Originated as a cartridge on the MSX computer in Japan. The reason why the inventory and attribute systems were so sparse was because the MSX cartridge didn't contain a battery. Games were saved using a 20-character password, which wouldn't accommodate many attributes or inventory items.
First game in the Dragon Quest series.
As the first game in the series, there is no party system. Fights are always one-on-one, your lone hero character versus a single enemy.
The Japanese version of this game featured a static character sprite that was always facing the player. The American version corrected this by adding a multi-directional sprite.
Until the 2000s, Dragon Quest games were localized in America under the name Dragon Warrior. This is to avoid infringing on the copyrights of an American tabletop RPG game called DragonQuest. Ironically, there was a similar tabletop game called Dragon Warrior, though this didn't cause any legal problems.