Dragon Quest (originally Dragon Warrior in the West) is the foundational 1986 role-playing game developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix. Created by Yuji Horii and featuring iconic character designs by Akira Toriyama, this game set the blueprint for the Japanese RPG genre. Players step into the shoes of a lone hero on a quest to defeat the Dragonlord and rescue the princess of Alefgard. Featuring a turn-based combat system, menu-driven commands, and a sweeping orchestral score by Koichi Sugiyama, it combined the depth of Western RPGs like Ultima with an accessible interface. Its immense success in Japan turned it into a cultural phenomenon and established a template still used by modern RPGs today.