3. The Strengths and Difficulties of Remakes

Iwata - Speaking of “Dragon Quests” played on handhelds, Tag Mode (※15) in “IX” really became a phenomenon, didn’t it? We heard about just how much of a miracle that really was from Horii-san in the last “Iwata Asks,” but I’m curious about whether there are any new elements this time using that kind of transmission?

※15 Tag Mode＝ A method of exchanging data on the Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS by simply carrying the system with you and passing others while it’s powered on.

Fujimoto - Yes, the very first thing we decided on was the “Immigration” system. Originally players would be able to exchange residents from their towns through their memory cards.

Iwata - So originally the data transfer was done with memory cards?

Fujimoto - Yes. However, back then memory cards were typically things you just kept inserted into the hardware, and people weren’t really accustomed to walking around with them, but with Street Pass it’s a no brainer.

Iwata - I see… So even back then you created “VII” with this image of social connections, or rather that image of people going back and forth between game worlds.

Horii - I wanted to do something different and fun since we had these memory cards that people could take with them. Back then people didn’t really have much of a chance to take full advantage of it, but now people always walk around with their 3DS, so I thought, “This should end up going pretty well, no?”

Fujimoto - By taking that “Immigration” system and mashing it up with the “Monster Park,” a really content-heavy element, we thought that both would be even more fun, and the end result was this exchange mechanic called “Street Pass Tablets.” There’s this facility where you raise monsters that grow attached to you called the “Monster Park,” and you can have three monsters from there go out on adventures and dig up new tablets for you. By exchanging them with other people you can get even more new tablets.

Mashima - Based on the monsters you chose you’ll get different tablets with unique, automatically chosen names. Stuff like, “The far, cozy cavern,” and other names that might seem a bit out there (laughs).

Sugimura - For Slimes you might get “Jiggly cave”…

Everyone - (laughs)

Iwata - You might get a cute name that makes you laugh a little.

Mashima - Combinations you’d never even dream of can pop up. We wanted to make it so that people would be able to enjoy sharing these with each other using that kind of set up, where people feel an attachment to the tablets due to this new personality you get from that randomness, rather than naming them something without any personality like blue tablet or red tablet.

Iwata - Each player will get their own experiences from this, and they can exchange and share these experiences, expanding the world and showing them a new side to the game. You see, that’s what ended up happening in “IX.”

Fujimoto - In “VII” you select the three monsters, so you can kind of specifically try and make the kind of tablet you’re after.

Iwata - You’ve taken the purely random play structure of “IX”s tag mode where you exchange maps to explore and try to find something of value, and made it this new type of fun where you can test various things on your own, which expands into new possibilities that become clearer to you as you test them.

Fujimoto - Precisely.

Iwata - Are there any other points that you heavily revamped for the remake?

Sugimura - The structure for the beginning that we discussed earlier has been completely revamped. The number of places on the first island is the same, but I think the flow and tempo have changed quite a bit.

Fujimoto - Also, from a system perspective, the job system has changed a lot from the original. In “VII” you have over 50 different types of jobs - which is the most in the series…

Iwata - Ah, that many, huh?

Fujimoto - In the original you would be able to keep the special abilities you learned in your previous job and continue to use them in your new job. So if you kept switching jobs, you would learn all kinds of special abilities and become a stronger and stronger character. But by doing that, you may be strong, but the individuality of the jobs disappears - all of the characters end up just having the same abilities.

Iwata - Conversely, the character loses any individuality.

Fujimoto - Right. For that we decided, making it now, we should make the system so that you can only do things when you’re a certain job, which is a big change.

Iwata - For those kinds of things where you’ve already had a proven track record and people might have a preference one way or the other, did you not feel a conflict when deciding, “Changing this will make it better” versus “I’m scared to change this?”

Fujimoto - Very much so. But for “VII” here, and this is the strength of being able to do a remake, but we’ve taken the player’s opinions into consideration - from those who have actually played the original.

Iwata - I’m sure that back when the original “VII” came out, because you had so many different new thing you were trying all at once, you probably got both lots of praise, and lots of people with opposing opinions stating, “It would have been even better if you had done this.” After all, it’s sold over four million copies.

Fujimoto - Right. With that in mind, speaking of the job system this time, we had more opinions that wanted it improved. Naturally I myself have played and replayed it and thought that we should change it as well, and so we revamped it.

Mashima - In terms of remakes, right before “VII” ArtePiazza worked on the Super Famicom “III” (※16) remake. The systems in “III” were really well polished, from battle and party to job changing, and for the remake we did an even better job of making the game appealing to play for hours on end, but based on that experience, one of the big points we had to cover was how we should progress with “VII.”

※16 Super Famicom “III” Remake＝ “Super Famicom Dragon Quest III.” Released in December 1996.

Iwata - There’s a lot you have to explore, examining an infinite amount of feedback, rather than just simply porting the original. Having done that, you then have to rethink from the ground up just how you’re going to keep the original foundation for the game, while also taking current trends and mechanics into account to figure out how it could best resonate with players.

Fujimoto - Yes. It gets exhausting. We spend ten whole months just doing that, researching, examining the possibilities, over and over.

Mashima - In that sense we always get together for brain storming camps at the beginning when we develop a new “Dragon Quest” where we start from zero and decide what we’re going to make it. And at those, literally every time, we start from the very basics of the series - things that you ask yourself, “Wait, do we really need to start from this level?” I think that’s one of the things that makes “Dragon Quest” what it is. Because we went to a pretty similar level of re-examination with “VII” this time, I think we were able to make it something that’s not just a port or an updated version of the game, but something that’s evolved to fit the times.