[7][8] As the sixth installment to the Dragon Quest series, the graphics and gameplay remain close to the other games, with minor additions and upgrades.

In this particular installment, the heroes also have to endure the personal struggle of amnesia, as many of the main characters do not initially remember who they are.

Dragon Quest VI is a traditional, turn-based role-playing video game (in an overhead perspective) that features random battles and a character class system that the Hero and his party members acquire new skills and spells.

In order to defeat the bosses, the player must spend time training the party by gaining experience points from battles to advance in character and class levels.

[12][13] The Slime Arena and Best Dresser Contest were new mini-games introduced; the casinos return from previous Dragon Quest games.

There are two secret classes as well,[12] Dragon (Hackasaurus) and Liquid Metal Slime, which are unlocked through consumable books.

Dragon Quest VI was the first game in the series to include abilities or skills (トクギ, tokugi) (special attacks and other techniques that are not spells and usually do not cost MP) for human party members.

Dragon Quest VI opens as the Hero and his party of a mysterious woman and a bulky man approach Murdaw, the demon king's castle.

Overpowering the trio, the demon king appears to destroy each member of the party, but suddenly, the Hero wakes up in the mountain town Weaver's Peak.

[20] After getting out of bed, the town elder tasks the Hero to get a crown in preparation for the annual Mountain Spirit festival, which takes him to Haggleton.

During the festival, the Hero receives a mysterious vision that a great evil will take over the world; the elder asks him to leave the village in preparation for this disaster.

The Hero then meets Captain Blade, leader of Somnia's military, who gives the potential soldier candidates a task to find a special item in a tower.

The Hero and Carver discover another portal similar to the one near Haggleton, which eventually leads them to Port Haven, another town where they can not be seen.

Gaining entrance to the Moonmirror Tower, the party meets Ashlynn, a woman who was invisible in the “Phantom World” at first, too, and together they find the Mirror of Ra.

[21] The elders tell Ashlynn that the Demon Lord is watching her and give her the powerful spell Magic Burst to fight him.

Once Cloudsgate Citadel returns to normal, the party speaks to King Zenith who informs them of Mortamor's doings and how to reach the Dread Realm.

Several challenges await in the Dread Realm, including the party's strength suddenly and unexpectedly plummeting.

[26][27] The appearance of the character Terry was originally Toriyama's design for the game's Hero, but it was rejected by Horii and given to a companion instead.

[30] Mortamor and Murdaw (DeathMore and Mudou, respectively, in the localization) do appear as very challenging, very late in-game bosses, though.

In addition, the game was a late release for the Super Famicom and by the time an English localization could be finished, Enix had already dropped support for the console in North America and moved to the PlayStation.

The Dragon Quest VI enhanced remake for the Nintendo DS was announced in late 2007 by Square Enix and was developed by ArtePiazza.

Mark Franklin, director of Public Relations at Nintendo, made the claim that Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation “will give fans unique access to a classic game in the series for the first time” outside Japan.

This version was released by SPE Visual Works (now Aniplex), and was named Dragon Quest VI ~The Dream World~ Symphonic Suite.

[38] The Symphonic Suite track list is as follows: A 10-volume manga adaptation of the game was also made, which titled Dragon Quest Maboroshi no Daichi (ドラゴンクエスト 幻の大地, lit.

[39] The storyline roughly follows that of the video game from which it was based but with several differences, such as the inclusion of the character Kizu Buchi, a spotted slime.

While comparable to the light-dark world setting of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Dragon Quest VI featured a unique real world and dream world setting, which he suggests had an influence on the later Square role-playing games Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy X. Kalata also praised the gameplay improvements, including its class system that improves on Dragon Quest III and is now more similar to Final Fantasy V, and the addition of a bag that improves on the inventory management of previous games.

"[54] Despite the very high price of ¥11,970 ($127.26),[4] Dragon Quest VI launched with 1,274,857 sales,[55] and sold 2.5 million in December alone.

[10] In 2010, Dragon Quest VI for the Nintendo DS sold almost a million copies in Japan in its first week.

81, the staff wrote an article on Dragon Quest VI, hoping the game would find a North American release.

[9] Other critics have mentioned that class building becomes tedious and that the dual worlds are too overwhelming, both possible reasons against a US release.