Dragon Quest Games in Order

Why this order?

Dragon Quest is built so you can start almost anywhere. Every numbered entry tells its own complete story with its own hero and world, so there is no mandatory order and no cliffhangers carrying between games. That freedom is the whole point of this page: pick a starting line that fits you, not one the series forces on you.

Release order is the default here because it shows how the genre's grandfather evolved: from the single-character grind of the 1986 original to the sprawling, voiced 3D worlds of the modern entries. If you simply want the best place to begin, skip ahead: Dragon Quest XI (2017), in its XI S: Definitive Edition form, is the ideal modern starting point, a gorgeous, generous adventure that distills everything the series does well, and Dragon Quest VIII (2004) is the runner-up, the game that first took the franchise fully 3D and cel-shaded.

Two loose trilogies reward players who want connective tissue. The Erdrick (Loto) trilogy ties together I, II, and III, with III sitting chronologically first as an origin story for the legendary hero, so a "lore-first" run plays III, then I, then II. The Zenithian trilogy links IV, V, and VI through a shared celestial mythology rather than direct sequels. The remaining numbered games, VII (2000), IX (2009), and X (2012) (the series' lone MMO), stand fully on their own. You can enjoy any of these in isolation; the trilogies are bonus context, not prerequisites.

Which version you buy matters more here than the order does, because most of these games have been remade at least once. I, II and III are now played in HD-2D: the III HD-2D Remake landed November 14, 2024 and the single I & II HD-2D package followed on October 30, 2025, with an Erdrick Trilogy Collection bundling both at that same launch. III came out first and is chronologically first, so the HD-2D releases finally line up with the lore order: play III, then I and II. IV, V and VI are played as the Nintendo DS remakes or their iOS and Android ports, and for V and VI that is not a preference: the 1992 and 1995 Super Famicom originals were never released in English at all, so the remakes are the only official English versions in existence. The Western DS releases cut the party-talk feature and the 2014 and 2015 mobile versions restored it, which is the one real reason to pick mobile over a DS cart. VII is now Dragon Quest VII Reimagined (February 5, 2026), which supersedes both the PlayStation original and the 2016 3DS version. IX is the odd one out: it stays DS-exclusive with no re-release or remake announced, although Yuji Horii has publicly hinted at further remakes, so there is nothing modern to hunt for yet.

The two version notes that matter most attach to the two games this page recommends. Buy Dragon Quest XI S: Definitive Edition rather than the 2017 original: it adds orchestral music, a full 2D retro mode, extra character stories and expanded plot content. A Switch 2 edition arrives September 24, 2026, but it is a separate purchase with no upgrade path and no save transfer from the Switch version, so buy accordingly. Dragon Quest VIII is the awkward one. Its most content-complete version is the 3DS release, which adds Red and Morrie as playable party members plus extra endings, but the Western 3DS version swapped the PS2 orchestral score for synthesised music and the 3DS eShop closed in March 2023, so that version is now a secondhand cart. For a newcomer the PS2 game or its mobile port is still the practical way to play VIII, which is why the beginner list points there.

Worth knowing: in the West the early games shipped as "Dragon Warrior" for trademark reasons, and numbering jumps around because not every entry reached every region on launch. The mainline series is still eleven numbered titles, from 1986 to 2017, but this page runs to nineteen steps because the remakes and enhanced editions that replaced those originals are listed as their own tagged entries. A twelfth game is in development: it was renamed from The Flames of Fate to Dragon Quest XII: Beyond Dreams on May 27, 2026 after a development restart, and it still has no release date. If you love what you find, the wider series (spin-offs like Dragon Quest Builders and the Monsters games, plus stablemates such as Square Enix's Final Fantasy) runs far deeper than the numbered line alone.