Akira Toriyama’s “successor” on Dragon Quest impresses fans with Chrono Trigger inspired illustration  

In the run up to the November launch of Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, the official Japanese Dragon Quest PR account on X revealed some new artwork from the upcoming game. As well as comments on the announcement itself, the illustration garnered much praise for honoring the late Akira Toriyama’s art style- with some even wondering if it was an homage to a specific piece of concept art by Toriyama for the classic 1995 RPG Chrono Trigger. 

The new illustration in the style of Dragon Quest’s original character designer Akira Toriyama (who passed away in March 2024) depicts a cozy scene of the hero and his party members sitting around a campfire in the woods. Eagle-eyed commenters spotted that the illustration’s subject matter and composition bear a striking resemblance to a Toriyama artwork from the classic RPG Chrono Trigger (which almost had a fighting game spin-off, but that’s another story). “I wonder if it’s a homage to this?” one commenter mused– posting the Chrono Trigger illustration below. 

The original post was met with many more comments praising how the new Dragon Quest III illustration was in keeping with the late artist’s style. “I wonder who drew this? It’s an illustration that carefully respects every detail. It particularly reminds me of that piece of artwork from Chrono Trigger, but if you look closely, you can see that it’s not a mere copy. It’s truly good,” another commenter noted. Overall, people seem to feel that the art captures Toriyama’s style while having enough originality to not be an unfeeling copy. On the flip side, there were some complaints about the adjustments made to the original female warrior design to make her bikini armor less revealing. 

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is scheduled to launch on November 14 for the PC (Microsoft Store), Nintendo Switch, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The Steam version will come out a day later, on November 15.