Dragon Quest Retrospective: The Erdrick Trilogy

 

Exactly 34 years ago today, the Dragon Quest series debuted in Japan. This is the series that is credited for beginning the JRPG genre. Games like Breath of Fire and Lufia & the Fortress of Doom owe their existence to Dragon Quest. Final Fantasy could not have saved Squaresoft from bankruptcy if not for the foundation that Dragon Quest laid in 1986.

So far on this blog, the Square-Enix Retrospective Project has covered the original Dragon Quest trilogy, popularly called the Erdrick Trilogy. It was likely that they didn’t mean for it to turn into a trilogy, but the second and third games add to the lore of the original game very well. Since then, the series has strived to branch out and create brand new worlds to save and stories to tell, but the series has also always honoured its roots. It wasn’t until recently, though, that the series sought to continue telling stories in the original Dragon Quest world of Alefgard. The Dragon Quest Builders series takes place in the alternate universe that was created if the player accepts the Dragonlord’s offer at the end of the first game, and Dragon Quest XI turns out to take place in the same continuity as the Erdrick Trilogy, but very far back in the past.

And yet Dragon Quest returning to the Erdrick Trilogy in recent years doesn’t feel as obnoxious as Final Fantasy dipping back into the well of Final Fantasy VII time and again, perhaps because Dragon Quest‘s reputation was built on providing nostalgic experiences while innovating just enough with each new game in the series to remain fresh, and Final Fantasy originally innovated much more with each new entry in the series, and then in recent years began to rely more and more on nostalgia in the same manner that the Scary Movie series once relied on reference humour before everyone got tired of it.

So what made the Erdrick Trilogy great? I’m quite fond of how the world was built in the first game and then further developed in the sequels. A continent was built from the ground up to challenge players and provide a sense of wonder and exploration, then that continent became part of a greater world full of adventure and nostalgia if you were to land on the shores of the familiar land in the sequel, then that continent returned as a surprise second map in a game that basically established that you are that warrior of legend known as Erdrick. By taking place in a world heavily modeled after the real one and also taking place earlier than the first two games, Dragon Quest III allows players to truly put themselves in the shoes of the game’s warrior of legend, Erdrick. The third game establishes it’s a title and not a given name, and the eleventh game establishes that the title has existed for a long, long time before even the third game takes place.

The third game also establishes that the world of which Alefgard is a continent was created by a goddess known as Rubiss, but by the time of Dragon Quest III, the world had become a World of Darkness, out of which evil was pouring from that world into another. If we accept that the main world of Dragon Quest III is our own world, then Alefgard exists as a parallel to our own and enemies from that world are invading this one by the time the player turns sixteen. The player travels this world, visiting locations that are familiar and yet somewhat different from their real world counterparts, and in doing so, successfully delivers it from evil. However, the threat of Baramos is only the beginning, for the true threat resides in Alefgard and presumably he’s going to keep trying to turn our world into another World of Darkness until he’s taken over both worlds. The player travels to Alefgard and finds everyone living in fear. Although the world is familiar to those who have played the first two games, this is a brand new world to the player’s character. They explore this new continent (and perhaps benefits from the player’s prior knowledge of Alefgard) and learns of the threat that world is forced to contend with. Upon defeating Zoma in a Castle Charlock with an unfamiliar design to it, the player finds themselves trapped in this new world, for the hole in the sky seals itself over.

The consolation prize for the player’s character is that they are given the title of Erdrick and thus they are the hero that every other Dragon Quest hero aspires to. It’s also revealed that immediately after saving both worlds, Erdrick disappeared and was never heard from again, so it’s possible that they found a quiet place to live for the rest of their life, somewhere that they were able to avoid the public eye and maybe vanquish enemies in peace. It’s hard to say.

Presumably, Alefgard still exists parallel to our own, but whether it’s a parallel dimension like players of Final Fantasy V are familiar with or just an underworld like how players of Final Fantasy IV are familiar with is unknown. The way to get to this other world is exactly like in Final Fantasy IV, but the presence of the sky in Alefgard would seem to indicate that it’s parallel to our own and not just beneath it.

