Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, known in Europe as Dragon Quest: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride and in Japan as is a 1992 role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix for the Super Famicom. The fifth main installment in the Dragon Quest series, the game was the first title in the franchise to not be initially localized in North America due to programming issues.
It later had an enhanced remake only in Japan for the PlayStation 2 in 2004. The remake was developed by ArtePiazza and Matrix Software. Another remake was made for the Nintendo DS, which was released in Japan in July 2008 and worldwide in February 2009; this marks the first time the game had officially released in English. In addition, ports for Android and iOS were released in Japan in December 2014, and worldwide the following month.
The game takes place over roughly thirty years of the main character's life, from when he is born through to when he gets married and has a family. The title introduced a gameplay dynamic in which monsters from random encounters may offer to join the player's party. This concept was used in later Dragon Quest games, as well as in the Dragon Quest Monsters series as the primary way to form a party. The game's monster-collecting concept had been used before in the Megami Tensei series and appeared in many later franchises such as Pokémon, Digimon and Dokapon. In turn, the concept of collecting everything in a game, in the form of achievements or similar rewards, has since become a common trend in video games.Gaming's most important evolutions, GamesRadar Dragon Quest V has also been credited as the first known video game to feature a playable pregnancy, a concept that has since appeared in later games such as Story of Seasons, The Sims 2 and Fable II.A. J. Glasser, Knocked Up: A Look At Pregnancy In Video Games, Kotaku In 2019, an animated film adaptation, Dragon Quest: Your Story, was released in Japan. The film was later released digitally for other regions through Netflix.
Gameplay
Dragon Quest V uses basic role-playing video game mechanics seen in the rest of the series, which includes leveling up by gaining experience points through battle, first person turn-based battles, and equipping weapons and armor. Something new to the Dragon Quest series is the ability to tame monsters into the player's party. The monsters can be used in battle and level up like the human characters. Monsters sometimes request to join the Hero after battles if the party is strong enough. There are a total of 40 monsters that are capable of joining the Hero's party in the Super Famicom version, with 71 in the PlayStation 2 remake.
Several party management features from Dragon Quest IV are carried forward. Like IV, this game has a wagon where members of the Hero's party can rest while exploring the world. The tactics system also returns, but with the added option of controlling allies manually for the entire game. Unlike IV, the original Super Famicom version of V has a maximum of three active party members; this was changed in the remakes on the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS to include up to four members in an active party.
After beating the game, players can gain access to the bonus dungeon. Dragon Quest V was the first Dragon Quest game to have a bonus dungeon (although the remakes of Dragon Quest III and IV added bonus dungeons later).
Story
Characters
The is, in the early chapters of the game, a six-year-old boy who travels all around the world along with his father, Pankraz. After Pankraz's death, the Hero becomes enslaved and is forced to undergo hard labor in the building of a great temple. Ten years later, he finally escapes, and he starts a journey to find out the secrets of his father's past. Soon he finds out that his mother, , who was said to have died soon after the Hero was born, is still alive and so he sets forth to rescue her from the underworld and locate the fabled Legendary Hero. is the father of the Hero. Though he was once the king of , he left his homeland to search for his wife and for the Legendary Hero. is Pankranz's loyal attendant, who later aids the Hero and his children. is the tomboy daughter of innkeepers of and a childhood friend of the Hero. She helps the Hero save the Great Sabercub from two bullies, and asks the Hero to take it with him. After growing up, she moves to a mountainside village to aid in her father's recuperation, during which time her mother died. After meeting the grown-up Hero, Bianca briefly joins him in his quest. Bianca is one of two (three in the Nintendo DS version) women whom the player can choose to marry the Hero. is a gentle and modest girl, and the daughter of . Her father is a wealthy man who seeks his daughter's bridegroom, but will only accept a man who is able to pass his trial. She is the second of the player's choices for the Hero's bride. is Nera's haughty and materialistic older sister and the third choice for the Hero's bride. Debora constantly berates the Hero and makes it evident that she is the dominant one in the relationship; however, she expresses her love in humorous ways such as telling him he is the best servant she has had and would never replace him. Debora actually has a motherly side when with the children and truly supports the Hero in his quest to save his mother. She was neither in the original version nor the PS2 remake, but was added in the Nintendo DS remake. Prince is the elder son of the King of Coburg. When he first met the hero, he was initially very mean to him and stuck up. He is sold into slavery along with the Hero, as a result of his time as a slave, he becomes more responsible and forms a strong friendship with the Hero. He is with the Hero when he begins his quest to find his mother, but the responsibility to his people keeps him from staying on the team for very long. He also falls in love with Maria, the slave he and the Hero saved, and shortly after restoring order to Coburg, proposes to her. Harry later has a son named Kendrick, who resembles Harry as a boy. The is the Legendary Hero that Pankraz was originally searching for, but was not born until much later. He wields the Zenithian Sword and wears the Zenithian armour. The is the twin sister of the Hero's Son. Like her father, she has the ability to understand animals and monsters. Order of Zugzwang is a religious organization that aims to create a "White King's Paradise" to save everyone from the coming darkness. In reality, they worship Grandmaster Nimzo as a god and is a front for infiltration by the forces of Nadiria for their world conquest. Setting
Like the first Dragon Quest trilogy, where Alefgard appeared in games I, II, and III with roughly similar geography in each game, the worlds of IV, V, and VI are connected in that the sky castle Zenithia appears in each game, although the base geography is largely different between the three games. Like all other Dragon Quest games, this one takes place in a medieval world with scarce modern technology. Characters fight with swords, clubs, and magic instead of guns or other modern weapons.
