Dragon Quest series creator Yuji Horii has spoken about how surprised he was by the overwhelming success of the series’ third entry. After moderate success with the first two games, the third thrust the series into the spotlight in a way that Horii never expected.
In an interview with Famitsu that’s been translated by GamesRadar+, Horii describes how he felt the series became a cultural phenomenon almost over night. “The first Dragon Quest was made in 1986, and two years later we made Dragon Quest 3,” he says. “This was when it became a cultural phenomenon, but we were conscious that this might not last.”
While Horii wasn’t sure that the series would have the staying power, Dragon Quest has earned its status as cultural icon with the twelfth mainline entry in development, and dozens of spin-offs released. Dragon Quest 3 was truly the turning point for the series and it became impossible for Horii and his team to ignore the impact their game had.
“[DQ3’s success] was completely unexpected,” he explains. “Of course, I knew it had a chance [of being a hit] when we were making it, but I would have never believed that people would wait in line in order to buy it. I cycled out to Shinjuku to look at the queue, and everyone was lined up all night in the cold, and I remember thinking ‘my bad’.”
Despite queues reportedly up to 4km in length, Horii was apparently treated the same around the office. However, tensions were high when it was time to develop the next game in the series. “I was really worried about DQ4. Because DQ3 became such a cultural phenomenon, expectations for DQ4 were building up,” he says.