The RPG legend talks about Dragon Quest IX, Dexter, and a series built around taking turns.
Yuji Horii is one the few game developers in the world who should require no introduction. The man created Dragon Quest, the standard bearer of almost every modern role paying game. He was also a member of the RPG "dream team" that designedChrono Trigger, one of the genre's most creative and enduring works. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies is Horii's latest work, a traditional turn-based sequel with an crafty multiplayer mode that allows four players to go questing via the DS's local wireless functionality. At a special launch event atNintendo World in New York, I had the rare opportunity to speak with Horii about his newest work and where it fits into his career.
IGN: What's changed with the game for the North American release? Were there any adjustments you needed to make from the Japanese version? Yjui Horii: When we were developing the game we had in mind that it was going to be released overseas so there wasn't much that changed as far as the gameplay. For the Tag Mode, though, the US version is set so you can tag with someone with a game from Japan or any other region.
IGN: I know a few reviews have come out in America. Have you seen any of them, or do reviews even matter at this point since the series has become such a juggernaut?
Yuji Horii: Of course we read reviews, especially in Japan. We haven't really gotten to read the English ones yet, but I heard we got an A for Dragon Quest IX from 1Up.
IGN: Is there anything you notice in the difference between how American and Japanese reviewers tend to look at turn-based RPG's?
Yuji Horii: I wonder sometimes why the US reviewers are more negative towards turn-based battle systems. Real-time play has fun aspects too, but for this type of game there is more strategy that comes with a turn-based system. Also, you can play with other people in this game and decide what actions to take together.
IGN: The core of the turn-based battle system is managing different sets of statistics, kind of like writing a macro for a spreadsheet, something that isn't necessarily any easier to do today than it was twenty years ago. How do you update that system to keep it modern?
Yuji Horii: There have been some changes that have been made. Of course it is a mathematical thing with hit points and so on. You can vary that experience depending on what type of skill the character has and also sometimes you can build up special skills to increase damage that you do to the monsters. So there are little things that you can do to keep it fresh and interesting.
IGN: One of the criticisms of the game has been the reduction of personality in the supporting cast, which is necessary for the multiplayer mode in the game. How did that affect the development of the story?
Yuji Horii: For Dragon Quest IX one of the biggest things was being able to create your own character, and your party members too. The importance of it is that you can customize the face, the name, or something like that so the party members are really a reflection of you. It becomes more of your own experience. Particularly because of the undefined elements of the characters, we wanted it to become the player's story.
IGN: So how did that affect the way you thought of the plot?
Yuji Horii: Up until this point, Dragon Quest always had party members you could talk to. With the character customization you can't do that anymore. In part, that's why we introduced the character Stella. She goes along with your journey and is the person that always talks to you to kind of bridge that.
IGN: There has been a strong consistency in the art style in the Dragon Quest series, especially in the last several games. This is a big contrast with Final Fantasy games, which aim for something different with each game's art. What defines the visual design of Dragon Quest for you?
Yuji Horii: It's because Akira Toriyama has been doing the art design consistently on Dragon Quest. That's one of the important parts of Dragon Quest and his art style is really fitting for the series. Mr. Toriyama, of course, does a great job in making characters and defining the whole art style. But his style communicates—it's flexible enough that his style is not the main "color" in the game. We could ask another artist to do the art in Dragon Quest, but that might overpower the game, it would become their game because it would be so recognizable. For Dragon Quest, we really want the player to identify with the main character and Mr. Toriyama does such a great job making that possible and not overpowering the art with his "color."
IGN: Dragon Quest IX has been in development a long time, almost five years. What kind of issues did you encounter in development? Why did it take so long?
Yuji Horii: That's kind of a difficult question. There weren't really problems, but in planning—creating a story takes a long time. I had to make sure the story was really well written and very well done. The multiplayer too, on the technical side, was a challenge. One of the features is that you can join anyone's world, and jump out of the world, at any time. To be able to do that technically was really difficult, that took some time.
IGN: You've worked on Dragon Quest for so long now, it's come to define your whole career. Do you have any regrets about that?
Yuji Horii: I think it's both good and bad. Because people associate me with Dragon Quest and the series is so well know, that's the good part. A lot of people know it and enjoy playing it and that makes me very happy. But if you turn that around, especially in Japan, so many people know about the series that it creates a lot of pressure to keep them happy.
Yuji Horii: I wonder sometimes why the US reviewers are more negative towards turn-based battle systems. Real-time play has fun aspects too, but for this type of game there is more strategy that comes with a turn-based system. Also, you can play with other people in this game and decide what actions to take together.
IGN: The core of the turn-based battle system is managing different sets of statistics, kind of like writing a macro for a spreadsheet, something that isn't necessarily any easier to do today than it was twenty years ago. How do you update that system to keep it modern?
