Mandragore

Mandragore was developed and released in France in 1985 and then localized in English for the European market. It is a computer role-playing game. Most notably, it is the first open-world role-playing game made in France, and a precursor of Drakkhen.

"Mandragore" is French for "mandrake".

Story
In a nutshell: the bad guy has to be defeated in his castle. A party of adventurers should first explore nine other castles and get strong enough to complete the quest.

Gameplay

 * Interface: apart from movement, all actions are controlled by a simple text parser; since there are a few more commands than letters on the keyboard, for some commands the player should type two letters. The player should specify the acting character (numbered 1 to 4), the action, and the object (A to D or 1 to 9). Combat is neither turn-based nor in real-time, but controlled by the same text parser, thus depending on the player's typing speed.
 * Character progresson: each hero in Mandragore has six attributes that are constant throughout the game. The experience level is a hidden multiplier factor.
 * Dialogue: although the villagers have nothing to say about your quest, every dungeon/castle hosts several creatures and even enemies who will give clues about the puzzles in the same dungeon.
 * Freedom of exploration: the first nine dungeons/castles can be explored in any order. Their structure will be used in Drakkhen, too: instead of corridors, large fixed-screen rooms with doors to the adjacent rooms.