Dragon Quest
This article is about a series of role-playing games by Enix. For the first game in this series, see Dragon Warrior.
Dragon Quest (ドラゴンクエスト ,Doragon Kuesuto), published as Dragon Warrior in North America until the 2005 release of Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, is a series of role-playing games created by Yūji Horii, Akira Toriyama, and Koichi Sugiyama, published by Enix Corporation (now Square Enix). Installments of the series have appeared on MSX computers, Famicom/NES, Super Famicom/Super NES, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and Wii video game consoles, as well as on several models of mobile phone. As of April 2009, the Dragon Quest series has sold about 47 million units worldwide. It is Square Enix's second most successful franchise after Final Fantasy and is one of the most popular video game franchises in Japan.[1][2]
Dragon Quest's North American name was changed due to a trademark conflict with the role-playing game DragonQuest, which was published by veteran wargame publisher SPI in the 1980s until the company's bankruptcy in 1982 and purchase by TSR, which then published it as an alternate line to Dungeons & Dragons until 1987.[3] In 2003, Square Enix registered the Dragon Quest trademark in the United States, and has since not marketed any product under the Dragon Warrior name.
Development
History
In 1982, Enix sponsored a national video game programming contest, which brought much of the Dragon Quest team together, including Yūji Horii.[4] The prize of the competition was a trip to the United States, and a visit to AppleFest '83 in San Francisco, where Horii discovered Wizardry.[5] Koichi Nakamura and Yukinobu Chida, two other winners of the contest, along with Horii, released The Portopia Serial Murder Case for the Famicom for Enix. Sugiyama, already famous for jingles and pop songs, impressed with the group's work, sent a postcard to Enix, commenting on the software.[6] In response, Enix asked him to write music for some of its games. The group then decided to make a console role-playing game, using a combination of Wizardry and Ultima. Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, who knew Horii through the manga magazine Shonen Jump, was commissioned to illustrate the characters and monsters to separate the game from other RPGs of the time and the Dragon Quest "team" was born.[7][8]
Dragon Quest was created by Yūji Horii, who has been the scenario director since. The series monster and character designs, as well as box art, are done by famed Dragon Ball manga artist, Akira Toriyama.[9] All of the music for the Dragon Quest series has been composed by Koichi Sugiyama.[4] Dragon Quest games have been developed by Chunsoft, Heartbeat, Artepiazza, and, starting with Dragon Quest VIII, Level-5.[10] Horii's own company, Armor Project, is in charge of the Dragon Quest games, which were published by Enix and, since April 2003 by Square Enix. While Toriyama is the series' character designer, the primary designs are first conceived by Horii, before being handed to Toriyama to re-draw under Horii's supervision.[11] When Horii first created Dragon Quest, most people doubted that a fantasy series with swords and dungeons instead of science fiction would become popular in Japan; but the series has become a phenomenon there.[12]
Dragon Quest is not nearly as successful outside Japan, having been eclipsed primarily by Final Fantasy and possibly by other RPG series. Because of Enix America Corporation's closure in the mid 1990's, the SNES versions of Dragon Quest V and Dragon Quest VI were never officially released in North America. In Europe, none of the games have seen release prior to the spin-off Dragon Warrior Monsters and then Dragon Quest: Journey of the Cursed King. With the merger of Square and Enix in 2003, the number of places in which Dragon Quest games are released has greatly increased.[12] In May 2008, Square Enix announced localizations of the Nintendo DS remakes of Dragon Quest IV, V, and VI, collectively called by Square Enix the Zenithia trilogy, for North America and the PAL region.[13][14] With this announcement, all the main games in the Dragon Quest series will now have seen release outside Japan at least once.
The ninth installment is due to be released in Japan for Nintendo DS in July 2009. North American and European and other PAL region releases are suspected to follow. The tenth installment of the main series is currently in development for the Wii.
