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Franchise / Dragon Quest

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A Slime draws near!
Command?

Dragon Quest is a long-running fantasy Eastern RPG franchise created by Square Enix. It has eleven main installments, dozens of spin-offs and gaiden games plus an anime TV series. Often credited as the first true Turn-Based Combat console RPG in history, it is absurdly popular in Japan, but fairly obscure overseas — at least compared to its more popular counterpart, Final Fantasy.

Dragon Quest was to Enix what Final Fantasy was to Square, before the two companies merged. While never as popular outside of Japan as Final Fantasy, it's notable for its character art by Dragon Ball artist Akira Toriyama, and maintains a sizable cult following. Most of its tropes, especially the battle screen, have been kept intact over the years.

Interestingly, Dragon Quest was never an in-house project; every game has been developed externally, before and after the Square Enix merger. The actual developers of the series are Yuji Horii, who has been a director or producer in every series entry to date; and Horii's studio Armor Project, which signed an exclusive publishing deal with Enix during the Famicom days (that carried over into the merger).

Dragon Quest is said to be inspired by earlier RPGs such as Ultima and Wizardry, as well as Yuji Horii's earlier Visual Novel Adventure Game The Portopia Serial Murder Case. Mostly due to the historical prevalence of console gaming over PC gaming in Japan, most parodies of RPGs that show up in Anime that aren't MMORPGs, will reference Dragon Quest in some way.

The English localization of Dragon Quest VIII was notable for its solution to the 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 and VII on the 3DS are using regional dialects — there's a Russian town, a Scottish town, etc etc. The localizers also love to use puns, something that's a bit of a bother to some fans, and another selling point to others. It's worth noting that the franchise was always punny in Japanese, it's just that puns don't translate well and prior to VIII the English versions mostly just discarded them entirely rather than trying to come up with equivalent English puns.

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 Dragon Quest III launch — however, the delayed launches were entirely Enix's decision.)

That such a decision was even made in the first place, however, illustrates just how huge Dragon Quest is in its home country. Dragon Quest is a strong contender for the most popular game franchise in Japan. Music from the series was played during ceremonies for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, and the gulf of popularity of the series between Japan and the West was never illustrated better than when Dragon Quest XI's Hero was announced as a DLC character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. While western fans were somewhat "meh" about it, Japanese gamers exploded.

Few people know it, but there was an unrelated Tabletop RPG called Dragon Quest, whose trademark was the reason the Dragon Quest video game series (as well as the 1989 anime) was originally known as Dragon Warrior outside of Japan, until Wizards of the Coast abandoned the trademark after they bought out and buried it so would not be a threat to their Merchandise-Driven empire.

The Dragon Quest series includes:

    open/close all folders 

    Main Series 
Games with their consoles listed in bold were released in that format internationally; those that aren't are exclusive to Japan. The games are also listed by their current titles; I through IV and VII were originally released in the US as "Dragon Warrior [number]", with no subtitles.

Remakes and Rereleases

  • Dragon Quest I + II and Dragon Quest III for Super Famicom (1993 and 1996 respectively) and later Game Boy Color (1999 and 2000 JP, 2000 and 2001 US)
  • BS Dragon Quest, a remake of I for the Satellaview based on the Super Famicom version (1996)
  • Dragon Quest IV for the PlayStation (2001) and V for the PlayStation 2 (2004)
  • Dragon Quest IV, V, and VI for Nintendo DS (2007-2010 JP, 2008-2011 US); and VII and VIII for Nintendo 3DS (2013 and 2015 JP, 2016 and 2017 US)
  • Dragon Quest 25th Anniversary Collection, comprised of I to III, for Wii (2011)
  • Dragon Quest I through VIII for Android and iOS devices (2013-15)note 
  • Dragon Quest I, II, and III for PlayStation 4, Nintendo 3DS (both 2017) and Nintendo Switch (2019); alongside the systems' respective releases of XI.
  • Dragon Quest III in the "HD-2D" style used in Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy (worldwide release; date and systems TBA)

    Spinoff Games 
As with the main game list, consoles listed in bold indicate an international release; while the rest are exclusive to Japan.

    Other Media 
  • Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai (1989-1996 manga, 1991-1992 anime, 2020-2022 anime)
    • Jump Force (2019): As a Shonen Jump manga character, Dai takes part in this crossover
    • Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai — Xross Blade (2020; Arcade)
      • Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai — Xross Blade (2020-2024; manga based on the game)
    • Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai — A Hero's Bond (2021; Android, iOS)
    • Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai: Hero Avan and the Demon King of Hellfire (2020-present prequel manga)
    • Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai (2023; PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PC)
  • Dragon Quest: Legend of the Hero Abel (1989-1991 anime)
  • Captain N: The Game Master (1989-1991 cartoon): The world of Dragon Quest I (then known as Dragon Warrior), named the "Dragon's Den", appears in a few episodes; with the Dragonlord acting as the episodes' villain.
  • Dragon Quest: Legend Of Rubiss (1990 light novel series, 1993 manga): A prequel to DQIII, telling the origin of Goddess Rubiss.
  • Dragon Quest Saga: Emblem of Roto (1991-1997 manga, 1996 anime movie): An interquel between Dragon Quest III and I.
    • Dragon Quest Saga: Emblem of Roto Returns (2004 manga): A collection of side stories featuring characters from the original manga.
    • Dragon Quest Saga: Emblem of Roto - To the Children Who Inherit the Emblem (2004-2020 manga): A continuation of Emblem of Roto that considerably widens the scope and ambition of the story; the main story remains an interquel but it now features significant calls forward to I and II and also features substantial flashback sequences that lay more foundation for the events that took place in III.
  • Dragon Quest: Princess Alena (1997-1999): A manga following the story of Chapter 2 of IV, Alena's adventure but diverts from the plot during the events in the Birdsong Tower.
  • Dragon Quest Monsters + (2000-2003 manga): Takes place after the end of the original Dragon Quest Monsters.
  • Dragon Quest: Souten no Sora (2012-present manga): Based on Dragon Quest X.
  • Dragon Quest: Your Story (2019 CGI movie): An Animated Adaptation of Dragon Quest V.
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018; Nintendo Switch): The Hero from Dragon Quest XI is included as Downloadable Content, with the protagonists of III, IV, and VIII as alternate costumes.

Dragon Quest, as a series, provides examples of:

