With Dragon Quest VII Reimagined gracing the quilt of Sport Informer, and it being the primary time a Dragon Quest recreation has ever executed that, I spoke to collection creator Yuji Horii for 90 minutes to put in writing a retrospective that subscribers can learn right here. Humbly, it is a (superb) deep dive into the creation of Dragon Quest, the event of its many sequels, how Horii feels in regards to the franchise at the moment, together with the upcoming Reimagined remake, and a lot extra – for those who aren’t subscribed but, you are able to do so right here.
Whereas I plan to maintain the majority of the knowledge discovered from this interview in that retrospective, I need to escape some features of it, beginning with Horii’s journey to creating the primary Dragon Quest. Take pleasure in!
How Yuji Horii Created Dragon Quest
Horii started his profession as {a magazine} author, together with his personal column in Weekly Shōnen Leap, a well-liked manga publication. He saved up his cash and, by age 27, had sufficient to buy a pc. It was with this pc that he started “dabbling in recreation improvement,” he tells me. Round that point in his life, Enix Corp, because it was referred to as earlier than merging with Ultimate Fantasy maker Sq. to create Sq. Enix in 2003, hosted a recreation improvement contest – Horii gained an award in it, “and that’s truly the start of my profession as a developer,” he says.
On this private pc, Horii performed a recreation referred to as Ultima 1: The First Age of Darkness, a primitive RPG by at the moment’s requirements however one which, when considered, will be seen as a transparent inspiration for RPGs like Dragon Quest, Ultimate Fantasy, and extra. “That basically impressed me,” Horii says. He remembers considering, “If I make a recreation like this, it’ll absolutely grow to be a success.” Not like Ultima, which was a PC recreation, he needed to create one thing prefer it (or like Wizardry, one other recreation he mentions as inspirational) for the Famicom, with its 64-kilobyte limits. Particularly, he needed to make use of Ultima’s 2D dungeon system (versus Wizardry’s 3D method) and mix it with Wizardry’s “character development” (which we now name RPG parts at the moment) to create one thing new for this new Nintendo console.
“Inside that limitation [of the Famicom], I needed to make one thing that will resonate with individuals,” he says. “[…] I used to be actually fascinated by the interactive nature of pc video games. I needed to create a recreation that was actually story-focused, or had a heavy story factor, as a result of that will absolutely be an attention-grabbing product.”
That product Horii had in thoughts would grow to be Dragon Quest, and he rapidly started working, drawing maps, cities, and even the world’s residents on paper earlier than fleshing out the principle state of affairs in his head. Nevertheless, this preliminary basis and his pc prowess may solely get him to this point – to show Dragon Quest into an actual recreation, he wanted two extra individuals.
The Dragon Quest Trio
Horii recollects how the one who would grow to be the lead character and monster designer of the Dragon Quest collection turned concerned.
“[There] was a workers member [at Weekly Shōnen Jump] named Torishima-san, who was additionally the assigned editor of somebody named Akira Toriyama,” Horii says, including that Torishima instructed him this Toriyama individual needed to work on a online game. Acquainted with Toriyama’s artwork, Horii reached out to him and the remaining is historical past.
Although you would possibly affiliate Akira Toriyama because the visionary creator of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, Toriyama is the person chargeable for the visible fashion of Dragon Quest. Positive, his glorious on-paper artwork didn’t translate exactly into the 8-bit visuals of Dragon Quest – how may it? – however it created the vibes (and a few wonderful field artwork, too), and people vibes run like blood via the collection, even at the moment, greater than a yr after Toriyama’s premature dying.
Simply as essential to the Dragon Quest puzzle as Horii and Toriyama is Koichi Sugiyama, who, previous to Dragon Quest, was already famend exterior of video games for his work in films, TV, anime, and different fields.
Again within the ’80s, Sq. launched a Shogi (Japanese chess) recreation and afterward, it despatched out a survey postcard to everybody who bought the sport. Sugiyama responded to it, saying he was an enthusiastic participant. Individuals all through Sq. took discover – “Isn’t this man a well-known composer?” Horii remembers considering. Horii and the group used the chance to talk to Sugiyama and get him concerned in Dragon Quest, and once more, the remaining is historical past. Sadly, Sugiyama died in 2021 on the age of 90, however like Toriyama’s artwork, his music outlined a crucial facet of Dragon Quest, and I think about it’s going to proceed to take action lengthy after his dying.
The First Quest
Dragon Quest launched on the Famicom in Japan on Might 27, 1986, and it hit the Nintendo Leisure System in North America three years later in 1989…besides with a brand new title: Dragon Warrior.
“Approach again then, when it initially launched exterior of Japan, we weren’t ready to make use of the title Dragon Quest; we needed to do Dragon Warrior,” Horii says. For those who have a look at the U.S. field artwork for Dragon Warrior, you’ll discover it options field artwork totally different from the Japanese launch, too; noticeably, with out Toriyama’s artwork.
Dragon Quest is arguably the quintessential JRPG, a time period some Japanese builders have balked at, however one Horii gladly accepts. It’s a 2D fantasy recreation with a protagonist named Hero who should save the world by defeating monsters and evil in turn-based fight. “I’m simply actually glad to see everybody really feel that approach and have this sentiment towards the Dragon Quest collection as an entire,” Horii tells me when requested about Dragon Quest’s place within the halls of RPG greats. “Attaching that story factor to an RPG was thought of a contemporary perspective on the time, and I believe that’s what actually made Dragon Quest stand out from different recreation titles.”
Dragon Quest, the primary official Japanese model, has offered 1.5 million copies, in accordance with this sourced Fandom chart, with Dragon Warrior promoting roughly half 1,000,000 copies.
With Dragon Quest’s success, the group formally started working on its first-ever sequel, Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line, although Horii tells me he was already engaged on it earlier than that greenlight; in reality, the group was busy making DQII earlier than the primary recreation even launched, “so I suppose yeah, we had been fairly assured.”
I spoke to Horii about DQII and the remainder of the collection’ sequels, however to examine his ideas on these video games, you’ll want to take a look at my full Dragon Quest retrospective right here.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined launches on February 5 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Collection X/S, Swap 2, Swap, and PC.
Whereas ready for its launch, try this text breaking down all the things within the Dragon Quest VII Reimagined challenge of Sport Informer, and make sure to subscribe right here for those who haven’t but to entry the Dragon Quest VII Reimagined cowl story, our deep dive into Dragon Quest historical past with creator Yuji Horii, and a lot extra. Listed here are another tales to take a look at:
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