God bless this kind of videos, they are ageless, just as these magnificent games. Thank you for these spectacular reviews of these wonderful games. One day in like 2200 maybe people will watch this video to get a culture on this already lost era of gaming. 8 years later the release of this video I'm telling you good fucking job man. Please come back sometime with more video like this.

Yuji put it perfect, that is what I enjoyed about the old school grinding. It made you appreciate what it was you were trying to get or achieve.

Had to come back an re-watch your Dragon Quest videos. Can't wait for Dragon Quest XI.

Took me 6 years to finally getting around to it after watching this vid, but I finally did it. Went through dq 1, 2, and 3 (actually played 3 back when it was on gba). Your assessment was very accurate, and I had a blast! Thank you for your making these and I hope one day to see more from you guys whether that be gems or podcasts!

I really love Dragon Quest

I remember watching this channel as a kid. Takes me back.

2019 and I still come back to this video!! Im still holding out for season 5 lolz

I disagree with your view on the GBC remakes. I just finished the first game, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, enough to surprise me that such an old game could be so much fun. In no way is it text-heavy like other RPGs: at most, characters speak three sentences. Usually just one. So the small screen was not a problem. The only problem with the small screen I had was it could be difficult to find your way in the overworld.

it was Christmas 1987 i was setting up the new nes for my son so he could dive right in i subscribed to Nintendo Power and we got Dragon Warrior 2 as a bonus for Subscribing i was testing the game to see if it was any good the next thing i know my son is tapping me on the shoulder asking is that mine I turned red and handed him the controller and said its good really really good...

I remember watching this video years ago and only now have I finally gotten around to playing these games via the phone port and I love them! Especially Dragon Quest 2. He calls it the black sheep but I think its the best. Its the perfect blend between classic JRPG without too much customization to worry about but an amazing amount of stuff to explore and unique situations to find yourself in.

You can see Eldrick's tombstone in Final Fantasy...

watching this while grinding in Dragon Quest 11...Roo I miss your videos :(

You've convinced me to give the originals a try.

I was one of the kids who played Dragon Warrior through Nintendo Power and did this game ever redefine an entire medium. Video games were never the same again.

I agree, Roo is GREAT when it comes to doing videos about RPG's!

I don't know why but experience grinding is kind of calming for me, whenever I'm pissed I will just grind and feel relaxed again.

never cease to amaze me!! 16 bit gems is THE best series on video games on youtube. I can watch them over and over again and learn something new everytime!!

I recently got my hands on the original NES versions of the first three games. I'm currently about midway through the second game. For such old-school RPGs, they're actually pretty fun. I've never played anything from this franchise before, but that's definitely changing, since i'm currently hunting down more of the games.

I know this sounds weird but in RPGs I like the black backround in battles. The black backrounds just create surreal feeling. Also whenever I see the black backround and the white outlined windows it reminds me of Mother 1 :D

A little of both. I personally knew nothing of the Japanese language starting out, but have learned as I create more videos. Plus, I had some great help with with the language in the last few episodes (check the credits!)

Hell of a history lesson, Roo. Love this series.

I always come back to your videos. I realize you aren't making 16-bit Gems anymore. However, I just wanted to thank you for the time you put into these. Comprehensive and entertaining. I hope you still realize that you we value you and everything you've done. Stay fuzzy, my pickle.

Love these videos! I'm on hiatus from playing Dragon Quest 8 on PS2. This got me hyped to continue!

A great video - I haven't ever check out Dragon Quest, mainly because I'm from Europe - I will have to check these out!

I always liked the grinding in JRPGs. It was always an appealing little dopamine loop for me.

A word of warning to those who play DQ2 on a SNES Emulator. Stay away from the Beran inn! Normally, the Prince of Cannock becomes ill & you must give him a 'Leaf of the World Tree' in order to cure him. However, if you do, the game will get stuck in an infinite text loop, causing you to reset or reload a save state.

Roo, let me say this on behalf of all fans out there: PLEASE never stop making these videos as long as you are able! Heck, if you run out of games, go to 8-bit gems, 32-bit gems, hell even do MAINSTREAM 16-bit gems (chrono trigger, FF6, etc) You are FAR AND AWAY the best, most informative retro review/history collection of videos on YT, bar none, and please don't stop anytime soon!

I bought Dragon Warrior on the NES when it came out. I think I was maybe like 10 or 11. My previous experience with rpgs was limited to Zelda II- A Link to the Past. My favorite part of that game was collecting XP and making my character more powerful. Having cut my teeth on the 2600 as a six year old, then playing games like Super Mario, Trojan, Metroid, Kid Icarus and various other platformers (of course the first Zelda too) Link made me feel so much more connected to the character on the screen. So when I fired up Dragon Warrior man was I ever blown away. There was a pretty girl my age that lived next door and we often stayed over at each other's houses, and without going into detail due to our ages at the time I'll say we were very fond of each other and made more than a few clumsy attempts at becoming adults. The night I got the game she came over to spend the night. I was so obsessed with the game I barely paid the poor girl any attention, and of course she was none too happy about that. This was my first experience (but not my last) with why girlfriends often hate video games- they steal attention away from them. As far as the grinding goes I generally enjoyed that part, although it did get pretty tedious in the late game when it took forever to gain another level. I liked the fact that it was up to me how powerful my character was going to be entering the next dungeon. It also gave me a real rush when I finally got that level, and I could really tell the difference between one level and the next, unlike most of today's games where levels come very quickly or they just don't seem to matter at all, especially with enemy scaling. I loathe enemy scaling. What's the point of gaining levels if my enemy gains levels with me? That monster I ran into at level 3 who I couldn't even scratch then? I want to come back when I'm level 20 and do the same to him.