    A to F 
  • Absurdly High Level Cap: The series as a whole has a habit of this.
    • In DQI, the level cap is 30 at 65535 EXP, but you can curbstomp the Dragonlord well before then, around Level 24 (you need a minimum of Level 20 to have the least chance at beating him). If you reach level 30, the king will lampshade this by saying "Thou art strong enough! Why can thou not defeat the Dragonlord?" Unlike most others on this list, however, it actually becomes easier to gain levels, as the XP amount between levels is static at that point, even though you're dealing more damage and taking less in return. However, since 98% of the entire game is grinding, it's all a matter of whether you even want to bother grinding more than you have to.
    • In DQIV, the level cap is 99, but players are likely to beat the game before they hit level 40. The game implicitly recognizes this in the original release by having every character learn all of their spells and abilities by then. Come the DS remake, however, the hero now has a new spell at level 50, and a Secret Character can learn spells all the way up to level 60! Even with the Bonus Dungeon and new Final Boss, however, players are quite capable of beating everything with levels in the low-to-mid 40's.
    • In DQIX, the level cap is 99; you'll be needing over 65535 XP per level when you get much past 50! Oh, and XP is not shared between vocations (classes), so you could be a level 99 warrior but only a level 1 mage. And you can reset back to level 1 if you want, in order to get more skill points and a "special" item related to the vocation.
    • Subverted then played straight in DQX, since the level cap players had when playing the game on its release date was 50, though as of 6.2, the level cap these days is 124! Justified, since the monsters in the game get harder and harder to beat.
  • Actually Four Mooks: While older Dragon Quest titles have universally resorted to Random Encounters, the jump to the Nintendo DS with Monsters Joker changed the trend to spawning overworld monsters. Most games made or remade in 3D use one monster in the overworld to represent the group you'll actually fight.
  • Added Alliterative Appeal: The English subtitles since VIII; it's harder to notice with "Journey of the Cursed King", but games since IX have been making it obvious. II through VII retroactively gained such subtitles with their DS and mobile releases. It also appears from time to time in the series' constant wordplay.
  • After the End:
    • By the start of Dragon Quest, the Dragonlord has established his rule over Alefgard in no uncertain terms. The Dragonlord has stolen the Sphere of Light, plunging the land into perpetual darkness; his castle looms atop an untouchable peak over the capital city of Tantegel; the land swarms with monsters, cutting towns off from one another and travelers off from their families and homes; poisonous swamps dot the landscape (that vanish only when the Dragonlord is vanquished); and entire battalions of soldiers have been lost trying to rescue the kidnapped Princess Gwaelin.
    • Despite the general reign of peace in the heroes' home region in Dragon Quest VII, it is revealed over the course of the game that the entire rest of the world was destroyed by the demon lord, and the main progression of the story consists of restoring the world piece by piece.
    • Downplayed with Monsters: Caravan Heart, which takes place in the same world as Dragon Quest I - III long after everyone we know from those games has died.
    • Builders takes place in a version of Alefgard, the setting of the first game, that had been ravaged when the hero accepted the Dragonlord's offer to rule half of the world.
    • The second part of XI takes place after Mordegon lay waste to the World Tree and covered Erdrea in darkness.
  • 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 "wurring my slurds or anything".
  • The Alcoholic: Almost every town in almost every game has a pub somewhere, so there's plenty of opportunity to find somebody under the table. Special note goes to Kalderasha of DQVIII, who decided to go Drowning My Sorrows years before the events of the game.
  • All in a Row: All main installments except VIII and the original version of XI (it was later added in the S version) show all active party members on the screen when traveling by walking. The Monsters games also incorporate this as of Joker.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: Notably averted by many monsters in the series.
    • This is best exemplified by a Golem that the player fights in the first game. In later games, it is revealed that said golem was guarding the village from outsiders.
    • It's not unheard of to find monsters in towns minding their own business. "I'm not a bad slime!"
  • Always Check Behind the Chair: There are 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 Dragon Quest. Updating the sprites was one of the things that they did for the US version.
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore: None of the American releases actually showed any of Akira Toriyama's artwork until the Game Boy Color remake of III. Both I and II featured outright reinterpretations of the original Toriyama art in the contemporary 80s western high-fantasy style on covers and in manuals.
  • An Adventurer Is You: Dragon Quest vocations and various individual player characters fit specific combat archetypes.
    • The Tank role is filled by the classic Warrior vocation, which both hits hard and tanks damage.
    • The DPS role is filled by both the classic Martial Artist, a Fragile Speedster Critical Hit Class, and the later Gladiator vocation, which instead Min Maxes the Warrior's offense and defense to make themselves a full Glass Cannon.
    • The Area of Effect role is filled by the classic Mage, which specializes in aggressive Fire and Ice spells that can target both individual and groups of enemies.
    • The Healer role consists the Priest vocation, which specializes spells that heal damage and remove status effects. At higher levels, they're even capable of raising the dead.
    • The Jack of All Trades is often filled by the classic Hero vocation, which is The Paladin in practice, mixing unique, hard to avoid offensive lightning magic and powerful healing spells. The Minstrel vocation introduced in Dragon Quest IX is capable of offensive magic, healing magic, status recovery, and physical attack.
  • Ancestral Weapon:
    • The Sword of Erdrick (Loto), the Iconic Item of the original trilogy, is the Infinity +1 Sword of Dragon Quest when used by The Hero, Erdrick's descendant. It returns in Dragon Quest II, where it can be used by the latter's descendant, but while it's just as powerful as it used to be, it is nowhere near being the strongest weapon in the game. In one game set in the day of Erdrick himself, you can even use it under another name, when it was called the Sword of Kings. It returns in IX as the Rusty Sword and in the 3DS remake of VIII as Ye Olde Sword of Erdrick, both of which can be refurbished to their former glory with alchemy.
    • The Mountaincleaver of III is a weapon passed down in the family of a man named Simão. The party uses it as a Plot Coupon That Does Something, opening the Maw of the Necrogond by throwing the mountaincleaver into a volcano.
    • The Protagonist of Dragon Quest V, the son of Pankraz, can inherit and wield Pankraz's Sword late in the game.
  • Animated Armor: A recurring enemy type, frequently capable of summoning healslimes or their variants.
  • Anti-Debuff: some bosses are resistant to debuffs, and pretty much all bosses can remove debuffs with a Disruptive Wave.
  • Arc Words: "Then morning comes..." tends to appear several times in each of the later games.
  • Area of Effect: One notable aspect of the series is that it comes in two forms. "Sizz" magic, wind magic, and many status spells (among others) affect a group of enemies, which all share the same species (though not all species of monsters will be in the same group in battle). Explosion magic, high-tier ice magic, and certain other spells instead affect all enemies, though their power is usually a bit weaker to compensate. (Your party is counted as one group, unfortunately.) Certain spin-offs ignore this, however, usually due to the lower amount of enemy monsters.
  • Armor and Magic Don't Mix: Mage and priest characters usually buy gear in the form of robes and gowns, while bulky and heavy armor is usually used for warrior characters and others with heftier builds; however, this tends to be an aesthetic choice only — robes and gowns tend to have similar defensive scores to suits of armor. (Every now and again you'll find some armor that can be worn by mages). And firmly averted with Magic Knights, usually including the player character.
  • Artifact of Doom:
    • The Golden Claw in III and a few other games has a powerful curse laid upon it — it increases your encounter rate to 100%, meaning you end up in a random encounter every single step until you get rid of it. In remakes, it's even worse — it doesn't just raise the encounter rate to 100%, it also disables running from battles. As if that's not bad enough, it sells for much, much less than in the original NES version. As a tradeoff, however, the 100% encounter rate only applies to the pyramid itself once the Golden Claw is taken. Escaping the Pyramid and bringing the Claw with you does not affect any other area at all (and it makes a good weapon for fighters).
    • The Godbird Sceptre in Trodain Castle, stolen by Dhoulmagus just prior to the events of VIII, proves to have several nasty side-effects that affect its wielder.
  • Artifact Title: While dragons and quests are both present after the first game, the quests no longer have anything to do with the dragons for the most part.
  • Artificial Stupidity: When not being manually controlled, your party members seem to be inclined towards making the worst possible decisions ever. Spellcasters in particular love blowing their turns on (low success) instant kill spells so much that it's become a Running Gag of the series.
  • Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: A good number of playable characters combine bright red hair -and often a fiery temper- with pyrokinetic magic. Examples include: The Prince of Cannock (DQII), the Female Mage (DQIII), Ashlynn (DQVI), Maribel (DQVII) and Jessica (DQVIII).
  • Author Appeal: Yuji Horii is a compulsive gambler, which is why games in the series often feature a gambling mini-game or few. (And the fact that you can only save in the town's churches make it so that going out on the field/into the dungeons would feel more like a gamble.)
  • Backbench-Hitting Attack: In some games, monsters will sometimes attack the party's wagon to prevent the backup from intervening/prevent active party members from retreating.
  • Bad Powers, Good People: Priests and other healer-class characters have a remarkable propensity for the Whack series of spells. Kiryl from DQ IV, Angelo from DQ VIII, the Priest class from DQ IX, etc.
  • Badass Family:
    • In V, you are not just the son of a king (who's an epic badass in his own right), but your party later in the game also consists of you, your wife, your children and your pets.
    • The heroes of II also count; they're all cousins (all descended from the hero of I).
  • Bait-and-Switch: The Puff-Puff Running Gag has been one of these since III — you think you're going to be visiting Marshmallow Hell, but it turns out to be something else entirely. (In I and II, and in some places in XI, Puff-Puff was played straight and you actually did get what was promised, though the primitive graphics and/or a Sexy Discretion Shot meant the player never saw it.)
  • Barely-There Swimwear: The recurring Scandalous Swimsuit (and its other fanservice costume 'cousins'), which have various characters in-game commenting on it, and visibly changes the appearance of female characters wearing it.
  • Beef Gate: Death awaits beyond bridges for the insufficiently-leveled.
  • Betting Mini-Game: The casinos and Monster Arenas, starting from the second game.
  • Black and White Magic: The series uses different classes of spellcasters, starting with Dragon Quest III (Mages wield offensive, destructive spells, Priests casts curative and state-raising magic, and Sages get everything). It's unusual in that "clerics" not only specialize in healing but also wind magic. It's also unusual in that most Cleric-type characters in this series also tend to learn instant-kill spells that don't hit often enough in most cases to warrant using them often anyways.
  • Black Mage: In games with a vocation system (Dragon Quest III, VI, VII, IX, and X), the Mage class specializes in offensive spells. Games without assignable vocations also tend to have at least one character that fits the Mage archetype, including Ashlynn from Dragon Quest VI, Jessica Albert from Dragon Quest VIII, and Veronica from Dragon Quest XI.
  • Blob Monster: The Slimes are certainly the cutest examples of this trope.
  • Blow You Away:
    • The "Woosh" series, which summons tornadoes to attack a group of enemies.
    • The main character of Dragon Quest V is notable for possessing this as his primary form of attack magic rather than the fire and lightning elements that the "hero" characters throughout the series typically have. This is one of the subtle clues that he is actually not the prophesied legendary hero of the setting, but rather it's his son, who does get the fire and lightning spells.
  • Boring Return Journey: Unlike most JRPGs, the original DQI, DQII and DQIII games do not conclude with the defeat of the Big Bad. You complete the game by returning to visit the king. You can go anywhere you like before doing this, including visiting towns to receive thanks from all the people you've saved. While getting to the Big Bad involves thousands of random battles, after his defeat, there are none to be found, even in the dungeons, since apparently defeating the boss results in the elimination of all his mooks.
  • Bowdlerise:
    • Crosses in the NES versions were removed or replaced with five-pointed stars during localization.
    • References to the Puff Puff Running Gag were removed in the English localizations of earlier games.
    • The mainline series as whole prides itself in its traditional gameplay and the fact that it is supposed to be played by audiences of all ages, at least in Japan. But as the years passed, Japan's rating board for video games, CERO, has gotten more strict in its guidelines for what a game accessible for children should have to maintain its CERO A rating, and it turns out Dragon Quest groomed certain classic designs for female wear that didn’t quite fit with CERO's new policies for a CERO A anymore. With that, Square-Enix started revising some female wear designs, as they see the mainline series should never escape its most accessible possible rating so all audiences can enjoy the games; the re-release for Dragon Quest VIII on the Nintendo 3DS was the forefront on how certain pieces of female wear got revised to be a little bit less revealing and has stuck for mainline titles ever since with Dragon Quest XI. Examples include the ever famous Female Soldier design getting shorts underneath her cod armor piece, the Divine Bustier getting some fabric covering the once bare thighs between the leggings and the skirt, and some other cases where more pieces of fabric were added to older designs. Sexuality wasn't removed altogether, it still is quite present in the series, only that it is being measured with more attention to keep the mainline series always accessible to all ages.
  • Breakout Character:
    • Torneko Taloon from Dragon Quest IV starred in a series of Mystery Dungeon spin-offs made by Chunsoft (who would go on to make Pokémon Mystery Dungeon).
    • Chunsoft also made a Mystery Dungeon game for Yangus from Dragon Quest VIII which picks up where Torneko's series leaves off, incidentally bridging IV and VIII.
    • The Monsters series has a few installments starring party members from other games as the player character. Terry's Wonderland featured Terry from VI (which was not actually released in the West prior to the original Monsters, so Wonderland was his overseas debut).
    • Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart starred Prince Keifer of DQVII.
    • Dragon Quest Treasures featured Erik from XI, along with his sister Mia.
  • Broad Strokes: In any game that references another, especially where cameos and guest appearances occur, expect it to omit certain details. A good example of this is whenever the Hero of DQ IX appears in another game with his full Celestrian wings, despite the fact that he lost them at the beginning of his own game.
  • But Thou Must!:
    • The famous words of Princess Gwaelin/Lora from the original version of DQ I; it appears in just about every Dragon Quest game.
    • It serves as a major plot point in Dragon Quest IX: Celestrians cannot defy their superiors.
  • Canon Discontinuity: The Nintendo of America-approved Dragon Warrior Explorer's Handbook has an expanded backstory: the Dragonlord was an angry hermit who learned to control dragons in the mountain where he lived. After kidnapping Princess Gwaelin and stealing the Ball of Light that maintained happiness and harmony in Alefgard, he was driven away by the legendary hero Erdrick, who vanished after their battle. This backstory was not present in any Japanese-made media, and has never been referenced again.
  • Canon Name:
    • While few games offer The Heroes a direct name, they are given more or less consistent names in adaptations.
      • The hero of the first game is named Alef (as in, "of Alefgard") in Japanese novelizations and drama CDs.
      • The Prince of Midenhall (jp. "Laurasia"), hero of II, is named Allen in novelizations and drama CDs.
      • The Heroes of IV were named Solo and Sofia (it's All There in the Manual of the remakes and ratified by Monster Battle Road and a cameo in the V remake). In the CD Theater audio drama, the hero is named Rei, and in the official novelizations his name is Yuuril.
      • The prologue of V indicates that the hero's father wanted to name him Madason in honor of his wife, but she named him whatever the player chose instead; Madason is the hero's name anyway in cameo appearances. The default name for the hero in-game in Japanese is Abel, while in the CD Theater audio drama and the official novelizations, the hero is named Luca.
      • The default name for the Hero of VI in the Japanese games is Rek (assuming it's not Reck or Wreck). In the CD theater drama, his name is Will. In the manga, his name is Botts. In the novelization, his name is Iza.
      • The Hero of VII is Arus in the manga and Monster Battle Road. In the 3DS remake's English promotional materials, he's named Auster.
      • The hero of VIII is named "Eight" by Squeenix action figures, Monster Battle Road, and the old promotional disc released through Shonen Jump.
      • The hero of IX is likewise "Nine" in Monster Battle Road.
    • The Prince of Cannock (jp. "Sumaltria") and Princess of Moonbrooke of II are interesting cases—their names are selected from a pre-programmed list depending on the hero's own name. Different names have been used in different adaptations and appearances, making them the least consistently named characters in the franchise—the Prince is "Conan" in the CD theater drama and novelization, or "Cain" or "Cookie" in other books (Fortune Street settled on Cookie); while the Princess is "Nana" in the CD drama, "Seria" in the novelnote , and "Pudding" in Fortune Street. The English translation of IX named them Princeton and Princessa.
    • In DQV, the protagonist's children are named Sora ("Sky") and Ten ("Heaven") in the manga, but official English releases of the remakes named them Madchen and Parry.
    • If the reactions to the Hero being revealed in Super Smash Bros. is any indication, in Japan the Hero of each game is referred to as the number of the game they came out in. For example, The Hero of Dragon Quest III is referred to as 3/Three, the Hero of IV is 4/Four, 8/Eight, etc.
  • Casting a Shadow: The "Zam" series, which attacks individual enemies with "Stygian bolts".
  • Chainmail Bikini:
    • This goes as far back as DQIII, where (on top of the scanty armor of the female warrior) 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.
    • A handful of female characters distinguish themselves with this trope; the Princess of Moonbrooke had the "Dangerous Swimsuit" in the MSX1 version of Dragon Quest II, and Jessica of Dragon Quest VIII (whose model would actually change depending on what clothes she was wearing) could also show off a few of the suits.
    • Double Subverted with Dragon Quest IX: the Dangerous Bikini set and the Dangerous Bustier both have a pitiable defense score of +1 ... but will gain significantly higher scores after you start alchemizing them into their "evolved" versions.
  • Character Class System: Vocations, introduced in Dragon Quest III. Once your character gains access to Alltrades Abbey, the abbot can appoint you to your chosen vocation, to make An Adventurer Is You. Most if not all of the classes fall into the standard Fantasy Character Classes—classic choices include Warrior, Mage, Martial Artist, and Priest. Every game with vocations also has at least one Prestige Class that must be unlocked — the classic example is the Sage, which combines the magic of both the Priest and the Mage.
  • Chariot Pulled by Cats: Starting with Dragon Quest IV, the party will often be accompanied by a horse and cart. On multiple occasions the horse has been known to be something special.
    • Peggy Sue, the horse of Dragon Quest VI, is in reality the mythical flying Pegasus.
    • Medea, the horse of Dragon Quest VIII, is in reality a princess under a curse.
