Dragon Quest V
Encyclopedia
, known as Dragon Quest: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride in Europe, is a console role-playing game and the fifth installment in the Dragon Quest
video game series. Originally developed by Chunsoft
and published by Enix
Corporation, Dragon Quest V was the first title in the series to be released for the Nintendo
Super Famicom
(SFC) video game console
in Japan
on September 27, 1992. It has since been remade
for the PlayStation 2
in 2004
; which was developed by ArtePiazza and Matrix Software, and published by Square Enix
only in Japan. Another remake was made for the Nintendo DS
, and was released on July 17, 2008 in Japan. The remake was also released in North America and Europe, marking the first time the game had an official release in either territory. The game was released on February 17, 2009 in the U.S. and Canada.
Along with Dragon Quest VI, the original Super Famicom release never reached North America
. In the absence of an official translation, several fan translation
s were created between 1998 and 2002, followed by a more recent fan translation of the PlayStation 2 remake.
Dragon Quest V takes place over roughly thirty years of the main character's life, from when he is born through to when he gets married and has a family. The title introduced a gameplay dynamic in which monsters from random encounters may offer to join the player's party. This concept was used in later Dragon Quest games, and in the Dragon Quest Monsters
series constituted the primary way to form a party.
The game's monster-collecting concept has since become influential, appearing in a later franchise, Dokapon
. In turn, the concept of collecting everything in a game, in the form of achievements
or similar rewards, has since become a common trend in video games. Dragon Quest V has also been credited as the first known video game to feature a playable pregnancy
, a concept that has since appeared in later games such as Harvest Moon, The Sims 2
and Fable II.
battles, and equipping weapons and armor. Something new to the Dragon Quest series is the ability to tame monsters into the player's party. The monsters can be used in battle and level-up like the human characters. Monsters sometimes request to join the Hero after battles if the party is strong enough. There are a total of 40 monsters that are capable of joining the Hero's party in the Super Famicom version, with 71 in the PlayStation 2 remake
.
Like IV and VI, this game has a wagon where members of the Hero's party can rest while exploring the world, but in the original Super Famicom
version it was only possible to have a maximum of three active party members (those who actively participate in the monster battles), while in IV and VI it was up to four. This was changed in the remakes on the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS to include up to four members in an active party. The tactics system first introduced in Dragon Warrior IV was brought back in this game, but with the added option of controlling allies manually for the entire game (whereas Dragon Quest IV only let you control them for four out of five chapters). It also expanded the tactics system by allowing the artificial intelligence
routines to be set individually for each ally rather than for the party as a whole.
After beating the game, players can gain access to the bonus dungeon. Dragon Quest V was the first Dragon Quest game to have a bonus dungeon (although the remakes of Dragon Quest III and IV added bonus dungeons later).
is the father of the Hero. Though he was once the king of , he left his homeland to search for his wife and for the Legendary Hero. His attendant, Sancho, usually stays in . He is killed trying to protect his son and Prince Harry.
is the tomboy daughter of innkeepers of and a childhood friend of the Hero. She first teams up with the Hero in a nighttime-adventure to the haunted Uptaten Towers (the game's first dungeon) and helps the Hero save the Great Sabercub from two bullies, and asks the Hero to take it with him. After growing up, she moves to a mountainside village to aid in her father's recuperation, during which time her mother died. After meeting the grown-up Hero, Bianca briefly joins him in his quest to obtain the Ring of Water and follow him to Mostroferrato. Bianca is one of two (three in the Nintendo DS version) women whom the player can choose to marry the Hero.
is a daughter of , who recently got back from a religious house. Her father is a wealthy man living in . He seeks his daughter's bridegroom, but will only accept a man who is able to pass his trial, which is to collect the Ring of Fire and Ring of Water. She is the second choice for becoming the Hero's bride. She grows to be a strong sorceress if she accompanies the Hero.
is Nera's haughty and materialistic sister who treats the Hero as her "servant". Debora constantly berates the hero and makes it evident that she is the dominant one in the relationship. She even makes the Hero sleep on the floor during their honey moon. However, she expresses her love in humorous ways such as telling him he is the best servant she has had and would never replace him. Debora actually has a motherly side when with the children and truly supports the Hero in his quest to save his mother. She was neither in the original version nor the PS2 remake, but was added as a third choice for becoming the Hero's bride in the Nintendo DS remake. She is a rare hybrid of a melee & damage caster and is the only character able to equip the Akillics & Diamond ackillics weapons (both of which allow her to strike a single enemy twice).
