Role-playing video game
Typically action RPGs feature each player directly controlling a single character in real time, and feature a strong focus on combat and action with plot and character interaction kept to a minimum. Early action RPGs tended to follow the template set by 1980s Nihon Falcom titles such as the "Dragon Slayer" and "Ys" series, which feature hack and slash combat where the player character's movements and actions are controlled directly, using a keyboard or game controller, rather than using menus. This formula was refined by the action-adventure game, "The Legend of Zelda" (1986), which set the template used by many subsequent action RPGs, including innovations such as an open world, nonlinear gameplay, battery backup saving, and an attack button that animates a sword swing or projectile attack on the screen. The game was largely responsible for the surge of action-oriented RPGs released since the late 1980s, both in Japan and North America. "The Legend of Zelda" series would continue to exert an influence on the transition of both console and computer RPGs from stat-heavy, turn-based combat towards real-time action combat in the following decades.
Dragon Quest (video game)
Bill Johnson compared "Dragon Warrior" to modern RPGs and noted the game's complete lack of replay value, which is due as much to the requirement that almost everything in the game must be done to beat it as to its difficulty. Johnson noted the game's historical importance; he said: "[Playing "Dragon Warrior" is] a tough road to walk, but reaching its end will instill a new appreciation of what today's RPG's are all about." The 2009 book "Vintage Games" contrasted "Dragon Warrior" to the 1986 NES title "The Legend of Zelda"; it said, while both titles share common RPG elements, "Zelda" features a fantasy setting and magic but no level or turn-based combat system, and "Dragon Warrior" features both. "Nintendo Power" said the game's historical significance is its greatest aspect, and noted that "playing "Dragon Warrior" these days can be a bit of a chore". "GamePro" wrote that their favorite aspect of the game was the Elizabethan-English dialogue, and that they were disappointed by its removal in the GBC remake.