Dragon Quest V: Hand of The Heavenly Bride - Gameplay

Gameplay

Dragon Quest V uses basic role-playing video game mechanics seen in the rest of the series, which includes leveling up by gaining experience points through battle, first person turn-based battles, and equipping weapons and armor. Something new to the Dragon Quest series is the ability to tame monsters into the player's party. The monsters can be used in battle and level-up like the human characters. Monsters sometimes request to join the Hero after battles if the party is strong enough. There are a total of 40 monsters that are capable of joining the Hero's party in the Super Famicom version, with 71 in the PlayStation 2 remake.

Like IV and VI, this game has a wagon where members of the Hero's party can rest while exploring the world, but in the original Super Famicom version it was only possible to have a maximum of three active party members (those who actively participate in the monster battles), while in IV and VI it was up to four. This was changed in the remakes on the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS to include up to four members in an active party. The tactics system first introduced in Dragon Warrior IV was brought back in this game, but with the added option of controlling allies manually for the entire game (whereas Dragon Quest IV only let you control them for four out of five chapters). It also expanded the tactics system by allowing the artificial intelligence routines to be set individually for each ally rather than for the party as a whole.

After beating the game, players can gain access to the bonus dungeon. Dragon Quest V was the first Dragon Quest game to have a bonus dungeon (although the remakes of Dragon Quest III and IV added bonus dungeons later).