A playthrough of Enix’s 2001 role-playing game for the Sony PlayStation, Dragon Warrior VII.
This is part one of a seven-part playthrough.
Part 2: https://youtu.be/yQfDc22jNkI
Part 3: https://youtu.be/PFW9c-9RSxA
Part 4: https://youtu.be/qPuHhLQsB2w
Part 5: https://youtu.be/f7_mNlkyFj8
Part 6: https://youtu.be/tV–XxsP4n4
Part 7: https://youtu.be/A6qfhH4Ix8U
A few timestamps
The Ancient Ruins 1:08:16
Rexwood 1:41:19
Engow 3:38:53
Dialac 5:01:22
Orph 5:46:22
Falrish 7:03:34
Verdham 9:47:52
Following the 1992 release of Dragon Warrior IV (https://youtu.be/2HukXrlEwk8 ), English-speaking fans of the series got left out in the cold. Enix America closed up shop in 1995, firmly squashing any hope of future localized releases until the company was reestablished in 2000. Once that happened, we weren’t made to wait long. After nine long years, Dragon Warrior was back!
…and on the PlayStation? Yeah, Enix dealt Nintendo a huge blow when they jumped ship. Dragon Warrior VII was apparently intended to be a 64DD game, but it shifted tracks during development. Sounds a lot like Square’s Final Fantasy VII announcement, doesnt it?
Dragon Warrior VII is one of those games that shine a light on the sometimes stark differences in taste between the Japanese and American markets. In Japan, it stands as the best-selling PlayStation game ever released. In the United States, it got a far more mixed reception, and a lot of people outright dismissed it, calling it ugly and outdated.
I mean, it was a post-Final Fantasy VII world, right?
But the thing is, it wasn’t particularly ugly or outdated, even in 2001. At least, I didn’t think so. I found the presentation really charming, and the game faithfully represented the brand as a solid, polished evolutionary step forward for the series’ various gameplay systems. It wasn’t interested in chasing Final Fantasy, and it caught a lot of flak in the US because of it.
In Dragon Warrior VII, the general idea is that other places in the world once existed, and you have the power to jump into these places of the past to fix history. Like Quantum Leap, sans possession. Once you’ve saved the people from certain doom, their descendents appear in the modern day, and piece-by-piece, you rebuild the world.
The stories of these places are told over the course of twenty episodic tales, each one tied to a pedestal in the temple you find at the beginning of the game. The stories appear unrelated at first, but over time the threads that bind them are revealed and give rise to a far grander overarching plot – a plot that gives the game its uniquely Enix-flavored emphasis on religion. (Remember ActRaiser, Terranigma, EVO, et al? The vibe is alive and well here, too.) It would spoil the story to discuss it here in any further depth, but the way everything comes together in DW7 is just as satisfying as it was in DW3 and 4.
Dragon Warrior VII is a beast of a game, though. There’s an insane amount of content packed in here that will last you quite awhile. The first time I played it, I had put in about 90 hours by the time the credits rolled, and that was mostly sticking to the main story. There’s a monster farm that you can help build, you can create your own city, there are several casinos to gamble at, and once you finish the game, there are bonus dungeons and superbosses to take on.
And then there’s the incredible amount of text in the game. The script runs about a thousand pages long. No wonder the game took so long to make, or why it took a team of twenty-five a full year to translate it. The translation isn’t particularly great – it’s full of typos and the tone of the writing is really inconsistent – but the quality is pretty typical of RPGs of its time.
The battle system is in top-form and nicely streamlined, and the job system is back and more intimidating than ever. There are three tiers of classes, each class has its own abilities and stat boosts, certain combinations can give rise to special battle abilities, and you can take on monster classes to permanently learn all their unique moves. Every class has real merit, and you can build all of your characters however you like by cherry picking abilities.
The only complaint that I’d level at the game is that it’s so damn long. Most of it is top-quality stuff, but I did find my attention swaying at times. It feels like it’s making up for lost time (it had been five years since DW6) by packing two or three games’ worth of content into a single mega release.
Even still, it’s a fantastic RPG that rewards patience and dedication, and it offers everything a Dragon Warrior fan could’ve asked for. If you’re a DW fan and have the time for such a sprawling game, I enthusiastically recommend it.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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33 Comments
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Dragon Warrior VII requires a solid commitment, but in return it provides one of the best RPG experiences of the 32-bit era.
You're actually gonna tackle this absolute unit of a game. Nice
🤩🤩🤩
Super video.
One of the only Dragon Quest main series game I haven’t played. I’m surprised you didn’t do DQV or DQVI before this one. Especially DQV, as it’s one of the more popular Dragon Quest games.
