Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii has revealed that 2000's Dragon Quest 7 was originally intended to be a completely open-world game, but was reworked to have some order to exploration after the story apparently "fell apart."
In an interview with Famitsu that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Horii talks about the development of different games in the series. When it comes to one of the most popular games in the series, Dragon Quest 7, he explains that it was originally intended to have an open design before it was decided that the story needed more linearity.