Dragon Warrior

Dragon Warrior is a role playing game for a home console, viewed from a top down perspective across its entire world. The player controls a single character, the descendant of a legendary hero named Erdrick, who is tasked by King Lorik XVI to defeat the Dragonlord. This antagonist, corrupted by magic, stole the Balls of Light that once protected Alefgard and has now kidnapped Princess Gwaelin.

Gameplay involves navigating the overworld and entering towns and dungeons, all represented by icons. Interacting with non player characters allows for conversation, purchasing equipment, and resting at inns. Movement through wilderness and dungeon areas triggers random encounters with monsters, leading to turn based, one on one combat. In these fights, the player selects actions from a menu, such as attacking, using magic which consumes a resource, employing items, or attempting to flee.

Progression is tied to defeating enemies for experience points, which automatically increases the character's capabilities upon leveling up. While the world is open for exploration from the start, the challenging nature of stronger monsters in distant regions effectively gates progress until the character is sufficiently powerful. The character has a health pool that depletes from enemy attacks; if it reaches zero, the character dies and is revived in the nearest town. The only method to record progress is by speaking to the king in the starting castle.