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Dragon Quest: Difference between revisions
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<code>A Slime draws near! Command?</code>
An absurdly popular Japanese RPG series most recently in its ninth incarnation, with a tenth also announced. Before their merger, ''Dragon Quest'' was to Enix what ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' was to Squaresoft. While never as popular in the US as the ''Final Fantasy'' series (but even more popular than ''Final Fantasy'' in Japan; since the companies merged, needless to say, [[Square Enix]] owns the Japanese RPG scene), it's notable for its character art by [[Akira Toriyama]] of ''[[
Mostly due to the historical prevalence of console gaming over PC gaming in Japan, nearly all parodies of [[RPG|RPGs]] that show up in anime that aren't [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]] will reference ''Dragon Quest'' in some way.
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The English localization of ''Dragon Quest VIII'' was noticeable for its solution to the [[Kansai Regional Accent|regional accent issue]]: many of the characters speak in British dialects rather than American ones. Similarly, the US releases of ''Dragon Quest IV'', ''V,'' ''VI'' and ''IX'' on the DS are using regional dialects -- there's a Russian town, a Scottish town, etc etc. However, the localizers' love of [[Hurricane of Puns|puns]] is also a bit of a bother to some fans.
Sequels to the franchise are always released locally on Saturdays, which according to the company is to prevent the predictably huge turnout of fans from skipping school or work during launch days to pick them up. This fueled an urban legend inflating the real cause to be political pressure from local Japanese municipalities or that the release rule was an actual local ''law''. (Although the Diet at the time ''did'' ask them to do something after a small boy was mugged and beaten during the [[
Few people know it but there was a [[Tabletop RPG]] called DragonQuest, whose trademark was the reason the ''Dragon Quest'' video game series was originally known as ''Dragon Warrior'' outside of Japan, until Square Enix finally acquired it for their series. Nothing to do with this show, it was bought out and buried by the owners of [[Dungeons and Dragons]] so it would not be a threat to their [[Merchandise-Driven]] empire.
For the manga and anime spinoff ''Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken'' (''Dai's Great Adventure'', translated into French and Spanish as ''Fly'' to [[Never Say "Die"|avoid pronouncing "die"!]]), see the ''[[Dai no
Not to be confused with the novel ''[[Dragon Keeper Chronicles|DragonQuest]]'' or the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
Also has a growing [[Dragon Quest
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== The [[
* ''[[
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* ''Torneko's Mystery Dungeon''
* ''[[
** ''[[
* ''[[Dragon Quest Heroes Rocket Slime
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''Monster Battle Road'' and its sequels, which are [[Arcade/Wii|Wii]] card-battle games. Basically Dragon Quest's version of ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]''.
A collection of some of the series' best [[Tear Jerker|Tear Jerkers]] can be found [[Dragon Quest
{{tropelist}}
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* [[Alcohol Hic]]: Happens in the series (especially in the remakes) when you talk to guys who are drunk in pubs. There is also one time in ''IV'' when you talk to a drunken guy outside the bar in Endor at night, and he feels like he's not "[[Spoonerism|wurring my slurds or anything]]".
* [[The Alcoholic]]: Kalderasha, a "drunk Russian" stereotype.
* [[All in
* [[Always Chaotic Evil]]: Notably [[Averted Trope|averted]] by many monsters in the series.
* [[Always Check Behind the Chair]]: hidden items in barrels, pots, hanging bags, drawers, coffins, crosses, just lying on the floor...
* [[Ambidextrous Sprite]]: Awesomely averted for all games except the original, Famicom version of [[
* [[Ancestral Weapon]]: Erdrick/Loto's Sword is the most powerful weapon in [[
** {{spoiler|It makes a sneaky appearance in 9, as well, right before the last boss, as the "Rusty Blade". Fixing it -- easily done if you [[Guide Dang It|know how]] (or if you've done the DLC quests that include the recipes) -- makes said last boss... still [[Nintendo Hard]].}}
* [[And I Must Scream]]: {{spoiler|The player character}} is stuck as a statue for several years in ''DQV'', as is {{spoiler|his wife.}}
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** The heroes of ''II'' also count; they're all cousins (all descended from the hero of ''I'' and Princess Gwaelin/Lora).
* [[Battle Aura]]: Tension, starting with ''VIII''.
** And [[Heroic Mime|the Hero]] even [[Expy|goes]] [[Dragon Ball
** It kind of makes sense since the Artist for the series is [[Akira Toriyama]] after all.
* [[Battle Bikini]]: Jessica has plenty of them. This goes as far back as ''DQ3'', where you could find "revealing bikinis" or "battle bikinis" that would change the character sprite. They were actually somewhat useful, as they increased your character's dodge rate by a LOT -- and affected the AI, to boot.
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* [[Bonus Boss]]: The Dragovian Trials from ''Dragon Quest VIII''.
