2. “Collecting Small Bits of Time to Become Stronger”

Iwata - When you were making the original “VII,” what other new challenges did you decide to take on and include in the game in addition to the things you were doing to fill up all of the space on the disc, Horii-san?

Horii - Back then I was really into this adventure game from overseas called “MYST” (※13), and thought that those kinds of puzzles would be interesting. Additionally, it was about that time that I started to think a little that maybe people were starting to get bored with battling to level up.

※13 “MYST”＝ Puzzle Adventure developed by Cyan, an American game maker, and released for the “Macintosh” PC in 1993. Was then ported to many different platforms afterwards. Known for its gorgeous world rendered in what was cutting edge 3D visuals at the time and its difficult puzzles.

Iwata - Indeed, back then it was a given that you would start by leveling your character up at the beginning of an RPG.

Horii - So in “VII” we made it so that the main progression was made up of puzzle solving when you begin. So that for the first five hours you would proceed through the story without battling at all.

Iwata -Ah, so that part was influenced by “MYST.”

Horii -Yes, I wanted to try that and see. Looking back, though, I wonder to myself - “Was that really necessary?” (laughs)

Iwata - Perhaps some were puzzled when they began and suddenly they were solving these adventure-like puzzles that they had never experienced before, as opposed to doing the things that were considered standard in the world of “Dragon Quest.”

Horii - As far as I’m concerned, I didn’t think I had made them particularly difficult. It’s just that there were a lot of tablets, so inevitably you would miss one. It’s like when you’re tasked with finding seven mistakes in a picture, for instance, and can find six of the seven but just can’t seem to find the last one. Furthermore, everyone tends to have different places that they would be prone to missing.

Fujimoto - The assumption that, “I’ve already checked here so there shouldn’t be a tablet here” dampens your sense for puzzle solving. You wouldn’t think that a tablet would just be sitting on the table in someone’s house, for instance.

Iwata - Indeed (laughs).

Horii - That’s why we’ve taken those lessons into account and have made it so that you won’t get lost searching for the tablets.

Fujimoto - The original concept for this 3DS version was in fact, “Let’s make an easily understood ‘VII’ where you won’t get lost or feel uneasy.”

Iwata - I’m sure you all have different thoughts in regards to creating “VII” on the 3DS, but I’m curious as to what you were thinking as you began? Let’s start with Mashima-san, having previously talked about wanting to take another crack at it.

Mashima - The first thing I thought was that the eyes of the players who were playing “VII” then and those that would be playing now would be completely different.

Iwata - How so?

Mashima - When making “VII” last time, the concept we had was for a meaty RPG, where getting lost would be fun. The scale of the world you would be adventuring in exponentially increased with the overwhelming amount of disc space we had, which meant that we had around 1,000 different areas - and from the beginning we expected that people would get incredibly lost traveling back and forth in such a massive world.

Iwata - I see, the concept of getting lost as mentioned by Fujimoto-san earlier was different in your mind. You were aiming to have people enjoy the experience of getting lost.

Mashima - Right. Then from a graphics perspective, where previously in the series the design for walls and such in towns were created with consistent patterns, this time we decided to give variation to each and every one in the interest of differentiating the atmosphere of each town.

Iwata - So you thought that, given that meatiness and the massive number of places, you would make up for it by giving each town or place its own individuality so that it would leave a different impression from the others, and people would enjoy that larger world and variation within.

Mashima - Yes. This time around we’ve redrawn the overall scale of things and the characters to remake them, but that original concept hasn’t been changed much. Just, I felt that players these days might pull away as soon as they felt something was a pain. So, to that point, from the beginning I thought that we’d need to take a different approach this time.

Iwata - In relation to game progression and difficulty the standard for what players feel is stressful, and the motivation to spend energy on it is different from back then.

Mashima - Yeah, it’s different. So, while preserving that original essence of enjoying “search and get lost,” I felt that we’d need to rework the accessibility of pathing.

Iwata - I see. Fujimoto-san, what are your thoughts?

Fujimoto - My first thought was that “VII” and the 3DS would go really well together. The scenario in “VII” is basically a series of short stories, you see. So it goes well with the way people play games on handhelds in the little bits of free time they get.

Iwata - So you felt that there was fun to be had in “VII” that stands out specifically from being on a handheld.

Fujimoto - Yes, exactly.

Horii - I really felt that, too. Having put “IX” (※14) out on DS, we did a pretty good job taking advantage of the strengths of the handheld. Even playing over 300 hours wasn’t any kind of chore specifically because it was on a handheld. You could play a little bit at a time over a long period of time.

※14 “IX”＝ “Dragon Quest IX Sentinels of the Starry Skies”. Release for the Nintendo DS in July 2009.

Iwata - Indeed. It really was this new discovery - “collecting small bits of time to become stronger.”

Horii - Furthermore, people playing the game didn’t really feel like they had been playing for that long. These days I think that there are people who find it hard to sit and focus in front of a TV, but because it’s on a handheld you could play while watching TV, or just at your leisure wherever you may be.

Iwata - Just as you say, if you release people from having to sit in front of the TV, their playing time increases. This is a bit off topic, but, the Wii U GamePad was born specifically of the thought that “It would be nice if games could break free of the TV.”

Horii - I see.

Iwata - But I’m sure that for you, having had that experience and felt for yourself with “IX,” you set out to create this remake with the image already in mind that “VII” and handhelds would be so compatible.

Horii - That was indeed the case.

Sugimura - When I first heard that we had decided on the 3DS, I thought that we would need to make some special provisions so that people wouldn’t have a harder time playing the game during those little slices of time. Most people tend to put down an RPG, pick it up and go “Now what have I already done?” right?

Iwata - Certainly, it can become a chore if you can’t remember what you have to do next when you pick it back up.

Sugimura - I thought that we should beef up the “Synopsis” system to aid in that.

Fujimoto - But even just doing that was a massive task. It took about a year.

Sugimura - Yes, quite a while. But in the end, being able to read a clear summary of the adventure up until that point was a highly practical thing to do.

Iwata - Just one simple phrase - “It would be nice to do this,” can end up leading to a crazy amount of work, but that same phrase can also give birth to an unmeasurable amount of value. In that sense, I think that the “Synopsis” system carries out quite an important role for playing RPGs on handhelds.