Dragon Quest (or Dragon Warrior, as it’s known in the western hemisphere) is a much bigger phenomenon in Japan than Final Fantasy is. It was the first true role-playing game for the NES, starting the whole enormous trend, and as such it has a deeper cultural resonance than anything that came after. Apparently, Final Fantasy titles sell like crazy (even Final Fantasy X-2), but it’s Dragon Quest that approaches something of a religion. Slimes are ubiquitous icons in a way that Final Fantasy’s moogles and chocobos aren’t. Dragon Quest games will outsell Final Fantasy even when, in the case of Dragon Quest VII, many critics find the game merely average. In America it’s different. Publisher Enix never even bothered to translate Dragon Quest V or VI into English, and didn’t bring out an English VII until years after the Japanese release, but when we listed our favorite video games for Chris’s students, they wanted to know if we liked Dragon Quest; they didn’t ask about Final Fantasy.
There’s a side to Dragon Quest that we don’t see in America. Our Dragon Warrior packaging and propaganda has generally used generic fantasy illustrations of, well, warriors and dragons, as well as swords, magical staffs, and the like. Japanese Dragon Quest merchandising has always sported illustrations and characters by Dragon Ball Z creator Akira Toriyama, the guy who as far as I know invented the now-ubiquitous radioactive-hedgehog school of anime hairstyling.