** Also Divinegon and Grand Dragon in the DQ III remakes (although Grand Dragon might be GBC exclusive). Both bosses can be challenged multiple times, and will require excessive [[Level Grinding]] to defeat. Very, very few people have even fought Grand Dragon anyways, as it involves a massive spiked brick wall of a [[Collection Sidequest]] (see entry below). Defeating Grand Dragon rewards you with the game's [[Infinity+1 Sword]] that all classes can equip.
** Also in ''[[
** And in ''VII'', you fight [[God]].
** ''IX'', having an immense amount of post-game content, tops them all. These include five post-game quests with bosses, twelve grotto bosses, and thirteen legacy bosses from previous games: {{spoiler|The [[Final Boss]] of ''every previous main DQ game'', the [[Disc One Final Boss]] of III, VI, and VIII, a major boss of IV that is also the aforementioned Epilogue Boss of V, and VI's ultimate Bonus Boss.}}
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* [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]]: The Catholic motif for the churches, priests, and nuns.
** In ''DQV'', the Dragon King is an ''actual'' [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]], a [[Physical God]] {{spoiler|who sometimes takes the form of a human.}}
** Also, the gender of the deity was changed--the original games had him addressed directly as "God" or "the Lord", but in the remakes they worship a Goddess instead. Presumably this was to avoid offending people. In [[
* [[Cursed
* [[Cute Bruiser]]: Alena
* [[Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday]]: ''III'' begins on your hero's sixteenth birthday with the king officially assigning you to pick up where your [[Disappeared Dad]] left off. ''IV'' also has the hero's journey begin at sixteen (actually eighteen), though [[Doomed Hometown|that wasn't what your]] [[Hidden Elf Village|Hidden Village]] ''[[Doomed Hometown|planned]]''... Played with in ''V'', as horrible things started happening to the hero when he was '''six''', and he didn't really start fighting back until he was sixteen.
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** {{spoiler|Your son is the legendary hero!}}
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: In many of the games, notably in ''DQV'', you go more or less invade Hell, kick [[Satan]]'s behind, and [[Like a Badass Out of Hell|escape unscathed.]] ''DQVI'' also has an optional sidequest where you basically beat up Satan, and then he kills the [[Big Bad]] for you.
* [[Dirty Coward]]: Prince Charmles from ''[[
* [[Doppelganger Spin]]: Linguar's specialty
* [[Encounter Bait]]: The "Whistle" ability.
* [[Encounter Repellant]]
* [[Endless Corridor]]: The looping stairway in Charlock Castle.
* [[Everything's Better
* [[Evolutionary Levels]]: Psaro and his minions from ''[[
* [[Expy]]: The Celestrians of ''IX'' are quite similar to the Zenithians of the [[Dragon Quest IV
* [[Fairy Battle]]: Torneko's chapter in ''Dragon Quest IV''
* [[Face Design Shield]]: The Boss, Tempest, and Slime shields.
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** The first ''Dragon Quest'' game did this in the original Japanese text, by forcing you to fight the Dragon Lord/DracoLord's giant pet dragon after killing him. The English translation and further remakes changed it so that the Dragon Lord ''turns into'' the giant dragon.
** The third and sixth also avert this trope, although this was originally a spoiler, especially in regards to 3, which was the [[Trope Codifier]] for the use of [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle]] in video games. {{spoiler|You didn't think Baramos was the only Archfiend, and Murdaw was the only Demon Lord, did you?}}
** The original English translation of ''[[
** ''DQV'' had this in its original version since Nimzo isn't even mentioned until late in the game. The DS remake rectifies this somewhat by namedropping him, at least in incidental NPC chat, far earlier.
** The seventh game mostly avoided this with [[Big Bad]] Orgodemir, who is set up from the very beginning and is ultimately responsible for every single bad thing to happen to every place you've been (although you're mostly dealing with the effects of his villainy at first), although many lesser bosses you face turn out to be space fleas.
* [[Game Favored Gender]]: Since ''[[
* [[God Is Evil]]: A very rare JRPG example that almost completely subverts the trope. In fact, in DQIX, {{spoiler|a [[Genre Savvy]] player might well think that there's a lot of ''really obvious'' setting up for "God", as the Celestians understand it, to be the major villain of the entire game. The truth of the matter is... substantially more complicated.}}
** Seems to be played straight in ''[[
* [[Good Morning, Crono]]: Your Mother wakes you up in the beginning of ''DQIII''
* [[The Goomba]]: Slimes are usually the first, and easiest, enemies you face in these games. That just applies to the standard slime though. Except in ''DQ6'', where there's an even weaker variant of the slime and the standard slime doesn't appear until about an hour later (a subtle hint to the game's plot twist; {{spoiler|"true" slimes only appear in the real world}}).
