Last updated on January 3rd, 2026 at 01:20 pm
DRAGON QUEST V – Roleplaying Game Review
DRAGON QUEST V is a Roleplaying game from SQUARE ENIX Co., Ltd., first launched in 22nd January 2015.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 193+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes DRAGON QUEST V Stand Out
This grand adventure, unfolding over three generations, is now available to play in the palm of your hand!
Take your place among a family of heroes, sharing in all the triumphs and tragedies of their storied lives!
Enjoy three generations’ worth of adventure in one standalone package!
There will be a fee to download the game but download it once, and there’s nothing else to buy, and nothing else to download!
*In-game text is available in English only.
◆Prologue
Our hero begins the story as a small boy, travelling the world with his father, Pankraz.
Over the course of his many adventures, this lovable lad learns and grows.
And when he finally becomes a man, he resolves to continue his father’s unfinished quest—to find the Legendary Hero…
This thrilling tale on a stunning scale can now be enjoyed on pocket-sized devices!
◆Game Feature
・Make Friends with Mighty Monsters!
The fearsome monsters you face in battle can now become your friends, giving you access to unique spells and abilities—and a whole host of strategic possibilities!
・Converse Freely with your Fellow Party Members!
The party chat function allows you to converse freely with the cast of colourful characters who will accompany you on your adventure. So don’t hesitate to turn to them for advice and idle chit-chat whenever the urge assails you!
・360-Degree Views
Rotate your viewpoint in towns and villages through a full 360 degrees to make sure you don’t miss a thing!
・AI Battles
Tired of giving orders? Your faithful companions can be instructed to fight automatically!
Use the various tactics at your disposal to see off even the toughest enemies with ease!
・The Casino
With slot machines, poker, the monster arena and the exciting slime races of the slurpodrome, the casino is sure to provide you with a little light relief when the pressures of adventuring prove too great.
Better still, you can exchange the tokens you earn for all kinds of exciting items, making taking a break well worth your while!
・Treasures ‘n’ Trapdoors
Take dice in hand and roll your way around specially designed game boards, enjoying a whole range of exciting events as you go!
Some of the things you’ll see won’t be available anywhere else, and if you manage to make it to the end, you can win some really great rewards!
・Bruise the Ooze is Back!
Bruise the Ooze, the slime-smashing minigame introduced in the Nintendo DS version, is back with a bang! Tap the slimes within the time limit to earn points in this super-simple yet fiendishly addictive goo-splatting extravaganza!
・Simple, Intuitive Controls
The game’s controls are designed to work perfectly with the vertical layout of any modern mobile device, and the position of the movement button can be changed to facilitate both one- and two-handed play.
・Experience the legendary RPG loved by millions in Japan and worldwide! Created by a legendary trio with the master creator Yuji Horii, the revolutionary synthesizer score and orchestration by Koichi Sugiyama, and art by master manga artist Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball).
[Supported Operating Systems]
iOS11.0 and above.
[Supported Devices]
iPhone 5S/iPod touch (6th Generation)/iPad (5th Generation) and above.
This Roleplaying game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, DRAGON QUEST V is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 2nd June 2025
Recent improvements include:
Fixed minor bugs.
Download & Availability
DRAGON QUEST V is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get DRAGON QUEST V on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Dragon Quest is one of our favorite series, and DQ5 is easily one of its best entries. Please bring this game to modern consoles Square Enix.
We are a big fan of dragon quest games and we love this one nearly as much as the original but we will say one thing that the beginning is very boring.
Great overall game, Ive been playing dragon quest games since we were 9 years old but the story for this was probably one of the best. Worth it.
El mejor juego rpg que e jugado.
Just recently Getting back into playing it and for some reason we dont get sound from the game anymore we dont know if its just our phone or not but we hope it gets fixed.
Since the update to allow podcasts audio behind the game music, this game is even easier to enjoy! Would love to see the same for DQ8.
We love the monster taming mechanic. Creating our own party was very enjoyable. The music is great and the story is even a little heart wrenching at times. Fantastic game for sure.
The joy of these vintage RPG games is how well they adapt to the iPhone for easy play. This is arguably one of the best of the dragon quest series and definitely one of the better more personable storylines. Such a vast world to uncover, and theres plenty of bonus material once the game is beaten to keep you busy for hours. Best RPG game Ive played on the iPhone yet.
One of the greatest games of all time and this is true to the 3ds remake minus one thing which is controller support. Please please please add backbone or at least Bluetooth support.
Great game, great story. Its in app form though and needs a quick save option.
You will love this game if you are a portrait mode nutter. There is no support for landscape mode so you see less of the environment.
