Dragon Quest is loosely based on Dragon Quest III. The names and some of the characters are familar, but the world map is smaller and a very different shape. The two main characters are Abel and Tialah. Tialah receives the legendary Red Stone from the Aliahan Village sage Master Yogi. Soon after, Tialah is kidnapped by the evil Baramos who wants to use the Red Stone to resurrect The Great Dragon and be granted eternal life. Abel swore to rescue Tialah and he is given the Blue Stone, which can only seal the Dragon once it has been released.

The TV series was first broadcast on Fuji TV every Saturday at 19:30 from 2 December 1989 to 22 September 1990 for part one and every Friday at 16:00 from 11 January 1991 to 5 April 1991 for part two, achieving a total of 43 episodes plus one extra summary episode. It was later re-broadcast since 1996 on other networks, such as TV Osaka, Channel NECO and TV Shizuoka. However, the re-broadcast differs from the original in number of episodes: episode 32 was edited with episode 33 to become a single episode, decreasing the total of episodes from 43 to 42. The DVD release restored both episodes to normal and also added the Legend of the Hero Abel epithet.