Dragon Quest 1 & 2

The basic premise of most Dragon Quest titles is to play a hero who is out to save the land from peril at the hands of a powerful evil enemy, with the hero usually accompanied by a group of party members. Common elements persist throughout the series and its spinoff titles: turn-based combat; recurring monsters, including the Slime, which became the series' mascot until the English version of Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King; a text-based menu system; and random encounters (in the main series), until Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies. The series is one of the few long-running video game series to have a stable key development team; scenario writer and game designer Yuji Horii, character designer Akira Toriyama and music composer Koichi Sugiyama have handled their respective roles from the beginning of the series. The original concepts, used since the first game, took elements from the western RPGs Wizardry and Ultima.