Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, known in Europe as Dragon Quest: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride and in Japan as is a 1992 role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix for the Super Famicom. The fifth main installment in the Dragon Quest series, the game was the first title in the franchise to not be initially localized in North America due to programming issues.

It later had an enhanced remake only in Japan for the PlayStation 2 in 2004. The remake was developed by ArtePiazza and Matrix Software. Another remake was made for the Nintendo DS, which was released in Japan in July 2008 and worldwide in February 2009; this marks the first time the game had officially released in English. In addition, ports for Android and iOS were released in Japan in December 2014, and worldwide the following month. Dragon Quest V has also been credited as the first known video game to feature a playable pregnancy, a concept that has since appeared in later games such as Story of Seasons, The Sims 2 and Fable II. In 2019, an animated film adaptation, Dragon Quest: Your Story, was released in Japan. The film was later released digitally for other regions through Netflix.

Gameplay

thumb|250px|left|The Hero on an overworld area with two monsters as his companions and a wagon in the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|Super Famicom version]]

Dragon Quest V uses basic role-playing video game mechanics seen in the rest of the series, which includes leveling up by gaining experience points through battle, first person turn-based battles, and equipping weapons and armor. Something new to the Dragon Quest series is the ability to tame monsters into the player's party. The monsters can be used in battle and level-up like the human characters. Monsters sometimes request to join the Hero after battles if the party is strong enough. There are a total of 40 monsters that are capable of joining the Hero's party in the Super Famicom version, with 71 in the PlayStation 2 remake. Unlike IV, the original Super Famicom version of V has a maximum of three active party members; this was changed in the remakes on the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS to include up to four members in an active party.

After beating the game, players can gain access to the bonus dungeon. Dragon Quest V was the first Dragon Quest game to have a bonus dungeon (although the remakes of Dragon Quest III and IV added bonus dungeons later).

Story

thumb|The DS version uses both screens to depict a battle.

Characters

  • The is, in the early chapters of the game, a six-year-old boy who travels all around the world along with his father, Pankraz. After Pankraz's death, the Hero becomes enslaved and is forced to undergo hard labor in the building of a great temple. Ten years later, he finally escapes, and he starts a journey to find out the secrets of his father's past. Soon he finds out that his mother, , who was said to have died soon after the Hero was born, is still alive and so he sets forth to rescue her from the underworld and locate the fabled Legendary Hero.
  • is the father of the Hero. Though he was once the king of