Yuji Horii talks about the costume design changes and character gender definitions in Dragon Quest III Remake

Dragon Quest III is arguably the most popular video game of all time in Japan. So when the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake was announced by Square Enix, it quickly became the most anticipated title in the country. However, the game's sheer popularity and anticipation also led to a scrutiny of changes in details by the Japanese fandom.

The changes in some of the character designs and the descriptions of the different gender versions of the characters' vocations are among the changes scrutinized by them. The Dragon Quest series creator Yuji Horii was also spotted talking about these issues in a Tokyo Game Show 2024-related livestream.

The discussion did not appear in Square Enix's official stage show featuring the Dragon Quest HD-2D remakes. It instead appeared in another livestream hosted by the Japanese gaming news outlet DenFamiNicoGamer.

In the stream's final segment which covered the DQ III remake, Horii was seen talking with Naz Chris and Kazuhiko Torishima. The former is a DJ who also hosted the stream while wearing a cosplay of the DQ III Hero. Torishima is the former editor-in-chief of Weekly Shonen Jump and V Jump magazines who is also known with the nickname "Mashirito". He was also best known for unearthing the talents of Akira Toriyama, the late mangaka artist who provided illustrations and character designs for Dragon Ball, Dragon Quest, and Chrono Trigger among others. Neither of these two figures worked directly on Dragon Quest III - but Horii is of course the grand maestro of the entire Dragon Quest series.

Between them, the three discussed changes made to the game in this new iteration in order to maximize market potential - including Horii making a rare comment touching on differences in the wording around the description of the two versions of the game's protagonist hero for this new release. The specific discussion should begin from around the 6:12:47 mark. You can also read our translations of the discussion right below:

Naz Chris: And this one has become a hot topic - It's about whether the costumes will stay the same as before or not.

Yuji Horii: Well yeah, there have been many kinds of restrictions. Like how you cannot expose too much.

Naz Chris: Ah that one, wait, I didn't really intend to delve deeper into that though. It should've been fine, it's just a fiction. Since it's just you entering as the protagonist and doing an adventure, I think it should be fine, but is that not the case?

Yuji Horii: I wonder, I don't quite understand this matter either.

Naz Chris: It's a game; it's a fiction where you're having your own virtual experience, so I think you should've been able to have fun with that.

Yuji Horii: If we have too much exposure, the age [rating] would end up be raised, it could no longer have an all-ages rating.

Second MC: The rules differ in each country after all. If you want to sell it widely, you have to adhere with the strictest one.

Naz Chris: Back then we wouldn't have to think about that.

Kazuhiko Torishima: Speaking about compliance, It's really some kind of... I wonder what it is... I must say it's like an absolute god. It's like an evil that pretended to be good [Translators' Note: An absolute direct translation of this phrase would be 'An evil that borrowed the name of good'].

There is no such thing as everyone not feeling uncomfortable. It's fine if you feel uncomfortable somewhere. After all, each person has their own way of determining what is clean or dirty, or what is good or evil. And what's really in the roots of things is that there are some things that you absolutely must not do, and as long as you don't do that you'd be fine for the rest, right? That's not the case.

It really came from the West; a way of approaching sex education with a religious concept exists in America, doesn't it? Their way of thinking on compliance is really very narrow. That's why when we want to bring our comics there, we have to separate all of them by age [rating]. If Shonen Jump manga titles aren't 13+ they cannot be published. We have to retake everything. And since lawsuits can happen, we also have to get an insurance. Having to do things with a stupid country like this is really annoying. And Japan is also getting a bad influence from that.

Yuji Horii: You can also choose a male or female [version] of the protagonist, but we cannot write it as "choose from Male or Female"; it became "Type 1 & Type 2". I wonder who the heck are going to complain about "Male and Female"? I don't understand.

The comments are sure to reignite an already-raging debate about the adjustments, which Square Enix would argue have been made to ensure this new version of DQ3 appeals and is inclusive to as many people as possible. The comments also represent a rare unguarded moment where the creator of the franchise sets out their thoughts on the matter in a surprisingly straightforward manner.

The design and localization changes will apply to not only the English and other language releases but also the Japanese source version of the remake. It makes sense that all versions will be aligned - as Square Enix will release the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake simultaneously worldwide for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store on November 14.

As another matter of fact, on the game's Japanese official website as of this writing, the male version of the Hero—who will also have Japanese battle voiceovers by Nobuyuki Hiyama—is being described as "Looks A", while the female version—voiced in Japanese by the voice actress Junko Minaguchi—is "Looks B". The same also applies to every other vocation shown on the webpage, including the brand-new Monster Wrangler.

Update (3 October): DenFamiNicoGamer has since made the YouTube archive of the live stream private and no longer viewable by the public. It is unclear whether the above issue was a cause for this or not, as the outlet also privatized the archive for the other day of the overall stream program. Those who want to watch the original stream can still find it via the Wayback Machine for the time being.