Time travel

Time travel is a recurring, though not frequent, theme in the Dragon Quest franchise. As each instance directly ties into a game's story at a crucial junction, be ware of spoilers when reading ahead.

Occurrences

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

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After returning from his adventure from Uptaten Towers to Whealbrook, The Hero meets a mysterious man at outside the church who wants to look at the Gold Orb. He gives the older man a chance to look at the treasure and (apparently) receives it back, but later loses it when Bishop Ladja destroys the Orb.

Years later, The Hero and his family discover that the Orb was needed to allow for Zenithia Castle to rise to the sky and are pointed by to the Faerie Palace by Queen Treacle of Faerie Lea. The palace's Queen Caramel is unable to help directly, but produces a Gold bauble which The Hero holds onto while looking at a painting in the area that takes him back in time to Whealbrook village so that he can exchange it with his younger self's orb.

In the remakes of the game, after winning the game, the other portrait in Faerie Palace allows The Hero to travel to the past of Lofty Peak. This new mission allows for him to acquire more Knick-knacks and to meet both Pankraz & Madalena in their youth.

Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past

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Time travel is a frequent means of The Hero and his party slowly restoring the world which was destroyed over the course of history aside from the island of Estard. Their means of visiting various regions in the past require them to acquire special Fragments and placing them on the correct pedestals in the Shrine of Mysteries.

Dragon Quest X

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Time travel is a power of the Royal Family of Tenton when it was a kingdom, but was lost to the sands of time. However, the Hero and their sibling unknowingly have the power, which is first seen when the sibling is accidentally sent a 100 years into the past during Nelgel's attack on Tenton as a village. Later, it is used to acquire the Haja Boat to infiltrate Reidametesu and then have it made in the present after Razerburn is defeated. The mechanic doesn't show up again for the player to use until Version 4, where the Hero meets their biological parents and discovers that an evil that will destroy Astoila is absorbing various evils to achieve his full power, while at the same time, learning about certain histories previously alluded to, like the Ulbea Empire, and altering certain histories to a more positive effect, like saving Alvin from having to go insane after Kamil was branded a traitor, but was actually led astray by one of Nerodus's generals disguised as her lover. However in this case, it is due to a cube their sibling gave them.

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

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Time travel is used to access this game's post-story content. After defeating Mordegon and holding a memorial service for Veronica, who sacrificed herself to mitigate the destruction caused by the death of Yggdrasil, the party can visit the Tower of Lost Time in the Lost Land, using the Wheel of Time to open the door to the tower. There they meet the Timekeeper, a Tockle who watches over the flow of time in the tower. She shows them Time's Sphere, the crystallization of all that has taken place in Erdrea, and informs the party that the only way to restore Veronica is to turn back time to before she died; however, only one person can go, one with the power of the Luminary, and he may never return to the present time. Using the Sword of Light, the Luminary strikes Time's Sphere, transporting him to Arboria before Yggdrasil's death. He then uses the Sword of Shadows -- obtained from defeating Mordegon in the future -- to kill Jasper at the Heart of Yggdrasil, as it breaks through his previously impervious barrier. The party later defeats Mordegon again, freeing King Carnelian. The heroes then go on a quest to obtain the strength needed to destroy the ultimate impending evil known as Calasmos, residing in Erdwin's Lantern.

Although this time travel undoes the devastation experienced in the normal timeline, it also undoes many of the Hero's feats, such as how Mia and Ryu are back to their cursed forms. As such, several side-quests open up in all previously visited locations, and the party can return to these characters to peacefully restore them to their normal selves again and avoid much of the strife found in the terrible future. Furthermore, this instance of time travel is not the creation of a new timeline as seen so often in other media, at least not in the traditional sense: it is in fact a transmigration of all souls of Erdrea into a new universe through the power of the Luminary and the Time's Sphere. This is evidenced by Veronica suddenly bursting into tears and feeling immense gratitude for her friends once the time of what would have been her death comes to pass, and other characters such as Kai and Michelle recalling glimpses of their bad future and sticking together this time around.

Eventually, the Luminary and his party defeat Calasmos and restore the Timekeeper to her true self, Serenica, and send her back in time to reunite with Erdwin.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

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Psaro is informed of Rose being kidnapped when in the depths of Estark's Crypt as in the original story, and races off to Rosehill Tower to rescue her. As Psaro hurries his way back, The Zenith Dragon warns him how he's to make a choice that could affect not only himself, but the very world around him too. He thus implores him to look past his perceptions and maybe he'll be able to find the truth of what's happening to Rose. Upon finding her safe and sound in her room, Toilen Trubble bursts in and accuses her of being a fake meant to distract Psaro while the real Rose is in grave danger. The player is presented with a choice of who to believe. But if they choose Toilen, Rose will cry ruby tears at being doubted and Psaro will believe she's the real one. The scene will play out the same regardless of what the player chooses. Toilen storms off in frustration, and later that same day a bat flies into the tower to whisper to Rose. The elf maiden laughs that her job is done and reveals herself to have been a succubat in disguise all along just as Toilen said, bragging about how convincing her ruby tears were. Realizing that he has been fooled, Psaro rushes off only to find the real Rose dying after having been severely beaten by humans seeking her tears.

The events of the finale of Dragon Quest IV then take place, with Psaro too wrought with grief to respect Rose's final wishes of abandoning his plans for human genocide and using the Secret of Evolution to destroy the world. Becoming a mindless beast, Psaro goes on a rampage in Nadiria's many Circles, bringing them all to complete ruin and possibly slaughtering all around him indiscriminately, including the game's cast of characters, until he is confronted by the Chosen Ones and slain on a cliffside in Nadiria by the Hero. The Zenith Dragon laments to Psaro how he choose poorly and that he could've stopped such a horrible end if he'd only grasped the truth back then.

This sad fate is avoided by Toilen using the Sands of Time he half-inched from Dr. Helix Helix's laboratory earlier in the game. He had survived Psaro's transformed rampage and plucked him from death with the magic of the sands, sending them back to the stand off with the succubat in Rosehill Tower. The player then chooses who's right all along, being Toilen after what they've both seen happen otherwise. With her ruse in shambles the bat tries to kill Psaro directly but is dealt with, moaning Aamon's name before dying and exposing the demon as the mastermind of the plot. With the subterfuge dealt with, Psaro and Toilen sprint off to save Rose. As the elf makes no mention of her death in the previous timeline, nor do the other characters fear Psaro due to his rampage, it seems that only Toilen and Psaro remember the terrible future.

Trivia

• Time travel's prevelence in the series and Chrono Trigger is due to it being one of Horii's favorite themes in media. In an interview with ゲーム批評 ("game criticism magazine"), he cites watching The Time Tunnel as one of his favorite shows when it aired in Japan as an example.