The Slime is the mascot of the Dragon Quest console role-playing game franchise. Designed by Akira Toriyama, the basic slime resembles a water drop with two large eyes and a big smile. It made its first appearance in Dragon Warrior as the weakest enemy in the game, and usually the first the player encounters. It continues its history as a weak enemy in the series.
The Slime is also the protagonist of its own spinoff games, Slime MoriMori Dragon Quest, a Japanese Game Boy Advance title. It was followed by Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, which was released worldwide, for the Nintendo DS. These games follow a nation of slimes who are intelligent, and civilized, but also cute and somewhat comical.
The Slime is often seen as representing the Enix side of the Square Enix merger. Its counterpart is the chocobo, which represents Square. The two creatures decorate the front of the official Square Enix store, as well as its shopping bags.
"Originally when we thought up the slime it was a pile of goo and we gave it to Toriyama-san to draw a picture of and make it a proper monster. We had imagined it an icky pool of slime, but when he came back with that perfectly shaped tear-drop monster we thought it was perfect. That's part of Toriyama's power to take something like a pool of slime and use his imagination to make it a great character." -- Yuji Horii
The Slime shares its name with characters from other games, including many other RPGs, such as an enemy monster from Namco's The Tower of Druaga, which was released two years prior to the first Dragon Quest game.
Stats
| Game | System | HP | MP | Atk | Def | Agi | Gold | EXP | Sp/Ab | Treasure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DW1 | NES | 3 | 2 | 1 | None | |||||
| DW2 | NES | 5 | 2 | 1 | None | |||||
| DW3 | NES | 8 | 2 | 5 | None | |||||
| DW4 | NES | 8 | 2 | 1 | None |
Slime Family
There are many different types of slime found throughout the series, including slimes in different colors, nautical slimes (wearing conch shells), metal slimes (with extremely high defense), and cureslimes (who have tentacles and use magic). In some Dragon Quest titles, slimes also appear as friendly NPCs and peaceful inhabitants of cities.
Merchandise
As the most recognizable symbol of the best-selling video game series in Japan, the slime has been featured prominently in Dragon Quest-related merchandise. It now has their own section called 'Smile Slime' on the Square Enix JP shopping website. Slime merchandise includes plush toys, pencil cases, keychains, game controllers and a stylus.