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* [[Gratuitous Foreign Language]]: Morrie from the NA version of ''DQ8'' peppers his speech with Italian words. A slime version of him runs the Tank Battles in ''DQH: Rocket Slime''.
** In the DS remake of the fourth game, characters often use Russian words in the second chapter and French words in the fourth chapter.
*** Bishop Ladja speaks in gratuitous Russian in ''[[
* [[Groundhog Day Loop]]: Featured in one town in ''DQ7''.
* [[Guest Star Party Member]]: Several in ''Dragon Quest IV''.
* [[Happily Married]]: Dragon Quest V main protagonist.
* [[Hello, Insert Name Here]]: A series standard for the main characters. Yuji Horii has even stated that it's one of the series' essential elements.
** [[Canon Name]]: A few get named in other material: the ''IV'' heroes are Solo and Sofia and the ''V'' hero is Madason in postgame cameos for the DS remake of ''VI'' (though Solo and Sofia's names came from the manual from a previous remake of ''IV''), and the ''VI'' and ''VII'' heroes are named Botsu and Arus in manga adaptations. Also, ''II'''s Prince of Cannock and Princess of Moonbrooke, whose names were randomized originally, were given true names in other games: "Cookie" and "Pudding" in Japanese editions of ''[[
* [[Heroic Mime]]: The Hero of every game. In ''DQ5'', you get to hear the hero speak a few lines when he {{spoiler|comes back to your childhood via [[Time Travel]] to exchange the fake [[MacGuffin]] for the real one}}.
** The hero of the first game has a few lines after defeating the final boss, when he rejects the offer to take the place of the King of Alefgard.
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** Not to mention you're forced into [[Happily Married|marriage]] at 16 years old.
* [[Improbable Weapon User]]: Astraea's Abacus is one of the most powerful weapons available in Torneko's chapter of ''DQ4''. An ''abacus''!
* [[In Universe Game Clock]]: ''[[
** ''[[
* [[Inevitable Tournament]]: The fourth game, {{spoiler|though it's actually a ruse by Psaro the Manslayer to get Alena away from her castle so he can reduce it to smithereens. It's not clear why he needed to lure her away, though; she's strong, but not THAT strong}}. Also, an important focus of the ''Monsters'' series.
* [[Instant Plunder, Just Add Pirates]]: The Pirate job class.
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* [[Level Grinding]]: Varies between games, but the original was the worst of the bunch when it came to this.
** Although this trope can be averted -- the [[Useless Useful Spell|buff and debuff spells]] such as the ones that increase defense, mute the enemy, etc etc actually work quite well in most of the games in the series. If you don't use these spells you will have to [[Level Grinding|grind]] quite a bit to just overpower the fights. Smarter, not Harder, and all that.
* [[Licked
* [[Locked Door]]: Finding the keys are a major part of each game.
* [[Magic Knight]]: The hero from every game in the main series is one of these, mostly of [[The Paladin]] variety (being the best or second-best healer in the game)... except the second one. The main character in that game can't use a single spell; instead, the role of [[Magic Knight]] is played by his cousin, the Prince of Cannock.
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* [[Minigame Zone]]: Most of the later games include a casino where you can win large quantities of cash and powerful equipment.
* [[Mithril]]
* [[Monster Arena]]: Starting with ''[[
* [[Monster Clown]]: Dhoulmagus
* [[Monster Compendium]]:
** The Big Book of Beasts in the DS remakes of ''[[Dragon Quest IV
** The monster list in ''[[
** The defeated monster list in ''[[
* [[Monster Town]]: ''Dragon Quest VIII'' has one, with the beginnings of one appearing way back in ''IV''.
* [[Moses in
* [[Mushroom Man]]: Humanoid fungi appear as monsters.
* [[The Musical]]: A musical was made in the early nineties featuring JPOP group SMAP playing the characters.
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* [[Nuns-N-Rosaries]]: The church elements strongly resemble the Catholic church.
* [[One-Winged Angel]]: It would actually be easier to list the final bosses that ''don't'' do this (to date, only Malroth in II and Zoma in III have no [[One-Winged Angel]] form). Dhoulmagus gets special mention for being a {{spoiler|mid boss}} that does this.
** Orgodemir of ''[[
* [[Only One Name]]: It's easier to name characters that have last names in the series than ones that don't.
* [[Only Six Faces]]: The character designs of [[Akira Toriyama]] often resemble each other and even with his other character designs from [[Dragon Ball
* [[Orichalcum]]
* [[Party in My Pocket]]: ''VIII'' and ''[[
* [[Pet Baby Wild Animal]]: Saber, the <ref> Great Sabrecat</ref> from ''DQ5''. Differs from the usual in that {{spoiler|it's the villain who does the [[Shoo the Dog]] bit to turn him feral, but years later he recognizes his old master and rejoins him for the rest of the game}}.