  • Chest Monster: Over the years, the franchise has introduced numerous monsters that hide out in every possible type of interactable that a player can examine or search—these booby-trap baddies are often hard-hitting and hard to kill.
    • The classic Cannibox monster, a little shadowy thing that hangs out in treasure chests, leers out at you with its nasty eyes and uses the lid as a set of fangs. It and its Underground Monkeys, the Mimic and Pandora's Box, all have a talent for critical hits and One-Hit Kill magic, making them Boss in Mook's Clothing material.
    • Dragon Quest V introduces the Urnexpected monster family, which works much the same way but, since it hangs out in a pot, is meant to punish Kleptomaniac Heroes. Not only are chests dangerous, so's the pottery!
    • The Well Wishers and their ilk were introduced in Dragon Quest VI, haunting the wells that players typically climb down into to get into underground caves and other little nooks to explore.
    • Dragon Quest VII has Grimoires hiding in the bookshelves a player might consult and Prancing Pillars holding up the walls of castles and towers.
    • Dragon Quest VIII elaborates on the classic Cannibox line with the Trap Box series, who don't leer at you from the shadows of the chest but pop out like demented skeletal jack-in-the-boxes.
    • Dragon Quest X introduces the Cabinet Mimic and its variants, so not only are chests, pottery, wells, pillars, and books dangerous, so are the dressers!
  • Chokepoint Geography:
    • DQ I: Appears twice: The only way to reach Rimuldar (the first of only a few places in Alefgard where you can purchase Magic Keys) and the Southern Shrine is via the Quagmire Cave and the only way to reach Charlock Castle is via a narrow channel with the bridge created by the Rainbow Drop.
    • DQ II: You cannot access a second continent until you get the Prince of Cannock. Then you cannot access a third continent without the Princess of Moonbrooke. Once you get to the third continent, you can get a ship that opens up the rest of the world except for the final area. Then you need the Eye of Malroth/False Idol in order to reach Rendarak Plateau which is surrounded by impassable mountains.
    • DQ III: Chokepoints are constantly used. For example, the only way to reach the lake where the Shrine Prison is located -which you need to do in order to progress- is to sail up two very narrow rivers. Though, your ship will always be pushed backwards by the Shrine's guardian's song until you gain the Lovely Memories item.
    • DQ IV: The Final Boss is in the Overworld behind the Final Dungeon, since you can only take your active party into a dungeon. This way, you can use a magical horn to summon the wagon with your inactive party members, who can then swap in and out during the big showdown. You remembered to give the horn to one of your active party members, right?
    • DQ VIII:
      • The bridge between Trodain and Farebury is broken before the events of the story, so the kingdom of Trodain can only be approached from the west.
      • Subverted with the door to Moonshadow Land; the official (but legendary) doorway is atop Wisher's Peak, but the technical requirements are met by a window in Trodain Castle's library.
    • DQ IX: Grotto hallways have rocks or other obstacles every few feet, making it impossible to pass by larger monsters when they're sitting in the narrower areas.
  • Classical Cyclops: Cyclopes are a recurring Smash Mook, typically appearing with blue skin and a single horn. Underground Monkey versions include the Gigantes and Atlas, the latter of whom is often reserved for Boss Battles.
  • Collection Sidequest:
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
    • A rare example of this working for the player. In most mainline games after IV, party members that are assigned tactics make their move based on the situation at the time when they act, whereas ones that follow orders have their actions chosen before the turn begins in most games in the series. This means a healer assigned with tactics can be much more efficient by healing someone within the same turn they were attacked, for example.
    • AI-controlled party members are also privy to info the player can't see. They know how much health enemies have and go out of their way to finish off foes with weaker spells or basic attacks to conserve MP, and they know what spells enemies are and aren't resistant to.
  • Contractual Boss Immunity:
    • Most bosses are completely immune to the series' Status Effects and resist both status debuffs and even certain elemental magics.
    • The great and vexing thing about Metal Slimes, aside from their high agility and tendency to flee from battle, is that they have even more immunity than bosses; they No-Sell everything except plain physical damage, usually possess some innate ability to dodge attacks, and usually have defense scores so high that even when you do land a hit it will only be for 0-1 points of damage (hits for 0 damage are treated as "misses" in these games, which adds somewhat to the frustration by making them seem even dodgier).
  • Cool Sword:
    • The Erdrick Trilogy and DQXI have Erdrick's Sword◊, also known as the Sword of Light or Sword of Kings: an ancient one-handed broadsword with a curved hilt resembling a Phoenix bird. It is forged from Orichalcum, shoots lightning bolts and can only be wielded by the lineage of the legendary hero. It has cut down lords of chaos, dragons, demon lords and gods of destruction.
    • The Zenithian Trilogy has the Zenithian Sword◊, a huge claymore with a dragon-shaped green hilt.
    • Subverted in DQVI. The party finds that the way is blocked by a horrible monster, with its lair blocked off by soldiers. They go to the king, who's promised to give an ancestral sword called the sunderbolt blade to the monster's slayer. However, the monster is beaten before you can do so (and the sword goes to its killer), and by the time you meet up again the sword is nothing special.
  • Crisis Crossover:
    • The Heroes spin-offs feature visiting characters from the main series games all coming together to ward of some new almighty evil.
    • The Monster Battle Road series as seen in this video.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: The franchise lifts a lot of western Catholic style for its churches, priests, and nuns, but takes plenty of liberties with the content and cosmology.
    • While the early franchise referred to a plain, Christian-esque God, many overtly Christian elements were Bowdlerized out in the earliest Western releases, resulting in an even vaguer approximation of Christianity. In Dragon Warrior III, for example, anything that even looked like a cross was edited out, priests were renamed healers or (if playable) pilgrims, and dead party members were rendered as ghosts instead of cross-marked coffins.
    • Dragon Quest IV and V feature Zenithia, a heavenly castle occupied by Winged Humanoids called Zenithians, but the ruler of this heavenly city is in fact the immense Zenithian Dragon—in IV, The Hero is implied several times to be the offspring of a Zenithian who fell to earth and in love with a human. In V, the Zenithian Dragon is revealed to have come to earth and taken human form to come to know humankind.
    • While God has been referred to in previous games, Dragon Quest VII features a cosmic conflict in which the Almighty himself was a major player. Demon King Orgodemir, Big Bad of the game, is a mish-mash of Satan and the demiurge of Gnostic cosmology (his name is even a near-perfect anagram of demiourgos); there are also four elemental spirits, the Almighty's "children" who inherited a portion of his power when he disappeared. The Almighty himself appears both as an Optional Superboss in the post-game and in Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 under the name Numen.
    • Dragon Quest VIII features a global church with major institutions built at holy sites around the world, one of which features an enormous statue of a goddess. The Western release of the game extrapolates from various in-game goddess artifacts to create "the Goddess", depicted as the direct object of the church's worship; the Goddess would go on to be a franchise-wide female stand-in for God in the West, being swapped in even in remakes of other games localized after VIII.
    • VIII also introduced the trident-symbol that replaces the Christian cross in all games released afterwards.
    • In Dragon Quest IX, Grand Architect Zenus mixes and matches traits and actions from God and Zeus, and his daughter Celestria from Athena and Jesus Christ. Zenus, who shares the title of The Almighty with Numen, went so far as to create an entire race of Winged Humanoid servants named Celestrians to do his bidding and take care of humanity (in Japan, the Celestrians are out and out called angels)... but there are also two divine dragons in the setting (and a third mentioned in the lore) and a fairy who works aboard the divine ark (a flying golden locomotive of all things). One Celestrian in particular has an important part to play in the crisis afflicting the globe: Corvus, a textbook example of the Lucifer archetype, was the greatest of all Celestrians but fell to earth and was sold into the hands of the Gittish Empire, who experimented on him and drove him mad three hundred years ago—in the current day and age, he's become a fully Fallen Angel and means to wipe out humankind entirely.
  • Cumulonemesis: Recurring enemies in the series such as the Cumaulus and the Hell Niño are sentient clouds.
  • Cursed Item: Several weapons will curse the user when equipped. While there is no direct way to know if an item is cursed without equipping it, they are often described as having "an air of danger". These items tend to be very powerful for where they are found to entice the player to equip them. The drawback though is that someone wearing a cursed item often cannot attack in combat, and all items are of the Stuck Items variety requiring a visit to the church to remove them.
  • Cute Bruiser: Character customization options can allow you to give large attack scores to cutesy characters. Examples include the female Fighter class from Dragon Quest III and Alena from IV.
  • Cute Slime Mook: The series is the Trope Maker; the Slime monsters have inspired countless imitators.
  • Dangerous 16th 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 eighteen, though that wasn't what your Hidden Village planned... Played with in V, as horrible things started happening to the hero when he was six, but he didn't really start fighting back until he was sixteen. XI starts at the hero's 16th birthday and things quickly go down from there.
  • Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: The games have a fairly odd relationship with this trope from a narrative standpoint, thanks to the gameplay mechanics. Since this has a few moving parts and needs to be broken down a bit:
    • From the start, dead has meant dead - the games haven't gone the route other RPG series have with 0 HP meaning a person is still-alive-but-can't-fight. 0 HP means you are straight-up biologically dead. However, resurrection magic is comparatively easily accessible; assuming you don't just have a resurrector in your party, you can bring a party member back to life by presenting his coffin to a priest and making a donation, based on his level (all functions in a church that are not saving the game require a donation). This is very much in-universe, too.
    • If you suffer a Total Party Kill, your first team member will be automatically resurrected at the cost of half your gold on-hand - which can definitely suck in certain parts of the game, but it's never unrecoverable. So player death is, at worst, a significant inconvenience, not a disaster, and there's no true Game Over screen (which was a huge part of the appeal early on - you can lose gold, but you can never lose experience progress). This makes sense if you consider that Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii is a gambler, and thus the mechanics themselves were meant as a risk/reward gamble, progress vs gold.
    • As a result, the inhabitants of the games can come across as being a bit blasé about it all - nobody in your party ever freaks out if another party member is brutally murdered by monsters (even in games with a party talk feature), NPCs generally don't comment if you're dragging around a party member's coffin, and DQ V memorably makes a gag on it all during a major plot moment.
    • However, that has not stopped Dragon Quest from occasionally trying to play some Death Tropes straight, which, after several games where the above mechanics have been taken for granted, is a clear gamble with a player's suspension of disbelief.
      • Averted in II, before the trend fully set in. Later in the game, there's a storyline sub-plot where one of the princes gets deathly ill, and you have to go and retrieve a mystical leaf to cure him. Since Death is so cheap, they might have just let him die, then resurrected him later, saving a TON of trouble.
    • This also comes up in a significant way in Builders 2: relatively early in the Moonbrooke chapter, Malroth charges off on his own with a few soldiers and the soldiers end up getting themselves killed trying to copy Malroth's reckless fighting style. When the local priestess comes out of hiding, it then comes up that there is no resurrection in the world you are in, and that the dead are just dead. This is, for the attentive, your first big hint that something is very, very different about the world you are in compared to other games, especially since up to that point your friends in-universe had been assuming that they were still in the Alefgard/Torland world. As bigger spoilers, it all stems from the fact that the inhabitants of the world you find yourself in are illusionary — they're not "real" enough to actually resurrect, and even if they could be, as illusions created by Hargon's manipulation of Malroth's power, other deities (like Rubiss) have no power or authority to intervene in any case. Only when Malroth makes the world real could this change, and then it'd likely still have to come from him.
  • Degraded Boss: It's not unheard of for boss monsters to return in later games as powerful Underground Monkey variants, such as Belial and Pazuzu, two of Hargon's generals from II.
  • Demon Lords and Archdevils: Many of the Final Bosses and Bonus Bosses are great and powerful demons or devils.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In many of the games, notably in DQ V, you go more or less invade Hell, kick Satan's behind, and escape unscathed.
    • DQ VI also has an optional sidequest where you basically beat up Satan, and then he kills the Big Bad for you.
    • In VII you get to fight God as a bonus boss, and very much can punch him out! III also has Xenlon, a pseudo-deity dragon that hangs out in a tower in (more-or-less) Heaven, and has all kinds of nifty divine powers, who you can also beat into a bloody pulp and claim a reward from.
    • Of course, the villains themselves are no slouches in this department. Zoma, Orgodemir, Corvus, and Jagonuba defeated Rubiss, The Almighty Numen, Zenus, and Luciana. note 
  • Disc-One Final Boss: If you know who the game's Big Bad is within the first two or three hours of gameplay, you don't know who the game's Big Bad is.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Later games and remakes provide a "Charm" stat that allows characters and monsters to distract their enemies with just how good they look. A few female characters and monsters even have the Puff-Puff ability.
  • Dragons Up the Yin Yang: Dragon Quest III introduced the Ethereal Serpents and their variants, long, serpentine dragons of the eastern style, the first of their kind in a franchise that borrowed initially from western dragons. The most powerful variant of this type of monster is Xenlon, an Optional Boss from the Updated Re-release of the same game who grants wishes. While Xenlon himself only rarely appears in the franchise, there are a variety of weapons and pieces of armor that make Call Backs to him.
  • Draw Aggro:
    • In the few games where "Whistle" can be used in battle, it makes enemies target the user.
    • Heroes uses the Beckoning Bell accessory to attract monsters to whoever happens to be wearing it.
  • Double-Edged Buff: The recurring Kaclang! ability grants the party complete invulnerability in exchange for not being able to act for a few turns.
  • Dub Name Change: Dragon Quest has had several different dubbing teams over the years, which can make it a headache to chart continuity and repetition between games that's perfectly obvious in the original Japanese. Thankfully, things have been mostly consistent since VIII.
  • An Economy Is You: Nearly every town in any game has an item shop, weapon shop, and armor shop, yet it seems the hero, and/or his/her party, are the only ones who would ever need such things. Although it's played with in DQIV, where you get to play as Torneko Taloon, one of the guys who works in these stores, and you see a whole bunch of NPC adventurers come through to buy and sell.
  • Elemental Powers: Primarily consisting of the various families of magic spells characters can learn. While most characters who can use magic at all learn only one element, dedicated magic users can mix and match.
  • Elemental Tiers:
    • According to the manual for Dragon Warrior, HURT is a fire spell and HURTMORE is a lightning spell. In the Game Boy remake however, these spells were both fire spells. In either case, this did not actually affect the gameplay in any way — elemental resistances were not incorporated until later games.
    • This anticipates later games, where the magic options have expanded. Fire, Ice, and Wind spells are generally a lower-tier than lightning spells (which are not only more powerful and learned later in the game, but generally reserved for the hero).
    • In Dragon Quest II, the Prince of Cannock's Sizz spell has a lower range of damage than the Princess of Moonbrooke's Woosh spell.
  • Encounter Bait: The "Whistle" ability makes battles happen upon use in the field.
  • Encounter Repellant:
    • Holy Water is a store-bought item that will lower the encounter rate for weaker monsters.
    • Holy Protection is the magic spell equivalent of Holy Water and can be cast repeatedly as long as the user has MP.
    • Padfoot ("Tiptoe" in the Gameboy Color release of III) is a skill native to the Thief vocation and in some games will only lower the encounter rate instead of outright preventing them.
    • The Goddess Ring from VIII prevents all Random Encounters, period. Thing is, you can only obtain it by defeating at least one of every monster in the first place.
  • Evil Living Flames: Dancing Flames, roughly humanoid creatures made of fire, are recurring monsters in the series. Likewise, Firespirits note  are said to be a physical manifestation of the Frizz spell.
  • Expy: The Celestrians of IX are quite similar to the Zenithians of IV to VI: Winged Humanoid angelic beings living on a Floating Continent who regard mortals as somewhat pitifully weak and foolish creatures, though naturally there are exceptions to that. Both also suffer some major Pride Before a Fall, though the Zenithians' takes place between IV and V.
  • Face-Design Shield: The Boss, Tempest, and Slime shields.
  • Fanfare:
    • The Overture heard at the start of each game.
    • Also the Level Up fanfare, which is used for every single game.
  • Fanservice: Every main game, either the original or remade, has fanservice somewhere, usually provided by main characters. Even the first game manages to work some in, although a lot is still left to the player's imagination.
  • Fiery Redhead: A common design theme.
    • There's Alena in IV.
    • Ashlynn in VI.
    • Maribel in VII.
    • Jessica in VIII.
    • IX also features this as an appearance trait you can give to party members; interestingly, however, the usual dark orange favored by the designers isn't available — instead, IX features a very rich, more literal red.
  • Fighter, Mage, Thief:
    • The original DQIII introduced Fighters and Martial Artists (strong hitters with high defense and low speed), as well as Clerics, Mages, and Sages (physically fragile wielders of powerful magic); and the SNES remake introduced Thieves (low defense, fantastic speed and evasion), completing the class triangle. Next games in the series usually included the three classes, or characters fitting each archetype.
    • DQXI has the Luminary, Jade and Sir Hendrik (physically powerful fighters), Serena, Veronica and Raab (squishy spellcasters) and Erik (weak but swift thief).
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: The series has the Sizz (Fire), Crack (Ice) and Zap (Lightning) families of spells. The latter is exclusive to the Hero. Fire Spells were already available in the original DQI, and DQIII was the game which introduced Ice and Lightning magic.
  • First Law of Tragicomedies: Several games start off with a fairly light and comedic tone, then get progressively darker (particularly near the end of the plot).
  • Floating Continent:
    • Zenithia, which features prominently in Dragon Quests IV, V, and VI.
    • Two in VIII: first is the Lord High Priest's residence, a glorious mansion atop a rock held aloft by what many assume to be holy power; second is the Black Citadel, the Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
    • The Observatory, base of operations for the Celestrians in Dragon Quest IX.
    • Yggdrasil rests on the top of one in XI, and can be seen from the beginning of the game.
  • Funetik Aksent: The remakes of IV, V, and VII use several different dialects for characters from different regions of the world. VIII did it first, though. In English, anyway — all of them actually had this in the original Japanese script, as characters from different towns would speak in different Japanese regional accents.

