It’s the Perfect Time for a Remake of Dragon Quest V, Which Turns 30 Today

Dragon Quest has never been quite the sensation in North America as it is in Japan, and part of the problem has always been the difference in release schedules. The original Dragon Quest, released in May of 1986, is one of the most influential titles in history for helping originate the existence of the genre we now know as the Japanese Role-Playing Game. By the time it was released in North America in August of 1989 (as Dragon Warrior, due to licensing issues abroad), though, Japan was just six months out from Dragon Quest IV. The first wave of JRPGs that Dragon Quest had inspired weren’t far behind for North American audiences, either, with the second wave just behind those, arriving with far more speed.

There’s nothing wrong with the first few Dragon Quest games despite their relative simplicity—you can politely describe them as “of their time”—unless you hate random battling until you can afford the best gear in a shop. (In which case, even more modern Dragon Quest titles might not be to your liking.) But consider that it took until 1991’s Final Fantasy IV for Squaresoft to create something in their key franchise that would hold up through the decades thanks to its massive leaps forward in both gameplay, storytelling, and characterization: Dragon Quest is no different, in that the golden age of JRPGs brought on by the Super Famicom/SNES was where it hit that next level in all of the above.

Whereas in the first few games of the series—as Trevor Strunk details in his book, Story Mode: Video Games and the Interplay Between Consoles and Culture—Square focused on player control and their freedom in developing a narrative in their play, by Final Fantasy IV, they had converted to a structure involving deeper narratives that the developer themselves controlled. And the shift worked: despite releasing so early in the SNES’ life, Final Fantasy IV (or II, for the North American elder millennials in the room) sold a then-best for the franchise 1.84 million copies, including 340,000 in North America, where JRPGs weren’t nearly as popular. To this day it’s considered a landmark release for how it iterated on JRPG structures and what was possible in videogame storytelling. (All figures courtesy VGSales.) Final Fantasy V, despite a dip in quality and a Japan-only release, sold 2.45 million copies, and the jewel of the SNES trio, Final Fantasy VI, sold 2.55 million in Japan and another 450,000 in North America, making it the franchise’s first 3-million seller. Final Fantasy VI’s systems and structure would still be considered ambitious today: in 1994, they were mindblowing.

Enix and Dragon Quest did not have a Final Fantasy IV moment. Or, more accurately, they did not have a North American Final Fantasy II moment. The original Dragon Quest/Warrior sold 3 million copies worldwide, but Nintendo of America also famously gave away a ton of those copies in order to secure Nintendo Power subscriptions. Dragon Warrior II, now published by Enix instead of getting that Nintendo boost, sold just 150,000 copies despite selling nearly one million more copies than the original did in Japan. Dragon Warrior III sold 95,000 copies in North America; it took four years and one month for that game to leave Japan, whereas North America had to wait just four months for Final Fantasy IV to reach its shores, still in very modern shape. Dragon Warrior III released there the next year, on the aging NES, looking ancient in comparison in a number of ways.

Dragon Quest IV would also show up internationally, again in 1992, but it was still over two-and-a-half years on from its Japanese release and was once again on the NES, which wasn’t any younger in October than it had been in July: it sold just 80,000 copies in North America, despite 3.1 million sales in Japan alone. Yes, more than Squaresoft’s pre-Playstation peak with Final Fantasy games, despite effectively being sold only in Japan.

Dragon Quest V, released 30 years ago on September 27, 1992, was the chance to change all of this—to attempt to release a Dragon Quest title closer to its original date, on the hardware that was already becoming well-known for JRPGs, to show off the kind of ambition that Enix was capable of that kept them more than competitive with then-rival Squaresoft in Japan. Dragon Quest V was so feature-packed that in some ways it’s wild to consider that it was released all the way back in 1992. It’s a multi-generational affair, spanning 30 years: the game begins at the protagonist’s birth, then shifts a few years into the future, where he’s old enough to wield a sword following around his battle-hardened and powerful father in a quest you’re not sure of the details of. After all, you’re a mere child, simply going where your father goes. Another time jump follows after around four or five hours, and this time, you’re an adult, your father now lost to you, but not before he could speak to you of the connected quests he could not accomplish in his own lifetime—to find your missing mother who yet lives, and the legendary hero who is needed to do battle with the gathering forces of evil.

Now you’re suddenly in charge of everywhere you’re doing after being shown the ropes over the first few hours of the game. New systems emerge—you now can recruit monsters to battle alongside you, which also means you can collect a small army of them to swap in and out depending on your needs—and you’ll find yourself meeting prospective wives, who double as prospective mothers of your children. There are slight story differences depending on which wife you end up choosing, and their personalities are certainly distinct: regardless of which you choose, she will end up bearing you twins, one of whom is the legendary hero your father was searching for decades prior. So yes, another time jump is imminent. A grade schooler with a sword following in his father’s footsteps is one thing; an infant wielding the legendary Zenithian steel against the forces of evil is another.