Dragon Quest Creator Yuji Horii Explains What Sets Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy Apart
- ⚡Xe⚡
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Yuji Horii, creator of Dragon Quest, shared his thoughts on the differences between Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy in a recent interview with Game Informer. While the two franchises were competitors before the Square-Enix merger in 2003, Horii says he always paid close attention to Final Fantasy’s releases.
"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, 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."
Horii points out a fundamental distinction: in Final Fantasy, protagonists often have their own voice and dialogue, while in Dragon Quest, the focus is on the player stepping into the role of the hero.
"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."
He also expressed admiration for specific entries in the series, highlighting Final Fantasy X as an example:
"Final Fantasy, again, [the protagonists] just talk a lot. I do like Final Fantasy, though. When I first saw Final Fantasy X, I recall feeling this was the ultimate perfection of Final Fantasy."
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About FINAL FANTASY
For over 35 years, the FINAL FANTASY series has delighted generations of gamers and millions of players worldwide through beloved role-playing adventures that are built upon the benchmarks of spectacular visuals, highly imaginative worlds, rich stories, memorable characters, and technical and gameplay innovation leading the industry and earning the highest accolades from around the world. Each mainline game in the series is a completely new experience, and an ideal entry-point to the series. Titles of the series have sold over 204 million units worldwide.
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