It's Japan's best-loved game and now in its ninth incarnation and third decade, it might finally be catching on in the West. Giles Richards reports.
To date the Dragon Quest franchise has sold 53 million copies worldwide, yet only three million of those sales were outside Japan. Now, with the latest instalment just out in New Zealand, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, its creators are determined to finally recreate their domestic success abroad.
Dragon Quest was created in 1986 by Yuji Horii. It's a role-playing game responsible for the premise that so many followed: take on your role, travel and battle to amass experience points and gold, exchange these for levelling-up and equipment - allowing further travel and battle - the cycle giving impetus to the plot.
"Twenty-four years ago the Dragon Quest series didn't exist," explains Horii. "Role play in those days in Japan was for geeks. At that point, people were saying: 'Regular people aren't going to play Dragon Quest'. We set out to change that." He did, spectacularly.
The series stands out through its grandiose plots, told with attention to detail and a focus on the minutiae of the players' roles within them.
They're also time-consuming and tough but accessible too, a feature producer Ryutaro Ichimura hopes they have emphasised in DQIX - which stands alone, demanding no prior knowledge of the franchise: "We made it with the idea that anyone can pick it up and enjoy it. There are a lot of people in Japan who had never played Dragon Quest before and IX was their first experience." Key to whether it does, of course, is why it hasn't already.
The very challenge itself may be partly responsible. Horii theorises: "The Japanese [are] more predisposed to doing lots of small tasks to prepare to take the next step in gaming. That's something they get a lot of satisfaction from doing." Yet he believes the central theme should appeal universally: "It's in the first person. You are the hero. You experience the story," says Horii.
The latest version of the game is magnificent, its move on to DS sharpening gameplay and interface.
Playing a guardian angel fallen from on high after a heavenly earthquake (a kind of gentle, Nintendo-friendly apocalypse), you are tasked with regaining your wings and thus order above. This sets the scene for multiple quests, often short, almost vignettes by DQ standards. They're imaginative, fun and, as always, character-driven.
But the real impact is in multiplayer. Four can play within a single game entirely independently of one another - but a clever tag system means when battle begins you are summoned to the fight. This is a huge development for DQ. It means players can roam a shared world playing solo, or dip in and out with friends.
The refinements are perfect for the franchise.
Horii insists the rationale has always been simple: "If the game is good, people will play - and we're just trying to make a good game."
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