Dragon Quest

There are two significant games carrying the name Dragon Quest: the first is a pen-and-paper or tabletop role-playing game (RPG), the second a computer RPG. The RPG's name is conjoined: DragonQuest. In the United States, the digital game had to change its name to Dragon Warrior because of the trademark conflict, though the demise of the pen-and-paper game meant the name of the digital game later changed in 2003.

DragonQuest the RPG was published in 1980 by Simulations Publications (SPI). It was one of the second generation of RPGs, which helped advance the genre out of the wargame-based, combat-heavy roots established by the first versions of Dungeons & Dragons. DragonQuest used a skills system to allow detailed character creation, one of the first games to do so. By allowing players to create characters that do not follow a set class, but rather have more breadth and depth, the rules directed players toward putting more thought into the characterisation of their creations than previous games.

From a ludic standpoint, DragonQuest is interesting because of the way it handles damage taken by characters in combat. Very experienced characters are not very much more durable than novices. Tactically, this means that the “tank” approach to combat (when one very durable character takes the punishment the enemy is dealing out) does not work, which results in very active participation in conflict by all characters. This system also means that experienced and less experienced characters can mix more easily—in most RPGs the potent characters would not be challenged, or the weak ones would be killed instantly, or at least be unable to do much. In general, combat, though heroic in nature, tends to be more realistic than in the games that preceded it. However, DragonQuest's rule structure has greatly influenced modern games.

Magic is split into a number of “colleges,” each providing different spells. Examples include the various elemental colleges (air, earth, fire, water) and less obvious ones (summoning, rune magic). This is another example of the way the game seeks to add flavor and character, and it broke with what many saw as the mechanistic magic common to early RPGs.

DragonQuest is presently owned by Wizards of the Coast, who acquired it when they purchased TSR, who in turn acquired it when they took over SPI. The trademark has been abandoned, allowing Square Enix to take it up, implying that the game is moribund, and indeed has been out of print since 1987. In spite of this, the game still has many devotees worldwide.

The computerized version of Dragon Quest is a long-running series with nine core games and various spin-offs. It was developed in Japan by Chunsoft and published by Square Enix. In the United States, the game was known as Dragon Warrior to avoid trademark infringement. Numerous versions of the game have been released for a slowly increasing complexity of console. All essentially follow the common tropes of computer RPGs: players battle monsters and solve puzzles, become more powerful as they do so by gaining experience, and find gold, which they spend to buy better equipment.

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