Great transcition at the end from 8bit to orchestra.

Nice shout-out to Metropolis, I love that movie, and Dragon Quest II.

The first Dragon Quest never came to Europe but we had the anime. In Spain Roto/Loto/Eldrick was named "Fly" and the anime was named "The adventures of Fly" in Spain. I know in Italy the anime was named "The knight of the dragon".

I miss Roo

Also, I've always liked level grinding. I don't know why, but it's most likely because of a sense of accomplishment.

I just love the way the hero sashays around the overworld in the original 'Dragon Quest' game, never ever turning his back to the audience... Welcome back, Roo! Another gem of a Gem.

There is so much attention to details and accuracy in your videos, it really shows the passion you have for these. I would like to thank you for making these, I really enjoy every one of your videos!

I am so happy you reviewed these games and talked about the series in a whole. It's just SO underrated. Love Dragon Quest series. My text tone is the Level Up noise. Haha. Great job on this video!

I wish we would of got Final Fantasy II III & IV on the NES to go along with the 4 Dragon Warriors, I seriously would of never made it to school on time and would probably of never got any homework done though if we did. Lol still would of loved it. Dragon Warrior 1-4 are so epic for that time period.

I love the care, attention and knowledge that goes into these videos. Theres no stone left unturned.

Best video game history lessons on KZfaq. Keep them coming!

I didn't like Dragon Warrior until I solved one of the puzzles where an old man says something like "Push on a wall of darkness and the way shall be revealed". So, I looked, saw that all round the room were dark areas behind the wall, and for the first time, experienced what it felt like to solve a competent dialogue puzzle. I was hooked after that... that pendant later on was a bitch to find because the coordinates are backwards. Really cool when I found that as well.

I know the video is old but pretty good man, DQI and II are worth to be played if you are a jrpg fan. Very well explained 😄

Roo come back!!!

And now they are all on the Switch!! I just beat all three of them! Three is my favorite so far. Fixing to start dragon quest 4.

Oh how I've missed my retro game trivia. Welcome back, can't wait to see more episodes!

This video was suprisingly formative for me! It taught me that thing about the Japanese language and gave me some real insight into how older game mechanics can still be valid from a game design standpoint! Great video!

LOL at the pronunciation lesson mid video, very well made and informative. You Rock Roo!

I really appreciate you mentioning the consonant distinctions / similarities with the L and R tongue sounds compared to Japanese languages in terms of pronouncing these letters in our alphabet. I've never seen it explained like this and now it make so much sense, thank you! (I have a personal experience when I was younger with a Japanese foreign exchange student and as a kid we were amused that she couldn't pronounce rooster, and kept saying what sounded like looster to me. I tried to assist her in differentiating but she really struggled with certain words even though could clearly say other words with L and R specifically, but relative to which part thee 'shape of the sound' appear in the particular word. We both found it amusing of course but it's great to add this context, I wish could have understood the shape of tounge in relation to speech to potentially explain this at the time xD)

great review, but my god. the key change between the 8 bit and orchestrated credit music (and i on no way hold you responsible for it) gave me goosebumps!

- Waited months on end for a new 16 Bit Gem - Got yet another RPG review - Hoping the next one will be something different - Was promised yet another RPG review - Drank to forget Seriously though, Roo is the man. The amount of effort and research put into this series is absolutely mind-boggling. I guess I'm just still hoping for more stuff akin to Sunset Riders or Castlevania: Rondo Of Blood, which is more up my alley. That's my opinion right there.

How does this video only have 153k views?!?

A good episode as usual. I only discovered your show a month or so ago. You inspired me to watch an walk through of dragon quest 8

The birth of a nation bit gave me a good chuckle.

Wow, this is what a youtube gaming video should be. You sir, are a true professional.

Another awesome episode. so glad i found this channel.

Good ol' Dragon Quest. I got II and IV on my android device. It's nice revisiting them even if Dragon Quest IV was a lot easier this time around compared to the NES version (and it wasn't just controlling your party in Chapter V). BTW I liked Horii's explanation for grinding. Personally I always called it training because I often found it fun. Plus also when I got older it was fun to just take wild risks to see how far you could make it. It was a way to make rpgs really thrilling much like a horror/suspense game.

