Dragon Warrior/Quest - A history from start to now

The Dragon Quest series started out as Dragon Warrior for the first 4 US releases. I do have alternative US releases that were named Dragon Quest but those were re-released and on Gameboy cartridges. The only differences I found in them other than the game name was some small character references had different names. After DW4 was released the franchise moved to the Dragon Quest naming. The games slowly evolved but still kept the 8-bit style gameplay for a majority of the releases. The series started on the NES back in 1989 for the US and 1986 for Japan. This was my introduction to RPG on consoles and my favorite and most fun series. I am also final Fantasy fan but that’s another story.

In 1989 I was playing the game and loving the click along fighting simple enough with charming carton graphics and the 8-bit system sounds that were exciting for the time. Large amp good story and the essence of the RPG were enveloped in this colorful game world. It took a few weeks as a kid to complete the game and then do it again to catch some of the missed text from trying to just complete it as a game.

A few years later (1990) the second game in the series released. It was familiar. It consisted of the same art style and cartoon like essence. The map was bigger and the gameplay simplified. This one took me longer to play and was more in depth. Some new concept came from this parties you had to find members to create. Again just a bigger version of the first for the NES.

Next was Dragon warrior 3 released in 1991. I remember playing through this barely. Was the last of the NES Dragon Warrior games? I believe the SNES version released as the first Dragon Quest title in the US. Same game, new feel and expanded story. The games were very similar on both NES and SNES but to me didn’t seem like the same game.

These first 3 games also got Gameboy remakes around the same time. I only within the past couple years picked those up and played through them for nostalgia. I completed the first one and got through the second and don’t think I get very far into the 3rd. I like to play through game series to remember the story when new ones are coming out. Similar to watching the previous TV series before new season starts. Time is very limited these days so I tend to find a highlight on newer game series releases to remissness on what happened before. Sometimes I even find that I missed things and do load them up and go complete some daunting task I skipped.

Dragon Quest 4 (1992), 5 (2004) and 6 (2011). I never got to play until recently. This was the first sub story within the game as a trilogy together. I missed primary platform releases because they were not released at first in the US. Once they hit the handheld platforms I have picked them up and they are on my to play list still. These also were almost the last of the top view square movement same feel as from beginning. There were also the games that the party had more feel like part of the story rather than just combat support. These also had some of the first major changes that are in the future games of the series like the wagon.

Dragon Quest 7 (2001) this was the official last Dragon Warrior titled games for the US. The game I believe one of the first updated re-release on alternative platforms rather than the franchise console. This was a PlayStation release where all the previous were Nintendo based releases. This was the first of a new game trilogy using a more 3rd person 3D view for gameplay in the series. I was not the complete end of 2d top view but the start of the 3D options. Now the game had a real world feel still falling into the cartoon and fun graphic level. Even with the game modeling changing it still felt like the same game with a new view point.

Dragon Quest 8 (2005) continues in the name of the new platform feel on the next gen of PlayStation releasing on PS2. This one brought me back into the game series again after missing a few. 3D platform, new features common to older pc games and the continued story with new character lineup and the feel of monsters being part of party. I know it’s not the first one that did that but was the one that started it right. This game was the largest to me in the whole series. Felt like there was 2 whole different worlds, the ability to create items and farm materials in combat and from stores. This was the first that filled out like it was not just a game but an expanded RPG. It was great and the graphic jumped so far from the beginning without losing the games visual sense.

Dragon Quest 9 (2010) the first handheld release and back in the 2D view again and 3D. This had online presence that made it great. The retro feel was back with updates and the 3D feel still there and rewards for the internet connection. Very long story for a handheld and almost infinite play when you used the online options for quests and gear. This didn’t feel like it rolled back just changed back to what we were used to in both options. This one kept me constantly playing for about a year any chance I could (until my GBA broke.)

Dragon Quest 10 so far not release in America. Looks like we might get a release on the Nintendo Switch. Nothing confirmed as of writing this.

Dragon Quest 11 is so far still in development stages and expected on Nintendo and PlayStation platforms 2017 or 2018.

Now that covered the huge mainstream Dragon Quest series but it’s not limited to that. There were multiple alternative games released in the franchise. Also the same games have been showing up released on handheld (Nintendo) and tablets both iOS and Android...

I am going to make this fairly brief on the side games for this article.

I played through the rocket slime game and it was a nifty not RPG but more action puzzle game. Good story for a slime to have.

Monsters was what I want to call a Pokémon clone to the Dragon Quest franchise. Even in an article I read the idea was from DQ4 years ago to be a similar game but release many years later.

Swords game was just getting in on the nun-chuck options for telling an interactive story the game felt forced.

There were 2 other series that I am not familiar with Torneko the mystery dungeon series and Itadaki streets series. Itadaki was another never released to the US. Torneko are new to me as I was looking up the history. That series started in 2000 and made 3 or 4 games in the series but only the first one released in the US.

Please look forward to my upcoming review of Dragon Quest Builders and the Heroes series coming soon!