Both Dungeons & Dragons and Dragon Quest have gotten more popular since the 1980s, but the two games actually have a complicated connection that goes back over three decades. Here's the true story of why Dragon Quest was actually known in the United States as Dragon Warrior for a number of years - and what it has to do with D&D.
As many Dragon Quest fans already know, the series was once known as Dragon Warrior in the U.S. This spawned four Dragon Warrior titles on the NES, several on the Game Boy Color, and a final entry - Dragon Warrior VII - on the original PlayStation. Then, starting with Dragon Quest VIII's North American release in 2005, the series finally got to use its own Dragon Quest moniker - which it'd been using in Japan since the original game's release in 1986.
The reason for this all goes back to a trademark dispute with DragonQuest, a tabletop RPG by Simulations Publications, from 1980. In the U.S., Simulations Publications already had a trademark for the name by the time Dragon Quest, the JRPG series, released and was localized as Dragon Warrior in 1989. By this time, TSR - the company behind Dungeons & Dragons - had bought out Simulations Publications and now owned the trademark.
Dragon Quest's Trademark Issues With D&D Explained
By the time TSR owned DragonQuest, it had released a 3rd edition in 1989. Dungeons & Dragons: Dragon Quest was also a board game, one of TSR's many pushes to make D&D more kid-friendly and appeal to families. Because of this, Enix couldn't port Dragon Quest to North America under its original name. Instead, Dragon Warrior arrived in 1989 and the series used this title until 2005.
The reasons for TSR and D&D's trademark confusion with Enix and Dragon Quest make sense, but what happened to make the video games start using its original title in North America? Presumably, this is because Wizards of the Coast bought out TSR and showed no interested in continuing the DragonQuest tabletop RPG or board games. Years later, and after Enix merged with Squaresoft to become Square Enix, the company was finally able to trademark Dragon Quest in time for the eighth mainline entry to release in the United States.
While many mysteries and myths about Dragon Quest have existed over the years, the confusion over Dragon Warrior and Dragon Quest is still pretty prevalent. After multiple buy-outs and mergers, the trademark issue between the JRPG franchise and the tabletop RPG is finally settled. However, it means that Dungeons & Dragons and Dragon Quest will always have a bit of a connection in the history of gaming.