In "Dragon Quest VII", you are a 16 year old son of a fisherman living on a small island called Estard. There is nothing else on the planet beside this island and the vast ocean surrounding it. One day, you and two friends make a discovery and realize the the world was once much more than Estard Island. So what caused it to disappear? In order to find that out, you travel to the past, where you hope to solve the mystery and to restore the present world the way it was before.

"Dragon Quest VII" shares with its predecessor the job system: you can assign character classes ("jobs") to your party members, and learn many different abilities, depending on the job you have chosen. The game maintains the traditional style of the series, including strictly medieval setting and first-person turn-based combat.