The Hero, also known as Loto in Japanese and Erdrick in English, is the protagonist of the 1988 video game Dragon Quest III.

Unlike previous Dragon Quest protagonists, this Hero can be male or female, though fans criticized the lack of differences between the two gender options.

The lack of differences between the male and female Hero received criticism as well, leading to efforts to improve this in Dragon Quest IV.

They were raised by their mother, and their father, Ortega, was missing after leaving after the Hero's birth to kill the villain Baramos.

[4] A leak also reported that the Dragon Quest III Hero would appear as a playable character in Ultimate.

[9] The Hero of Dragon Quest II was designed by Akira Toriyama and created by series creator Yuji Horii.

[11] Horii designed the protagonist to be silent due to his desire for players to be able to put themselves in the main character's shoes.

He made one exception in a scene where the Hero tells some characters to flee due to having difficulty finding a different way to do it, remarking that players didn't like it when they talked out of nowhere.

[12] Criticism from players about a lack of differences between male and female Hero led series creator Yuji Horii to aim to do better with gender differences for the Dragon Quest IV Hero, though he stated he only remembered this intention halfway through the game's development.

[21][22] USgamer writer Nadia Oxford appreciated the ability to play as a female Hero in Dragon Quest III, while Gen Gamachi of Inside Games felt that the ability to choose the Hero's gender contributed to enhancing the freedom of the game.

[26] 4gamer writer Kenichi Maeyamada also found this ending sad, particularly that Ortega died without being able to see his child and that the Hero could not return to their world.