Why Nintendo 3DS Was A Perfect Fit For Dragon Quest 7 Return

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Dragon Quest 7: Fragments of the Forgotten Past will shortly arrive on western shores, after Nintendo stepped in to assist Square Enix with localisation and distribution.

Now, in a recent interview with USGamer, Dragon Quest series executive producer Yuu Miyake and Dragon Quest 7 producer Noriyoshi Fujimoto have touched on why Nintendo 3DS had provided the right moment to remake the RPG.

“For the Japanese version, we decided, after 10 years, to produce a remake,” they explained. “For the longest time, we didn’t think we could remake Dragon Quest 7, because the game was so big. So, we kind of went back and forth, back and forth for a while. We weren’t really sure how to revitalise the game. Should we add new content? Should we change how the game would be presented to players?

“When 3DS was announced, we realised that users would be able to basically pick up and play for a little bit, which made a really good match for how Dragon Quest 7 plays out — it’s is a sequence of short stories. We realised that if we didn’t take this opportunity and run with it, then we wouldn’t be able to create another remake, so we decided to do this.

“Up until Dragon Quest 6, it was very easy to do a remake… but Dragon Quest 7, because it was so large, we were a little bit hesitant at first. And we also wanted to respond to the Japanese fans who were so used to getting remakes, they were able to get the remakes of Dragon Quest 4, 5, and 6, and so they were like, “Where’s 7”? We really wanted to answer to that need.

“For the U.S. and European versions, there were a lot of fans that were requesting the remake, so we decided to localise it as well. Because of the business side of it, we actually didn’t have any plans to create a remake of Dragon Quest 7 for the longest time, but a lot of fans used Facebook and social media and approached us and requested us, so we decided to move forward on that. And then, we were also able to get support from Nintendo, so we were able to do this as well.”

As for changes, Square Enix realised that many players couldn’t easily reach the ending in the original game. That resulted in tweaks to puzzles or a decision to remove them entirely, and made it so that the story felt like it was broken down into sequences – again suiting the portability and Sleep function seen with the Nintendo 3DS.

Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past will release exclusively for Nintendo 3DS in Europe and North America on September 16th, and in Australia on September 17th.

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