Dragon Quest launched in Japan in 1986, and a little over a year later, Final Fantasy launched in 1987. Though the two are now sister RPG franchises at Square Enix, before the 2003 merger between Square and Enix, these series were competitors. And if you ask fans, they might use a word like rivals.
I traveled to Tokyo, Japan, last month to visit Square Enix’s Shibuya offices, play Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, and interview the team behind the remake for Game Informer’s latest cover story. But as part of this trip, I interviewed Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii for 90 minutes about all kinds of topics, including the aforementioned competition between his franchise and Final Fantasy. He didn’t call it “competition,” as I did, but admits, “I was definitely paying attention to it.”
“Way back then, when Final Fantasy originally came out, I was definitely paying attention to it because it was something we needed to look out for,” Horii tells me. “But there’s one key difference that I really saw back then: the protagonists in the Final Fantasy titles, they speak a lot. Whereas for Dragon Quest, the key objective for [the games], or the experience it offers for the player, is that the player becomes the protagonist themselves.
“In Final Fantasy, you kind of observe the protagonist, but you’re not necessarily becoming the protagonist in the games. So I thought that was a really interesting and stark difference between Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, but I didn’t necessarily see them as a rival back then.”
Horii says in Dragon Quest, protagonists don’t “just start talking on their own.”
“Final Fantasy, again, [the protagonists] just talk a lot,” he continues. “I do like Final Fantasy, though. When I first saw Final Fantasy X, I recall feeling this was the ultimate perfection of Final Fantasy.”
Great taste, Horii.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined launches on February 5 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, Switch, and PC.
In the meantime, check out this article breaking down everything in the Dragon Quest VII Reimagined issue of Game Informer, and be sure to subscribe here if you haven’t yet to access the Dragon Quest VII Reimagined cover story, our deep dive into Dragon Quest history with creator Yuji Horii, and so much more.