{"id":51194,"date":"2025-08-20T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=51194"},"modified":"2025-08-20T09:45:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T00:45:06","slug":"former-dragon-quest-series-producer-says-he-left-square-enix-after-the-company-shifted-to-safe-copycat-projects-modeled-after-existing-hit-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/former-dragon-quest-series-producer-says-he-left-square-enix-after-the-company-shifted-to-safe-copycat-projects-modeled-after-existing-hit-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Dragon Quest series producer says he left Square Enix after the company shifted to safe \u201ccopycat\u201d projects modeled after existing hit games\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Ryutaro Ichimura, former <strong>Dragon Quest <\/strong>series producer at Square Enix, talked about his decision to leave the company in a recent episode of <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/r2xHPxibThk?feature=shared\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ReHacQ<\/a>. Ichimura was part of the Dragon Quest development team ever since he first joined Enix in 2000, and he went on to become the series\u2019 chief producer, handling titles like Dragon Quest 8 and 9, Dragon Quest of the Stars and Dragon Quest Heroes. In March 2023, he announced his departure from Square Enix and became the CEO of PinCool, a new NetEase Games-funded development studio.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Ichimura, while he already had plans to go independent at some point (in the footsteps of his mentor Yuji Horii), the internal situation at Square Enix at the time was a big part of why he ultimately decided to leave. His dissatisfaction lay in the company\u2019s shift to pursuing \u201csafe\u201d projects that imitated the formats of other hit games in the industry. He found this attitude to be fundamentally at odds with the Dragon Quest series, which is why he ended up quitting several years earlier than planned.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u3010\u7dca\u6025\u914d\u4fe1\u3011\u30c9\u30e9\u30af\u30a8\u306e\u958b\u767a\u30a8\u30fc\u30b9\u306b\u885d\u6483\u4e8b\u4ef6\u2026\u4f1a\u793e\u8f9e\u3081\u72ec\u7acb\u3057\u5e74\u53ce3\u500d\u3082\u3001\u885d\u6483\u3069\u3093\u3067\u3093\u8fd4\u3057\u3068\u306f\uff1f\u3010ReHacQ\u9ad8\u6a4b\u5f18\u6a39vs\u8f9e\u3081\u30b9\u30af\u30a8\u30cb\u5e02\u6751\u9f8d\u592a\u90ce\u3011\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r2xHPxibThk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Ichimura believes that a core value of Dragon Quest is evolution. \u201cIn DQ 2,<em> <\/em>you had a three-person party, in DQ 3 you could change jobs, in DQ 4, party members could fight using AI. Each entry pushed the series forward, both through the evolution of game mechanics and by leveraging the latest hardware of the time.\u201d Ichimura wanted Dragon Quest to continue being a \u201cleader\u201d in this sense, and considering he feels most at home when \u201cbuilding something from zero,\u201d he aspired to work on projects that would surprise players with something new.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, as development costs skyrocketed across the industry, new releases had to sell in huge numbers just to break even. Ichimura notes that while Dragon Quest is still very popular in Japan, its weaker performance in the West (compared to franchises like Final Fantasy) made it harder to recoup development costs. This, according to Ichimura, led Square Enix to shift to projects based on already-proven hits, much like other companies in the industry. \u201cTo put it bluntly, it was copying others.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1377\" height=\"763\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1377px) 100vw, 1377px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20240119-51194-header-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-51198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20240119-51194-header-1.jpg 1377w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20240119-51194-header-1-380x211.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20240119-51194-header-1-768x426.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As examples, he cites Dragon Quest Builders, which was developed as a Dragon Quest-take on Minecraft, and Dragon Quest Walk, inspired by Pok\u00e9mon Go. He also mentions proposals for projects modeled after hits like PUBG and LINE: Disney Tsum Tsum. Ichimura grew dissatisfied when these kinds of projects (he calls them \u201c<em>pakuri kikaku\u201d<\/em> or \u201ccopycat projects\u201d) multiplied, as he believed the role of the Dragon Quest IP was to lead innovation, not follow in the steps of others. Meanwhile, several of his own proposals were allegedly shot down, including an idea for a \u201cDragon Quest Maker\u201d game in which players could learn about worldbuilding and story structure through gameplay, and then build their own Dragon Quest-style games using premade assets.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With new games taking 4-5 years to develop per title, Ichimura was afraid of the possibility of spending the rest of his career on \u201csafe\u201d projects aligned with Square Enix\u2019s policy, which contributed to his decision to leave the company.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ichimura\u2019s new studio PinCool is currently developing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.priprigame.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pritto Prisoner<\/a>, an asymmetrical prison break party game in which you use \u201cPeePee and Poopie\u201d powers to outwit robot prison guards.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dragon Quest 8 and 9 producer Ryutaro Ichimura recently talked at length about his departure from Square Enix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":51197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-51194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Former Dragon Quest series producer says he left Square Enix after the company shifted to safe \u201ccopycat\u201d projects modeled after existing hit games\u00a0\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dragon Quest 8 and 9 producer Ryutaro Ichimura recently talked at length about his departure from Square Enix.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/former-dragon-quest-series-producer-says-he-left-square-enix-after-the-company-shifted-to-safe-copycat-projects-modeled-after-existing-hit-games\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former Dragon Quest series producer says he left Square Enix after the company shifted to safe \u201ccopycat\u201d projects modeled after existing hit games\u00a0\u00a0 - 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