is a strong support and attack magic user, and the one that eventually can equip the legendary Zenithian sword and armor. He is the Legendary Hero Pankraz was originally searching for, but was not born until much later.
is the sister of the Boy. She also has a variety of spells, but her skills are geared more towards attacking monsters (which is ironic as she dislikes fighting monsters). She possesses the ability to understand animals or monster; like her father (the Hero) & grandmother (Mada), possesses the power to tame monsters.
The story continues ten years later, and the player finds that the Hero and Harry have grown up working on a giant temple
, but escape as the scene opens. The Hero travels to the west to the town of Mostroferrato, where the wealthy nobleman Rodrigo Briscoletti and his daughter Nera live. Rodrigo sends the Hero on a quest to retrieve two magic rings, called the Circle of Fire and the Circle of Water, as a test of his worthiness as a suitor for Nera. The Hero accomplishes this and Rodrigo offers the Hero the chance to marry Nera, but it is also possible for him to marry Bianca or Debora (DS). After the marriage, the Hero travels to his homeland of Gotha, where they make him king. His wife has two children, but is kidnapped by monsters. When the Hero comes to rescue her, both are turned to stone by the monsters.
The Hero is found by his two children eight years later and is revived. Travelling the world to collect the legendary Zenithian armaments for the Legendary Hero, it is discovered that the Hero's son is indeed the Legendary Hero sought by Pankraz almost twenty years ago. During this stage of the journey, the Hero avenges Pankraz by killing , and restores the Dragon God, as well as Zenithia castle, to their proper homes in the sky. To accomplish this, the Hero has to enter a time warp to retrieve the Golden Orb from his child self.
After returning to the temple the Hero helped build as a slave, the Zenithian armor is found, as well as the statue of his wife. After the final source of evil is eradicated from the world, the party is told that Mada (Martha) remains in the Demon World, and that the final source of evil, , is lying in wait for the Legendary Hero. The Hero, his wife, and their children agree not to leave Mada in the demon world, so together they travel there via a portal near Lofty Peak, and reach the Evil Mountain. Mada is found inside, but dies shortly after meeting the Hero and his family. The party continues on to confront and destroy the lord of evil, Nimzo. They return to Gotha, and have a joyful party. As the family celebrates, Pankraz and Mada watch their son and his family from the heavens, happy and content with their progeny.
, clubs, and magic instead of guns or other modern weapons.
The quest takes the Hero and his party to many exotic locations, such as a fairy village, a mansion made of ice, several caves, and a volcano. The party eventually makes its way to Zenithia, which is a castle in each game of the Zenithia trilogy. Like a few other Dragon Quest games, the final enemies reside in a dark world, separate from the main map.
, whereas the artwork was done by Akira Toriyama
, of Dragon Ball fame.
Koichi Sugiyama
composed all the music for Dragon Quest V.
Square Enix released a PlayStation 2
enhanced remake
of Dragon Quest V on March 25, 2004, with first day sales of 722,000. As of April 2004, the game has sold over 1.5 million copies making it the top selling Dragon Quest remake game of all-time, and is available in Japan as an Ultimate Hits title. The remake was developed by former Dragon Quest VII art directors, Artepiazza
. It features 3D graphics that are similar to Dragon Quest VII, but it utilizes the extra PlayStation 2 graphical capabilities. The Hero and his companions have to fight more monsters in the PlayStation 2 remake than they did in the Super Famicom original, but the character limit on the party has been increased from three to four. Also, there were only 40 monsters available to the player's party in the Super Famicom version of Dragon Quest V due to ROM
limitations. The PlayStation 2 remake, however, does not suffer from this restriction. The music is performed by the NHK Symphony.
Another new feature in the remake is the famous local trinkets museum where the player has to collect local specialties from all around the world, return the items back to a character named "Yuujii" (literally old man ghost), and receive rewards for them. The Dragon Quest V remake was the third Dragon Quest to be released in the Square Enix name (after Kenshin Dragon Quest and Slime Morimori Dragon Quest). Lastly, a Dragon Quest VIII preview video disc was included in the Japanese release of the Dragon Quest V remake.