    G to L 
  • Gaiden Game: Games centering on Torneko from DQIV, Yangus from DQVIII, Rocket Slime, and the Monsters series.
  • Giant Mook: The recurring Cyclops series is often noted for its immense size.
    • In Dragon Quest IX, one of the grotto bosses is Atlas, an oversized Cyclops Palette Swap who happens to be the strength of God incarnate so huge that lakes and ponds are said to be his footprints.
    • In the Dragon Quest Heroes series, the Gigantes and Atlas tower over the player characters, who barely reach their ankles.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The series occasionally does this with the final bosses.
    • The original English translation of Dragon Quest II is one of the all-time worst offenders of this trope, to the point that it almost makes Necron look like less of an Ass Pull. Hargon is played as the Big Bad for the entire game. When you finally kill him, he throws a demon named Malroth (Sidoh in the Japanese version) at you who turns out to be infinitely harder. Absolutely nothing in the entire game even so much as hints at Malroth's presence, with the exception of a quest item named Eye of Malroth (that has absolutely nothing to do with demons), and it's never fully explained exactly what the hell Malroth is or why you need to kill him right now (aside from the fact that he's trying to kill you). In the Japanese original and remakes, it's revealed that Malroth is the god that Hargon and his cult worshiped. This still doesn't change the fact that Malroth is a huge Giant Space Flea, though.
    • DQ V had this in its original version since Nimzo isn't even mentioned until late in the game. The remakes rectify 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.
    • The third and sixth also avert this trope, although this was originally a spoiler, especially in regards to III, which was the Trope Codifier for the use of Your Princess Is in Another Castle! in video games. You didn't think Baramos was the only Archfiend, and Murdaw was the only Dread Fiend, did you?
  • Game-Favored Gender: Since Dragon Quest III, female characters tend to enjoy a larger selection of armor and accessories than their male counterparts. They're still subject to class-based gear restrictions, of course, but it's not unusual to run into several points in a given game where the best armor currently available is a dress, skirt or robe, barring men from using them. By contrast, male-exclusive items tend to be more jokey, like boxer shorts.
  • God: There are several different candidates, generally unique to their particular world.
    • While earlier games made vague reference to "the gods" or even a specific "God", Dragon Quest VIII introduced "The Goddess", who has been treated the supreme deity of many different settings (and remakes of older games) since. In the "Erdrick" setting, this has evidently been made or less synonymous with Rubiss, the creation spirit/deity.
    • Dragon Quest IX takes place in a world very explicitly created by a male deity, known as The Almighty; "The Almighty" is later used as a title for the God of VII in the 3DS remake. They're known as Grand Architect Zenus and Numen, respectively, and Zenus' daughter Celestria fills in for Zenus during his absence.
  • God Is Evil: A rare JRPG example that often avoids the trope.
    • Subverted In DQIX, a player might well think that there's a lot of really obvious setting up for "God", as the Celestrians understand Him, to be the major villain of the entire game. The truth of the matter is... substantially more complicated.
    • Seems to be played straight in Dragon Quest VII. Except it's actually Demon King Orgodemir posing as The Almighty. When The Almighty actually does show up as the Superboss, he turns out to be a pretty decent guy.
    • Played more straight in Dragon Quest X, where one of the Regional Gods, Nadraga wanted his race of Dragons to rule over all the others and allied himself with Jagnouba, the Great Source of Darkness when his siblings refused.
  • God Is Good: In most of the games the creator is firmly benevolent and may even give some Divine Intervention.
    • Rubiss, aka the Goddess, always has a major and helpful role to play in each game she directly appears in. Even when weakened by the resident Big Bad, Rubiss never gives up and goes beyond the call of duty to help mortals.
    • The Zenith Dragon in DQ IV is initially a downplayed example, being fairly fed up with humanity as a whole and staying out of the affairs of the world. He still offers guidance though and once you help him see there is still good in humanity, he pulls of a Big Damn Heroes moment and saves the party when no one else can. He keeps this up in DQ V as Dr. Agon.
    • Yggdrasil from DQ XI picks the Luminary to bring peace to the world and sends him helpful visions whenever he finds her vines. Even when she is severely damaged by Mordegon, she keeps up sending helpful visions and her own servants to help the Luminary and his friends.
  • 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 DQ VI, 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; "true" slimes only appear in the real world).
  • Gotta Catch Them All: The Monsters series, although DQ V and DQ VI both had monster catching as well, years before Pokémon.
  • Gratuitous Foreign Language:
    • Morrie from the NA version of DQ VIII peppers his speech with Italian words. A slime version of him runs the Tank Battles in 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 Dragon Quest V. Gядйdмдsтзя Йiмzф дlsф dфзs тнis, дйd тдlкs щiтн д Яцssiдй дlрндьзт fфям фf lззтspздк.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Nokturnus, who debuted in VI by destroying a kingdom from an entirely different dimension, has enjoyed a reputation as a very powerful Superboss and demon. Dragon Quest X bumps up his reputation by establishing him to be a multiverse-scale God of Destruction.
  • Grimy Water:
    • Poisonous swamps appear throughout the series, but the only game where you can actually die from its damage is DQ I; sequential titles will never let your party's health fall below 1HP.
    • In DQ III, the Charlock Castle, where Zoma awaits for the Hero and his Party, is surrounded by purple, poisonous swampy water. The access to Gaia's Pit -and the Dark World- is also encircled by a toxic purple swamp.
    • In DQ VIII, there are a few areas (such as a segment in the Black Citadel) where the player can walk through what appears to be purple water. Doing so slowly damages the entire party.
    • This feature is useful in DQ IX, as there is a side quest which requires you to heal allies from exactly 1 HP several times... good luck getting monsters to drop you to exactly 1 HP, unless you have a lot of Defense and a lot of patience.
  • Guest-Star Party Member:
    • DQIV: In the third chapter, Torneko can recruit temporarily Laurel, a spellcaster bard, and Hardy, a mercenary.
    • DQV: Prince Harry joins you at the beginning of Part II and leaves after the false queen has been dealt with.
    • DQVII: Kiefer joins your party in the beginning, but he leaves roughly a third or so of the way into the game.
  • Happily Married: The main protagonist of DQ V; the wedding is a major point in the game and the second half revolves around family adventuring.
  • Have You Seen My God?: In both VII and IX, the major deity is absent when the world really needs a Big Good (in other games, the Goddess is too far in the background to take a hand).
  • 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.
  • Herd-Hitting Attack: In DQI, the Hero did not need multi-target attacks since he only fought one enemy per encounter. DQII introduced groups of enemies, so consequently the developers turned Sizz/Sizzle into multi-target spells and introduced spells (Woosh) and weapons (the Chain Sickle) which could damage groups of enemies, as well as the Kaboom spell which blew up every enemy in the field. DQIII refined, expanded and improved the system, and all subsequent games built on it.
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Most of The Heroes are usually associated and depicted with swords and the like. Notably Averted with the main character of Dragon Quest V, who is depicted with a staff. It is one of the subtle hints toward the fact that the main character is not actually the legendary hero of his game.
  • Heroic Mime: The Hero of every game. The series' insistence on a voiceless protagonist will occasionally highlight the flaws of such an approach; players tend to assume a character with no voice and therefore no obvious personality to be their personal avatar, which doesn't mesh with the fact that each hero has his own personal story.
    • In DQV, you get to hear the hero speak a few lines when he comes back to your childhood via Time Travel to exchange the fake MacGuffin for the real one. DQXI does the same thing in a similar situation.
    • 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.
  • Holy Pipe Organ: The churches in every town serve an essential role as Save Points by confessing to the local pastor. They all share the same pipe organ-based theme, "Healing Power of the Psalms". The pastor can also perform other holy tasks for the adventurer like revive their fallen allies, perform exorcisms, and remove poisons.
  • Holy Water: Throughout the series, Holy Water is a consumable item that acts as Encounter Repellant against monsters weaker than the party; in games with Random Encounters it prevents them from occurring, in games with Pre-existing Encounters it prevents them from spawning or makes them avoid contact at lower levels than without using it. In some games, it can also be used in battle to deal a minuscule amount of damage to a single monster.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight:
    • Marquis de Léon in Chapter 4 of DQ IV.
    • DQ V has this with Bishop Ladja at the end of generation 1.
    • DQ VII has a few of these as well at Alltrades Abbey.
    • And also DQ IX twice; not only can you not win, you can't do anything because But Thou Must! has been weaponized against you.
    • A few show up in DQ XI as well.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: The series limits the number of items your party can carry including your equipment in battle. The first three games have a vault to store your items, but since DQIV, you carry a Bag of Holding with no limit of items you can carry. If the player party's inventory is full, additional items are placed into the bag. Items in your bag cannot be used during battle.
  • An Ice Person: The "Crack" magic series involves summoning shards of ice to skewer enemies; higher levels also have increased range. One character who learns these spells is Borya of DQ IV.
  • Iconic Item:
    • The Sword of Erdrick is used as a quickhand reference to the original trilogy (sometimes just Rubiss' Crest). It and the rest of Erdrick's equipment appear in multiple games as a Call-Back to the first.
    • The Sword of Zenithia is similarly used as a symbol for the second trilogy. Dragon Quest Monsters Battle Road Victory features them both prominently.
  • Idiosyncratic Menu Labels: Some of the installments label the option for starting a new game as "Venture Forth".
  • Impractically Fancy Outfit: Some of the fancier gowns and robes are more suited to ballrooms than battlefields. Special note goes to the Shimmering Dress, which is not only impractical in design but in its special effect: it sometimes reflects magic, including healing spells.
  • Improbable Age: Dragon Quest V starts off the protagonist as six years old. He gets treated as such, and it shows in other things such as being unable to read signs, but this obviously does not stop him from donning Plate Armor and wielding a Broadsword to considerable effect. Not to mention you're forced into marriage at 16 years old.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Astraea's Abacus is one of the most powerful weapons available in Torneko's chapter of DQ IV. An abacus!
  • In-Universe Game Clock: Dragon Quest III introduced a day/night cycle. Sleeping at an inn would always take you to morning, and there were also spells and items that would change it from day to night or back. This continued on for the rest of the series, though inns would eventually allow you to rest until evening instead of just the next morning.
    • Dragon Quest VIII has a day-night cycle of about a half-hour. However, the player can circumvent this with most inns: going to an inn in the middle of the night has you wake up at dawn, and going to an inn during daylight gives you the option of sleeping until the next morning or only until evening.
    • Dragon Quest XI refines the game clock manipulation further with campsites, allowing the party to rest until dawn, midday, dusk, or night.
  • Infinity +1 Sword:
    • Erdrick's armor and sword comprise the most powerful equipment in the first game. The sword is by far the most powerful weapon in the game and can only be found in the Very Definitely Final Dungeon, while the armor gives The Hero a powerful Healing Factor and immunity to environmental hazards. There's also the Silver Shield, which is for sale, but which is also the single most expensive thing in the game.
    • The second game saw the franchise start to experiment with the concept of "ultimate" equipment:
      • Erdrick's equipment returns in the second game, and the armor, helmet, and shield remain the toughest, strongest things The Hero can wear safely—Erdrick's sword, while no weaker than it was in the first game, has since been dethroned by the Thunderbolt Blade, which is at least twice as strong as Erdrick's blade and even casts a magic spell.
      • The second game also includes equipment that's stronger than Erdrick's equipment when worn, but cursed.
      • The mad cap is an rare piece of headgear that can only be worn by the Princess of Moonbrooke, which has little physical defense but which also cuts her Mana costs by twenty-five percent. In the original release, it's only found as a Rare Drop of select monsters, but the Updated Re-release tucks away a treasure chest containing it in the penultimate dungeon.
      • The flowing dress, created in particular for the Princess of Moonbrooke but wearable by anyone in the party, is the most powerful armor that the Princess of Moonbrooke and Prince of Cannock have access to, since all pieces of stronger armor are reserved for The Hero. It protects from fire attacks and environmental hazards like swamps and lava.
      • The Falcon Blade introduced by the second game turns the entire concept of the "ultimate" sword on its ear (and at a quite early point in jRPG history, no less); The Gimmick of the weapon is that, despite its pitiful strength, it's so fast that it lets the user strike twice per turn, which after a certain level starts producing more damage than any other weapon can keep up with. It is in practice the ultimate weapon for the Prince of Cannock, though The Hero can technically wield it, too.
    • The third game features a set of equipment reserved for The Hero consisting of the Auroral Armor, Ortega's Helmet (remakes only), Hero's Shield, and Sword of Kings, which together are his strongest weapons; female characters get access to the shimmering dress, which is even stronger defensively than the auroral armor and has numerous defensive qualities. Updated Rereleases add the Flail of Destruction and Rubiss sword, which are a both at least as strong as the Sword of Kings.
    • The Zenithian Equipment of IV is a powerful set of equipment unique to The Hero boasting some of the greatest stats in the game and a slew of powerful effects.
    • Dragon Quest IV introduces a certain style of equipment with a specific gimmick—the liquid metal equipment is stronger in terms of raw stats than the Zenithian Equipment and boasts comparable defensive properties, but is generic and can be equipped by anyone. It would be succeeded in Dragon Quest V by the Metal King gear, which is much the same but has even higher stats—the liquid metal equipment or metal king equipment would become a recurring option in later games. (IX would go so far as to introduce a more basic metal slime equipment to round out the set).
  • Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: Both the door and key disappear when unlocked in the first game. Averted in all other games.
  • Item Crafting: Starting with VIII, many of the games have crafting in the form of Alchemy, where you throw stuff in a pot and maybe wait a while (depending on the game) to get a new item. Later games starting with X replace alchemy with forging, which incorporates some minigames to determine the new item's quality.
  • Jack of All Trades:
    • The hero in each game may be a jack-of-all-trades by the end of the game, but he's almost always a healer type, assuming there's no job system. While he can and does get the most damaging spells in the game (Zap, Kazap, and (sigh) Kazapple), they are prohibitively expensive, and his physical power and healing spells are always more useful.
    • The second game avoided the tendency of RPGs to make the main character fit this role, instead giving it to the second party member out of the three — i.e. the Magic Knight to the hero's purely physical attack and the princess's Squishy Wizard.
  • Japanese Ranguage: Occurs in the NES release of Dragon Quest I and III (Dragon Warrior I and III). The first town you encounter in I is named Brecconary and is changed to Brecconaly in III. This is especially curious because the town isn't even named that in Japanese; it's "Ladatoum" in the source. Evidently wires got crossed among the translation team itself.
  • Just Add Water: Alchemy in VIII, IX, and various other spinoffs; and breeding/synthesis in the Monsters series. Averted in X and XI, where forging involves a minigame that's a bit more elaborate.
  • Killer Rabbit: Subverted with the Imps; these small, googly-eyed baby demons can potentially cast deadly spells like Kaboom and Thwack, but they’re unable to successfully use them because they have no MP. So they just end up looking completely helpless whenever they try to cast them in battle. It's played more straight with the Bunicorn and Teeny Sanguini lines, however.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero: Ever since the introduction of openable drawers and pots and whatnot around-about DQ V, the series has gotten a hair infamous for this. None of the NPCs ever seem to care, either. VIII goes so far as to encourage you to help yourself — if you find it, it's yours.
  • Knighting: "Loto" or "Erdrick" is not actually a name — it's a title bestowed only upon the bravest of heroes. It is given to the hero of Dragon Quest III, the heroes of Dragon Quest II (and possibly to their ancestor, the hero of Dragon Quest I, though his adventure occurred before this part of the mythology had been developed), the hero of Dragon Quest XI, and to Prince Kiefer of Dragon Quest VII and his partner Luin, as per Dragon Quest Monsters Caravan Heart.
  • Law of Cartographical Elegance: Played straight in most of games where the map's borders loop around each other (DQ III, DQ XI) or stretch to infinity (DQ VIII). The exception is DQ I, which differs from the later games in the series in that all of Alefgard appears to be surrounded by water. In DQ II, it's revealed to be one of several "continents" in the game world.
  • Lazy Backup: Played straight by some, averted by others, especially the immensely useful system in DQV where your Mons and characters not in the active party would jump out to fight for you if the entire main party was knocked out. Interestingly, since only the main character can interact with others, if you enter a town with the hero unconscious, one of his party members (even his pet panther!) would drag him off to get revived.
  • Leaning Tower of Mooks: One of the regular monsters of the series is the Slime Stack, which is a stack of 3 differently-colored Slimes - significantly tougher than the sum of its parts. Sometimes, 3 normal Slimes will even jump together to form one in mid-battle! (And sometimes, Metal Melodies and Gem Jamborees will be present.)
  • Legacy Character: Unlike other recurring NPCs like Patty the Party Planner, who appear from game to game regardless of world or timeline to manage certain mechanics in their own person, some mechanics are managed by NPCs who are allowed to differ.
    • The mini medal collectors, who will exchange powerful prizes for the mini medals you've collected. Each game from III to VII featured a new king to do the job, but then the series began to riff on the pattern with more unique NPCs:
      • VIII features Princess Minnie, who is carrying on the medal-collecting business on behalf of her sick father, the Medal King.
      • In IX, the medal collecting is carried out by Cap'n Max Meddlin', a pirate captain (after a fashion) and giant of a man who alludes to royal ancestry.
      • In Dragon Quest Heroes II, the medal-collecting is carried out by Maxi Malone, an honest-to-goodness Platypunk in a crown, complete with the mobster-like patter of all Platypunks.
    • The various abbots of Alltrades Abbey are not usually the same person, though they fill the same role. Not all of them are the same "Jack of Alltrades" (the remake of VII even had an Abbess Jacqueline).
  • Legendary in the Sequel:
    • Inverted in the first three games. Your character in DQIII has become a legend by in DQI. Played straight in DQII, where the hero of the original game has become his own legend.
    • In DQIV, the Hero's defeat of Estark makes them renowned amongst the world over and strikes fear into monsters even past IV itself. This actually ends up being a bad thing in DQV, as this prompts the slaughtering of any descendants they have out of fear that another legendary hero could come about.
  • Lethal Joke Item: Some high level "armors" for girls are actually just lingerie, like the Naughty Underwear or Bustier items. Unlike male underwear (like, say, the Boxer Shorts), these items actually have high stats and good effects... meaning many, many players have the female characters wearing them. Also due the blatant name, and its implication for the wearer venturing the land in nothing more than a sexy lingerie, the item is widely referred in Fanarts and Doujinshi.
  • 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 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 grind quite a bit to just overpower the fights. Smarter, not Harder, and all that.
  • Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: Zig Zagged. Some games allow casters to cast multiple times, attack groups of enemies, or rack up the damage, but other games have the casters lag behind because warriors can do the same for no mana cost, and on top of that can have their abilities scale with strength and damage multipliers.
  • Locked Door: Finding the keys are a major part of each game.
  • Lost in Translation:
    • References to the Puff Puff Running Gag were removed in the English localizations of earlier games.
    • The Temple of Dharma and Book of Satori reference Buddhism, but this is not as apparent in games with the Dub Name Change of Alltrades Abbey and Words of Wisdom.
  • Magic Is Rare, Health Is Cheap: Varies from game to game. However, it is usually far easier to acquire health-restoring items and potions than it is to find magic-restoring ones. Some earlier games don't even have the latter.
  • Magic Knight: It's tradition for The Hero from every game in the main series to be one of these.
    • Except for the second one, mind you, where the main character can't use a single spell; instead, the role of Magic Knight is played by his cousin, the Prince of Cannock. (Of course, this was before the tradition was really formed).
    • The main character being a Magic Knight descends from the set-up of the first game, where the character had to be something of the Jack of All Stats and do everything since he was solo the entire time.
    • It was the hero of III who formalized the convention, where the hero was not only a Magic Knight, but The Paladin, with unique lightning powers and the most powerful of Heal spells. This convention has been inherited by most of the other DQ heroes following him.
  • Mana Potion: Magic Water, Single Phial, Sage's Elixir, and the more potent Elfin Elixir.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Lots!
    • Malroth behind Hargon (sort of) in II.
    • Zoma behind Baramos in III.
    • Aamon behind Psaro in IV.
    • Nimzo behind Ladja in V. Mortamor behind Murdaw (and many others) in VI.
    • Rhapthorne behind Dhoulmagus in VIII.
    • Corvus behind Godwyn in IX.
    • Jagonuba behind Nelgel, Maldragora, and Nadraga in X.

