Best Dragon Quest Prequels, Ranked

The Dragon Quest series is almost forty and that’s a huge accomplishment for any video game series. It began as a simple RPG on the NES and quickly grew popular in Japan. One of its defining features is the punny names for the monsters who are also cute aesthetically.

That’s easy to figure out. Something fans or newbies may not know is that there are a lot of prequels in the series including mainline entries. With spoilers in mind, let’s go through the best ones and how they tie into other entries. Will the latest entry, Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, make the list? Let’s dive in a find out, again, with spoilers.

7 Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart

A Forgotten Prequel From Japan

• Developer: Tose
• Publisher: Enix
• Release Date: March 29, 2003
• Platform: GBA

Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart was not released outside of Japan on the GBA. It has been patched by fans though for those curious to experience the prequel to Dragon Quest 7: Fragments of the Forgotten Past. The game stars one of that game’s main party members, Prince Kiefer, who gets sucked into the world of Dragon Quest 2: Luminaries of the Legendary Line world called Torland. Together with a new party, he will travel around the world and recruit monsters to fight in his stead. This gameplay style is used in most Dragon Quest Monster spinoff games.

6 Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry’s Wonderland 3D

A Remake And A Prequel All In One

• Developer: Tose
• Publisher: Square Enix
• Release Date: May 31, 2012
• Platform: 3DS

Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry’s Wonderland 3D is another lost game waiting in Japan. It’s a remake of the very first Dragon Quest Monsters game which debuted on the Game Boy Color. It’s a prequel to Dragon Quest 6: Realms of Revelation starring two characters from that story, Terry and Milly, who are much younger in the 3DS game.

Again, players will go around as Terry collecting monsters and using them in battle akin to a Pokemon title. Fan translation work has not come far for this title and not many 3DS games do but maybe one day Square Enix will re-release it yet again.

5 Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

In The Role Of A Villain

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is the final monster-catching game worth noting in the prequel roundup. This one is unique because it stars a villain from one of the main games, Psaro. Psaro was an antagonist in Dragon Quest 4: Chapters of the Chosen. Unlike the previous two titles, this one has been released in North America and recently too. For a Switch game, it has quite an open-world to explore. Also, it does a good job of filling in why Psaro turned out the way he did as a misunderstood villain.

4 Dragon Quest: Young Yangus And The Mystery Dungeon

A Thieving Roguelike

• Developer: Cavia
• Publisher: Square Enix
• Release Date: April 20, 2006
• Platform: PS2

Dragon Quest: Young Yangus and the Mystery Dungeon is the final Japan-only release on the list. It’s a prequel to Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King which stars one of the main playable characters, Yangus. Yangus is a thief in the party and this prequel stars him as a child as he’s just starting the trade. It’s part of the Mystery Dungeon series which has touched everything from other Dragon Quest characters to Final Fantasy Chocobo to Pokemon. They are roguelikes, so Dragon Quest: Young Yangus and the Mystery Dungeon is a very dungeon-heavy adventure with a lot of risk-reward to the gameplay.

3 Dragon Quest Treasures

A Brotherly Dungeon Crawler

Dragon Quest Treasures is also about a younger version of a thief from one of the main games. Erik is from Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age and in that game, he speaks about his sister Mia being cursed. In the prequel, players get to see Mia thrive alongside Erik and players can choose to play as either hero at points. Like the Dragon Quest Monster spinoffs, players can recruit monsters who have traversal abilities along with offensive ones to help them in battle. Unlike those games though, this is an action title and one with a lot of dungeons and treasure to collect.

2 Dragon Quest 3: The Seeds Of Salvation

The Original Prequel And Start Of Vocations

Dragon Quest 3: The Seeds of Salvation is the first game in the series to be labeled as a prequel. It reset itself back to the earliest point in the timeline from the previous two games. That was a big first step but so was the inclusion of the class system known as Vocations.

Now players can experience this game in all of its glory via the latest version, Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, with plenty of changes to make it more consumer-friendly. Following that Square Enix is going to keep the timeline straight and release Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake in the same HD-2D style.

1 Dragon Quest 11: Echoes Of An Elusive Age

Taking Things Back To Ground Zero

Dragon Quest 11 is a surprise prequel and it’s only revealed if players get to the true ending. If they do, players get to see a scene of a woman reading her child a story about the Luminaries which is what the hero is labeled as in the game. It then sets things up for Dragon Quest 3 with a brief teaser insinuating that Dragon Quest 11 is now the first game in the timeline. This could also be a case of a time loop or an alternate timeline starting as time does play heavily into the final set piece of the game. Either way, it was a fun nod for fans to see whether or not they believe it is a true canon prequel or not.