A fan translation
of the PS2 version was started by Kojiro Translations and an independent team, which later released two patches in 2010 as DQ Translations.
was announced in late 2007
by Square Enix, to be developed by ArtePiazza. The game uses the same engine as the DS remake of Dragon Quest IV.
On April 23, 2008, it was reported that Square Enix
had applied for the trademark "Hand of the Heavenly Bride" at the United States Patent and Trademark Office
. It was confirmed to be a reference to Dragon Quest V by a listing from Nintendo of third-party titles for Nintendo platforms. On May 20, 2008, Square Enix opened up the North American site featuring the three Dragon Quest DS remakes, acknowledging the game would see a release in North America. On the following day, Square Enix sent out a press release saying that the game would be released in Europe under the name Dragon Quest: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride. It was released on July 17, 2008 in Japan., February 17, 2009 in North America, and February 20, 2009 in Europe.
Included with the remake is the PlayStation 2 update of being able to have four members in a party at a time instead of just three. Also, there is a new third girl Debora Briscoletti (Deborah in Japan), who is available for the Hero to marry. Yuji Horii described her as a character "nobody in their right mind would pick!" and that "it was the perfect way to torment players just a little more."
composed the music and directed all the associated spinoffs. A compilation of Dragon Quest V's music was put on the album Dragon Quest V ~Bride of the Heavens~ Symphonic Suite, was released in 1992 and then again in 2000. The first version features an extra disc with the original soundtrack as well as the symphonic one. Here is the tracklisting of the Symphonic Suite:
had readers vote on the top one hundred games of all time, Dragon Quest V coming in at number 11 and the PS2 remake at number 40. The way the story is divided by different periods of time has been praised, something that has appeared in very few video games. The game's execution of its coming of age
theme has also been praised, with Gamasutra
stating that "never has it been executed so magnificently as Dragon Quest V." Dragon Quest V has also been acknowledged as Yuji Horii's favourite in the series.
The Nintendo DS remake of Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride is the seventh best-selling game of Japan in 2008, selling 1,176,082 copies. The game has sold 1.35 million copies worldwide. It has been called one of the best RPGs on the DS and has been said to have "some of the best story telling on the system". Although critics agreed that the game's interface feels archaic and overly simple at times, many cite that the emotional plot more than makes up for the game's flaws, stated that it is one of the "greatest classic RPGs". Other critics note that this installment of the series particularly stands out from the rest because of its story telling, differentiating it from other Dragon Quest games, which are all more similar. 1UP
praised it for its mature storytelling that "gets better with age" and resonates with players with a "more mature and experienced" perspective going through similar phases in their own life. The updated 3D environments with rotable camera have also received praise.
Dragon Quest
, published as Dragon Warrior in North America until 2005,Due to the inconsistent usage by sources since Square Enix obtained the naming rights to Dragon Quest in North America. Dragon Quest has been used by sources to refer to games released solely under the Dragon Warrior titles...
video game series. Originally developed by Chunsoft
Chunsoft
is a Japanese video game developer specializing in console RPGs and visual novels. It was founded by Koichi Nakamura, a video game designer from Enix...
and published by Enix
Enix
The was a Japanese company that produced video games, anime and manga. The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima on September 22, 1975 as and renamed Enix in 1982...
Corporation, Dragon Quest V was the first title in the series to be released for the Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
Super Famicom
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
(SFC) video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
on September 27, 1992. It has since been remade
Enhanced remake
A video game remake is a game closely adapted from an earlier title, usually for the purpose of modernizing a game for newer hardware and contemporary audiences. Typically, a remake shares essentially the same title, fundamental gameplay concepts, and story elements of the original game...
for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
in 2004
2004 in video gaming
-Events:*January 20 — Wireds Vaporware Awards gives its first "Lifetime Achievement Award" to recurring winner Duke Nukem Forever.*March 4 — Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts Peter Molyneux into the AIAS Hall of Fame*March 22-26 — Game...
; which was developed by ArtePiazza and Matrix Software, and published by Square Enix
Square Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
only in Japan. Another remake was made for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
, and was released on July 17, 2008 in Japan. The remake was also released in North America and Europe, marking the first time the game had an official release in either territory. The game was released on February 17, 2009 in the U.S. and Canada.
