Dragon Quest games in order, and where to start

Dragon Quest turned 40 on May 27, 2026, and it has never been easier to get into. Between November 2024 and February 2026, Square Enix remade four of the first seven games for current consoles and PC, and the most recent numbered game, Dragon Quest XI, is sold on nearly everything.

The short answer on where to start: you don't have to play Dragon Quest in order. Almost every numbered game is a separate story in a separate world, like Final Fantasy. Start with Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age. It's the newest mainline game, it needs no background, and it's the cheapest of the modern releases at $39.99 on Steam. If you'd like to start at the beginning of the series' one true saga, play Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake and then Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake.

Dragon Quest games in order of release

These are the eleven numbered games. Years are for the original Japanese release, since several took a long time to leave Japan.

A note on names. Until 2005, the series was sold in North America as Dragon Warrior, because of a trademark clash with an unrelated tabletop game. Dragon Warrior III and Dragon Quest III are the same game. Dragon Quest VIII was the first to carry the real name in North America, and the first mainline game released in Europe at all.

Where to play each Dragon Quest game in 2026

The modern releases cover six of the eleven games.

Prices are Steam's US list prices in November 2026. The PS4 and Xbox One versions of XI S run on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

The middle of the series is harder to reach. Dragon Quest IV, V, VI and VIII are sold on iOS and Android, and those phone versions are the only ones still on sale. Dragon Quest IX has never left the Nintendo DS, so you need the original cartridge. Dragon Quest X is an online game that never left Japan. A single-player version, Dragon Quest X Offline, came out in Japan in 2022 and in other Asian regions in 2024, but not in English.

Do you need to play Dragon Quest in order?

No, with one exception.

Each numbered game has its own world, cast and villain. What carries over is the furniture: turn-based battles, Akira Toriyama's monsters, the blue Slime, the same spell names and the same jingle when you level up. You can play V without IV and VIII without anything.

The exception is the first three games, known as the Erdrick trilogy. Dragon Quest II is set generations after the first game and stars its hero's descendants. Dragon Quest III is a prequel to both, and its ending is built on you recognizing where you are. Those three are worth playing together.

Dragon Quest IV, V and VI are sometimes called the Zenithian trilogy, after a castle in the sky that appears in all three. The link is loose. Nothing in one depends on having played another, and fans still argue about what order they happen in.

Dragon Quest XI stands alone as well, though it has a few nods that land harder if you know the Erdrick games. That's a reason to play III afterward, not a reason to delay XI.

Dragon Quest chronological order: the Erdrick trilogy

If you want the one connected story in timeline order, it goes like this.

Square Enix released the HD-2D remakes in this order on purpose, with III first in 2024 and I and II together in 2025. The I & II remake also adds new scenes of its own. So for the remakes, story order and release order are the same thing: III, then I, then II.

Purists will point out that the originals came out I, II, III, and that the twist in III was written for people who had played the first game. That's true, and if you already know the twist exists, either order works. The remakes were designed to be played III first.

Which Dragon Quest game should you play first?

It depends on what you want from it.

For most people: Dragon Quest XI S. It's the most modern game in the series, with full 3D, voice acting and an orchestral soundtrack option, and it's a complete story with a likeable party. It is long, so treat it as a winter project. It's also the cheapest way in, and the Definitive Edition includes a mode that lets you play the entire game in 16-bit-style 2D.

For the classic experience: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake. This is the game that made the series a phenomenon in Japan, selling over a million cartridges in a day in 1988. You build your own party from classes such as Warrior, Mage and Priest, and the remake adds a new class, the Monster Wrangler. It's old-fashioned by design, and the HD-2D look makes that part of the charm.

For the best story: Dragon Quest V. It follows one person from childhood to parenthood, and it's the fan favorite for that reason. The catch is that the best current version is on a phone.

For something recent and approachable: Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. The 2000 original was famous for being slow to start. Square Enix describes the 2026 version as rebuilt from the ground up, with diorama-style visuals and a streamlined story for better pacing. There's a free demo if you want to try it first.

If you're unsure whether a rebuilt game counts as the "real" one, our explainer on remakes, remasters and reboots covers what each label means. For Dragon Quest, the remakes are faithful, and they're the versions most people should play.

What about the Dragon Quest spin-offs?

There are a lot of them, and none are required. The main families:

• Dragon Quest Monsters: monster-collecting RPGs that grew out of a mechanic in Dragon Quest V. The Dark Prince (2023) is a prequel about a Dragon Quest IV character.
• Dragon Quest Builders and Builders 2: block-building adventures. The first is set in an alternate version of the original game's world, the second after Dragon Quest II.
• Dragon Quest Heroes: action games with characters from across the series.
• Dragon Quest Treasures: a treasure-hunting adventure starring two characters from Dragon Quest XI as children.

Builders 2 is the one most often recommended to people who don't normally play turn-based RPGs.

When is Dragon Quest XII coming out?

There's no release date, and the project has changed shape. Dragon Quest XII was announced in 2021 with the subtitle The Flames of Fate. On May 27, 2026, the series' 40th anniversary, creator Yuji Horii and executive producer Yosuke Saito said that version had been halted and development restarted from scratch. The new version is called Dragon Quest XII: Beyond Dreams.

It will be the first mainline game made without character designer Akira Toriyama and composer Koichi Sugiyama, who both worked on the series from the first game until their deaths. With development restarted, it's sensible to assume it is years away. Nothing in it should stop you starting the series now.

The recommended Dragon Quest play order

If you want a plan for the whole series, this one keeps the connected games together and puts the easiest-to-buy games first.

1. Dragon Quest XI S
2. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
3. Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake
4. Dragon Quest VII Reimagined
5. Dragon Quest V, then IV and VI, on a phone or a DS
6. Dragon Quest VIII
7. Dragon Quest IX, if you can find a cartridge

That's well over 400 hours of turn-based RPG, so nobody should feel obliged to finish the list. If the genre is new to you, our guides to the Final Fantasy games in order and the Persona games in order cover the other two big Japanese RPG series, and each takes a different approach from Dragon Quest's deliberately traditional one.

Eleven numbered games with Roman numerals, three of them bundled into two remakes, are easy to lose track of. In Perthro you can queue the games in the order you plan to play, log each one with its platform and hours when you finish, and jot down where the story left off before you start the next. Our game tracker page shows how that works across PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and Steam.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Dragon Quest
• Wikipedia: Dragon Quest (video game)
• Wikipedia: Dragon Quest III
• Wikipedia: Dragon Quest VII
• Wikipedia: Dragon Quest X
• Wikipedia: Dragon Quest XI
• Wikipedia: Dragon Quest Monsters
• Steam: Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age, Definitive Edition
• Steam: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
• Steam: Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake
• Steam: Dragon Quest VII Reimagined