During E3 last week, Siliconera spoke with Dragon Quest Builders producer Noryuoshi Fujimoto and executive producer Yu Miyake about the upcoming “block make” RPG.
Why did you want to return to Alefgard and make Dragon Quest Builders a ‘what if’ story to Dragon Quest 1?
Noriyoshi Fujimoto, Producer: One of the reasons is this is the 30th anniversary of the Dragon Quest series. We wanted to go back to Alefgard and reintroduce that world. Another reason is this game merges the sandbox style gameplay with a RPG. For example, in Dragon Quest IV, V, or VI the RPG elements are very dense. We wanted to have a good balance between the sandbox and RPG elements so we went back to a simpler style where both styles of gameplay can shine.
From making Warriors-style action games to the Rocket Slime series and now to a sandbox RPG with Dragon Quest Builders there is a lot of freedom with the Dragon Quest series that other Square Enix series may not have. Why do you think there is more freedom with Dragon Quest and what kind of genre would you want to experiment with for your dream Dragon Quest game?
Yu Miyake, Executive Producer: I can’t say. It’s not a dream! [Laughs]
NF: There is a solid genre that we have in mind and we can probably go forward and make it if Mr. Hori says so.
YM: There was a proposal for a Dragon Quest baseball game in the office. [Laughs] That’s not going to happen, but just to show you an idea of how free we are when we brainstorm ideas.
With so many different styles of games what would you say is the soul of a Dragon Quest game compared to other RPGs?
YM: The base concept for Dragon Quest is you, the player, are the protagonist in the game and anybody can dive in to enjoy the game even if you haven’t played games before. Using that as the element we want to explore different genres.
Fujimoto-san, in an earlier interview you mentioned you were considering multiplayer for a Dragon Quest Builders sequel. What else would you like to do if you had a chance to make a sequel?
NF: From our end, would you want a multiplayer mode? Japanese people really hate it when other people break their stuff. One of the difficulties with multiplayer is what kind of guidelines should we have in a multiplayer system. That’s on my mind if we were to consider a multiplayer mode. There is a lot we can expand on if we make a sequel including other features that were cut during deadlines.
YM: One of those was a waterfall, I’d like to make one of those!
Dragon Quest Builders will launch in North America on October 11 and Europe on October 14, 2016 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.