Along with Dragon Quest VI, the original Super Famicom release never reached North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. In the absence of an official translation, several fan translation
Fan translation
A fan translation, in video gaming, refers to an unofficial translation of a computer game or video game.The fan translation practice grew with the rise of video game console emulation in the late 1990s. A community of people developed that were interested in replaying and modifying the games they...
s were created between 1998 and 2002, followed by a more recent fan translation of the PlayStation 2 remake.
Dragon Quest V takes place over roughly thirty years of the main character's life, from when he is born through to when he gets married and has a family. The title introduced a gameplay dynamic in which monsters from random encounters may offer to join the player's party. This concept was used in later Dragon Quest games, and in the Dragon Quest Monsters
Dragon Quest Monsters
or Dragon Warrior Monsters, as it was known in North America, is a spin off series of the Dragon Quest games. Published by Enix Corporation , it sets the player in a medieval/fantasy world filled with magic, monsters and knights...
series constituted the primary way to form a party.
The game's monster-collecting concept has since become influential, appearing in a later franchise, Dokapon
Dokapon
Dokapon: Monster Hunter, known in Japan as and known in Europe as is a role-playing video game developed and published by Asmik Ace Entertainment for the Game Boy Advance in Japan on August 3, 2001...
. In turn, the concept of collecting everything in a game, in the form of achievements
Achievement (video gaming)
In video gaming parlance, an achievement, also sometimes known as a trophy or challenge, is a meta-goal defined outside of a game's parameters...
or similar rewards, has since become a common trend in video games. Dragon Quest V has also been credited as the first known video game to feature a playable pregnancy
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
, a concept that has since appeared in later games such as Harvest Moon, The Sims 2
The Sims 2
The Sims 2 is a strategic life simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to the best-selling computer game, The Sims, which debuted on February 4, 2000. It was first released on September 14, 2004 for Microsoft Windows. A port to Apple Mac OS X...
and Fable II.
Gameplay
Dragon Quest V uses basic console role-playing game mechanics seen in the rest of the series, which includes leveling up by gaining experience points through battle, first person turn-basedTurn-based strategy
A turn-based strategy game is a strategy game where players take turns when playing...
battles, and equipping weapons and armor. Something new to the Dragon Quest series is the ability to tame monsters into the player's party. The monsters can be used in battle and level-up like the human characters. Monsters sometimes request to join the Hero after battles if the party is strong enough. There are a total of 40 monsters that are capable of joining the Hero's party in the Super Famicom version, with 71 in the PlayStation 2 remake
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
.
Like IV and VI, this game has a wagon where members of the Hero's party can rest while exploring the world, but in the original Super Famicom
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
version it was only possible to have a maximum of three active party members (those who actively participate in the monster battles), while in IV and VI it was up to four. This was changed in the remakes on the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS to include up to four members in an active party. The tactics system first introduced in Dragon Warrior IV was brought back in this game, but with the added option of controlling allies manually for the entire game (whereas Dragon Quest IV only let you control them for four out of five chapters). It also expanded the tactics system by allowing the artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
routines to be set individually for each ally rather than for the party as a whole.
After beating the game, players can gain access to the bonus dungeon. Dragon Quest V was the first Dragon Quest game to have a bonus dungeon (although the remakes of Dragon Quest III and IV added bonus dungeons later).
Characters
is, in the early chapters of the game, a six-year-old boy who travels all around the world along with his father, Pankraz. After the death of Pankraz, the Hero is a slave forced to undergo hard labor in the building of a great temple. Ten years after, he finally escapes there, and he starts a journey to find his mother, , who was said to have died soon after the Hero was born. She came from and hence kept power to tame monsters.is the father of the Hero. Though he was once the king of , he left his homeland to search for his wife and for the Legendary Hero. His attendant, Sancho, usually stays in . He is killed trying to protect his son and Prince Harry.
is the tomboy daughter of innkeepers of and a childhood friend of the Hero. She first teams up with the Hero in a nighttime-adventure to the haunted Uptaten Towers (the game's first dungeon) and helps the Hero save the Great Sabercub from two bullies, and asks the Hero to take it with him. After growing up, she moves to a mountainside village to aid in her father's recuperation, during which time her mother died. After meeting the grown-up Hero, Bianca briefly joins him in his quest to obtain the Ring of Water and follow him to Mostroferrato. Bianca is one of two (three in the Nintendo DS version) women whom the player can choose to marry the Hero.
