Dragon Warrior (USA) ROM

Dragon Warrior...the epic beginning of a new era in video games. The Dragon-lord has captured the Princess and stolen Erdrick's powerful ball of light. You are Erdrick's heir. To you has fallen the most dangerous task - to rescue the King's daughter and recover the mystic ball of light. Your mission is deadly, but it is your fate. Use cunning and wisdom to choose your commands. Gain experience, weapons, and armor as you battle your way through the world. Search out the Dragon-lord's lair and face your destiny. In this role-playing adventure you are the Dragon Warrior!

The first of the Dragon Quest series, it is one of the very first RPGs that ever existed!
Quite simply, you are the hero of the game and must stop the dreaded Dragonlord! The King of Tantegal implores you to also save the princess of the land that has been kidnapped by a dragon! However, you are still weak! You must first gain more strength, gather some items, save the princess, and defeat the Dragonlord to save the world!
This is a solo journey unlike the rest of the Dragon Quest series. Thankfully, you'll never encounter more than one enemy at a time though. You start off just whacking slimes at first around town, but eventually you will gain some very helpful spells, including healing, offensive, and status inducing magic. Some of the offensive spells are rather unnecessary, but can be handy depending your stats and the monster you fight. You most likely will be using healing magic and whacking things for most of the game.
Your stats are based on what you name yourself. It's a little odd, but also part of its unique charm. In a way, you could find out if your name is a heavy hitter or just a speedy character. If you wish to learn more about how your name affects your stats, google the game and more info will pop up.
Highly recommended to at least play through the game once if you are an RPG fan. This game actually came before Final Fantasy and can be considered the father of the turn-based RPG.

A.K.A. Dragon Quest, the definitive JRPG. Still pretty fun, and more fair than Final Fantasy NES (which has dem insta-kills man). Takes inspiration from Wizardry and Ultima. No parties here, you're all alone. Prepare for some hefty grind, both for levels and weapons. If you aren't tough and patient enough for this bad boy, consider trying the easier GBC or SNES version, both of which come with Dragon Quest II.