It turns out, you really can't go back. These games require a ton of grinding that just isn't worth your time as an adult. As a kid with nothing better to do you don't remember it that way. But as an adult, if you're honest, this just feels like a tedious time sink. If you really want to play it, grab the original ROM on a NES emulator where you can skip the tedium. Also: the mobile controls are TERRIBLE. Most of the game will be playable but frustrating–be prepared to enter a level and leave and enter and leave etc because the directional pad is so poor. But other parts of the game that require fine control, like pushing rocks or avoiding holes, is flat out obnoxious.
This is honestly unacceptable. We get that you made touch controls for devices, that makes sense. When you take away the option to play the game as intended and charge retail prices. This does not. Square you need to fix this. You of all companies understand the importance of choice. Fix this. We will not purchase another SE title on iOS until you wake up. Yet another saddened fan.
Not only is this a fantastic RPG, it is the BEST RPG Ive ever played. The story is dynamic, theres lots of variety. This is perfection.
Was scared at first cause its a mobile port. However, this by far surpassed our expectations and feels incredibly smooth for being a mobile port. Also hands down one of the best games in the series.
Almost every lifelong Dragon Quest fan knows every single aspect of this amazing game with memorable characters and introduces monster recruiting, however recruiting them is complete luck, but thats the only flaw. It still appears on best of all times list as we can put this at one best games of all time. We dont have to say much else about this masterpiece as its revolutionary, memorable, and still hold up perfectly to this day. And if for some reason you havent played it we would highly suggest you give it a try.
This is quite possibly one of the best JRPGs ever made. It is absolutely brimming with charm and wit. Its so addicting and fun to play.
Amazing game makes us miss the original DRAGON WARRIOR MONSTER please put that up so we can give you more money.
The upgraded graphics do this classic justice. Touch screen game play is also well done. We completed the entire game including bonus dungeon in 15 turns. Not very challenging, grind not extreme but you need the correct monster, group. Our only complaint is the translation, seemed like many conversations were poorly done. PS2 translation version way better, dont understand why they didnt just copy text over. You can still get the gist of the story line… A family story line that spans three generations extremely well presented. Played on iPhone… If you get a call your game sound will cut off, all you need to do is minimize the app (dont close!) then switch back to game audio will turn back on. Tips: as soon as you get to casino put in an hour getting monster magnet. You only need one, the difference between hating monster find grind and finding your entire crew in a short period! Get your king cure-slime, then life is very easy.
Pls we want you to introduce a Japanese translation.
Chinesedqdq5sfcndsps2 dq5ff7sedq5hope so much.
While every one else is playing final fantasy vii remake and we patiently wait for our preorder to arrive we decided to purchase this game and was absolutely blown away… Probably one of the best rpg storylines we have ever played period…. And long after the credits rolled we are now going back to hunt and enjoy the lore… Random battles can be a bit much but there are plenty of ways in game to deal with them thru clever game mechanics and items… The ending was perfect and all of the trials and tribulations the hero goes thru come together nicely in the end to create a satisfying peaceful ending that is well worth the players time.. The emulation in this release is spot on and dare we say despite the annoying touch controls at times it is better on mobile devices with the added convenience of your phone being with you all the time. This game alone has now made us a life long dragon quest fan forever, wow just wow. BUY IT… Thank you square-enix.
Havent played this game since we were young. Purchased on a whim and was glad that we did. It has such a good and compelling story! The gameplay is simple to pick up, but you will find yourself spending time thinking about your perfect team comp, and recruiting those beastly Golems. Overall if you are an rpg fan, this is a great one to take with you on the phone.
Ive bought this game three times; for almost anything else Id call that overkill. But this game is special. Its not complicated but its deep. Its got random battles but thats its only flaw. Im writing this review at the spur of the moment but if we had time Id go on and on. This is a heart-warming journey that doesnt pull punches, full of personality, great little asides like Treasures N Trapdoors. Long story short, price tag is totally worth it. This is a full-length studio quality JRPG with replay value thanks to the choice of 3 brides. And just really lovely overall.
This is a fantastic port of the 3DS version of Dragon Quest V. Dragon Quest V is a wonderful game with a charming story about family and destiny, and finding ones place in that story. Its every bit worth your money, and more importantly your time. The 40-50 hours youll spend with this game will be unforgettable. Thank you Square Enix for updating these games and keeping them current for new generations to enjoy.
This game would be even better with controller support.
Absolutely fantastic game and great port. Just wish they would update for the later iPhones to help with the fps issues.
We hate the touch controls. Other games support game pads.
Game needs controller support also dqVIII would be better with a controller.