    M to R 
  • Market-Based Title: TSR owned the trademark to the name Dragon Quest for many years, forcing the series to be released as Dragon Warrior in America until the eighth installment.
  • Mascot Mook:
    • The ever-smiling Slime, which has grown so ubiquitous that Dragon Quest now boasts an entire class of monsters comprised of the Slime and its ever-increasing number of derivatives.
    • Platypunks from Dragon Quest IV are also frequently featured in spin-offs, especially the Sime Morimori series.
    • Dragon Quest IX introduced the Teeny Sanguini. These cute little critters spend most of their time fluffing around in midair until they get hungry, revealing they have More Teeth than the Osmond Family. A Sanguini of some variety can often be found prominently featured in spin-offs.
  • Medieval European Fantasy: The series is a Denser and Wackier take on this setting.
  • Metal Slime: The Trope Namer, with an ever-growing number of examples in the series — the Metal Slime, the Liquid Metal Slime, the Metal King Slime, the Metal Kaiser Slime, the Gem Slime, the Darkonium Slime, the Platinum King Jewel, the Diamond Slime, the Liquid Metal King Slime, the Metal Star, and whatever else they come up with in later games. All varieties are Nigh-Invulnerable, usually susceptible to critical hits and not much else, often making their defeat a matter of luck (or the proper weaponry).
  • Minigame Zone: Most of the later games include a casino where you can win large quantities of cash and powerful equipment.
  • Monster Arena: Starting with Dragon Quest III. Later games even have subquests of you having to recruit monster gladiators for your teams.
  • Monster Compendium:
    • The Big Book of Beasts in the remakes of IV, V, VI, and VII show the number of enemies defeated for each enemy beaten, what kinds of items received from them, and attack animations.
    • The monster list in Dragon Quest VIII displays models, character animations, and flavor text for every enemy type defeated. Filling it up by defeating at least one of every monster, including bosses, nets the player a secret item that can prevent random encounters.
    • The defeated monster list in Dragon Quest IX shows models, animations, number defeated, and items received from each monster type defeated, along with flavor text. The thief vocation's skill "Eye for Trouble" reveals a second page of flavor text for each monster observed using the ability along with revealing both possible item drops regardless of which items the player has attained from the monster.
    • Dragon Quest X and Dragon Quest XI keep a repository of monster information as well.
  • Mushroom Man: The Funghoul and its Underground Monkeys are fat little toadstools with gaping faces and stubby limbs.
  • The Musical: A musical was made in the early nineties featuring J-POP group SMAP playing the characters.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Balzack, and his evolved form, Baalzack.
  • Non-Indicative Name: The Infernos spell found in the NES games. You would think it is a fire based spell (inferno) but is actually a wind spell. Later releases would change this to Woosh.
  • Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The original Dragon Quest trilogy allows you to visit the same locations at different stages in history. Dragon Quest Monsters Caravan Heart shows you much of the same world reduced to ruins.
  • 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, King Godwyn, Anlucia the Maluminary, Patriarch Orstov, Pujyu, Jia Rube and Jia Saphir, and Jasper get special mentions for being mid bosses that do this.
    • Orgodemir of Dragon Quest VII is an interesting case. The first time you fight him he plays this trope straight. The second time he inverts the trope, as he goes from his One-Winged Angel form to his normal form, and then further changes into a hybrid of the two forms.
    • Dragon Quest XI zig-zags this. Mordegon does have a rather impressive One-Winged Angel form as Mordragon. The True Final Boss Calasmos however doesn't transform at all.
  • 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 his other works.
  • Optional Sexual Encounter:
    • DQ's infamous Puff-Puff, in which a party member is invited to get his face massaged with a woman's breasts (offscreen). While this was played straight in I and II, Dragon Quest III set the trend for it to become a parody, where the pervy Puff-Puffee suffers a Bait-and-Switch resulting in something much less sexy than promised, though what kind of Hilarity Ensues is unique to each game. XI has both straight and gag examples. The running gag even cameoed in Final Fantasy XIV during a brief crossover event.
    • In the first game, the inn in Tantegel Town from Dragon Quest I featured a special dialog Easter Egg if you spent the night with a female companion. This could be either your local female fan, Princess Gwaelin, or even both.
    • In Dragon Quest V, the player must choose a bride from one of three possible spouses, who will eventually bear his children. Only Nera will make reference to sexual encounters, but marrying Bianca will require you to sleep together (nudge nudge, wink wink) at the Roundbeck Inn.
  • Palette Swap:
    • Every monster in the series has at least two Underground Monkey variants that are identical to it but come in a different color. Some of these Underground Monkeys appear as fully-fledged Bosses, but it's also common to first encounter a boss monster and then discover more powerful variants as Mooks later in the game.
    • Not so on the whole with the Final Bosses, who are unique to each game, though there are specific examples that can be cited. In Updated Rereleases of Dragon Quest IV, Aamon uses the Secret of Evolution to mutate himself into a Palette Swap of Psaro named Ashtaroth.
  • Party in My Pocket: VIII, the original version of XI (but not the S release), and Monsters: Joker use this trope. In VIII only the character in the first slot of the party (or the first living character if the ones in front are dead) is shown when walking and Joker only shows the protagonist. In XI, characters that are a Guest-Star Party Member or who haven't yet properly joined your party will also follow the hero character around.
  • Physical God: The Dragon God / "King" of the Zenithia trilogy; he sometimes disguises himself as a human.
  • Pictorial Letter Substitution: Many Dragon Quest games use a sword in place of the letter "t" at the end of the title.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: Quite a few, particularly Medea's wedding dress in VIII.
  • Playable Epilogue: Every main series single player title allows the player to walk around and receive the adulation of the various townsfolk, though most of the later titles only allow you to visit a few towns.
  • Playboy Bunny: One of the most common character images in the series. There are two major varieties, miniskirted serving girls on the one hand and the rarer full corset variety (often restricted to the party).
    • 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! You can also recruit a female Gadabout as a party member, whose sprite is a playboy bunny, though from X onwards, they share the same appearance as the male Gadabouts.
    • Jessica's bunny outfit in Dragon Quest VIII. There are some NPC bunny girls, though this amounts to a set of ears, a tail, and a short skirt.
    • Dragon Quest IX has Bunny Ears, a Bunny Tail, Stiletto Heels, and different bustiers (some of which can be made through alchemy), as well as the NPC harlequin Bunny Girls.
    • They reappear in Dragon Quest XI, both as NPCs and as a costume for Jade.
  • Playing with Fire: There are two major spell series in this element (one of the oldest and most common): "Frizz", which creates fireballs to hurl at individual monsters, and "Sizz", which produces a field of flames to attack enemy groups.
  • 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 Mons 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 Zenithian Sword as an item will have the same effect. And since it's plot-relevant, you can't miss that item.
  • Prequel: DQIII in the Erdrick trilogy and DQVI for the Zenithia trilogy, and as the hidden ending of DQXI reveals, is a very distant prequel to DQIII.
  • Pretty in Mink: A fair number of armor and character designs have fur.
  • Previous Player-Character Cameo: Iconic cast members and Ensemble Darkhorses are liable to make cameo appearances in later games.
    • Special note goes to IV, which has some of the earliest and most iconic of these characters. Torneko and Ragnar McRyan appear in VIII due to special invitation by Morrie.
    • DLC allows supporting cast members from previous games to visit the Quester's Rest in IX, and they'll even provide you with copies of their personal outfits, so you can make like they're adventuring alongside you.
    • Dragon Quest Heroes, as a Crisis Crossover, also has multiple characters from previous main-series titles returning, most of them either playable, fightable as bosses, or background helpers.
  • Punny Name: Far, far too many to list in this article. See World of Pun below.
  • Random Effect Spell: Hocus Pocus, across the series.
  • Rare Candy: The stat-boosting seeds, found in drawers, pots, hanging sacks and nearly everywhere else.
  • Rate-Limited Perpetual Resource: In the Zenithia trilogy (the games numbered IV, V and VI) the item Yggdrasil Dew, which fully heals the entire party's HP, can be obtained from a pool in Zenithia. This source never runs out, but the player can only carry one vial of the dew, needing to spend it before being given another one.
  • Recurring Character:
    • The Warrior class of Dragon Quest III was appropriated for generic soldier NPCs in later games. It and several other class designs return as the garb of multiple NPCs in later games, particularly in DQXI.
    • Robbin' Hood/'ood/'Ood, the obscenely muscled and underdressed Hoodlum with a hatchet from Dragon Quest III, has made numerous appearances since his debut, almost always as a thief.
    • Games with recurring mechanics are routinely managed by the same NPC character:
      • If a game has party management, you'll find Patty the Party-Planner (Ruida to old-school fans).
      • If vocations can be chosen, Abbot Jack of Alltrades Abbey will set you on your way.
      • If there are Mons to manage, you'll typically find Monty the Monster Monitor is at your service.
    • Tom Foolery, a Guest-Star Party Member from Dragon Quest IV, returns as a ghost in Dragon Quest IX.
    • Estark, ancient King of Hell in Dragon Quest IV, took on new life in later games as an Optional Superboss and started the trend of Superbosses timing the player's efforts to defeat them. He even inspired (along with his mutant imitator Psaro) the Slaughtomaton series of monsters in DQVII.
    • King Trode has made a few repeat appearances since Dragon Quest VIII, including the implication of him playing a huge role in the ancient past of Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime and as a secret monster in the DQM Joker games.
    • Morrie, owner of the monster arena from Dragon Quest VIII, returns as Morrie-Morrie the slime in Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime; as one of the common audience-sprites at the main arena in Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, though now with a Cool Mask; and as himself to do the announcing for the Dragon Quest Monster Battle Road spin-offs.
    • Captain Crow, ghost pirate from Dragon Quest VIII, appears as a post-game Optional Boss in the Dragon Quest Monsters Joker series.
    • Godbird Empyrea of DQ VIII has appeared in multiple games as an interdimensional traveler, including the Monsters: Joker and Heroes spinoffs not to mention that she's also Ramia, the godbird of DQ III.
    • The monster Gemon, who antagonized Empyrea in VIII, also appears in Monsters: Joker 2 and Swords (as a mirror-world being named "Nomeg").
    • Erinn, the head innkeeper of the Questers Rest in IX, reappears in Heroes 2 to manage the multiplayer mode, leaning more heavily into the Inn Between the Worlds trope and adopting a similar role to Pavo, who managed multiplayer in IX.
    • As a side-effect of reusing monster designs from one game in another, specific monsters who also doubled as characters in one game can appear in another. The Marquis de Leon and Baalzack of DQIV are frequent recurrers.
  • Recurring Element: Dragon Quest was the original JRPG series, so it has a lot of lore of its own to call back upon. Many of the tropes on this page are recurring elements, but here are some highlights:
    • The main character is usually a Magnetic Hero who collects party members for the cause over the course of the game.
    • The main character is also usually a Kleptomaniac Hero who will demolish or rifle through everything in pursuit of loot. VIII goes so far as to explicitly authorize the player to do this.
    • II introduced gameplay and storyline expansion; while you may start the game simply romping around the local countryside on foot (as in the original Dragon Quest), it's not at all unlikely you'll be traveling the globe with a Cool Ship, Warp Whistle, and often some form of Global Airship by the end. It's also likely you will be collecting special keys that allow you access to locked doors that would be otherwise inaccessible.
    • The Final Boss is usually a confrontation with an incarnation of the very powers of Hell.
    • A significant number of heroes are actually secretly Half Human Hybrids or have some other Secret Legacy. It's also worth pointing out that there are a handful of humans who are secretly dragons in disguise.
    • Most healing items come in the form of herbs.
    • Many kinds of weapons and armor recur in the game, including their special effects.
    • Various Mooks will also reoccur, including, obviously, the Mascot Mook Slime.
    • The games' traditional save point is always a church or at least a holy man, which almost always have the same aesthetic and leitmotifs even if they worship different gods.
    • The Puff-Puff gag, in which a lovely young woman massages her cleavage into the player character's face. Ever since Dragon Quest III, each game has found a way to riff on this idea, such as the massage actually coming from a male body-builder or a pair of Slimes.
    • III introduced the idea of Another Dimension to the series, and characters have been frequenting other worlds ever since. Taken to its logical conclusion in IX where your home base is effectively an Inn Between the Worlds.
    • VIII introduced Alchemy Is Magic to the series, which has been a fairly regular element to the main series since.
    • Later games are more than willing to sneak cameos of notable characters from previous installments, even if those characters technically belong in different worlds.
    • Apparently Akira Toriyama has made it a point to insist that there be at least one Tsundere in every project he works on, including this series.
    • There will often be a Collection Sidequest in the form of hunting Mini-Medals, little golden medallions hidden away in various nooks and crannies of the world. In any game with Mini-Medals, there will typically be a monarch somewhere willing to exchange some very neat stuff for your collection.
    • There are many, many love stories in Dragon Quest, all the way back to Alef and Princess Laura of I; these are most typically Star-Crossed Lovers (and Love Hurts something awful) and Childhood Friend Romance. In the latter category, there's such implied between Alena and Kiryl (and likely the hero and Elisa) in IV, V's hero and Bianca, VIII's hero and Princess Medea.
    • Gambling forms a core part of the game's philosophy, thanks to Yuji Hori himself. It's not only why there are casinos in every game, but also informs every Luck-Based Mission (including more than one Monster Arena), and why it's series tradition to only let you save in churches.
  • Recursive Adaptation: The Arcade Game Dragon Quest Scan Battlers has an attack cutscene that is clearly taken from the Hero(e)s' entry in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, combining the Gigaslash Final Smash with part of the Hero's announcement trailer.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent:
    • Many monsters are reptilian or amphibian-looking: Dragons, Chimaeras (a snake/vulture hybrid), Snake Handlers/Ch-arm-ers (their arms have been replaced with a pair of snakes), Thaumatosaurus (similar to Plesiosaurus), Terrorceratops (four-legged horned dinosaurs), Wormbats (flying lizards)...
    • DQI: The Dragonlord can transform into a purple dragon. One of his main minions is a Green Dragon tasked with killing whoever tries to rescue Princess Gwaelin.
    • DQII: Malroth, God of Destruction, is a scaly, green monster with a snake head on the tip of his crocodile tail.
    • DQIII: Orochi, the man-eating monster found in the island of Jipang, is a flame-breathing, five-headed, green-scaled dragon. Also, The Hero's father Ortega gets killed by the King Hydra.
    • DQIV: Balzack gets turned into a bipedal, fat dragon after betraying his teacher and becoming Psaro's minion.
    • DQV: King Korol, leader of the evil Order of Zugzwang, is a humanoid crocodile.
    • DQVI: Murdaw, one of the four Dread Fiend lieutenants of Mortamor looks like a scaly, horned lizard.
    • DQVII: Demon King Orgodemir's real form is a giant, winged, horned snake.
    • DQVIII: One of the quests involve hunting a Great Argon Lizard.
    • DQIX: King Godwyn, the evil and cruel ruler of the Gittish Empire, can transform into a skeletal winged serpent. His ally Barbarus is a massive Eastern black dragon.
    • DQX: Nadraga, the Astoltia Dragon God, who wants to have the Dragon Race rule over the other races, though after being revived, he extends his revenge to Astoltia and even the Dragon race themselves.
  • Requisite Royal Regalia: Royals of all varieties are distinguished by rich robes and crowns, and even some monsters get in on the act. If you find an NPC in royal clothes, they are near doubtless as royal as they claim to be.
    • In Dragon Quest III, one of the kingdoms has its crown stolen by a thief. Upon retrieving it, the king actually offers to let your hero rule in his stead, leading to a temporary Non Standard Game Over if you accept. (You can reverse it by just tracking the king down (he's hanging out in the casino) and having him take the kingdom back.)
    • King Slimes would look only like a big and chubby common slime if not for the colorful imperial crown sitting on its head. Some games even offer these Slime Crowns as one of the King Slime's Random Drops. In VIII, a king slime is found stuck in a well and only freed when its crown is removed and its Fusion Dance comes apart into a handful of common slimes.
    • Dragon Quest V offers a whole set of Infinity Plus One equipment unique to the main character, which includes a crown, mantle, and scepter. The main character is, of course, of royal lineage.
    • Maxi Malone of Dragon Quest Heroes II is a Platypunk bedecked with a mini-medal necklace and crown to distinguish him as the mini-medal collecting royal of the game.
  • Rewarding Vandalism: See a pot or a barrel? Punch it or destroy it.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Several heroes are royalty, among them II's heirs to Midenhall, Cannock, and Moonbrooke; Tsarevna Alena of Zamoksva in IV; the entire royal family of Gotha in V; the Prince of Somnia in VI; Prince Kiefer of Estard (and his descendant Aishe, though the family had long given up being royalty by her generation) in VII; the heir to Argonia and King Trode of Trodain in VIII; the new Demon King and former child of the kingdom of Tenton, Prince Raguasnote  and Anlucia in X; and the Prince of Dundrasil, his grandfather the former King Robert (aka "Rab"), and Princess Jade of Heliodor in XI.
  • Rummage Sale Reject:
    • While some pieces of equipment are designed to go with others, most are designed to stand on their own and don't match anything at all. While it's impossible to see in the games, there exists official art of some characters wearing medleys of random equipment that look quite ridiculous.
    • That said, in Dragon Quest IX and Dragon Quest X, your characters' appearance is completely alterable, allowing them to wear mismatched equipment all day if the player prefers.
  • 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. Lampshaded late in the game, when Trode shows up at Tyran Gully, and Yangus starts to say his line, but then stops and says he's getting sick of that old bit.
    • Dragon Quest V has a few slimes appear on maps. They're willing to tell you that they're not bad slimes and demand you to not attack them. They also usually give you some tips in return.
    • Ah, the classic Puff Puff. At least once in each game, you're liable to run into a girl who'll offer to provide you with a Puff Puff, that is, she'll give you a massage with her breasts.note  The gag is that she won't actually do it, even if you accept her offer. Suffice to say, you do not get what you expect. So famous is the gag that it even featured in Final Fantasy XIV when there was a crossover with Dragon Quest X.
    • The series occasionally takes potshots at its own Artificial Stupidity and how mages would keep trying to cast insta-kill spells that rarely work. The usual target of these jabs is Kiryl from IV.
    • The fast-travel spell, Zoom, shoots you high up into the air — unless you're indoors or beneath something. In that instance, you bang your head on the ceiling.

