A former Dragon Quest director says series creator and genre icon Yuji Horii always emphasized that the JRPG series is more about the experience and should be less concerned with the actual story.
Jin Fujisawa had a nearly two decade tenure at publisher Square Enix where he served as the series' scenario writer and directed both Dragon Quest 9 and Dragon Quest 10. And during that time, he of course worked closely with the man who first created the legendary series, Yuji Horii.
In an interview with The Change, with quotes translated by Automaton, Fujisawa recalls one of the lessons that Horii "drilled" into him over the years: "Dragon Quest isn't about the scenario." It might be an odd lesson to teach someone whose whole job is creating stories in a franchise that's often incredibly focused on its cast of characters, but Horii came at it from a player-first approach.
Fujisawa goes on to remember how "Horii-san would say, 'It's not about the storyline, the experience is what matters. You start by thinking about what kind of experience you want the player to go through.'" The former series lead then points to Dragon Quest 5's focus on giving players a choice of who to marry. "It's precisely because the core of that event is the powerful experience of earnestly choosing a marriage partner that a unique story emerges for each player," he says
Speaking of the series creator further, he adds that Horii "is someone who wants to create things no one's ever seen before, things that subvert expectations and make people go, 'Wait, what? That’s possible?' When you're young, it's easy to get caught up in wanting to make people cry, but moving people through surprise is far more difficult. And when people are emotionally stirred by surprise, that's when they truly feel happiness."
As for what's next, Dragon Quest 12 has been missing in action for years at this point. Horii did say the upcoming game would hopefully be a fitting tribute for two developers who had sadly died. We also know Square Enix shook up the behind-the-scenes leadership of Dragon Quest, back in 2024, which may have pushed back some plans.