Please support Backbone controller. Controller is always better than touch.
As others have said, there are better versions out there. The latest version has a lingering bug that the app will not play sound if the phone is in silent mode. Can still play Spotify or YouTube or whatever, but this app refuses to make any sound As others have asked, plz copy the ps2 port and fixe the bugs and youll have a better app to play.
We love dragon quest games but this is unplayable on iPhone with the constant screen jarring when moving.
Im literally 30 minutes into this game, encounter a weird bug where the story doesnt progress. Eventually it does, and now our entire party and all our items are GONE.
We have enjoyed the game fir the most part. There are a couple of annoying things about the game though. 1) we play on an iPad and playing this game looks terrible the way it is landscaped. In the upright position. It is pretty badly pixelated 2) The controls are pretty bad as well. We find ourselves accidentally moving the location of the controls. This is exceptionally annoying. This could be easily surged with a game pad option. Other than that it is the game we played all the time as a teen. Note to Devs. We are currently unwilling to buy more SE games unless we know they are made with iPads in mind and has game pad options. We will not make the same mistakes people whom played FFT made.
The bottom icons are way too close to the bottom of the screen. Is there a way to rearrange the UI elements or at least push them up a little so the game doesnt keep awkwardly stuttering? On an 11 Pro Max.
Almost unplayable as the game freezes when you try to rotate the camera. Playing on an iPhone 11 Pro.
We see that the other DQ games have chinese language support but this game does not. Please add the Chinese language support it would be very much appreciated by all.
This was our first time playing a Dragon Quest and giving more than a hour of our time. We tried VIII back when it first came out on PS2 and didnt give it a chance because the music. We are now at the end of this game and loving every minute of it. We love this game and it has become probably our favorite JRPG of all time beating Final Fantasy X! Definitely give this a shot if your looking for getting into the series because it has got us hooked and wanting us to play all the other games.
Its a great rpg! Im 20 hours in and its amazing. The towns feel alive and the story is great so far.
Thoroughly enjoyed it. We had started playing on iphone but things are too tiny. Game was outstanding. Typical old school rpg.
It enjoyed it a lot on the iPhone X.
We're usually concerned about on screen controls, but this game does it amazing well. Movement consists of an eight direction virtual joystick with a button in the middle. You can change it so the joystick is on the left side, right side, or centered. We found it easy to change to suit how we were sitting or laying down at the time. All menus including selecting combat commands is done by tapping through the menus on screen.
We are really enjoying this game the story is fabulous. If you like RPGs & love great stories pick this up.
While playing through we notice a few bugs. When you use zoom it causes a bit of lag in the game. And sometimes the music will skip for a fraction of the second without finding probable cause for this we recommend you look into this. Other then that it's a great game and runs smoothly.
….(sigh)….we would like to take a little time to talk about possibly the greatest RPG of all time…Dragon Quest 5. So its been a little over a month now since we've embarked on this unforgettable journey through the breathtakingly emotional Dragon Quest saga, and we can't possibly stress the words "breathtakingly emotional" enough because its taking all we have to hold back tears while we are writing this review, as we have just beaten the main story and the entire 45+ hour experience is still very fresh in our mind. We've stated in our review for Dragon Quest 4 that the storylines (very much like the ones for the Final Fantasy ffranchise) become more and more engrossing and emotionally potent with each and every release, always wondering to ourselves "how on earth can they possibly top this?!" Well our friends, we believe we have finally reached the very pennicle in story telling, the true holy grail of RPG storylines…behold…Dragon Quest 5. Ever since we made the choice to play all the DQ games on the app store, we think we were always most excited to play DQ5 more than any other title in the franchise (along with DQ8) due to the fact that we've seen multiple video reviews on youtube and other such sources that Dragon Quest is among if now the most loved, and most critically acclaimed installment in the entire series, saying that it is one of the greatest RPG's of all time, mostly due to its extraoridinarily well told storyline, and we don't think we could possibly conqer with anything more if we tried. The game spans ove three generations from you and your father, to your very own children. Starting out the game as a little boy at your father's side to rescue your long-lost kidnapped mother, to growing into an adult and getting married and having kids of your own, and the way the beyond brilliant writters spanned the time between generations, chock full of UNFORGETTABLE bonds and friendships, as well as some of the most heartbreaking and forboding events in videogame history, is absolutley nothing short of miraculous. See, just as we were writing that last sentence, all those heartbreaking moments came flooding back, and we had to pause to hold back a few tears. Not all is despaire however, because this game is filled with enough amazingly heartwarming moments to sort of balance it all out, and we think