I've always heard about how infamously lengthy and slow-paced this entry into the series was, so I've been too afraid to really sacrifice hours upon hours of my precious time on this earth into this thing. Love the attack animations of the enemy sprites though.
"Yeah, Enix dealt Nintendo a huge blow when they jumped ship. Dragon Warrior VII was apparently intended to be a 64DD game, but it shifted tracks during development. Sounds a lot like Square's Final Fantasy VII announcement, doesnt it?"
Square actually convinced Enix to move the franchise over to Sony. I'm sure the sales Final Fantasy VII had did a lot to convince Enix that it wasn't a bad idea.
Do you plan to 100% walkthrough? I think theres no dq7 100% on youtube
The best 2d dragon quest in my opinion. It's not made for noobz though. It tells the best story I think of all the series by far. Last Era of having to use notes for an rpg. This is a large adventure with lots of information and time travel.
PS1 RPGS were so fun. My favorites were Wild Arms and Shadow Madness.
I have got the 3DS remake and is marvelous.
This was such a strange period for the Dragon Quest series. They were still using the localization strategy of the Game Boy ports with the truncated names and all, still using the name "Dragon Warrior", etc. It's a weird stopgap between the olde English translation of the NES quartet and the modern localization style.
Also on Nintendo 3DS
But sad that it never came on Nintendo 64
I got my hands on the 3DS remake of the game. I know it changes several things like character and location names, edits certain parts like making the Ancient Ruins much smaller and more navigable, adding in a shard radar, etc. But I still fell in love with this game, it charmed me utterly and got me into the Dragon Quest series. On top of that, one of the character's stories really struck a cord with me personally and helped me get out of a dark part in my life.
I am curious on the general opinion between the PS1 and 3DS versions of the games, since I've only experienced the remake and none of my friends have played either game.
"Playthrough [1 of 6]"
I'm surprised you didn't die in real life, hats off for you NC~
Part 1 of 6?
Fuck yes.
the last title to use the 'warrior' title
from 8 onwards the series would use the japanese name
Are you going to play Dragon Quest V and VI on SNES in English Patch, because this games are skipped to to VII for some reason, because the two games on SNES is given quite darker until it was released on Nintendo DS.
At this rate you might get me interested in this series
Hey NC, I'm always looking for other channels that do PS1 content. I love this stuff. Liked and subbed 🙂
its a LONG one by the time I mastered EVERY job in game on the PS1 version I spend around 250 to 300 hours even the 3DS version is shorter but NOT by MUCH at 200 hours to master every job class on all 5 permanent party members and Keifer is NOT 1 of them.
The 3DS remake is a hell of a lot easier/shorter to GET to the FIRST battle in game around 45 minutes vs 1 to 2 hours PS1 version.
I got the 3DS remake. I bet when this game came out way back in 2001, people who have played Dragon Warrior 1, 2, 3 and 4 were wondering: "Where is Dragon Warrior 5 and 6?" Nintendo gave American Dragon Quest/Warrior fans the Final Fantasy 2, 3, and 5 treatment.
I think I had Around 300 hours and still was far from the ending, this game is great. I do remember playing it when I was young, and was sick with Kidney Stones, there lying in my bed heavily drugged i often drifted in consciousness while playing this game, the amazing part was when i was grinding levels, My hands would still move while being unconscious, since it was a simple grind of a few commands, and I made 5 levels while being unconscious in Dharma Temple Outskirts XD.
As one who loved the 3ds emulation of dragon quest 7, this warrior version has a place in my mind and heart so rent free that its amazing. DQ/DW 7 will always be my favorite for introducing me to the wonders of Square Enix RPGs and Akira Toriyamas non-Dragon Ball related works
This game is so slow…. And cliched. The story has been told so many times that is a chore to sit trough.
just remember this game being mentioned on r/jrpg as being one of the longest JRPGs ever made
Btw, is this on the PS1 or an emulator?
in 2002 i bought this game as i had nothing to play on my brand new PS2, that was 20 years ago. for whatever reason I had the sudden urge to see someone play this game. this was the first video that popped up. when I saw the name being entered A …… L……. E…… X……. I thought I had stepped into the twilight zone and was watching 10 year old me playing this game. nostalgia Is a helluva drug.
I did it. I finally did it. You have inspired me to buy a copy of Dragon Warrior VII on eBay.
It may not have been cheap, but the good news is, I don’t have to pay for it all at once. I can pay like $20 a month.
Since I can't find a compilation, I decided to compile the cgi cutscenes, and edit as I go.
2:25
3:38:59
(If you know of more, let me know).
damn
Dragon Quest VII is definitely one of my favorite games in the series even though I started with 1 and 2 way back on the GameBoy Color. I love the story that VII had and how deep it gets as you go along.