Dragon Quest

Chunsoft was making a role-playing game for a console, that is, for a person with no keyboard, no hundred-page manual and no experience with tabletop rules. Western computer role-playing games were taken apart and reduced to a minimum: one hero, one enemy in a fight, shown large against a static background, no party formations. Every action is chosen from a command menu, right down to talking, opening a door, climbing stairs or examining the floor underfoot. Nothing can be done by accident, and nothing can be missed without seeing it in the list.

The world, meanwhile, is not locked with keys. The player is kept within bounds by the strength of the monsters: near the starting town they can be handled, farther out they can't, and an attempt to go far right away ends quickly. Progress is therefore measured in accumulated experience, and the repeated fights become the very substance of the activity. The scheme proved durable: a clear grid of rules, recognizable character art and a gradual expansion of accessible territory took hold in the Japanese role-playing school and remain there to this day.