it was the heartwarming moments that had us crying like a baby. We really truley can't ever say enough good things about this storyline you guys. As a matter of fact, as far as pure storytelling goes, we think we would have to place Dragon Quest 5 as the greatest storyline of all time, even above Final Fantasy 7…(wow). Aside from the out-of-this-world storyline, there exists one of the very best battle mechanics we've ever played in an RPG. We of course am referring to the totally A-W-E-S-O-M-E monster recruiting system! Its like a wonderful mix of Pokemon thrown right in! You can travel the world and recruit a wide array of different monsters that you randomally encounter, with an equally vast selection of weapons and armor to outfit your new furry friends, as well as many monster exclusive spells and abilities that really give birth to nearly infinite strategic possibilities. One of our very favorite parts of the game hoever is the fact that after a long day of piliging, you can kick your feet up and get lost for HOURS in the biggest and most exciting collection of mini games we've ever seen! From the casino which includes poker, slots, monster arena, and even introducing slime races, and the almighty totally friggn' awesome as @#$% T n' T board game!!!!!!!!! Even a fun litthe arcade game called "bruisn' ooze", which is essentially a slime themed whack a' mole!!!!! We have been a huge fane of the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z series ever since we were a little kid. With the amazing storytelling and the gorgeous animation, It only makes since that some point in our like we would eventually gravitate to the Dragon Quest games, we just wish it wouldnt've taken us this long. We mean considering that it was created by the same people it was bound to happen sooner or later. We suppose we can place the blame on the fact that Dragon Quest never got the very much deserved recognition and popularity in the states as it did in Japan…oh well. All that matters now is that we have it in our life now and we are never letting go. We know that we've thanked the Square Enix team in the past for bring these essential RPG classics to the app store, but we just wanted to thank them again…THANK YOU SO VERY VERY VERY VERY MUCH SE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Next stop…Dragon Quest 6.
We really dislike JRPGs for the type of game they are, and this game fits the mold perfectly and delivers exactly what we dislike: annoyingly strict linearity, painfully cliche and predictable writing and characters, the silent protagonist projection model, the "collect items to save the world from the evil empire" skeleton-frame plot, the tragic background of the hero and his friends, and, above all, the illusion that 40hours of gameplay isn't made up entirely of walking into "random" encounters on the grid every fifteen steps + mini-game grinding. Seriously, if they took out the grinding this game would probably take about 2 hours from start to finish with time for snacks and bathroom breaks. We purchased this game because of all the praise it receives as one of the best, if not the best, JRPGs of all time, and because it is a very good port. We had been feeling the (irrational and/or insane?) urge to play a classic JRPG reminiscent of final fantasy "2/4" that we played on the SNES many years ago. Because final fantasy "2/4" on the AppStore is a terrifyingly horrible 3D mocking parody of a once beautiful game, we hadn't quite got our fix when we wasted our money on that graphical eyesore. We should have learned our lesson before we purchased this game, but we are not entirely disappointed in and annoyed at our purchase, just bothered by the genre as a whole. DQ5 definitely works fine for iPhone without any noticeable bugs. The translation is fairly high quality for most of the characters, although the main villain seems to have difficulty forming a coherent sentence, which honestly surprised us because the rest of the translation is top notch. It is a decent port for a JRPG, which is why we give it four stars, because it is exactly what it claims to be and there is no freemium model. We took one away because we don't believe the price is justified. But overall, if you like JRPGs, then you will adore this game: it embodies everything a JRPG has ever been, and in comparison to its low-performing counterparts of the genre, it is well-written and designed. We even found ourselves mildly interested in the story about halfway through, despite our reoccurring grumpiness at the perpetual grind. We, however, could not finish it, but we haven't deleted it yet because we hope that our insanity will return one day and we can put our nose back to the virtual grindstone to see how it ends.
Id love to play our own music/audiobook while playing, but sadly that isnt an option. 5 stars if we could though.
The game is great DQ5 is one of the best Dragon Quest has to offer. There are a few issues like the over world has visible seams. The biggest problem is there is no phone audio (music or audiobooks) able to be played while grinding. This makes for a more grinding experience.
This port appears to have been optimized for an iPhone. Im playing on an iPad and we find the graphics to be choppy and just appears to be blown up. There is no landscape mode. Obviously being a port this was designed to be played with a controller and the touch screen controls just dont feel as nice.
The game won't let you progress past the boat scene… Not sure if this is a legit copy.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.1.3
- Size: 501.07 MB
- iOS: 11.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: [SQUARE ENIX Co., Ltd.]()
Last updated: 2nd June 2025 | Genre: Roleplaying | Developer: SQUARE ENIX Co., Ltd.