Hero (Dragon Quest V)

Hero
Dragon Quest character
The Hero and his pet Saber in Dragon Quest V
First appearance	Dragon Quest V (1992)
Designed by	Akira Toriyama

The Hero is the protagonist of Dragon Quest V. He starts out the story as a child, the son of Pankraz, who suffers through various tragedies before growing up, getting married, and having children. Unlike previous Dragon Quest protagonists, he is not a Legendary Hero, instead being a monster tamer, a mechanic added due to the popularity of Healie from Dragon Quest IV. He was created by Yuji Horii and designed by Akira Toriyama. He appears in other works, including the film Dragon Quest: Your Story. The Hero has received positive reception, with critics commenting on how impactful his tragic life was and how iconic a design he had.

Appearances

The Hero first appears in the video game Dragon Quest V as its protagonist, and must be given a name by the player. He begins as a young child with his father, Pankraz, taking a boat on their journey. In the Nintendo DS version, the Hero meets the businessman Rodrigo Briscoletti and his daughters, Nera and Debora. After departing the boat, they head to their hometown of Whealbrook, where they meet with family friend Sancho and the Hero's childhood friend, Bianca. Bianca encourages the Hero to join her at a haunted castle in order to find an object that two boys demand in exchange for no longer picking on a Sabercat Cub. They find the Gold Orb, and convince the boys to let the Sabercat Cub go, who accompanies the Hero and Bianca. After returning to Whealbrook, the Hero meets a troublesome fairy named Honey, and is the only person in the village who can see her. He agrees to help her prevent perpetual winter, ultimately defeating the Winter Queen to accomplish this, which has Honey promise to help the Hero when he needs it. He and Pankraz then go to their job of protecting Prince Harry, which goes awry after Harry is kidnapped and taken to the Ancient Ruins. After they find Harry, Pankraz tells him to take Harry out of the ruins, but they are stopped by Ladja. Pankraz tries to help them, but Ladja holds the Hero hostage, causing him to be killed by Ladja and his minions. Before his death, he tells the Hero that his mother still lived, asking him to find her.

The Hero and Harry are then put into slavery, forced to work for 10 years, and Ladja destroys the Golden Orb. He and Harry are eventually able to escape along with a girl named Maria. After their escape, Maria stays at the Heaven's Above Abbey while the Hero and Harry go on a quest to find the Hero's mom. The Hero then learns how to tame monsters, returning to Whealbrook to find that it had been destroyed. In Whealbrook, they find a cache of Pankraz's, which contained the Zenithian sword and a letter from Pankraz that informed him that he was searching for the Legendary Hero and the Zenithian gear. Returning to Harry's castle, he discovers that his half-brother has assumed the role of king, and his queen is a tyrant. He and Harry manage to find the real queen, as well as finding Ra's Mirror, which reveals the tyrannical queen to be a fake. He and Harry then split up, with Harry staying to help his half-brother while the Hero goes on his quest. Along his quest, he discovers the Sabercat Cub, now grown up, who joins him. While on his quest to find the Zenithian gear, he finds the shield in the possession of Rogrigo Briscoletti, offering the shield as a wedding gift to a prospective husband to his daughter Nera. To earn Nera's hand in marriage, he must find the Circle of Fire and Circle of Water. During his quest, he meets Bianca again, who helps him complete his quest. Upon returning to Briscoletti with Bianca, he agrees to let him marry Nera, though Nera notices Bianca, wanting to ensure he doesn't have feelings for Bianca first. In the Nintendo DS version, Debora, a new character added to this version, bursts in, insisting the Hero consider her too. Regardless of which the Hero chooses to wed, Briscoletti gives him the shield as a gift, as well as a yacht.

Journeying with his wife, he returns to the Hero's homeland, Gotha, where he discovers that Pankraz was actually its king, and was now ruled by the Hero's uncle Albert. The Hero reunites with Sancho, and Albert insists the Hero assume the throne so he can step down. Additionally, the Hero discovers that his wife is pregnant. In order to become the new king, the Hero is forced to retrieve the Royal Insignia from the Rite of Passage. Upon his successful return, he discovers his wife is giving birth to two twins - a boy and a girl. The Hero's children's hair color takes after the wife's (blonde for Bianca, blue for Nera, and black for Debora). After a night of celebration, the Hero's wife is kidnapped, forcing the Hero to leave the children in the care of Sancho and pursuing the kidnappers. He finds one of the minions who killed his father, and after defeating him, the Hero is told by Ladja that he kidnapped his wife due to her having Zenithian blood, thus wanting to prevent her from passing on her bloodline. He turns them both to stone; over time, a pair of treasure hunters find these, selling the Hero to a wealthy man while the wife's statue goes unsold. Eight years pass, with the Hero left on the man's lawn, before he is eventually discovered by Sancho and his children, who uses a spell to cure him of his petrification. It is revealed that the boy is the Legendary Hero, capable of wielding the Zenithian Sword. The four of them then continue their search for the Hero's wife.