is a daughter of , who recently got back from a religious house. Her father is a wealthy man living in . He seeks his daughter's bridegroom, but will only accept a man who is able to pass his trial, which is to collect the Ring of Fire and Ring of Water. She is the second choice for becoming the Hero's bride. She grows to be a strong sorceress if she accompanies the Hero.
is Nera's haughty and materialistic sister who treats the Hero as her "servant". Debora constantly berates the hero and makes it evident that she is the dominant one in the relationship. She even makes the Hero sleep on the floor during their honey moon. However, she expresses her love in humorous ways such as telling him he is the best servant she has had and would never replace him. Debora actually has a motherly side when with the children and truly supports the Hero in his quest to save his mother. She was neither in the original version nor the PS2 remake, but was added as a third choice for becoming the Hero's bride in the Nintendo DS remake. She is a rare hybrid of a melee & damage caster and is the only character able to equip the Akillics & Diamond ackillics weapons (both of which allow her to strike a single enemy twice).
- Prince is the elder son of the King of Coburg(Reinhart). As a child he has a the reputation of being a bit of a prankster, and loves putting frogs on people. After Pankraz's death he is sold into slavery along with the Hero. As a result of his time as a slave, he becomes more responsible and forms a strong friendship with the Hero. He is with the Hero when he begins his quest to find his mother, but the responsibility to his people keeps him from staying on the team for very long. He also falls in love with Maria (the slave he & the Hero saved) and shortly after restoring order to Coburg, he returns to Heaven's Above Abbey riding a white horse & proposed to her. Their wedding occurs while the Hero is off searching the area of Northern Zephyrus. Both Harry and Maria attend the Hero's wedding. Harry and his wife later has a son named Kendrick, who resembles Harry as a boy (in both appearance & personality).
is a strong support and attack magic user, and the one that eventually can equip the legendary Zenithian sword and armor. He is the Legendary Hero Pankraz was originally searching for, but was not born until much later.
is the sister of the Boy. She also has a variety of spells, but her skills are geared more towards attacking monsters (which is ironic as she dislikes fighting monsters). She possesses the ability to understand animals or monster; like her father (the Hero) & grandmother (Mada), possesses the power to tame monsters.
Plot
Dragon Quest V begins with a brief scene of the Hero's birth in which the player gives the Hero a name. Afterwards, the Hero, as a child, and his father, Pankraz travel to meet Sancho, an old friend. The Hero meets Bianca and the two explore the haunted , where they obtain a mysterious Golden Orb. The next day, the Hero notices a man in the town who looks very similar to him only older. That man asks the Hero to show him the Golden Orb and, after returning it, asks him to take care of his father Pankraz. The first section of the story ends with Pankraz being killed by powerful foes when he tries to protect his son and Prince Harry. They are then both sold into slavery.The story continues ten years later, and the player finds that the Hero and Harry have grown up working on a giant temple
Temple
A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...
, but escape as the scene opens. The Hero travels to the west to the town of Mostroferrato, where the wealthy nobleman Rodrigo Briscoletti and his daughter Nera live. Rodrigo sends the Hero on a quest to retrieve two magic rings, called the Circle of Fire and the Circle of Water, as a test of his worthiness as a suitor for Nera. The Hero accomplishes this and Rodrigo offers the Hero the chance to marry Nera, but it is also possible for him to marry Bianca or Debora (DS). After the marriage, the Hero travels to his homeland of Gotha, where they make him king. His wife has two children, but is kidnapped by monsters. When the Hero comes to rescue her, both are turned to stone by the monsters.
The Hero is found by his two children eight years later and is revived. Travelling the world to collect the legendary Zenithian armaments for the Legendary Hero, it is discovered that the Hero's son is indeed the Legendary Hero sought by Pankraz almost twenty years ago. During this stage of the journey, the Hero avenges Pankraz by killing , and restores the Dragon God, as well as Zenithia castle, to their proper homes in the sky. To accomplish this, the Hero has to enter a time warp to retrieve the Golden Orb from his child self.