Yuji Horii: There have been some changes that have been made. Of course it is a mathematical thing with hit points and so on. You can vary that experience depending on what type of skill the character has and also sometimes you can build up special skills to increase damage that you do to the monsters. So there are little things that you can do to keep it fresh and interesting.
IGN: One of the criticisms of the game has been the reduction of personality in the supporting cast, which is necessary for the multiplayer mode in the game. How did that affect the development of the story?
Yuji Horii: For Dragon Quest IX one of the biggest things was being able to create your own character, and your party members too. The importance of it is that you can customize the face, the name, or something like that so the party members are really a reflection of you. It becomes more of your own experience. Particularly because of the undefined elements of the characters, we wanted it to become the player's story.
IGN: So how did that affect the way you thought of the plot?
Yuji Horii: Up until this point, Dragon Quest always had party members you could talk to. With the character customization you can't do that anymore. In part, that's why we introduced the character Stella. She goes along with your journey and is the person that always talks to you to kind of bridge that.
IGN: There has been a strong consistency in the art style in the Dragon Quest series, especially in the last several games. This is a big contrast with Final Fantasy games, which aim for something different with each game's art. What defines the visual design of Dragon Quest for you?
Yuji Horii: It's because Akira Toriyama has been doing the art design consistently on Dragon Quest. That's one of the important parts of Dragon Quest and his art style is really fitting for the series. Mr. Toriyama, of course, does a great job in making characters and defining the whole art style. But his style communicates—it's flexible enough that his style is not the main "color" in the game. We could ask another artist to do the art in Dragon Quest, but that might overpower the game, it would become their game because it would be so recognizable. For Dragon Quest, we really want the player to identify with the main character and Mr. Toriyama does such a great job making that possible and not overpowering the art with his "color."
IGN: Dragon Quest IX has been in development a long time, almost five years. What kind of issues did you encounter in development? Why did it take so long?
Yuji Horii: That's kind of a difficult question. There weren't really problems, but in planning—creating a story takes a long time. I had to make sure the story was really well written and very well done. The multiplayer too, on the technical side, was a challenge. One of the features is that you can join anyone's world, and jump out of the world, at any time. To be able to do that technically was really difficult, that took some time.
IGN: You've worked on Dragon Quest for so long now, it's come to define your whole career. Do you have any regrets about that?
Yuji Horii: I think it's both good and bad. Because people associate me with Dragon Quest and the series is so well know, that's the good part. A lot of people know it and enjoy playing it and that makes me very happy. But if you turn that around, especially in Japan, so many people know about the series that it creates a lot of pressure to keep them happy.
IGN: Having been in the industry so long, what's one of the biggest changes you've noticed, especially in Japan?
Yuji Horii: One of the main things is how much hardware has improved over the last twenty-five years. Also, I've noticed interviewers have become a lot friendlier. When I started people would come to interview me, and just knowing that I worked in videogames—it was like people wanted to stone me, it was that bad. People thought of videogames as kind of a bad thing in society. Now people that come to interview me, they have grown up with videogames and they know what they are, they've experienced it. Thirty years ago, people who interviewed me had no idea what it was all about. That's made it a lot easier for me.
IGN: Are there any other modern RPG's that you're especially fond of, or have maybe influenced your creative process?
Yuji Horii: Oblivion. The Elder Scorlls IV: Oblivion. I like that a lot.
IGN: Is there anything outside of videogames that you find especially inspiring to your work?
Yuji Horii: For US television series, I really like Dexter. In Japan, there's a TV series called Jin. It deals with time travel. I like stories about time travel. It's a story about people living in modern day that travel back to the Edo era. Those things really interest me.
IGN: Thank you!
Yuji Horii: One of the main things is how much hardware has improved over the last twenty-five years. Also, I've noticed interviewers have become a lot friendlier. When I started people would come to interview me, and just knowing that I worked in videogames—it was like people wanted to stone me, it was that bad. People thought of videogames as kind of a bad thing in society. Now people that come to interview me, they have grown up with videogames and they know what they are, they've experienced it. Thirty years ago, people who interviewed me had no idea what it was all about. That's made it a lot easier for me.
IGN: Are there any other modern RPG's that you're especially fond of, or have maybe influenced your creative process?
Yuji Horii: Oblivion. The Elder Scorlls IV: Oblivion. I like that a lot.
IGN: Is there anything outside of videogames that you find especially inspiring to your work?
Yuji Horii: For US television series, I really like Dexter. In Japan, there's a TV series called Jin. It deals with time travel. I like stories about time travel. It's a story about people living in modern day that travel back to the Edo era. Those things really interest me.
IGN: Thank you!
