Dragon Quest: A Japanese Video Game Success Story

Dragon Quest is a popular Japanese RPG series with a unique heroic fantasy theme, telling tales of dragons, heroes, and peculiar monsters. The games are enlivened through Akira Toriyama's inspired character designs, Koichi Sugiyama's uplifting music, and producer Yuji Horii's commitment to accessible but deep gameplay systems.

The Dragon Quest series has something for everyone. The simple mechanics remain consistent across the various titles, with gradual innovations and occasional twists on the classic formula. The series has achieved over eighty million sales worldwide across all the titles, which is a testament to the series’ fun, accessible nature.

Dragon Quest has evolved over the years, adapting to each gaming platform, from the NES on which it was released to the Gameboy, Nintendo DS and 3DS, Super Nintendo, PlayStation, Wii, cell phones and Xbox.

Dragon Quest outside Japan

While its popularity in the land of the rising sun is undeniable, the RPG series has been less successful in the rest of the world at first glance. The first game, released under the name of Dragon Warrior in the United States wasn’t released until 1989 - several years after Dragon Quest’s launch in 1986.

Since then, the series has gradually received western localisations for each game in the series under the original title of Dragon Quest. Thanks to this, over the last decade, the series has gained a larger Western fan base.

Popular Titles from the Dragon Quest series

Dragon Quest

In the very first game in the Dragon Quest series you play as a hero who throws himself into adventure in order to recover the Ball of Light and the princess Laura, daughter of the king of Alefgard, who has been kidnapped by Dragonlord.

This first entry in the Dragon Quest series was released on NES at the time, and has also been ported to several other platforms: Super Famicom in 1993, the Game Boy Color in 1999 and 2000, PlayStation from 2001 and Nintendo Switch in 2019.

Dragon Quest III

This popular game in the series is known for the outbursts it caused when it was released in 1988 in Japan: endless queues, riots, record absenteeism at work and at school. It marked a turning point for the Japanese government, which decided to pass a law prohibiting the release of the game during working days.

In this game, you play as a sixteen year old boy obsessed with the idea of becoming a hero like his father. When you learn that the Archdemon Baramos, responsible for your father's death, is waging a reign of terror and will destroy the world, you once again throw yourself into the adventure. This game is available for the NES, Super Famicom, Game Boy Color and Nintendo Switch.

Dragon Quest IX

Released in 2009 in Japan and a year later in Europe, this is the very first Dragon Quest game designed specifically for handheld systems like the Nintendo DS. It is also the first time that the game offered a local multiplayer mode.

The storyline consists of independent quests, where your hero, guided by a mentor, is responsible for the well-being of the inhabitants of a village in order to collect the star auras they give off and allow angels to open the doors to the land of the gods.

Dragon Quest XI

This game was released in 2017 in Japan on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One and was quickly followed by a second reworked version in 2019 and then 2020. It’s currently the most recent title released in the Dragon Quest series.

In this new game, you play as a sixteen-year-old who turns out to be the reincarnation of a legendary warrior who goes on an adventure to unravel the mysteries about his past. This game is now one of the most popular titles in the series, thanks to its international success and the appearance of the main character in the popular Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fighting game.

Dragon Quest XII

While it was announced during the 35th anniversary stream of Dragon Quest, this twelfth instalment is still mysterious. A short teaser seems to announce a darker game with a more adult tone, seeming to suggest the player will have to make decisive choices.

The creator of the series, Yuji Horii, Square Enix and its designers promise a reworked game system, especially in terms of combat controls, with release planned for many different consoles. We still have some time to go before the game releases, so we’ll have to be patient!