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Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii plans to continue overseeing the JRPG series until his death.
Horii, now 71, has been closely involved with every mainline Dragon Quest game since the 1986 original, and at this point, he rightfully considers the franchise his baby, telling Game Informer:
"You know, in recent years, there's been increasingly more areas where I rely on other members to work on parts of the Dragon Quest titles. But I would still like to keep myself involved to oversee everything. I do consider Dragon Quest to be my child. I just really love it, and in that sense, I do think I will work on it until I die.
"I think the next goal for me is to witness the 50th Anniversary [2036]."
Horii will be 82 in 2036, so it's entirely possible he'll still be kicking when Dragon Quest celebrates its 50th birthday, which is just a lovely thought. As for staying involved with Dragon Quest, he's definitely well within the typical age for retirement, not just in game development, but in the Japanese and global workforce generally. Still, 2017's Dragon Quest 11 – one of the best JRPGs I've ever played – proved Horii's still very much got that special sauce.
Horii and his company Armor Project, which co-owns the series with Square Enix, are hard at work on Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate, despite meaningful updates being sparse since the game was announced in 2021. Horii has said as recently as this past May that the team is "putting lots of work" into the sequel and that it'll "be great." Hey, it's something.
