Dragon Quest series, which was hugely influential in the early days of gaming.
The mainline entries in the Dragon Quest and The Legend of Zelda series belong in different genres. The Dragon Quest series is composed of turn-based RPGs, where the player controls a party of adventurers as they explore dungeons and fight groups of monsters. The Legend of Zelda series is composed of action-adventure games, with some light RPG elements. The battles in The Legend of Zelda series are all about skill and timing on the player's part, with Link often facing groups of enemies or massive foes on his own. Dragon Quest games are all about strategy and resource management, while The Legend of Zelda is about quick reflexes and positioning.
It took a long time, but the Dragon Quest and The Legend of Zelda series finally crossed over in 2019, when Hero ed Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a DLC character. This meant that the protagonist of Dragon Quest III, IV, VIII, and XI could finally cross blades with Link on the battlefield. The heroes may have taken a long time to fight each other, but the Dragon Quest and The Legend of Zelda series are closely connected through their creators, with the design of the games sharing a similar philosophy in regards to difficulty.
The Influence Of Dragon Quest On Japanese Video Games
The Dragon Quest series is much more popular in Japan than it is in other territories. This has started to change, thanks to the reception to Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, which is now available on all modern systems, but the international reception is nowhere near that of the love for the game in its homeland. Despite this, the Dragon Quest series has directly inspired many of the biggest video game franchises that have come out of Japan. The Final Fantasy series was heavily inspired by Dragon Quest and the original entry in the series even referenced it, with Erdrick from Dragon Quest III''s gravestone appearing in Elfheim. The two franchises would eventually fall under the same banner when Squaresoft and Enix merged, and the two have crossed over many times.
By far the biggest games to be inspired by Dragon Quest were Pokémon Red and Blue, as the trading mechanic that made the games so popular was inspired by Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri's frustrations with Dragon Quest 2. There was a rare item in Dragon Quest 2 that Tajiri wanted, but couldn't find, as it was a rare drop. When he found out that a co-worker had acquired two of the items, he came up with the idea of trading items between games. The Dragon Quest series has left a huge mark on the industry, even if it's not an international success story.
How Dragon Quest & Ocarina Of Time Have Similar Difficulty
The original Dragon Quest and The Legend of Zelda games launched in '86. The Dragon Quest series was closely associated with the Nintendo brand for many years and it didn't make the jump to another system until the year 2000 when Dragon Quest 7 was released for the original PlayStation. Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii and The Legend of Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto have been contemporaries for many years, and have even conducted interviews together in publications like Famitsu. The two have discussed each other's series fondly and how they enjoy playing them.
Miyamoto has directly compared the game balance difficulty in Ocarina of Time to that of the Dragon Quest series. He did so in an interview printed in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Encyclopedia. The interview was translated by Shmuplations and the full piece can be read on their website, along with other rare interviews given by Japanese game developers.
If I can take the player's side for a moment, isn't it also necessary that the action be a bit difficult, and puzzles be somewhat challenging, for the game to be interesting?
Miyamoto: Hearing you say that puts my mind at peace. To be sure, even in the Dragon Quest series, people don't praise Horii and Nakamura for the exquisite balance; it's rather that the unforgiving difficulty in some places ended up making it more memorable.
Hidden in that phenomenon we see a grand theme of game design; it's still ongoing and I haven't found the perfect "conclusion" myself yet, either. But as a developer, the important thing is that if you can reach a certain level of quality, then you can establish a relationship of trust with players. That is something unique to the interactive medium of video games, I think.
Fans The Difficult And Challenging Moments In Ocarina Of Time
Miyamoto's comments about fans ing the hard parts ring true with Ocarina of Time, as people still look back on the Water Temple after all of these years. In the case of the Water Temple, it might be for the wrong reasons, as it's one of the most frustrating dungeons in the game, thanks to the endless backtracking between switches and the constant pausing to equip/unequip the Iron Boots. Luckily, a lot of these elements were toned down in the 3DS remake, but they're back in full force in the version of Ocarina of Time on Nintendo Switch Online.
There is also the Dark Link boss battle in the Water Temple, who is way more fondly ed than the actual end boss of the dungeon. People look back on that battle due to how challenging and unique it was, especially compared to the rest of the game. The Dragon Quest series has many of the same elements, as 95% of the battles in each game are random encounters that go down in one round of battle. A challenging Dragon Quest boss (like Dhoulmagus in Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King) ends up being more memorable than most of the other bosses in the game.
It's always a tricky balancing act when deciding how difficult a game can be, especially one intended for a massive global audience. Nowadays, most games have difficulty modes and extra options to make things easier. Even the presence of autosave is a massive benefit, compared to the days of running back to a save point and hoping not to die. Miyamoto itted that the puzzles in Ocarina of Time had some confusing parts, but even those are memorable, as solving tricky puzzles can be one of the most memorable parts of any Legend of Zelda game.
Source: Shmuplations