After returning to the temple the Hero helped build as a slave, the Zenithian armor is found, as well as the statue of his wife. After the final source of evil is eradicated from the world, the party is told that Mada (Martha) remains in the Demon World, and that the final source of evil, , is lying in wait for the Legendary Hero. The Hero, his wife, and their children agree not to leave Mada in the demon world, so together they travel there via a portal near Lofty Peak, and reach the Evil Mountain. Mada is found inside, but dies shortly after meeting the Hero and his family. The party continues on to confront and destroy the lord of evil, Nimzo. They return to Gotha, and have a joyful party. As the family celebrates, Pankraz and Mada watch their son and his family from the heavens, happy and content with their progeny.
Setting
Like the first Dragon Quest trilogy, where Alefgard appeared in games I, II, and III with roughly similar geography in each game, the worlds of IV, V, and VI are connected in that the sky castle Zenithia appears in each game. Like all other Dragon Quest games, this one takes place in a medieval world, with no real modern technology, such as cars or electricity. Characters fight with swordsSwords
A sword is a cutting/thrusting weapon made of metal. Sword or swords may also refer to:* Swords, County Dublin, Ireland* Suit of swords, a suit in Latin-suited playing cards and Tarot decks* SWORDS, a ground-based military robot...
, clubs, and magic instead of guns or other modern weapons.
The quest takes the Hero and his party to many exotic locations, such as a fairy village, a mansion made of ice, several caves, and a volcano. The party eventually makes its way to Zenithia, which is a castle in each game of the Zenithia trilogy. Like a few other Dragon Quest games, the final enemies reside in a dark world, separate from the main map.
Production
As with the other main games in the Dragon Quest series, Dragon Quest V's scenario was designed by Yuji HoriiYuji Horii
is a Japanese video game designer and scenario writer best known as the creator of the Dragon Quest series of console role-playing games, as well as the visual novel adventure game Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken.-History:Dragon Quest is recognized as the first role-playing game to posit the idea...
, whereas the artwork was done by Akira Toriyama
Akira Toriyama
is a Japanese manga artist and game artist known mostly for his creation of Dragon Ball in 1984. Toriyama admires Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy and was impressed by Walt Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which he remembers for the great art...
, of Dragon Ball fame.
Koichi Sugiyama
Koichi Sugiyama
is a Japanese music composer, council member of JASRAC , and honorary chairman of the Japanese Backgammon Society...
composed all the music for Dragon Quest V.
PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
enhanced remake
Enhanced remake
A video game remake is a game closely adapted from an earlier title, usually for the purpose of modernizing a game for newer hardware and contemporary audiences. Typically, a remake shares essentially the same title, fundamental gameplay concepts, and story elements of the original game...
of Dragon Quest V on March 25, 2004, with first day sales of 722,000. As of April 2004, the game has sold over 1.5 million copies making it the top selling Dragon Quest remake game of all-time, and is available in Japan as an Ultimate Hits title. The remake was developed by former Dragon Quest VII art directors, Artepiazza
Artepiazza
ArtePiazza is a video game development and computer graphics studio based in Japan. Their name derives from the Italian words for "art" and "a public square".-History:...
. It features 3D graphics that are similar to Dragon Quest VII, but it utilizes the extra PlayStation 2 graphical capabilities. The Hero and his companions have to fight more monsters in the PlayStation 2 remake than they did in the Super Famicom original, but the character limit on the party has been increased from three to four. Also, there were only 40 monsters available to the player's party in the Super Famicom version of Dragon Quest V due to ROM
Read-only memory
Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...
limitations. The PlayStation 2 remake, however, does not suffer from this restriction. The music is performed by the NHK Symphony.
Another new feature in the remake is the famous local trinkets museum where the player has to collect local specialties from all around the world, return the items back to a character named "Yuujii" (literally old man ghost), and receive rewards for them. The Dragon Quest V remake was the third Dragon Quest to be released in the Square Enix name (after Kenshin Dragon Quest and Slime Morimori Dragon Quest). Lastly, a Dragon Quest VIII preview video disc was included in the Japanese release of the Dragon Quest V remake.
A fan translation
Fan translation
A fan translation, in video gaming, refers to an unofficial translation of a computer game or video game.The fan translation practice grew with the rise of video game console emulation in the late 1990s. A community of people developed that were interested in replaying and modifying the games they...
of the PS2 version was started by Kojiro Translations and an independent team, which later released two patches in 2010 as DQ Translations.
