Dragon Quest

Dragon Quest
	"Dragon Quest" 35th Anniversary Logo
ドラゴンクエスト; Doragon Kuesuto; Dragon Quest; (prev. "Dragon Warrior")
ドラゴンクエスト; Doragon Kuesuto; Dragon Quest; (prev. "Dragon Warrior")
Debut Game
Title	Dragon Quest
Release Date	27 May 1986 (JP)
Platform	Nintendo Famicom
Main Staff
Creator	Yūji Horii
Character Designs	Akira Toriyama
Music	Koichi Sugiyama
Publisher	Square-Enix (prev. "Enix")
Developer(s)	ArtePiazza, Chunsoft, Heartbeat, Level-5, Square Enix
Additional Information
	Additional games, manga, anime, film
	v · d · e

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Kanzenshuu wiki team members are aware that they must edit this page to add missing information and complete it.

Due to being part of Kanzenshuu's documentation, this article about the Dragon Quest franchise has been written specifically through the lens of Akira Toriyama's involvement. This may appear to give undue importance to Toriyama's role when this background is not taken into consideration.

Dragon Quest (often shortened to ドラクエ Dorakure in Japan, and initially released under the title "Dragon Warrior" in North America) is a Japanese role-playing video game series historically (and still regularly) featuring character designs by Akira Toriyama.

History

The original Dragon Quest grew out of ongoing video game coverage at Shueisha within the pages of Weekly Shōnen Jump, with then-editor Kazuhiko Torishima pushing for development of a game that Shueisha themselves would not necessarily be directly responsible for, but could secure exclusive coverage of (notably above and beyond that of competitors CoroCoro Comics and Famicom Tsūshin / Famitsu).^[1] Torishima pitched a role-playing game to be headed by Yūji Horii of Enix, who he had become acquainted with by way of Monthly Playboy writer Akira Sakuma.^[2] Torishima then further pitched Akira Toriyama as character designer to capitalize on his ongoing success and further the connection between Shueisha and the game.^[1]^[3] Toriyama did not quite understand the concept at the time, but accepted due to Torishima's insistence (and penchant for following trends), as well as the promise of some side money.^[4] Torishima had told Horii that Toriyama wanted to do artwork for the game, which he later learned was only half-true, with Torishima orchestrating the whole relationship.^[5]

Character Design Process

Akira Toriyama has historically been responsible for character designs of main characters and villains within the Dragon Quest video games, some of which he may first receive as rough concepts/designs from Yūji Horii. Toriyama does not write the game stories, character dialog, etc.

Toriyama enjoyed designing the minor characters and monsters more than the main characters and "final bosses"^[4], and approached the video game character designs...^[6]

When it’s ultimately going to be made into a video game, the character sprites will be small, so you can make the design illustrations relatively complex. It’s not like you’re going to draw it in a comic and develop it, and it’s not going to be drawn as animation, so you can ignore the “it would be a pain if I did it this way” aspect. You just have to give them a design with a feature that you can tell “it’s this character” even when they’re small.
— Akira Toriyama

Personal Fandom

Early on in the franchise's production, Toriyama was somewhat famous for losing himself in playing the games.^[7]

Dragon Quest References in Serialization Comments

TBD

Dragon Quest Cameos in Dragon Ball

TBD

Akira Toriyama Involvement in Dragon Quest Works

Name	Format	Original Release Date	Original Platform	Role(s)
ドラゴンクエスト Doragon Kuesuto Dragon Quest	Video Game	27 May 1986	Nintendo Famicom	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストII Doragon Kuesuto Tsū Dragon Quest II	Video Game	26 January 1987	Nintendo Famicom	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストIII Doragon Kuesuto Surī Dragon Quest III	Video Game	10 February 1988	Nintendo Famicom	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエスト～勇者アベル伝説～ Doragon Kuesuto Yūsha Aberu Densetsu Dragon Quest: Legend of the Hero Abel	Television Series	02 December 1989	Fuji TV	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストIV Doragon Kuesuto Fō Dragon Quest IV	Video Game	11 February 1990	Nintendo Famicom	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストV Doragon Kuesuto Fuaibu Dragon Quest V	Video Game	27 September 1992	Nintendo Super Famicom	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
トルネコの大冒険不思議のダンジョン Toruneko no Daibōken Fushigi no Danjon Torneko's Great Adventure: Mystery Dungeon	Video Game	19 September 1993	Nintendo Super Famicom	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストVI Doragon Kuesuto Shikusu Dragon Quest VI	Video Game	09 December 1995	Nintendo Super Famicom	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストモンスターズテリーのワンダーランド Doragon Kuesuto Monsutāzu Terī no Wandārando Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland	Video Game	25 September 1998	Nintendo Game Boy	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストVII Doragon Kuesuto Sebun Dragon Quest VII	Video Game	26 August 2000	Sony PlayStation	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストVIII Doragon Kuesuto Eito Dragon Quest VIII	Video Game	27 November 2004	Sony PlayStation 2	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ラゴンクェスト　少年ヤンガスと不思議のダンジョン Shōnen Yangasu to Fushigi no Danjon Dragon Quest: Young Yangus and the Mysterious Dungeon	Video Game	20 April 2006	Sony PlayStation 2	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストモンスターズジョーカー Doragon Kuesuto Monsutāzu Jōkā Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker	Video Game	28 December 2006	Nintendo DS	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストIX Doragon Kuesuto Nain Dragon Quest IX	Video Game	11 July 2009	Nintendo DS	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストモンスターズジョーカー2 Doragon Kuesuto Monsutāzu Jōkā Tsū Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2	Video Game	28 April 2010	Nintendo DS	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストX Doragon Kuesuto Ten Dragon Quest X	Video Game	02 August 2012	Nintendo Wii	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストビルダーズ Doragon Kuesuto Birudāzu Dragon Quest Builders	Video Game	28 January 2016	Sony Playstation 3 Sony PlayStation 4 Sony PlayStation Vita	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストモンスターズジョーカー3 Doragon Kuesuto Monsutāzu Jōkā Surī Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3	Video Game	24 March 2016	Nintendo 3DS	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストXI Doragon Kuesuto Erebun Dragon Quest XI	Video Game	28 July 2017	Sony PlayStation 4 Nintendo 3DS	Character Designs Promotional Artwork
ドラゴンクエストビルダーズ2 Doragon Kuesuto Birudāzu Tsū Dragon Quest Builders 2	Video Game	20 December 2018	Sony PlayStation 4 Nintendo Switch	Character Designs Promotional Artwork