If there seems to be an unusually dense concentration of Dragon Quest news on 1UP this week, that's because the series is highly visible around Tokyo at the moment due to the incipient release of a 25th anniversary collection of the first three titles in the series. And few people know Dragon Quest as well as Chun Soft president Kouichi Nakamura, who was one of the four main creators of the very first Dragon Quest back in 1986. While perhaps not as well known as designer Yuji Horii, composer Koichi Sugiyama, and artist Akira Toriyama, Nakamura was no less instrumental in the series' inception.
As programmer of the original game, Nakamura was responsible for defining many of the mechanics and standards of the series. I spoke to him this afternoon about his history with the series, among other things, and asked for his take on the somewhat contentious Dragon Quest X Online.
"Well, this is just my opinion, and I'm only speaking for myself," he replied. "I see a lot of people are upset that Dragon Quest X will be an MMO. But to me, much of what made Dragon Quest successful in the first place was that it took hardcore, difficult RPGs like Ultima and Wizardry and made them accessible to the masses so that everyone could play and enjoy them. These days, MMOs represent that kind of demanding, hardcore game. So, it only seems natural to me that Dragon Quest would attempt to make that genre something everyone can enjoy as well."
We'll publish the full text of our interview with Nakamura once TGS winds down and we can catch up with all the gaming news and information flowing out of Tokyo.
