Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

About This Game

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. It also expanded the tactics system by allowing the artificial intelligence routines to be set individually for each ally rather than for the party as a whole.

History

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.