{"id":66084,"date":"2026-05-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=66084"},"modified":"2026-05-01T17:03:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T08:03:53","slug":"dragon-quest-9-and-10-director-says-yuji-horii-taught-him-the-important-lesson-that-dragon-quest-isnt-about-the-scenario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dragon-quest-9-and-10-director-says-yuji-horii-taught-him-the-important-lesson-that-dragon-quest-isnt-about-the-scenario\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragon Quest\u00a09\u00a0and\u00a010\u00a0director\u00a0says\u00a0Yuji Horii\u00a0taught him the important lesson that \u201cDragon Quest isn\u2019t about the scenario\u201d\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Jin Fujisawa, former\u00a0<strong>Dragon Quest<\/strong>\u00a0series scenario writer and director of DQ\u00a0IX and X,\u00a0recently talked to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/futabasha-change.com\/articles\/-\/2825\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The\u00a0Change<\/a>\u00a0about his\u00a0time at Square Enix and his experience working\u00a0under\u00a0Yuji Horii, the creator of the RPG franchise.\u00a0After leaving the company in 2018,\u00a0Fujisawa became the general director of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.daiyonkyokai.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Daiyonkyokai<\/a>\u00a0(The Fourth Boundary), a studio specializing in\u00a0experimental\u00a0augmented reality games, as well as the representative of\u00a0scenario company\u00a0Storynote, which is currently developing\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dragon-quest-9-and-10-directors-new-psychological-indie-game-in-which-you-type-away-the-emotional-trauma-of-troubled-girls-to-release-on-may-20\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">its debut visual novel game<\/a> under the game label Lorebard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While his work still very much revolves around storytelling,\u00a0Fujisawa\u00a0says an important lesson Horii, the creator of the Dragon Quest series,\u00a0\u201cdrilled&#8221; into\u00a0him\u00a0during his 20-year run at Square Enix\u00a0was that \u201cDragon Quest isn\u2019t about the scenario.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his younger days, Fujisawa believed that for an RPG, the scenario\u00a0was everything, but Horii held a different view.\u00a0\u201cHorii-san\u00a0would say,\u00a0<em>It\u2019s\u00a0not about the storyline, the experience is what matters. You start by thinking about what kind of experience you want the player to go through.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>As an example, Fujisawa brings up\u00a0Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride and the way it confronts players with the decision of whom to marry. \u201cIt\u2019s precisely because the core of that event is the powerful experience of earnestly choosing a marriage partner that a unique story emerges for each player,\u201d he\u00a0explains.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Fujisawa initially did not see the point of this perspective and resisted Horii\u2019s philosophy, he says&nbsp;he\u2019s&nbsp;come to not only understand it, but&nbsp;to&nbsp;incorporate it into his&nbsp;own&nbsp;work.&nbsp;\u201c[Horii is] is&nbsp;someone who wants to create things&nbsp;no one\u2019s&nbsp;ever seen before,&nbsp;things that subvert expectations and make people go,&nbsp;<em>Wait, what?&nbsp;That\u2019s&nbsp;possible?&nbsp;<\/em>When&nbsp;you\u2019re&nbsp;young,&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;easy to get caught up in wanting to make people cry, but moving people through&nbsp;surprise&nbsp;is far more difficult. And when people are emotionally stirred by surprise,&nbsp;that\u2019s&nbsp;when they truly feel happiness.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fujisawa says that this approach of \u201cdesigning experiences\u201d and offering surprise is\u00a0a part of Horii\u2019s DNA that\u00a0Daiyonkyokai\u2019s\u00a0work has\u00a0actively\u00a0inherited.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dragon-quest-creator-yuji-horii-finally-reveals-why-you-lose-half-your-money-when-you-die-in-the-games\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii finally reveals why you lose half your money when you die in the games<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former\u00a0Dragon Quest series scenario writer and director Jin Fujisawa talks about what he learned from Yuji Horii during his time at Square Enix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":66088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-66084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie-games","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dragon Quest\u00a09\u00a0and\u00a010\u00a0director\u00a0says\u00a0Yuji Horii\u00a0taught him the important lesson that \u201cDragon Quest isn\u2019t about the scenario\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former\u00a0Dragon Quest series scenario writer and director Jin Fujisawa talks about what he learned from Yuji Horii during his time at 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\/dragon-quest-9-and-10-director-says-yuji-horii-taught-him-the-important-lesson-that-dragon-quest-isnt-about-the-scenario\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dragon Quest\u00a09\u00a0and\u00a010\u00a0director\u00a0says\u00a0Yuji Horii\u00a0taught him the important lesson that \u201cDragon Quest isn\u2019t about the scenario\u201d\u00a0 - 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