Creation and Design
"At the time I first made Dragon Quest, role-playing games on the computer were still very much in the realm of hardcore fans and not very accessible to other players. So I decided to create a system that was easy to understand and emotionally involving, and then placed my story within that framework." —Yūji Horii[7]
Yūji Horii originally used the full-screen map of Ultima and the battle and stats oriented Wizardry screen to create the gameplay of Dragon Quest.[5] The first six Dragon Quest games' stories are divided into two trilogies. The first three games of the series tell the story of the legendary hero known as Roto (also known as Erdrick or Loto in the American NES and GBC versions, respectively). Dragon Quest IV, V, and VI are based around a castle in the sky called Zenithia, and are referred to as The Tenku in Japan, meaning Heaven. The main series from Dragon Quest VII on are independent of each other and stand alone.[15]
The typical Dragon Quest plot involves a certain villain to be defeated at the end of the game, usually one who threatens the world in some way. However, the plotline often consists of smaller stories involving different NPC's the player meets as the adventure goes on.[16] The games themselves feature a number of religious overtones—saving the game (in later games) and reviving characters who have died is performed by clergy in churches. Priests are often seen wandering around the overworld of Dragon Warrior Monsters and have the ability to heal. The final enemy in some of the Dragon Quest games is known as the Demon Lord. For instance, in Dragon Warrior VII, the Demon Lord, known as Orgodemir in that particular game, is the final boss, and there is also a sidequest to battle God himself.[8] The first four Dragon Warrior titles suffered from substantial censorship in their North American localizations, largely in keeping with Nintendo of America's content guidelines at the time, which placed severe restrictions on religious iconography and mature content. When these games were remade for the Game Boy Color, many of these censorships were taken out.[17] Since Dragon Warrior VII, the games have been kept similar to their original versions when going through localization.[18]
Games
Main Series
| Title (followed by original title) |
Platforms of release | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| In Japan | In North America | In the PAL region | |
| Dragon Warrior Dragon Quest |
Famicom (1986), MSX (1986), Super Famicom (1993), Game Boy Color (1999), Satellaview (1998), Mobile phone (2004) | NES (1989), Game Boy Color (2000) | not released |
| Dragon Warrior II Dragon Quest II: Akuryo no Kamigami |
Famicom (1987), MSX (1987), Super Famicom (1993), Game Boy Color (1999), Mobile phone (2008) | NES (1990), Game Boy Color (2000) | not released |
| Dragon Warrior III Dragon Quest III: Soshite Densetsu e… |
Famicom (1988), Super Famicom (1996), Game Boy Color (2000) | NES (1991), Game Boy Color (2001) | not released |
| Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen Dragon Quest IV: Michibikareshi Monotachi |
Famicom (1990), PlayStation (2001), Nintendo DS (2007) | NES (1992, as Dragon Warrior IV), Nintendo DS (2008) | Nintendo DS (2008) |
| Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride Dragon Quest V: Tenkū no Hanayome |
Super Famicom (1992), PlayStation 2 (2004), Nintendo DS (2008) | Nintendo DS (2009) | Nintendo DS (2009) |
| Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie Dragon Quest VI: Maboroshi no Daichi |
Super Famicom (1995), Nintendo DS (TBA) | Nintendo DS (TBA) | Nintendo DS (TBA) |
| Dragon Warrior VII Dragon Quest VII: Eden no Senshi-tachi |
PlayStation (2000) | PlayStation (2001) | not released |
| Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King Dragon Quest VIII: Sora to Umi to Daichi to Norowareshi Himegimi |
PlayStation 2 (2004) | PlayStation 2 (2005) | PlayStation 2 (2006) |
| Dragon Quest IX: Hoshizora no Mamoribito | Nintendo DS (2009) | Nintendo DS (TBA) | Nintendo DS (TBA) |
| Dragon Quest X | Nintendo Wii (TBA) | Nintendo Wii (TBA) | Nintendo Wii (TBA) |
Spin-offs
The franchise also includes several spin-off series, including Dragon Quest Monsters and Slime MoriMori Dragon Quest, as well as arcade games like the Japanese game Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road.[20] Several games in both the Mystery Dungeon and Itadaki Street series have characters from the Dragon Quest games.
