But you're still hungry.

I played the SNES remake (Dragon Quest I & II). The first “JRPG”! It's short and sweet, and you can see how it already has the core elements of future such games.

You're a nameless descendant of a hero who is fated to restore light to the land by defeating the evil king dragon, etc. etc. You wander around collecting relics from dungeons and shrines, visiting towns along the way to hear the townspeople tell you where to go next, to reconstruct the bridge between the continent and the dragon king’s castle, and then you go through the castle and defeat the king! And marry the princess, then go found your own country or smth!

Gameplay-wise, it is also very straightforward: you are a solo adventurer and you fight solo enemies. Your equipment is always a direct upgrade. In battle, you’ll probably use some combination of Sleep with direct attacks and heals. Annoyingly, no magic works on the boss (apparently), so you’re stuck just whacking him with your sword and healing when needed. There’s a bit of grinding, especially at the beginning when you’re not very powerful but you have to earn the money to buy armor (which is very very expensive), but it’s satisfying to think “ah yes after a few more enemies I’ll be able to kill them that much more easily”. Obviously, the more you grind at the end, the easier the final boss is, though even at level 22 I beat him pretty handily. I was rather annoyed at the need to light a torch to explore dungeons, though with a map you can walk around and turn when bumping into walls in the dark :^) I was surprised they kept in this requirement, considering that in pretty much all other respects the game basically takes a computer role-playing game and strips it down to its barest parts – a party of one, no need to worry about choosing stats/spells/equipment, no need to feed your hero, a straightforward story – but you still need a torch sitting in your inventory for every dungeon???

I was really charmed by the music and art! The music is quite lush and I had no problem putting the game in the background and just listening. I particularly liked the Barque-inspired castle music. The art is bright and striking (except the dungeons) and the enemy designs, which Dragon Quest is famous for, are super cute! You feel bad killing them sometimes...then they poison you and you're like never mind, bonk bonk.