This is the US NES version of the Famicom game Dragon Quest. It was never released over here in the UK, and I didn’t even hear about it at the time. I first encountered RPGs reading about them in Super Play magazine for the SNES.
I completed the latest game in the series earlier this year, Dragon Quest XI. It’s impressive how much of the music, design and spirit of this game is still in the series.
I mastered this game on Retro Achievements, the only one that was a little frustrating was the one to get the Death Necklace. It’s an item in a chest in a cave, but it has a very low drop rate. Most of the times you open the chest you just receive gold. I think the developers thought that you would be going into the cave a lot for the gold for weapons, since the chests respawn when you leave.
The game is incredibly simple, it’s the first console RPG I think. You are on your own, there is no party. The world map is pretty small, there are only a handful of towns. The quest is very simple, and the game is mostly grinding out money and levels. Despite that I think it’s very charming, I actually really enjoyed it. Though later on I was listening to podcasts while playing.