Yuji Horii, creator of the series Dragon Questparticipated in a dialogue about RPG with Katsura Hashino, the director and producer of the upcoming Metaphor: ReFantazio from Atlus. In an excerpt recently published by DenfaminicogamerHorii talked about the foundations of the narrative of Dragon Quest and mentioned the unexpected challenge facing the franchise. Now that video game graphics have evolved to be more realistic, Dragon Quest approaches it and its traditional protagonist for an adult audience.
Originally aspiring to be a ‘manga’ artist, Yuji Horii turned to video games due to his love of storytelling and fascination with the interactivity they offer. From his idea of telling a story that progresses through interactions with bosses, Horii eventually created Dragon Quest. «DQ It’s basically a dialogue with the townspeople, with very little in the way of narration. The story is created within the dialogue. That’s the fun part.»reflects the creator.
No comment
Another of the pillars of Dragon Quest and some RPGs is their silent protagonist, or as Horii describes it, “the symbolic protagonist.” The idea behind this was to allow players to become the main character: they could imagine the character’s reactions freely, allowing them to easily project their own emotions onto the protagonist. However, this approach was partly facilitated by the graphics of the time, as Horii jokingly remarks, “As game graphics evolve and become more and more realistic, if you create a protagonist who just stands there, he’s going to look like an idiot.”
On the other hand, there’s no easy fix for the situation, as Horii notes that having the protagonist react explicitly to events can make it difficult for players to relate and connect with them, which compromises immersion. “That’s why the type of protagonist that appears in Dragon Quest It becomes increasingly difficult to represent as games become more realistic. This will also be a challenge in the future.”concludes the creator.
Despite the controversy over mute or silent protagonists, where a popular Link also fits in The Legend of Zelda or the main characters of Pokémonthe developers don’t seem to want to let go of tradition. Silence remains their way of establishing a connection between player and protagonist to take on their role within the story.
Before Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fateat the end of the year we will receive Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake y Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D in 2025.
