The Dragon Quest series begun in 1984, in Japan, on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and the game pioneered role-playing video games with features that are considered standard fare such as turnbased battling, levelling up and advancing the storyline through completing smaller tasks. The games are wildly popular in Japan, spawning several spin-off titles and even feature films.

The series is primarily the work of three men: Yuji Horii is the scenario writer and lead designer; Akira Toriyama is the character designer with a background in Manga comics; and Koichi Sugiyama composing the music.

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie is the Nintendo DS remake of a SNES turn-based role-playing title which was published in Japan in 1995. This is the sixth instalment in a long running popular series and the third being remade for Nintendo DS. It is not necessary to have played previous games in order to enjoy the story of Dragon Quest VI.

The player takes the role of the protagonist, a village boy that is on a quest to defeat Murdaw an evil being that is threatening the world, along the way completing optional quests given by people in need of help. The player can talk to the members of his own party to get clues on where to go next or to read different comments on the current situation, while better understanding the personality of each party member. Thus while the player can try to complete the main storyline he can become involved with other people’s smaller scale stories in the game; for example, helping an old man to tame a wild horse so that it can be used to pull a wagon. This also gives the game bite-sized elements, which is well suited to the portable nature of the Nintendo DS system.

The main story takes place in two different worlds, the World of Dreams and the Real World and the player is not aware at first of which world is the real one.