With <a href="https://gameinformer.com/product/dragon-quest-vii-reimagined">Dragon Quest VII Reimagined</a> gracing the <a href="https://gameinformer.com/cover-reveal/2025/10/21/cover-reveal-dragon-quest-vii-reimagined">cowl of <em>Recreation Informer</em></a>, and it being the primary time a Dragon Quest recreation has ever finished that, I spoke to sequence creator Yuji Horii for 90 minutes to put in writing a retrospective that subscribers can learn <a href="https://gameinformer.com/characteristic/2025/11/04/the-history-of-dragon-quest-as-told-by-creator-yuji-horii">right here</a>. Humbly, it is a (superb) deep dive into the creation of Dragon Quest, the event of its many sequels, how Horii feels concerning the franchise at present, together with the upcoming Reimagined remake, and a lot extra – should you aren't subscribed but, <a href="https://gameinformer.com/subscribe">you are able to do so right here</a>.
Whereas I plan to maintain the majority of the data realized 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
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Horii started his profession as {a magazine} author, together with his personal column in Weekly Shōnen Bounce, 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 known as earlier than merging with Ultimate Fantasy maker Sq. to create Sq. Enix in 2003, hosted a recreation improvement contest – Horii received an award in it, “and that’s really the start of my profession as a developer,” he says.
On this private pc, Horii performed a recreation known as Ultima 1: The First Age of Darkness, a primitive RPG by at present’s requirements however one which, when considered, will be seen as a transparent inspiration for RPGs like Dragon Quest, Ultimate Fantasy, and extra. “That actually impressed me,” Horii says. He remembers pondering, “If I make a recreation like this, it’ll absolutely turn out to be a success.” In contrast to Ultima, which was a PC recreation, he wished 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 wished to make use of Ultima’s 2D dungeon system (versus Wizardry’s 3D strategy) and mix it with Wizardry’s “character development” (which we now name RPG parts at present) to create one thing new for this new Nintendo console.
“Inside that limitation [of the Famicom], I wished to make one thing that may resonate with individuals,” he says. “[…] I used to be actually fascinated by the interactive nature of pc video games. I wished to create a recreation that was actually story-focused, or had a heavy story ingredient, as a result of that may absolutely be an fascinating product.”
That product Horii had in thoughts would turn out to be Dragon Quest, and he shortly 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. Nonetheless, this preliminary basis and his pc prowess might solely get him up to now – to show Dragon Quest into an actual recreation, he wanted two extra individuals.
The Dragon Quest Trio
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Horii recollects how the one that would turn out to be the lead character and monster designer of the Dragon Quest sequence grew to become concerned.
“[There] was a employees 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 wished to work on a online game. Accustomed to Toriyama’s artwork, Horii reached out to him and the remaining is historical past.
Although you may affiliate Akira Toriyama because the visionary creator of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, Toriyama is the person liable 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 might it? – nevertheless it created the vibes (and a few wonderful field artwork, too), and people vibes run like blood by way of the sequence, even at present, 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 motion pictures, 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. Folks all through Sq. took discover – “Isn’t this man a well-known composer?” Horii remembers pondering. Horii and the workforce 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 vital side of Dragon Quest, and I think about it’s going to proceed to take action lengthy after his dying.
The First Quest
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Dragon Quest launched on the Famicom in Japan on Could 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.
“Method again then, when it initially launched exterior of Japan, we weren’t ready to make use of the identify 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 completely different from the Japanese launch, too; noticeably, with out Toriyama’s artwork.
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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 manner and have this sentiment towards the Dragon Quest sequence as an entire,” Horii tells me when requested about Dragon Quest’s place within the halls of RPG greats. “Attaching that story ingredient to an RPG was thought-about 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 bought 1.5 million copies, in line with this sourced Fandom chart, with Dragon Warrior promoting roughly half 1,000,000 copies.
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With Dragon Quest’s success, the workforce 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 truth, the workforce was busy making DQII earlier than the primary recreation even launched, “so I suppose yeah, we have been fairly assured.”
I spoke to Horii about DQII and the remainder of the sequence’ 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, Change 2, Change, and PC.
Whereas ready for its launch, try this text breaking down the whole lot within the Dragon Quest VII Reimagined difficulty of Recreation Informer, and you should definitely subscribe right here should you 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 below are another tales to take a look at:
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