Dragon Quest XI dev talks scrapped idea for Heliodor

Plans for games often change during development, and Dragon Quest XI is no exception. In a recent interview published by Square Enix, 3D art director Yoshiko Hiyama revealed that for Heliodor, there was originally “an idea to include a well that connects to an underground area – an element that follows traditional gameplay found in Dragon Quest games.”

That plan was scrapped, though it did end up elsewhere. As for why it didn’t make sense in Heliodor, Hiyama said the city “was already quite voluminous” and there was already a secret passage.

Hiyama’s full words:

“This is merely one idea that was brought up during the concept art phase, but there was an idea to include a well that connects to an underground area – an element that follows traditional gameplay found in Dragon Quest games. Although the idea is adopted elsewhere, we did not incorporate it into Heliodor.

The area aboveground was already quite voluminous, and given it already incorporated a similar type of experience – where you head downtown to infiltrate through a secret passage – we felt that the gameplay element utilizing the well just wasn’t necessary.”

As part of the same interview and feature on Square Enix’s site, Hiyama and director Takeshi Uchikawa also went in-depth about the process of creating both the 3D and 2D aspects of Dragon Quest XI. You can check it out here.