    S to Z 
  • Sacrificial Revival Spell: Kerplunk does this with all of the caster's allies, hero or monster. It also removes all of your MP so you can't just have your newly revived healer revive you so you can use it again.
  • Saintly Church: The churches of the unnamed deities. Averted in VIII, where the church and its leadership is shockingly corrupt, but the local parishes still play it straight and are just as helpful as ever.
  • Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Starting with the English release of Dragon Quest VIII, the names of spells have been comprised of the sound the spell makes: Frizz, Sizz, Crack, Zap, Boom, and all the rest are onomatopoeia. More powerful versions of the spells add prefixes and suffixes, like Crackle, Kaboom, and Kafrizzle.
  • Scary Impractical Armor: Late in the games, players can start finding armor with powerful stats and malevolent designs, like of skulls and demons. However, this armor is usually Cursed, and will inflict negative status effects on your character, like increased weakness to some or all kinds of attacks or even losing a turn in battle. This armor is also impossible to remove normally, usually requiring a trip to church.
  • Schizo Tech: Despite otherwise being in a standard medieval, high fantasy setting, robot enemies have been a staple of the series since Dragon Quest II introduced the Killing Machine family. Some places also have technology that shouldn't exist yet, including slot machines.
    • Dragon Quest II: To be fair, the game that introduced the killing machine and hunter mech (and the Machine monster family by extension) was set in the distant future of the first game. Curiously, these monsters only show up in the Sea Cave or the region of Rhone/Rendarak and its dungeons, which all relate to the Children of Hargon; the game may have been trying to imply Lost Technology or Magitek.
    • Dragon Quest VIII: In the 3DS version, the Nitid Tutu which makes Jessica look like a Magic Idol Singer comes with a headset.
    • Dragon Quest IX also features a steam train, which, to be fair, can fly and was created by God himself.
    • Dragon Quest X features a lot of technology, including a train, Magitek made by Dwarfs both in the present day and 3,000 years ago. Even a spaceship!
    • In Dragon Quest XI, while most of the towns are typically medieval, some places like the casino have neon lighting and gambling machinery that wouldn't look out of place in a modern setting. The castle in Sniflheim has an elevator and the sailing ship used to traverse the overworld has a paddle wheel like a 19th century steamship despite not having any smokestacks. There are also people wearing bunny girl costumes throughout the world, which is another modern invention. L'Académie de Notre Maître des Médailles is a female boarding school with girls wearing uniforms from a Japanese high school, and even the classroom looks like it was from a contemporary Japanese school.
    • The Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker series is much more tech-heavy than main games or even the earlier Monsters games. The main character of Joker uses a jet-ski to reach new islands; Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 features airships, which were unheard of before Dragon Quest IX or so, unless you count flying castles. Joker 3 is positively saturated with futuristic tech.
  • Scratch Damage Enemy: Metal Slimes in the series, at least the literal ones, are always these. Luckily for you, various actions and equipment can deal increased damage, notably the various types of Metal weapons and the Metalicker skill.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Rhapthorne, Orgodemir, etc.
    • A literal example with Bjorn The Behemoose from V who was sealed in an actual jar.
  • Sequential Boss: Dragonlord, Hargon/Malroth, Dhoulmagus, Orgodemir...
    • None more than Psaro The Manslayer from IV however, who cycles through 7 forms.
  • Shock and Awe:
    • The "Zap" (Dein) spells, which strike enemies with lightning from on high. The Zap-family is distinguished by how it restricts its range as it increases in power and cost — Zap can hit all enemies, while Kazap can only hit groups. It also has shades of Light 'em Up, being opposed to the "Zam" spells.
    • In early games, the "Boom" series also counted as electric before becoming its own class.
  • Situational Damage Attack: The Magic Burst spell deals the caster's remaining mana as damage, leaving them unable to use anything with an MP cost afterwards. Bosses that can use this often have unique abilities that allow them to instantaneously restore their MP at will.
  • Smash Mook: A wide variety of Dragon Quest monsters specialize in hitting hard rather than using magic spells or other skills; if they do have skills, it will be in order to hit harder. Chances are, if it looks big and strong, it hits big and strong. Common examples of the type include the Golem, the Troll, the Cyclops, the Living Statue, and the Gruffon.
  • Sole Entertainment Option: Most games have exactly one (sometimes two) casino in the world.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Threatening Geography: Typically, the games start off with the main character wandering around an idyllic countryside and running into mostly cute critters: slimes, feral cats, crows, bats worms...as the game progresses, the Hero is forced to traverse large woods, pass through high mountains and explore labyrinthine caves, running into increasingly powerful monsters. By the endgame, the party characters are usually fighting their way through the game's version of Hell.
  • Spinoff Babies: A fair few franchise heroes got up to a surprising number of adventures in their youth. Terry and Milly, Keifer, Yangus and Red, Erik and Mia, and even Psaro all star or feature in various series spin-offs set during their childhood years.
  • Spoiled Brat:
    • Prince Harry in V when he's young, the 10 years of slavery made him more laid back and optimistic ("We're locked up... I guess we can rest now!"), and later his son.
    • Charmles in VIII. It's his primary characteristic.
  • Sprite/Polygon Mix:
    • The PlayStation and Nintendo DS remakes of IV, V and VI feature 2D characters and 3D environments which can be rotated 360 degrees.
    • VII. With the sprites rendered in classic Toriyama-style 2D looking very much like upgraded VI sprites as well as 3D backgrounds and attacks... it can look a bit... style-breaking.
    • IX is mostly 3D, but most minor NPCs are 2D sprites.
  • Squishy Wizard:
    • The Wizard class in DQIII.
    • Borya in DQIV
    • Jessica from VIII too. Not just literally, either. Well, she's a wizard, and, er, parts of her are squishy...
    • Veronica from XI
  • Status Buff:
    • Since DQII and DQIII, which introduced the first status-altering spells, the series has grown to include an enormous variety of buffing magic spells and abilities, such as Oomph (doubles one character's attack power for a while, but they can't get critical hits), Buff and Kabuff (raise one ally's defense, or the party's defense), Acceleratle (boost the party's agility), Insulatle (protect the party from fire and ice), and Bounce (create a barrier that reflects magic spells cast on the target). In earlier games, many monsters and some AI-controlled characters could spend a turn gathering their strength, in order to make their next attack stronger. Later on this ability was made available to your characters, as Psyche Up. One of the more memorable buffs from the series is the Be Dragon spell, or Puff as it is now known, which turned the spellcaster into a fire-breathing dragon for a few turns.
    • DQVIII made it even better by allowing you to Psyche Up multiple times to build up even more power, eventually giving you the appearance of having Super Saiyan hair, as can be largely expected because of the character designer being Akira Toriyama.
  • Status Infliction Attack: This is common - however these are usually tied to the weapons moreso than the attacks. For example, Dragon Quest XI: Erik and Sylvando share the Knife skillset, which is built around attacks that inflict status ailments, and attacks that inflict massive damage on targets with those specific status ailments.
  • Superboss:
    • Divinegon in the DQ III remakes (and Grand Dragon, exclusive to the GBC remake). 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 he can only be accessed through a massive spiked brick wall of a Collection Sidequest. Defeating Grand Dragon rewards you with the game's Infinity +1 Sword that all classes can equip.
    • Chow Mein and Foo Yung, who dwell at the end of the Fungeon in remakes of DQIV. They notably use techniques that would not debut until after the original IV.
    • Dragon Quest V started the tradition with the Epilogue Boss, Estark, who previously appeared as a major boss in IV, though severely weakened. This game gives you a shot at what he would be like at full power.
    • In Dragon Quest VI, the Bonus Dungeon ends with a battle against Nokturnus, the demon whose main contribution to the story is to annihilate an entire castle's worth of people whose king pissed him off. If you beat him, he'll waste the Final Boss for you without so much as breaking a sweat.
    • And in VII, you fight God (called "the Almighty").
    • The Dragovian Trials from Dragon Quest VIII, which have heavy ties to the hero's true identity.
    • 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: 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.
  • Suspend Save: The only way to save in the field.
  • Taken for Granite:
    • Dragon Quest V: Not one but two characters each spend roughly a decade being Taken for Granite, one of whom was fully conscious of everything going on around him.
    • Dragon Quest VI: This is Murdaw's bread and butter when dealing with opponents who infiltrate his Keep, first seen when the Hero, Carver, and Milly come to fight him. He does it again when they reinfiltrate his Keep, though they are able to counter that with the Mirror of Ra, forcing the Dread Fiend to take matters into his own hands by fighting them.
    • Dragon Quest VII also has entire towns getting Taken for Granite that the party journey through by the Gray Rain.
    • Dragon Quest VIII riffs on the theme by revealing the whole kingdom of Trodain was cursed to become helpless statuesque plants.
    • Dragon Quest X has this happen to Leone after he and his brother Ashlay defeated Goda, the first Great Demon King via a petrification curse. This also happens to Anluica and some Ogre soldiers via crystallization.
  • Teleportation with Drawbacks: The Zoom spell/the Chimera Wing item can take you to any previously-visited town, but using it indoors causes it to fail (and your party to hit their heads on the ceiling).
  • Tiered by Name:
    • Mid-tier spells start with 'ka', upper-tier spells end with 'le'. For example: 'Frizz', 'Kafrizz', Kafrizzle'
    • The Slimes have a lot of buffed variants, including an infamous one that only takes one point of damage and gives out high EXP. All of them have "Slime" in their species names.
    • The Killing Machine series has been enjoying this, too. First you had the Killing Machine, an endgame-class monster in its own right from DQII. And then DQVI introduced the Overkilling Machine. DQIX introduced the Trauminator (that's the Super Killing Machine in Japan). And then there's a few variants unique to Dragon Quest Monsters titles not released in the west.
  • Timey-Wimey Ball:
    • In Dragon Quest III, where a city is destroyed during the day but intact and apparently in the past during the night; you need to use this trick to obtain one of the Orbs you need to awaken Lamia.
    • Also, one of the more complicated examples in Dragon Quest V, as a child, you find a glowing golden orb which does not seem terribly important. Later, you show it to a random traveler. Still later, The Dragon crushes it so you can never use it against him. Then, after the Time Skip, you're given a fake orb and use a magic painting to go back in time to exchange balls with your younger self, which means that that traveller you showed the gold orb to was you (though you could tell that by his clothes the first time you met him) thus meaning that The Dragon destroyed the fake.
    • Smashing up the Timey-Wimey Ball in XI kicks off the post-game. Entire story segments from earlier in the game are even retreaded, but from a slightly different perspective
    • The entire plot of Dragon Quest VII can be summed up with this trope.
  • Total Party Kill:
    • The Thwack (or Defeat) spell can kill your whole party in one go if you're unlucky. The Kamikazee (or Sacrifice) spell will kill your whole party in one go; no saving throw for you. Kamikazee even gives the Nightmare Fuel message "Character Name explodes into a thousand fragments!" instead of the typical "Character Name dies!" But the caster can still be resurrected somehow...
    • If your party is confused but has high defense stats, they will ineffectively bash each other with their weapons—but magic attacks don't undo confusion, so the enemy can still Frizz you to death!
    • Dragon Quest II: The Batmandrills and their equivalents in the remakes are a late game random encounter enemy that can cast the spell Kamikazee. They rarely cast it, but if they do, your entire party will be instantly killed no matter what. You can't do anything to safeguard against it, and you don't get a saving throw. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200. The enemy technically dies too, but even if the last enemy casts it and the whole field on both sides is wiped out as a result, you still lose.
    • Dragon Quest XI: Überkilling Machines get bumped up a level in difficulty in this entry. They're restricted to a couple of dungeons; but can attack twice, occasionally reflect spells, use Rain of Pain, Robochop, and/or Desperate Attacks at random, and bring one of their allies back from death via Remote Repair. If you face more than one and your levels are still low for the post-game, this may well be a total massacre.
