Dragon Quest V

Dragon Quest V:
Hand of the Heavenly Bride
Box art of the original Super Famicom release
DevelopersChunsoft (SFC)
ArtePiazza (PS2, DS, iOS, Android)
Matrix Software (PS2)
PublishersEnix (SFC)
Square Enix (PS2, DS, iOS, Android)
DirectorManabu Yamana
ProducerYukinobu Chida
DesignerYuji Horii
ProgrammersKenichi Masuta
Togo Narita
ArtistAkira Toriyama
WriterYuji Horii
ComposerKoichi Sugiyama
SeriesDragon Quest
PlatformsSuper Famicom, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, Android, iOS
Release
September 27, 1992
  • Super Famicom
    • JP: September 27, 1992
    • KOR: Late 1992
    PlayStation 2
    • JP: March 25, 2004
    Nintendo DS
    • JP: July 17, 2008
    • NA: February 17, 2009
    • AU: February 19, 2009
    • EU: February 20, 2009
    Android, iOS
    • JP: December 12, 2014
    • WW: January 22, 2015
GenreRole-playing
ModeSingle-player

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, known in Europe as Dragon Quest: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride and in Japan as Dragon Quest V: Bride of Heaven, 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.

The game takes place over roughly thirty years of the main character's life, from when he is born through to when he gets married and has a family. The title introduced a gameplay dynamic in which monsters from random encounters may offer to join the player's party. This concept was used in later Dragon Quest games, as well as in the Dragon Quest Monsters series as the primary way to form a party. The game's monster-collecting concept had been used before in the Megami Tensei series and appeared in many later franchises such as Pokémon, Digimon and Dokapon. In turn, the concept of collecting everything in a game, in the form of achievements or similar rewards, has since become a common trend in video games. 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.