They manage to reach the sunken castle of Zenithia, discovering from an old man named Dr Agon that the destruction of the Gold Orb caused the castle to fall from the sky. He is told to seek out the fairies who created the Gold Orb; upon meeting Queen Caramel of the Faerie Lea, they discover that she doesn't have the power to make one, only a bauble. As an alternative, they allow the Hero to go back to when he was six years old to swap the Gold Orb for the bauble. This allows the Zenithian Castle to return to the sky, and they find an object called a Dragon Orb, which turns Dr Agon back into the Zenith Dragon, who flies them to the location of the Hero's petrified wife, the same spell used to cure her petrification. The family then goes to find the Hero's mother and defeat Ladja as well as Ladja's master, Grandmaster Nimzo. After defeating Ladja, Nimzo kills his mother, and is ultimately killed by the Hero.

He was considered as a playable character in the fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as part of the "Hero" character. He was ultimately not chosen due to his use of a staff instead of a sword, the weapon the other Hero characters chosen used in Ultimate.

He appears as the protagonist of the film Dragon Quest: Your Story.

Concept and creation

The Hero was created by Yuji Horii and designed by Akira Toriyama. Despite all previous Dragon Quest games having the starring character be the legendary Hero, the protagonist of Dragon Quest V is the first game to not be the legendary Hero. The Hero is a monster tamer, able to recruit certain monster he encounters. The decision to make monsters playable characters was inspired by the character Healie from Dragon Quest IV.

In the film, the Hero is named Luca and is voiced by Takeru Sato in Japanese. The use of the Luca name for the Hero in Dragon Quest: Your Story was part of a controversy involving novelist Saori Kumi. Kumi alleged that Square Enix took the Hero's name, as well as other characters' names, from her novelization of Dragon Quest V, leading to her suing.

Reception

The Hero has received positive reception, ranked number one in a poll by Magmix of readers' favorite Dragon Quest heroes. Magmix writer Hiromu Tashita identified the Hero of Dragon Quest V, alongside the Hero of Dragon Quest IV, as the unhappiest character in Dragon Quest due to the series of tragedies he goes through. Fellow Magmix writer Fumi-kun felt that, despite not being the canonical hero of the game, the struggles he overcomes gives him the qualities of a hero. IGN Japan writer Kurabe Esra praised the Hero, saying that his story of going from a child to a parent was quite rare, comparing the extent of the Hero's suffering to the works of novelist Toyoko Yamasaki and arguing that being in an interactive medium made it more impactful. He also felt that the Hero was an iconic character, saying that his design was so iconic that it is recognized as being the face of the series. 4gamer writer Kenichi Maeyamada agreed with the notion that this was a rarity for storytelling to see a protagonist go through so much hardship, calling him one of his favorite characters ever and attributing his love of Dragon Quest to his tragic story. He also discussed how the Hero's survival contrasted Prince Harry's, noting that as a wanderer, he would not have as much of a fanfare over him living. Final Fantasy XVI creative director and scenario writer Kazutoyo Maehiro noted that he was a fan of Dragon Quest V, adding that he was likely influenced by the Hero's story in making the story behind its protagonist, Clive Rosfield.

The petrification of the Hero and the passage of time during this scene received praise from Destructoid writer Chad Concelmo. He felt that the way it depicted time during his petrification was done in "one of the most creative and interesting ways ever," calling it one of his favorite scenes in a video game. He found the way that the Hero and player are forced to witness the passage of time made it impactful in a way that a game like Fallout 3, which has the player age up, does not. USgamer writer Kat Bailey found the Hero's story was her favorite overall Dragon Quest memory, surprised to find out that, instead of escaping from slavery, the Hero spent 10 years of his early years in captivity. The loss of the Hero's childhood was a large contributor to her having the game as her favorite. Famitsu writer Kawachi felt that the Hero's journey was relatable to a lot of players, with players having to make important choices as young people. Automaton writer Yuzuru Sonohara felt that Sancho's feelings for the Hero mimicked the player's more than any other character's, due to having seen the Hero grow up like Sancho did. Writer Daniel Andreyev noted how, despite not normally finding time travel an interesting element in fiction at the time, he found the time travel scene of the Hero meeting his son a particularly emotional one. RPGFan staff found the decision to make the protagonist not the Legendary Hero, noting how typical it was for the protagonist to be the hero in Japanese role-playing games at the time. He was also regarded as a favorite silent protagonist, and the game was praised for portraying the Hero's life from childhood to parenthood.