I’ve been a Final Fantasy nerd ever since I could remember and I still think that most of those games are some of my favorites. It also seems like since I was a kid I thought that the Dragon Warrior series, now the Dragon Quest series, was similar to Final Fantasy but not as good. This opinion was based solely on the impression I got from playing the first Dragon Warrior game for ten minutes in the eighties.

I kept thinking this up until a few years ago when Dragon Quest 8 came out and it looked too cool not to try.

I loved it.

It gave me Dragon Warrior Fever. The next thing you know, I went about getting all of the original NES games and beating them. Now I’m not saying that this makes Final Fantasy not good, I’m just surprised what I’ve been missing out on my whole life.

It’s interesting to me how similar these series are technically, but how drastically different they are with their game play. The biggest differences to me are that Final Fantasy, particularly recently, are willing to break the classic RPG stereotypes (I.E. no level-up system etc.) whereas Dragon Warrior has stuck to their original rules to the letter.

Final Fantasy has always tried to make their games, battle, magic, and level-up systems almost indistinguishable from the last, and I think that it actually keeps there series really fresh. Dragon Warrior keeps all of these things very traditional, but keeps it interesting and fresh in different ways. For instance, giving you different types of parties specific to that game. I think since the Final Fantasy games get so wacky with how they’re doing things, they tend to make the games a little to easy in order to compensate for their tricky new battle systems. Since Dragon Warrior has been sticking to it’s chops, they have it figured out and are able to perfectly balance what level you are for what dungeon, and keep the game much more challenging than any of the Final Fantasy games.

Dragon Warrior keeps it simple and gets the job done, and that is true for their story telling as well.

Final Fantasy gets much more complex with their stories and is much more involving as far as that goes. Dragon Warrior hasn’t even come close to drawing a tear from my eyes, but Final Fantasy, I’m not embarrassed to say, has.

I like both series, and they both are good at what they do.

My prescription is this: If you like in depth, involving story, then you should be playing Final Fantasy, If you want flawless kick-ass challenging game play, then you should pick up Dragon Warrior.