Dragon Quest: The Mark of Erdrick Volume 1 Review

Dragon Quest: The Mark of Erdrick, written by Chiaki Kawamata and drawn by Kamui Fujiwara, began being released in 1991, in between the releases of Dragon Quest IV and V, but is firmly set in the timeline established in the first three games. If you’re not in the know, Dragon Quest I and II had references to a famed hero from long ago called Erdrick, including an item related to the hero of the same name as the title, and then Dragon Quest III was a prequel showing the adventures of the young man who would end up with the name Erdrick and create the legend. This manga is set 100 years after that adventure but still many years before Dragon Quest I and II and focuses on two “scions of Erdrick” who were born in two different countries settled by children of the hero in the past (with the titular Mark of Erdrick split in two, with one half in each settlement). The Dragon Quest games, especially in these early days, weren’t big on story and often just had a party of warriors and mages travelling across a map to defeat a great evil, so being set after one of these games, the world of this manga has seen peace for 100 years thanks to Erdrick defeating the evil Zoma at the end of the game.

Our hero is Arus and the first chapter is focused on his parents as the evil “Lord Imagine” wants to turn their newborn into a “Fiendlord” by getting the baby named Jagan, which would curse it. To do this he has a shapeshifter called Dersu take the place of his father and insist the child be called Jagan even though the mother has been told that the child will be called Arus (a great honour in the community) via divination. Her loyal friend and knight Bolgoy and his daughter Lunafrea, who is also a knight, help flush out the shapeshifter before the deed can be done but they have to escape the land as it gets plunged into darkness, taking young Arus to a local guru called Tao and his settlement that’s protected by a powerful barrier. We then find out that Imagine has a backup plan as the other Scion of Erdrick in the second country is up for grabs. The second chapter then leaps forward 10 years to Arus and his friend Kira as older boys still protected… but not for long!

Thanks to the actions of Lord Imagine’s Dragonlord, the barrier comes down and everyone has to flee via a sandship, but luckily they run into a famous mage who fought alongside Erdrick 100 years ago in Quadal. He acknowledges Imagine’s power and agrees to train both Arus and Kira for several months to get them ready. The rest of the volume switches to a bog-standard training arc, with a familiar Dragon Quest monster, weapon or magic spell here and there to stay on-brand. It’s perfectly fine, but Arus is very much the naïve but brave young warrior who’ll do this best and is naturally gifted, while Kira is a goofy comedy sidekick who despite his pratfalling can still hold himself in a fight. They work as characters within this story, don’t get me wrong, but they certainly don’t break any new ground personality-wise. The end of the volume reveals that Imagine succeeded and the other scion of Erdrick comes of age, and is named Jagan…

The art is great, very Toriyama-like but with a slightly different spin on it (hard to put my finger on it, it’s like they’re a bit thinner with less crazy hairstyles…), and the volume itself is not only a bit taller and certainly thicker than your regular manga but it’s full of colour pages, artwork and concept art breakdowns in between the chapters. It’s a high quality release, that’s for sure.

I can happily recommend Dragon Quest: The Mark of Erdrick to fans of the RPG series, and anyone looking for a well-drawn simple tale about young boys going on an adventure to conquer a great evil. It’s not going to win any awards for writing or originality, but given it’s supposed to slot in between three 80s RPGs that had even less story and character work, it feels completely on-brand, and good fun to read through.

Read a free extract at the publisher’s website here.

Our review copy from Square Enix Manga was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).