The 1986 Enix game widely credited with popularizing console role-playing games in Japan is Dragon Quest.
Yuji Horii designed the game, while Koichi Nakamura directed it and Koichi Sugiyama composed its music. Enix released it for the Nintendo Famicom on May 27, 1986. Its accessible menus, turn-based battles, exploration, experience levels, and equipment upgrades helped establish a role-playing format that console players could easily understand.
Dragon Quest was not the first Japanese console RPG, and it followed earlier computer role-playing games and influential titles such as Wizardry and Ultima. Its importance was its unusually broad appeal in Japan. The series later became known as Dragon Warrior in North America because the name Dragon Quest was already associated with a tabletop role-playing game trademark there.
The game launched a major Japanese franchise. Its success also helped shape the design of later console RPGs, including Enix’s rivals’ increasingly ambitious role-playing series.