives you Gwaelin's Love. Congratulations, you can't beat the game because you need to get the Staff of Rain to get the Rainbow Drop.

* UselessItem: Thou must be warned about thy items thou receive:

* MusicSoothesTheSavageBeast: ...Case in point, the Fairy Flute for the Golem, which makes it ''sleep''.

** The Magic Temple island south of Rimuldar and the bridge north of Haukness but south of Mountain cave. This is the area where you will fight Goldmen to gain 150-200 Gold Pieces (upped to 650 gold in the remakes), which would be necessary to buy the most expensive pieces of equipment: Magic Armor, Silver Shield, and the Flame Sword.
** On the westernmost continent, at the very southern tip of the western side (due south of [[spoiler: Hauksness, the ghost town where Loto/Erdrick's Armor is found,]]) is a strip of hilly land that has a high rate of MetalSlime encounters, mixed in with other high exp monsters. But since you cross two bridges to get there, it can be dangerous. In the original Dragon Warrior/Quest, RandomEncounters became exponentially more difficult with each bridge crossed.

** Hauksness itself once you have the HEALMORE spell. The tile where you fight the Axe Knight is infinite, so you can keep walking a tile away and back to the tile to continuously fight it. This is one of the best ways to level grind, although you must watch out for the Sleep spell. If you can manage to hit it 2 times, then you are golden. If you are exhausted and want to continue fighting stronger enemies, you can always walk back to Cantlin to replenish; you can go back to Tantegel castle, but you would have to use repel to ward off the weaker enemies.

** The Fighter's Ring. Due to a bug in the item, it does not increase any stats whatsoever. Just sell it.

** The Axe Knight, which guards your armor, tends to cast sleep and constantly attack while you are sleeping. This alone shows that the status effect is very dangerous. If you get lucky with your own Sleep spell it becomes possible to [[SequenceBreaking Sequence Break]] the game by getting the Erdrick Armor almost right off the bat. The Dragonlord is also ''not'' immune to being sleep'd, as shown by the speedrun done at AGDQ 2019.

** Monsters who have the SLEEP spell. A monster can put you to sleep as a preemptive attack and then wail on you until you die. Worse if it is the [[BossInMookClothing Red Dragon]].
*** Using the SLEEP spell yourself can be this as well. Either it makes the battle a cakewalk while you wail on the helpless beast, or it either doesn't work at all or wears off almost immediately and you just wasted your precious MP for nothing.
** Monsters who have the HEALMORE spell (Starwyvern and Armored Knights). Either the battle gets annoying enough that it will spam it almost every time it gets low health. Either keep on attacking and hope it doesn't use that spell or waste 2 MP on STOPSPELL and proceed. Made worse if it is the Armored Knights due to its massive health.

* {{Nerf}}: Remakes removed the Stopspell immunity from Erdrick's Armor.