Nintendo DS
The Dragon Quest V remake for the Nintendo DSNintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
was announced in late 2007
2007 in video gaming
-Events:*March 14: Microsoft announces Games for Windows - Live, a version of Xbox Live for the Windows platform. The service launched on May 8.*March 27: Microsoft announces the new "Xbox 360 Elite" stock-keeping unit . The revision comes with a bigger hard drive and the ability to output HDMI...
by Square Enix, to be developed by ArtePiazza. The game uses the same engine as the DS remake of Dragon Quest IV.
On April 23, 2008, it was reported that Square Enix
Square Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
had applied for the trademark "Hand of the Heavenly Bride" at the United States Patent and Trademark Office
United States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification.The USPTO is based in Alexandria, Virginia,...
. It was confirmed to be a reference to Dragon Quest V by a listing from Nintendo of third-party titles for Nintendo platforms. On May 20, 2008, Square Enix opened up the North American site featuring the three Dragon Quest DS remakes, acknowledging the game would see a release in North America. On the following day, Square Enix sent out a press release saying that the game would be released in Europe under the name Dragon Quest: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride. It was released on July 17, 2008 in Japan., February 17, 2009 in North America, and February 20, 2009 in Europe.
Included with the remake is the PlayStation 2 update of being able to have four members in a party at a time instead of just three. Also, there is a new third girl Debora Briscoletti (Deborah in Japan), who is available for the Hero to marry. Yuji Horii described her as a character "nobody in their right mind would pick!" and that "it was the perfect way to torment players just a little more."
Soundtrack
As with every Dragon Quest, Koichi SugiyamaKoichi Sugiyama
is a Japanese music composer, council member of JASRAC , and honorary chairman of the Japanese Backgammon Society...
composed the music and directed all the associated spinoffs. A compilation of Dragon Quest V's music was put on the album Dragon Quest V ~Bride of the Heavens~ Symphonic Suite, was released in 1992 and then again in 2000. The first version features an extra disc with the original soundtrack as well as the symphonic one. Here is the tracklisting of the Symphonic Suite:
Manga
is an eleven volume manga series based on Dragon Quest V by Chino Yukimiya, which ran in 1997, and again in 2001. The story follows the travels of the Hero's children Sora (空),the daughter, and Ten (天), the son, along with retainer Sancho (サンチョ) to find the Hero, who has been turned to stone. This manga fills in the 10-year gap presented between generations two and three in the game Dragon Quest V.Reception
Like the other games in the series, Dragon Quest V was very popular in Japan. In 2006, the Japanese gaming magazine FamitsuFamitsu
is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Enterbrain, Inc. and Tokuma. Currently, there are five Famitsū magazines: Shūkan Famitsū, Famitsū PS3 + PSP, Famitsū Xbox 360, Famitsū Wii+DS, and Famitsū Wave DVD...
had readers vote on the top one hundred games of all time, Dragon Quest V coming in at number 11 and the PS2 remake at number 40. The way the story is divided by different periods of time has been praised, something that has appeared in very few video games. The game's execution of its coming of age
Bildungsroman
In literary criticism, bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood , and in which character change is thus extremely important...
theme has also been praised, with Gamasutra
Gamasutra
Gamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...
stating that "never has it been executed so magnificently as Dragon Quest V." Dragon Quest V has also been acknowledged as Yuji Horii's favourite in the series.
The Nintendo DS remake of Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride is the seventh best-selling game of Japan in 2008, selling 1,176,082 copies. The game has sold 1.35 million copies worldwide. It has been called one of the best RPGs on the DS and has been said to have "some of the best story telling on the system". Although critics agreed that the game's interface feels archaic and overly simple at times, many cite that the emotional plot more than makes up for the game's flaws, stated that it is one of the "greatest classic RPGs". Other critics note that this installment of the series particularly stands out from the rest because of its story telling, differentiating it from other Dragon Quest games, which are all more similar. 1UP
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
praised it for its mature storytelling that "gets better with age" and resonates with players with a "more mature and experienced" perspective going through similar phases in their own life. The updated 3D environments with rotable camera have also received praise.