Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii has explained what he saw as the main difference between his series and Final Fantasy when it debuted.
While Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest share a home now under Square Enix, the duo used to be the two biggest rivals on the JRPG block, although from what I gather, it was never quite as fierce as the platformer wars of the era. And while Dragon Quest was never quite as popular outside of Japan as Final Fantasy was (the UK never even got an entry until Dragon Quest 8), both were such powerhouses of the genre that most of the JRPGs that have come since owe at least something to them.
Speaking to Gameinformer, Horii explains, "Way back then, when Final Fantasy originally came out, I was definitely paying attention to it because it was something we needed to look out for." Dragon Quest and its sequel were both out by the time Final Fantasy debuted in late 1987, so the series had had a bit more time to carve out its identity. Horii adds, "There's one key difference that I really saw back then: the protagonists in the Final Fantasy titles, they speak a lot."
He explains that the goal for Dragon Quest was that "the experience it offers for the player, is that the player becomes the protagonist themselves." whereas "In Final Fantasy, you kind of observe the protagonist, but you're not necessarily becoming the protagonist in the games."
And while it's easy to pit the two RPG giants against each other, Horii adds that, "I thought that was a really interesting and stark difference between Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, but I didn't necessarily see them as a rival back then."
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