Dragon Quest is a curious series. It sells extremely well in Japan, but up until recently, it didn’t really have much of a presence in the West. But it’s one of the most important Japanese roleplaying game series ever in terms of legacy and influence; it helped to kick-start the careers of people like Akira Toriyama (creator of Dragon Ball) and Yuji Horii (one of the architects of the JRPG genre), and is often cited by developers as being one of their favorite series ever.
Without Dragon Quest, it’s unlikely that the Final Fantasy series or any of its derivatives would ever exist. But more people know of Final Fantasy than they do Dragon Quest, despite the latter series’ grip on the Japanese market. Now, following back-to-back remakes of Dragon Quest III (2024) and Dragon Quest I & II (2025), there’s room for a whole new audience to find love in these worlds and discover why they have such a deep root in gaming culture, but how exactly does producer Masaaki Hayasaka, producer of the three remakes, make sure to respect the legacy of the series while still moving forward?
As it turns out, it’s a complicated endeavor, especially when you’re remaking the first three titles in the series; games that aren’t just important to a whole fandom, but have immense historical value. It’s something that Hayasaka — who joined Square Enix in 2015 — was thinking about constantly while working on the three remakes.
“It was quite a weighty responsibility for sure,” Hayasaka tells Rolling Stone. “These are the first three games in the Dragon Quest series. I did think to myself, you know, if I mess this up, I can’t remain in the gaming industry. So I really took it as a big responsibility.”
Retelling the story
The first three Dragon Quests have a confusing story structure: Dragon Quest III is actually the first entry in the series chronologically, with Dragon Quest I and II following. When it came time for the remakes, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake was strategically released first so that the story could be told in order, with the subsequent Dragon Quest I & II combo title reworked to strengthen the continuity.
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According to the series’ producer, this was always the plan for this new phase of Dragon Quest. “The decision to go from III to I to II and release it in that order was already determined at the time we decided on the DQ remake series,” Hayasaka says.
Dragon Quest III was the first title to be remade specifically because it’s chronologically first in the plot.
Square Enix
It’s impossible to talk about Dragon Quest without bringing up the contributions of one specific man: the late Akira Toriyama, who died in 2024. Toriyama is a familiar name to anime fans worldwide, as the creator of Dragon Ball, one of the most popular manga and anime series of all time. But before the Dragon Ball anime, Toriyama worked on character designs for the Dragon Quest series, illustrating, among dozens of others, the instantly recognizable Slime seen in every entry in the series. But remaking a title featuring creatures so memorable is complicated — the original intent has to be respected, while still evolving for a new visual aesthetic, and Hayasaka understands that implicitly.
“In terms of the monsters, I think they’re very [iconic] designs by Toriyama Sensei. And so, in kind of representing them this time around for the Dragon Quest I and II remakes, we actually had all of the pixel art for the monsters and the characters hand inputted by the artists one by one. So that’s something that we wanted to do to fully represent and respect Toriyama Sensei’s designs, to have this ideal expression of the pixel monsters and characters,” Hayasaka says.
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One man party
What’s curious about Dragon Quest I is that there isn’t a party. There aren’t even different classes to juggle — there’s the Hero, and that’s it. But that also makes it much more difficult to balance compared to II and III — you can fall back on other characters in the latter two Dragon Quests, but players just can’t do that in I, so they’re going to have to adjust. What this can result in is situations where you’re facing down enemies that aren’t easy to beat, requiring outside-the-box thinking to overcome to avoid being sent back to the last save. It’s an extremely unusual style in a more modern title.
The single-person party of Dragon Quest I is unlike anything else in the series, or most other RPGs for that matter.
Square Enix
“I think the concept of the solo journey and having just one single player, within the JRPG in this modern age, is quite a unique one. And so we definitely had to, you know, take sort of different measures, mostly in terms of game level design.” Hayasaka says. “While making the game, that was certainly an aspect that I discussed at length, you know, when coming from Dragon Quest III.”
What’s really important to remember when discussing legacy and history for the Dragon Quest series is that these are titles that are almost 40 years old. There are going to be people playing these RPGs who are half the age of the series itself. So, turning Dragon Quest I & II into something that a more modern audience can appreciate while still staying loyal to the original title was paramount, but not simple by any means.
“The environment and the players have both changed greatly since the games were first released. Something we wanted to do was improve the [quality of life] features and such,” Hayasaka says. “So this could be things from showing the destination of wherever you’re going, being able to choose the difficulty of the gameplay, auto saves, features that were thought to be a given for the modern game.”
The art of Dragon Ball creator, Akira Toriyama, is synonymous with the series.
Dragon Quest I is around 10 hours long, with Dragon Quest II taking about 15 hours to complete. Dragon Quest III, however, is around 40 hours long. It’s a pretty massive disparity in the amount of content available in the titles, but with the remakes, Hayasaka saw an opportunity to add more quests and story to the games.
“So, another area specifically for Dragon Quest I and II that we focused on was making sure that there was enough content for modern players to enjoy,” Hayasaka explains. “The original [Dragon Quest] I and II are quite compact and streamlined. So we really set upon solidifying and deepening the storyline and the scenario.”
By taking the reins of one of gaming’s greatest franchises and reimagining it for a new era, Hayasaka has his work cut out for him. It’s an endeavor that’s equally important for rejuvenating and expanding the series’ international and cross-generational reach as it is an essential means of preservation. But what does Dragon Quest mean to Hayasaka?
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“When I think of what Dragon Quest is, I do really think of the three figures. Horii-San [Yuji Horii, creator of the franchise], Toriyama-San, and Sugiyama-San [Koichi Sugiyama, composer of several titles in the franchise who died in 2021],” Hayasaka says. “I think that Dragon Quest could never have been released or created without those three, which means the remakes would never have happened. It’s built upon the creations of these three figures, who were there 40 years ago. These three are what Dragon Quest is.”
Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake is out now for Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