The next time evil tries to take over Alefgard, the continent has shifted a bit and a bunch more bridges are present. In Dragon Quest III, a couple familiar settlements are still being established and by the time the original Dragon Quest takes place, these settlements are full villages and the continent have received some development from its citizens. Unfortunately, one of the already established settlements, Hauksness, was destroyed by the Dragonlord’s minions prior to the game’s beginning. The Dragonlord himself is hinted in later tellings of the story to be born of the egg that the Dragon Queen laid near the end of Dragon Quest III.

Considering the second game establishes that it takes place only about a hundred years after the first, and the continent of Alefgard is mostly unchanged in its shape, then it can be assumed that the gap between the third game and the first is a lot longer, since much of the geography of Alefgard has shifted between the two games. Given the way in which the main world of Dragon Quest III differs from our own, it can also be thought that this world and our own are also separated by several thousand years.

Perhaps a good indication of the manner in which the series developed, Rubiss is first introduced to players in the second game as a wizard, but later in the series, and in later versions of the games, is established to be a goddess. Although she’s not present in early versions of the first game, she’s eventually established as an important figure in the narrative of Alefgard, even making appearances in the Dragon Quest Builders series.

After defeating the Dragonlord, the hero of the first game sets out to explore the world beyond Alefgard and establishes settlements all over the world. This, however, seems to come at the expense of Alefgard itself, for even as the descendants of the warrior from the first game spread far and wide, most of the settlements on the continent of Alefgard seemingly disappear. It’s suggested on Dragon Quest Wikis that these settlements still exist but cannot be accessed by players of Dragon Quest II, but going by what’s observable in the game, it doesn’t seem like those settlements even exist any more. Nostalgia can evoke both feelings of happiness and sadness, after all.

And all it takes is a hundred years for a new threat to rise up and try to destroy the world. The final bosses of the first and third games seem content to sit on their thrones and although it’s established in the games’ narratives that they’ve presumably done stuff, they’re largely hands off by the time the heroes arrive on the scene to defeat them. In the second game, the enemy is a bit more proactive, destroying a castle, capturing its princess and transforming her into a dog. It’s likely this was meant to remove one of the descendants of Erdrick from being able to rise up and defeat him, but he should’ve gone after the other two kingdoms as well, for the two princes team up and are able to rescue the princess from her furry fate, restoring her human form. From there, the game’s villain waits patiently while players strengthen themselves and finally arrive at his doorstep to defeat him.

Although the overall story of each game in the Erdrick trilogy isn’t anything to write home about, the strength of each game is in the journeys taken by the player. Despite that the final bosses typically didn’t do anything during the course of each game, with the sole exception being the villain of the second, they’re still established through the games’ NPC dialogue as a threat to the peace and prosperity of the world.

The Erdrick trilogy remains a very important part of Dragon Quest history, held up as some of the most beloved and nostalgic games of all time. Even as the series would start putting more of a focus on telling stories in a more traditional form beginning with Dragon Quest IV, the series kept on coming back to its roots. Later games in the series brought back Erdrick’s equipment and even allowed players to fight bosses from the first three games. Dragon Quest Builders returned to Alefgard and allowed players to rebuild the kingdom and defeat the Dragonlord in a world where the original hero accepted the Dragonlord’s offer. Dragon Quest XI is a distant prequel to the original trilogy.

Square-Enix continues to honour the legacy of the original three games in the series, and today, the 34th anniversary of the debut of the series in Japan, they announced a brand new video game based on the classic Dragon Quest manga The Adventure of Dai. Infinity Strash is set to be released sometime in 2021, perhaps in time for the 35th anniversary. We here at Damage Control look forward to its release and whatever else the company has planned for the series’ 35th anniversary next year.

 

Next: This Saturday, the most ambitious Final Fantasy project on the NES, and coming soon, the Dragon Quest Retrospective continues with the final NES entry in the series.