  • Trope Codifier: Even beyond simply videogames or Eastern RPGs, Dragon Quest is the codifier for just about every Standard Japanese Fantasy Setting trope. For example, the Cute Slime Mook has been hardwired into Japanese media as the weakest enemy in a fantasy setting, which works like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime bank on for its unique premise. Furthermore, Dragon Quest III's Zoma codified the Maou the Demon King archetype, which has become a standard antagonist or Big Bad in nearly every fantasy work.
  • Underground Monkey: A tradition from the earliest days of the series, Dragon Quest games always stagger monsters by giving them Palette Swaps, having them Tiered by Name, and assigning more abilities to later versions. They did this so much with the Mascot Mook Slime that it has its own class of monster, like "Dragon" or "Nature".
  • Ur-Example:
    • Of just about every JRPG trope in existence. No, really, just about every one. Even Final Fantasy (the first of which came out a scant 2 months before Dragon Quest III) has callbacks to Dragon Quest titles. Amusingly, given the length and influence of the series, it could also be called the Trope Maker and Trope Codifier for quite a few of them, too.
    • Dragon Quest is in fact the Trope Maker for But Thou Must!. See above.
  • Useless Useful Spell:
    • Averted. Whack, Snooze, Fizzle, 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 Spells.
    • Even the Status Buffs can be very useful - in III, for example, you bring along a Mage as much for their ability to use Kabuff as anything, as even one application increases everyone's defense by a truckload - and you can apply it several times over.
  • Video Game Geography:
    • All mainline games beyond DQI (which has no way off the land mass surrounding the Dragonlord's castle) feature a toroid world. DQIII combines this with a Hollow World, the inside world being a toroidal version of the original Alefgard. Now, figure that out.
    • The Mon games have many worlds, though, and they're also toroid. Or, supposedly, since some of them take place on a Floating Continent.
    • The scale issue, at least, is possibly justified in DQVIII. If you check the battle log in eventually you'll get a message saying that you've traveled far enough to do a complete circumference of the globe. How far is that? A little over 200 miles, meaning that it really is an incredibly tiny planet.
  • Warp Whistle: Using a Chimaera Wing will allow you and your party to fly to the front gates of any town you've previously visited, saving you long treks in case you need to heal. Sooner or later, the hero will also gain the Zoom spell, which allows them to do the same thing for just 1 MP. One or two games even have the Hermes' Hat, which produces the effect for free.
  • Warp Zone: Dragon Quest X: has the Zoomstone, since the Zoom spell was lost to history, which allows players to Zoom to any Zoomethyst they already visited. note 
  • Warrior vs. Sorcerer: The series has featured warriors and knights fighting magic-wielding sorcerers and monsters throughout its history.
    • Dragon Quest features the sword and shield-wielding Hero in his quest to defeat the sorcerous Dragonlord to rescue Princess Gwaelin and eradicate the monsters ravaging the land.
    • Dragon Quest III pits the Hero against Archfiend Baramos, a magic-wielding dragon-like monster. Baramos turns out to be the Disc-One Final Boss, as the even more powerful sorcerer Zoma is The Man Behind the Man. The Hero's sword and armor would later be acquired by his descendant, the Hero of the first Dragon Quest game, to defeat the Dragonlord.
    • Dragon Quest VI: The muscular, sword-wielding Hero first faces Dread Fiend Murdaw who wields magic in addition to his monstrous abilities. The Big Bad Mortamor puts him to shame, packing Kaboom, Bounce, and abilities like Disruptive Wave. Legacy versions of his boss battle in later games also have him use Kafrizzle and Kafrizz.
    • Dhoulmagus is the main antagonist of Dragon Quest VIII, who stole a staff in hopes of becoming the greatest magician in the world after a scolding from his teacher Rylus. He is opposed by the Hero, a sword-wielding royal guardsman, who defeats him and later slays Rhapthorne, an even more powerful scepter-wielding demon of legend.
  • Weapon of X-Slaying: There are both weapons and skills that target specific families or types of monster; dragons, undead, and Metal Slimes are common targets for this extra punishment.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Many of the villains that aren't a Card-Carrying Villain are this instead, occasionally with a Freudian Excuse.
  • White Mage: The Priest class of III and many of the characters who inherit from it. Notably, in addition to healing magic, it's often the case that they also have Instant Death spells.
  • With This Herring: The series tends to do this quite a bit... "You are the prophesied hero foretold to save our kingdom from doom! And so I bequeath you this modest stick, a burlap sack, and some lint I found under my pillow. God be with you!"
    • Which makes V's subversion so much nicer: "You aren't the prophesied hero... but your wife will give birth to him, after you grow up!" You don't even get to see the stick/sack/lint part of the game, since your children rescue you on their own.
    • It's actually mostly justified in IV. Ragnar and the other soldiers of Burland are stuck with poor quality weapons and armor due to his king's refusal to raise taxes. Alena is a princess, but her father explicitly refuses to let her leave the castle. Torneko starts out in a low paying job just barely making enough money to support his wife and son. And Maya is shown to be very bad at managing her and her sister's money.
  • World of Badass: Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road assembles the heroes and supporting casts from the first nine games and gives them all No Kill like Overkill Finishing Moves. The footage from that game practically demands this interpretation.
  • World of Pun: A distinctive feature of the games that Westerners have only started encountering since Dragon Quest VIII is all the wordplay, which is actually native to the Japanese originals. Ever since then, the localization teams stepped up their wordplay games, and so from VIII onwards, the names of monsters, items, locations and more are wall-to-wall wordplay, even applying this modernized standard for translation to the remasters and enhanced ports of the older Dragon Quest games.
  • World Tree: Since II, world trees have been a part of the Dragon Quest lore in some shape or form in each game, most commonly their leaves serving as the series' revive item. Not all such trees are identified as Yggdrasil and Yggdrasil won't always drop leaves or other goodies, but some presence is almost guaranteed. World trees are especially prominent in IV, VII, IX, X, XI, and Heroes.
  • Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Only the first two games in the original US localizations, though they for the most part were good about their grammar. The team that took over the localization of Dragon Quest VIII is British-based, and a more modern version of Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe shows up. Cor Blimey! In addition, the DS remake of Dragon Quest IV has the Zenithians speak in Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe.
    • This was removed for presumably space reasons in the Game Boy Color remakes of the first two, which were released on the same cartridge, as Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe takes up precious bits.
    • As of DQVIII, all characters from I and II speak in Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe when they appear in mainline games and spin-offs, just like in the original NES localizations.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Chances are good your initial goal won't be your only goal.
    • DQIII had one of the first fakeouts of the series. After defeating Baramos, returning to the king, and watching a celebration in your honor (this being a common ending theme for DQ games), Zoma suddenly nukes the partygoers and challenges you to come to his world. It's especially effective since your characters are quite powerful by this point, you've (most likely) explored the entire world map, and even have a means of flight. This set up the Dragon Quest tradition of traveling to a Lost World in the final act, though sometimes this is done without a fake final boss.
    • DQIV: Ragnar McRyan ends his own Chapter with the realization that a case of local missing children is actually a plot by the master of the Underworld and goes questing to stymie his further plans.
    • DQV: In the third act, the Hero needs to seek the aid of the faeries to retrieve the Golden Orb. After beating a forest maze and making his way back to Faerie Lea, the Hero meets Queen Treacle again... who says he must go to another hidden Faerie Palace located somewhere else and talk to Queen Caramel to get the Golden Orb.
    • In DQVI, The Hero and his friends gather their resources to bring Dread Fiend Murdaw to heel. Not only is the original Murdaw you confront actually the King of Somnia under a curse, the real Murdaw is not the only Dread Fiend.
    • DQVII:
      • The Nottagen plot pulls this twice. First off it seems you've rescued the town... yet dispelling the gloom blocking out the sun caused the Malgin Vine to wake up and destroy the town again. Then when you save the town from the plant, Worms of Woe invade and destroy the town. All in all, the town is very well named (for those who don't get it, "Not again!").
      • You finally made it back to Alltrades Abbey... oh wait, now they built an arena. In an impossibly short amount of time -- the characters are just as surprised as the player is.
      • Great job, you resurrected the Almighty! Wait a minute... he is not the real Almighty. He is the Demon King in disguise.
      • After you've restored all the islands/continents that the Demon King sealed away and solved all the pressing crises in each location, you finally track down the Demon King himself and defeat him in combat, ensuring peace and prosperity for the newly restored world... except you haven't even gotten to Disc 2 yet.
    • Pulled off brilliantly in DQVIII. The battle against Dhoulmagus makes you think you've won the game, but the party notices something is amiss when the King's and princess' curses aren't immediately broken. Even though it obviously can't be the Final Boss fight due to the around half the map remaining unexplored, the game does such a good job of matching the feel of a genuine Final Boss battle (multiple forms, extreme difficulty and all) that that while you're fighting it's easy to forget it's not one. The dungeon you explore to get to him, the Dark Ruins, is also creepy enough to give the impression of a final dungeon as well.
    • DQIX: For thousands or maybe even tens of thousands of years, Celestrians have been collecting Benevolessence to feed the World Tree Yggdrasil in anticipation of her blooming and producing the heavenly Fyggs. Within instants of finally achieving that goal, something assaults the Observatory, scattering the Fyggs and flinging the Hero to the mortal realm. Also, you didn't really think King Godwyn was the Big Bad, did you?
    • DQX: You manage to rebuild the Heavenly Ark, storm the Heart of Hell, and defeat Nelgel the Netherlord. Astoltia saved right? Expect the dark seal he placed on Rendacia is still active!
      • The Hero reunites the territories of Nagaland, and defeats Principal Nadia, while readying to rescue Anlucia, their sibling, and Orstov from the dungeon. Expect a tail creeps up from behind the Hero and stabs them, which is from Orstov himself. Wait what?!
      • Jia Lumina and Jia Leone are defeated, the Jia Kut Clan's monster armies are banished via a joint effort from Astoltia's past Heroes, and Anlucia is freed from being a crystal statue, along with some Ogre soldiers. The Heavens can finally relax, right? Yes...but why is that Death Star-like Eye of Sauron looming in the sky?! And the true leader of the Jia Kut Clan has revealed himself?!
    • In DQXI, you've traveled the whole map — twice — in your quest, defeated Mordegon, and returned peace to the land; but the postgame opens by presenting the possibility of going back in time to prevent his rise to power — and the Heroic Sacrifice of one of your party members — in the first place. Follow through on that, and there's yet another problem looming: in the original timeline, you saw Mordegon destroy something that he felt threatened his reign. Now with Mordegon down, the other evil makes his move unopposed.
    • Done with style in Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart: You beat the Big Bad, causing him to flee the (good) High Demon Lord he was possessing, only... he ... fled... right? Whoops. After the credits, you see the 4 other (good) Demon Lords who helped you out throughout the game floating in the darkness... then the darkness sprouts a hideous face. Cue the hero having to run screaming back to the Alternate Universe to sort that little mess out....
  • Your Size May Vary: Most of the games in the series have trouble when it comes to distinguishing size, often leaving it to the player's imagination, and the bigger monsters are often very vague on how big they are (how big is Hargon's castle if it can fit Atlas?). Games released during the renaissance (e.g. VIII, Monsters Joker, and Joker 2) have utilized superior graphical capabilities to give a much better effort in scale. Dragon Quest Heroes appears to be going out of its way to avert this.
O great and compassionate Goddess! Please give this child a peaceful respite!

