Although Dragon Quest is one of the most popular game series in the East, it has never quite caught on in the West. Released under the banner of Square Enix, the series was often overshadowed by sister series Final Fantasy. While this never stopped any mainline entry from being released in the West (except for X, which is an MMO), I can’t help but feel that Dragon Quest never got the due it deserved. Its pedigree and influence is rooted in some of the earliest examples of role-playing games, and each game in the series utilizes that inspiration to craft a wonderful experience with mass appeal and its own ingenuity.. With all that said–and the recent release of Dragon Quest I & II – HD-2D Remake–it’s time for you to finally play Dragon Quest.
The case for playing Dragon Quest begins with the start of the RPG genre as a whole. When Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord released in 1981, it helped define what would later become known as the dungeon-crawler, a type of role-playing experience that asked players to form a party of various heroes with gear and venture into an unknown space to fight monsters and seek treasures. Wizardry streamlined the dice rolling and stat math of Dungeon & Dragons and condensed it into video game form, allowing players to venture into the same peril of their tabletop on their glowing screens for the first time ever.
Now Playing: DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake – Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase Trailer
Ultima followed soon after, and took this new, streamlined version of tabletop role-playing games and added an explorable open world to the mix. What was once relegated to hexagonal graph paper and imagination was now fully playable in the digital realm of entertainment. Wizardry and Ultima were some of the first examples of what gamers everywhere would come to know as RPGs.
Wizardry and Ultima inspired Enix developer Yuji Horii to develop his own RPG for the Nintendo Famicom. Using an overworld map layout inspired by Ultima and the stat-based-command combat system of Wizardry, he set out to create his own version that would appeal to Japanese audiences.The resulting game, Dragon Quest, released in 1986.
With Dragon Quest, Japanese audiences were introduced to a setting inspired by swords and sorcery yet unique in its visual identity. A large part of this is due to Horii recruiting famed Dragon Ball artist and creator Akira Toriyama for the enemy and character designs, giving the game a unique fairy-tale feel as opposed to its Western contemporaries’ darker aesthetic.
Dragon Quest (first released in the US as Dragon Warrior) follows a descendant from the legendary hero of Erdrick as they’re summoned to save the world from the evil Dragonlord, who seeks ultimate power. In the game, players traverse a diverse overworld as the lone hero, fighting monsters to gain the power needed to defeat the Dragonlord as they wander. The battle system plays out from a first-person perspective, and sees players select commands before watching them play out on screen, eventually leading to the end result of battle. This combat system would go on to serve not only as the foundation for the rest of the series, but as inspiration for many of the RPGs that would follow.
Not long after its release, Dragon Quest exploded in popularity in Japan, leading to speculation that Square Enix was not allowed to release an entry in the series on a weekday because of the amount of people who would inevitably call out sick or ditch school to play the newest installment.
Part of this popularity stemmed from the simple fact that each entry in the Dragon Quest series is consistent in ways that a series like Final Fantasy isn’t. Up until recently, the series has always had involvement from creator Yuji Horii, character designer Akira Toriyama, and composer Koichi Sugiyama. So whereas a series like Final Fantasy may change developers and subsequently falter or be less appealing aesthetic- or gameplay-wise from entry to entry, Dragon Quest maintains a distinct identity and high level of quality from entry to entry.
Dragon Quest also lends itself to episodic play, with narratives that often take place over a large span of time. Take, for example, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, where our heroes are put on a quest but don’t quite face world-threatening events until the narrative is closer to the finale. This allows the game to take its time introducing every character and backstory, but also allows players to take their time and experience all the stories and vignettes the world has to offer.
The series has also had an influence on other wildly popular series. For example, Dragon Quest is actually both the in-game and real-life reason that the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series has shifted to a turn-based RPG. Though often misattributed to Persona, protagonist Ichiban Kasuga makes it clear that Horii’s iconic series is the driving influence as he states that, because Dragon Quest is his favorite video game of all time, he pictures every combat encounter as turn-based in his mind.
Part of the reason I believe Dragon Quest hasn’t quite taken off in the West is because, for the longest time, the series was relegated to handheld and mobile devices. Whereas Final Fantasy always received big-budget console entries following the Square and Enix merger, Dragon Quest IV through VI got Nintendo DS North American debuts, Dragon Quest IX was a Nintendo DS exclusive, and Dragon Quest X skipped North America entirely. For the longest time, Dragon Quest VIII was the only mainline console entry post-merger.
But times have changed, and we live in a world where players might be seeking those classic RPG experiences. Fortunately, Square seems to be attempting to make it right. This past year, Dragon Quest III (arguably the most beloved entry in the series) received a full remake in the gorgeous 2D-HD style similar to Octopath Traveler. Last month, remakes of Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest II in the same style were released to critical acclaim. A brand-new installment, Dragon Quest XII, is currently in development, with Yuji Horii once again overseeing the project. Perhaps most exciting though is a full remake of Dragon Quest VII releasing soon with the “Reimagined” subtitle.
The seventh installment is notorious for being perhaps one of the longest RPGs of all time, but also features arguably the best story in the entire series. VII originally came out for the original PlayStation and had a remake on 3DS, but has never been rereleased otherwise. Reimagined looks to remain faithful to the original gameplay experience with much needed quality-of-life improvements, but also brings to life Toriyama’s beloved art style in ways that have not been done before, featuring in-game character models that are based on high-resolution scans of physical dolls made of the main cast of characters. It’s a touch of love and care that the series doesn’t often get.
While other RPGs remain popular, there’s something endearing about the Dragon Quest series as a whole. Whether it’s the classic sword-and-sorcery aesthetics, the charming music and art style, or the more relaxed level of play, the series has found a way to endure. In a world where RPGs aim to be more complex and modern, there’s a void in gaming that’s filled by the Dragon Quest games. It’s time you finally gave the series a chance and experienced the legend of one of gaming’s best role-playing games.