The quest takes the Hero and his party to many exotic locations, such as a fairy village, a mansion made of ice, several caves, and a volcano. The party eventually makes its way to Zenithia, which is a castle in each game of the Zenithian Trilogy. Similar to the previous two entries in the series, the final enemies reside in a dark world, separate from the main map.
Plot
Dragon Quest V begins with a brief scene of the Hero's birth in which the player gives the Hero a name. Afterwards, the Hero, as a child, and his father, Pankraz travel to meet Sancho, an old friend. The Hero meets Bianca and the two explore the haunted , where they obtain a mysterious Golden Orb. The next day, the Hero notices a man in the town who looks similar to him, albeit much older. That man asks the Hero to show him the Golden Orb and, after returning it, asks him to take care of his father Pankraz. The first section of the story ends with Pankraz being killed by , a mysterious member of the Order of Zugzwang, when he tries to protect his son and Prince Harry. The two children are then taken into slavery.
The story continues ten years later, and the Hero and Harry have grown up working on a giant temple, but escape as the scene opens. The Hero travels to the west to the town of Mostroferrato, where the wealthy nobleman Rodrigo Briscoletti and his daughter Nera live. Rodrigo sends the Hero on a quest to retrieve two magic rings, called the Circle of Fire and the Circle of Water, as a test of his worthiness as a suitor for Nera. The Hero accomplishes this and Rodrigo offers the Hero the chance to marry Nera, but it is also possible for him to marry Bianca or Debora (DS). After the marriage, the Hero travels to his homeland of Gotha, where they make him king. His wife has two children, but is kidnapped by monsters. When the Hero comes to rescue her, both are turned to stone by the monsters.
The Hero is found by his two children eight years later and is revived. Travelling the world to collect the legendary Zenithian armaments for the Legendary Hero, it is discovered that the Hero's son is indeed the Legendary Hero sought by Pankraz almost twenty years ago. During this stage of the journey, the Hero avenges Pankraz by killing Ladja, and restores the Dragon God, as well as Zenithia castle, to their proper homes in the sky. To accomplish this, the Hero has to enter a time warp to retrieve the Golden Orb from his child self.
After returning to the temple the Hero helped build as a slave, the Zenithian armor is found, as well as the statue of his wife. After the king of the Order of Zugzwang, , is defeated, the party is informed by him that the Hero's mother, remains in the dark world of Nadiria, and that the god of darkness, , is lying in wait for the Legendary Hero there. The Hero, his wife, and their children agree not to leave Madalena in the Nadiria, so together they travel there via a portal near Lofty Peak, soon reaching Mt. Zugzwang. Madalena is found within, but is killed by Nimzo shortly after meeting the Hero and his family. The party continues on to confront and destroy Nimzo. They return to Gotha, and have a joyful party. As the family celebrates, Pankraz and Mada watch their son and his family from the heavens, happy and content with their progeny.
Development Production
As with the other main games in the Dragon Quest series, Dragon Quest V's scenario was designed by Yuji Horii, whereas the artwork was done by Akira Toriyama, of Dragon Ball fame. When designing the sprites for the game, they were given outlines to give it a manga style. As with every previous Dragon Quest game, Koichi Sugiyama composed the music and directed all the associated spinoffs. A compilation of the game's music was put on the album Dragon Quest V ~Bride of the Heavens~ Symphonic Suite, which was released in Japan in October 1992, and included both the original SFC soundtrack as well as an symphonic arrangement. Being the first mainline Dragon Quest game on the Super Famicom, it had noticeably improved graphics and sound quality due to the Super Famicom's superior hardware and it having more available RAM to work with. (Translated by Shmuplations. Archived on 2021-01-27. Retrieved on 2023-03-14.) The completion of Dragon Quest V'''s production also marked the moment of time where game developer Chunsoft had stepped away from the Dragon Quest series so they could pursue independently developing their own games. (Translated by Shmuplations. Archived on 2018-09-29)
PlayStation 2 remake