Dragon Quest

Dragon Quest is a long-running RPG franchise with a number of spin-off titles in various genres. It’s been part of the landscape my entire gaming life - Dragon Warrior III on the NES was one of the first games I ever bought.

Despite a short run with Dragon Quest VIII and an even shorter one with Dragon Quest IX, I haven’t gotten into another mainline Dragon Quest title since then. But recently I’ve been intrigued by the spin-off games such as Dragon Quest Builders and Dragon Quest Heroes. The nostalgia and familiarity of the setting make it easy to like the characters.

Waifu Tier

ⓘ

The best of the best. Only one character may be in this tier for a given work or medium. This character... is Mai Waifu.

• 

  Elle

  from Dragon Quest

  I wasn’t expecting much character depth from Dragon Quest Builders, so Elle came as quite a surprise.

  Elle is the first character the player meets in Rimuldar, a town beset by a magical disease called the Blight. When she discovers that you are the legendary Builder, she asks you to build a sickroom so that she might tend to those who have fallen ill. Throughout the chapter you find a number of sick people and bring them to the sickroom for Elle to look after. She mentions that while the Blight is a curse upon the land, she does at least enjoy her work of helping people and whenever you get access to a new area she reminds you to look for people who need medical attention and to bring them to her for treatment.

  Most patients recover with some medicine, food, and rest, but a few never get better, which deeply troubles Elle. She even wonders if it would be better to put them out of their misery, but quickly rejects this idea. Eventually those patients turn into zombies and attack the town and you are forced to kill them, which devastates her and she cries forlornly all that night.

  In the morning she regains her composure. She’s buried their remains and apologizes to you for her behavior. Another townsperson, Gerontius, has suggested that perhaps the fate of those patients is a sign that the Blight cannot or should not be fought and humanity cannot defy death, but Elle immediately dismisses that as foolishness. Her failure to save those patients has only strengthened her resolve and she urges you to press on and find the people out there who still need help.

  Tragically, it’s not long after this that Elle herself falls ill, apparently with the same affliction as the patients who became hostile zombies. She collapses in the middle of town and you pick her up and take her to the sickroom as you’ve done for so many patients before. She tells you to kill her to prevent the disease from spreading. But I was having none of it. Elle was clearly the best of us and I would move heaven and earth to find her a cure and bring her home.

  Her plight brings Gerontius to his senses and he helps you find a cure. Elle recovers and apologizes for her earlier request, calling it cowardly. She says that when you laid her down in a bed in the sickroom you built together it was strangely fulfilling. She thanks you for saving her life and makes it clear she’s ready to get right back to healing and helping others.

Harem Tier

ⓘ

The characters who, while not quite waifu material, rise above the rest.

• 

  Desdemona

  from Dragon Quest

  Desdemona is one of the first party members to join you in Dragon Quest Heroes II. She’s an able combatant with a unique fighting style and is a valuable teammate throughout the game.

  She’s capable and intelligent with a calm but quick wit even in a crisis. She’s generally the first to figure out what’s going on and what must be done. Her confidence is well-earned and it’s easy to see why she was chosen to serve as envoy of the High King of Accordia.