In 1993, Chunsoft created a Super Famicom game in Japan for Torneko(トルネコ, romanized as Torneco)[21], or Taloon, a fictional character first appearing in Dragon Warrior IV.[23] The game, titled Torneko no Daibōken: Fushigi no Dungeon which loosely translates to Torneco's Great Adventure: Mysterious Dungeon, was a roguelike which continued Torneko's story from Dragon Quest IV, where he wished to make his store grow even further by venturing into mysterious dungeons and getting more items for stock. It was very successful, both on namesake and quality. A direct sequel to Torneco no Daibouken came out in Japan and the United States in 2000 called Torneko: The Last Hope. This game was very similar to the first, but it is considered much easier by comparison.[23] It was received well enough in Japan to warrant a third direct sequel, on the PlayStation 2, titled Torneco no Daibouken 3: Fushigi no Dungeon. Both the second and third Torneko games were also ported to the Game Boy Advance. Following the success of Torneko, many other Fushigi no Dungeon games were published by various companies (most of which developed by Chunsoft), among the best known are Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon and Nightmare of Druaga: Mysterious Dungeon.
Three spin-offs are played by physically swinging a controller using it as a sword to slash enemies among other things. Kenshin Dragon Quest is a stand alone game which comes with the a toy sword as the controller, and a toy shield containing the game's hardware.[24] Dragon Quest Swords is an exclusive Wii title which uses the motion sensing abilities of the Wii Remote similarly. Finally, a card-based arcade game, known as Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road and developed by Level-5, was released exclusively in Japan.[25]
| Title (followed by original title) |
Platforms of release | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| In Japan | In North America | In the PAL region | |
| Dragon Warrior Monsters Dragon Quest Monsters |
Game Boy Color (1998), PlayStation (2002), Mobile phone (2002) | Game Boy Color (1999) | Game Boy Color (1999) |
| Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Cobi's Journey Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Ruka's Journey |
Game Boy Color (2001), PlayStation (2002) | Game Boy Color (2001) | not released |
| Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Tara's Adventure Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Iru's Adventure |
Game Boy Color (2001), PlayStation (2002) | Game Boy Color (2001) | not released |
| Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart | Game Boy Advance (2003) | not released | not released |
| Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker | Nintendo DS (2006) | Nintendo DS (2007) | Nintendo DS (2008) |
| Torneko no Daibōken: Fushigi no Dungeon | Super Famicom (1993) | not released | not released |
| Torneko: The Last Hope Torneko no Daibōken 2: Fushigi no Dungeon |
PlayStation (1999), Game Boy Advance (2001) | PlayStation (2000) | not released |
| Torneko no Daibōken 3: Fushigi no Dungeon | PlayStation 2 (2002), Game Boy Advance (2004) | not released | not released |
| Shōnen Yangus to Fushigi no Dungeon | PlayStation 2 (2006) | not released | not released |
| Slime MoriMori Dragon Quest: Shōgeki no Shippo Dan | Game Boy Advance (2003) | not released | not released |
| Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime Slime MoriMori Dragon Quest 2: Daisensha to Shippo Dan |
Nintendo DS (2005) | Nintendo DS (2006) | Nintendo DS (2007) |
| Kenshin Dragon Quest: Yomigaerishi Densetsu no Ken | Television Game (2003) | not released | not released |
| Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors Dragon Quest Swords: Kamen no Joō to Kagami no Tō |
Wii (2007) | Wii (2008) | Wii (2008) |
| Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Special | PlayStation 2 (2004) | Template:N/a | Template:N/a |
| Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable | PlayStation Portable (2006) | Template:N/a | Template:N/a |
| Itadaki Street DS | Nintendo DS (2007) | Template:N/a | Template:N/a |
| Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road | Arcade Game (2007) | Template:N/a | Template:N/a |
| Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road II | Arcade Game (2009) | Template:N/a | Template:N/a |
The section below requires editing and verification.
Dragon Quest was a console styled RPG (Role-playing game) first released as Dragon Quest in Japan and Dragon Warrior in North America. Due to some problems with the titles, they put behind Dragon Warrior and made all new titles called Dragon Quest. Dragon Quest took elements from other existing RPG's like Ultima and created of what is now the best selling video game series in Japan. The series has sold so well in Japan that after Dragon Quest III was made, the Japanese government put effect a law stating that future games could only be sold on Sundays or holidays.