Played through the GBC version of Dragon Quest 1 today. I've never before played any game in the series for like more than ten minutes, and actually I haven't really played any JRPGs for a very long time for that matter, with the exception of the Mother series. Today however when I started DQ1, I got immediately hooked. I even grinded for better gear for nearly the first hour and had a blast doing it. I ended up playing the game until the sucker was beat. I played on my trusty PSP, and for most of the time, I had the emulator's "turbo mode" in use, which makes the game run on about 1.5x speed. I'm really glad I thought of trying it. You don't lose a thing playing the game a bit faster. Next I'll play Dragon Quest III:s GBC version. That game actually has more fluent speed naturally, so no turbos required.

Another fantastic video Roo - I have never played any of the DQ games, so it is interesting to see the roots of modern JRPG's. Looking forward to the next one!

The SNES remake of DQ2 really balanced out the characters and their relative strengths. In particular the Prince of Cannock has better weapon options plus his Firebane spell is more powerful.

why arent these videos more popular, their crazy entertaining

Hooray! It's only been 16 years sice the last 16-bit gems! Yay!

Awesome episode like always, and great to have you back, Roo.

I first played these games on the GBC, and I'm in the middle of DQ2 for Super Famicom. Good job explaining what makes these games so great. Since I "grew up" with the GBC-era names, the hero will always be Loto to me. III is good, but personally I'd say that V, VII, or VIII are the best ones in the series.

This, this right here.. made me really happy :)

Glad to see you back Roo

Good to be back!

LOL! The 'Birth of a Nation' reference actually got a " o.O " out of me before you switched.

OMG I waited soooooooooo long for this video. I've been a Dragon Quest/Warrior fan since I was about 10 years old and bought the DQ I&II remake for my GBC. But I'm really excited for your DQIII video since I am one of those people that do believe it is the BEST game in the entire series, not just because of gameplay updates , but also because of how it ties the 3 games together. Also, I REALLY wish they would release the Wii collection here in the states, because it would make me super happy.

I second that! Well said mister. And a lot of appreciation for you Mr. Roo.

Best thing about dragon quest is that u keep ur xp when u die. U just lose ur gold and that I can live with

Erdrick sounds like a fantasy hero. Roto/Loto sounds like some appliance you buy from an infomercial.

Very interesting stuff, love from one of Pats fans

Nice to have you back. Love your vids. I actually first experienced DQ/DW through the gameboy version and Dragon Warrior Monsters. And I always knew the hero as Loto. But either way. I love this series

I thought to myself "Hey, i just learned about that R and L sound in Japanese not too long ago"... but then i realized i learned it from you on a stream you did in the timeframe of "not too long ago". :)

Oh sweet baby Jesus, I have been waiting quietly for these reviews.

I imported Dragons Quest I & 2 just so I could play the fan translation via emulator. I can not wait to dig into the roots of the series. Dragon Quest 8 is till this day on my top 5 along with the original Phantasy Star.

Looking forward to more Dragon Quest reviews!

Just going to lay this out there - The game is out on Android/IOS and have great controls and graphics. The only negatives are portrait mode (if you dislike that) and the lack of the cutscene at the start of 3 which I'd recommend you watch before you play it.

Glad to see you back Roo, I was afraid that you had abandoned the series for good

As a historian, I would love to see a national video game registry someday.

Excellent episode Roo! You've became my favorite internet reviewer.

LOL. That birth of a nation bit made me lol in the worst way possible XP

Must. Find. Now! I swear I cried when my GBC games stopped working.

I myself have not dipped into the Dragon Quest series at all yet, but I would like to in the future.

More than worth the wait

These are amazing remakes. Those graphics rival Phantasy Star.

I believe the art is because of how popular Dragon Balls was which would be what inspired the art style of both Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger's characters.

Thank you, a pleasure to watch.

True enough - though I haven't tried it myself. Plus there's the constant threat of Nintendo updates breaking the mod if you aren't careful. Valid point regardless!

YOU'RE BACK! I missed you...

Dragon Quest VIII is my favorite Dragon Quest EVER. I should try some of the older titles haha

Amazing video as always... But at first, I totally thought that, in your intro, you were saying "This is the roof of the clan of the grey wolf." Yeah, I'm an idiot.

This is so informative! I don't think anyone else has done as good of a job of explaining this series to an English-speaking audience!

Ahh, Good to have you back Mr. Bonertown!

Finally... a new episode!

Language lessons about pronunciation well placed in a game about Dragon Quest, the Shonen Jump/Enix Love Child.

I understand the record scratch when you talk about birth of a nation, since their is a older lost film

Days? DAYS? Where I live is 31 already, as in, last day of the month. Not long afterwards here in Spain we enter the 1st of June, there will be very little time for Mr. Roo to deliver. He already said on the Echo Screen that he would post "before next Weekly Wringer". That time has passed. Roo, WE AWAIT EAGERLY. DO NOT DISAPPOINT US!

That was my first impression when I read their Manga.....Man that was AGES ago xD

RIP Koichi Sugiyama

Hey, they're all available on IOS and Android/Google Play now.