* [[Physical God]]: The Dragon God / "King" of the Zenithia trilogy; he sometimes disguises himself as a human.
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** If you have a female character in ''III'', you can actually ''play'' as one by equipping the outfit--which turns out to be very effective armor. The sprite even changes!
*** From the beginning of ''III'', you can recruit a female [[Joke Character|Goof-Off/Jester]] as a party member, whose sprite ''is'' a playboy bunny.
** Jessica's bunny outfit in [[
** [[
* [[Power Nullifier]]: In III onward, but most annoyingly in V- ("Boss X sends a disruptive wave of energy!" "All party stats are returned to normal." * groan* At least some of your [[Mon]] can do it, too.)
** In fact, you ''have'' to be able to do it in order to remove the "Bounce" spell-deflecting field around the final boss of ''V''. Good thing using the {{spoiler|Zenithian Sword}} as an item will have the same effect. And since it's plot-relevant, you can't miss that item.
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* [[Roma]]: Meena and Maya in ''DQIV''. Though they might be stereotypically a fortune-teller and a dancer, the game at least gives a nod to realism by making their family Indian.
* [[Running Gag]]: In DQVIII, King Trode will pop up and make a comment when the team least expects to see him, always prompting a "COR BLIMEY!" from Yangus. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] late in the game, when Trode shows up at Tyran Gully, and Yangus starts to say his line, but then stops and says [[Overused Running Gag|he's getting sick of that old bit]].
** [[
* [[Saintly Church]]: The Churches of the unnamed deity.
* [[Samus Is a Girl]]: Depending on your choice in the GBC remake of ''DQIII'', it is possible to discover that {{spoiler|Loto}} was a girl.
* [[Schizo-Tech]]: Despite otherwise being in a standard medieval, high fantasy setting, robot enemies are a staple of the series. Some places also have technology that shouldn't exist yet, including slot machines.
** [[
* [[Sealed Evil in
* [[Sequential Boss]]: Dragonlord, Hargon/Malroth, Dhoulmagus...
* [[Shapeshifter Guilt Trip]]: In ''DQ5'', a shapeshifting monster poses as {{spoiler|your mother, as the High Priestess of the [[Church of Evil]]}}.
* [[Silent Protagonist]]: Most, but not all, of the heroes. In ''DQV'', you do get to hear the hero speak once, when {{spoiler|you speak to the suspiciously similar-looking man outside the church in your [[Doomed Hometown]], who examines your [[MacGuffin]]}}.
* [[Shout-Out]]: ''[[
** In addition, the two mercenaries from Torneko's chapter in ''DQ 4'' have been named "Laurel" and "Hardie" in the DS remake (named Laurent and Strom in the NES localization).
** Do all the revisted locales and battles from the first Monsters game count?
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* [[Squishy Wizard]]: The Wizard class in ''DQ3'', Borya in ''DQ4''
** Jessica from VIII too. Not just literally, either. Well, she's a wizard, and, er, ''parts'' of her are squishy...
* [[Take That]]: The remake of ''IV'', especially, seems to direct one at [[Final Fantasy VII
* [[Tank Goodness]]: A big part of ''DQ Heroes: Rocket Slime''
* [[Those Two Guys]]: Alena's retainers, Kiryl the priest and Borya the wizard.
* [[Timey-Wimey Ball]]: In ''[[
** The entire plot of ''[[
* [[Trick Boss]]: Balzack in the fourth chapter of ''[[
* [[Two Guys and
* [[Unfortunate Names]]: '''Balzack?!''' It ''is'' the name of a French author, however (although it's spellt Balzac).
* [[Ur Example]]: Of just about every JRPG trope in existence. No, really, [[Older Than They Think|just about every one.]] Even [[Final Fantasy]] (the first of which came out a scant 2 months before [[Dragon Quest III
* [[Useless Useful Spell]]: Averted. [[Standard Status Effects|Death, Sleep, Silence, and the like]] are much more effective when used by your party than they have any right to be -- even on bosses. The party AI is usually good about using those to slow down an enemy's assault instead of spamming high-damage and high-cost magic attacks. Ironically, most American gamers ''expect'' this trope so much that Dragon Quest has a history of being [[Nintendo Hard]] and requiring lots of [[Level Grinding]] -- which it does, if you don't use the [[Useless Useful Spell|Useless Useful Spells]].
* [[Weapon of X-Slaying]]: Various examples, such as metal claws (extra damage vs. [[Metal Slime]]) or the dragonsbane sword (extra damage vs. dragons).
* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: [[
* [[Whip It Good]]: Several characters throughout the series use it, and one was one of the strongest weapons in the Game Boy Color remake of ''[[
* [[White-Haired Pretty Boy]]: Psaro, and the protagonist of ''DQM: Joker''
* [[White Mage]]: The Priest class.
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