 
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Liquid Metal Slime

The Liquid Metal Slime is a liquid version of a Metal Slime and grants more experience then a Metal Slime if one is able to defeat it before it runs away despite not being much stronger then a regular Metal Slime.

Example of:
Metal Slime

Sap

Jasper Unbound

Sylvando Have A...

Jade Kills Booga

Dragon Quest XI...

Veronica's Sacr...

Veronica

DQXI SPOILERS V...

Dundrasil

Hendrik Enjoys ...

Mordegon Takes ...

Mordegon

Platinum King J...

Metal Slime

Metal King Slime

Kiryl Casts Thwack

Rab's "Spellbook"

The Hero Draws ...

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Liquid Metal Slime

The Liquid Metal Slime is a liquid version of a Metal Slime and grants more experience then a Metal Slime if one is able to defeat it before it runs away despite not being much stronger then a regular Metal Slime.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (4 votes)

Example of:

Main / MetalSlime

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Liquid Metal Slime

Sap

Jasper Unbound

Sylvando Have A...

Jade Kills Booga

Dragon Quest XI...

Veronica's Sacr...

Veronica

DQXI SPOILERS V...

Dundrasil

Hendrik Enjoys ...

Mordegon Takes ...

Mordegon

Platinum King J...

Metal Slime

Metal King Slime

Kiryl Casts Thwack

Rab's "Spellbook"

The Hero Draws ...