Dragon Quest creator on III HD-2D Remake design changes and censorship

Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii has weighed in on the character design changes and bits of censorship being made for Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake.

For those that are unaware, the original RPG let players choose between a male or female as the hero. It’s the female design that fans have been discussed, as Square Enix made changes to cover up the design more – that’s shown in the image above. The original design is on the left while the new version is on the right.

Horii was speaking about the changes and censorship for Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake in an interview at the 2024 Tokyo Game Show. He was joined by Kazuhiko Torishima, who previously served as Shonen Jump’s editor-in-chief and former editor in charge of Dragon Ball.

Horii doesn’t seem to see a problem with the female hero’s design, but pointed out that showing too much skin could lead to a higher classification rating. Also, now the game has been changed so that players choose between “Type 1” and “Type 2” rather than having them labeled as a man and woman – which is also something he doesn’t understand. 

Torishima ended up sharing his own thoughts, bringing up sex education in America and feeling that the country’s “compliance is really narrow-minded.” He also believes this has had an effect on Japan.

Here’s the full transcript, as translated by Valute News:

Interviewer: There was a lot of buzz about the costumes. It became a topic of discussion because they weren’t exactly the same as they were back then.

Horii: Yeah, there were various regulations in place. Apparently, it’s not allowed to show too much skin.

Interviewer: Well, I don’t intent to dig too deep into that… It’s simply about the user immersing themselves in the fiction and going on an adventure. What’s wrong with it?

Horii: Hmm, I really don’t understand that either.

Interviewer: It’s a game, it’s fiction, and it’s a virtual experience, so as long as it’s enjoyable, I think that’s all that matters.

Horii: If there’s too much exposure, the age rating goes up…

Interviewer: We never even thought about that in the past…

Torishima: Under the name of compliance… It’s like an absolute god. An evil disguised as good. There’s no such thing as content that doesn’t make everyone uncomfortable. Because beauty and ugliness, good and evil, are different for everyone. There are a few things that absolutely must not be done. As long as you follow those, you’re free to do the rest.

So, um… There’s a religious concept for the west, especially in America, that influences their approach to sex education, right? Their approach to compliance is really narrow-minded. When selling magna in America, everything had to be categorized by age groups. For Shonen Jump manga, they couldn’t be sold unless they were rated for ages 13 and up. Because there’s a risk of lawsuits, the company also has to get insurance. Doing business with such a ridiculous country is really frustrating. Because of that, Japan also gets negatively influenced.

Horii: In Dragon Quest, you used to be able to choose between a male and female main character. But now, you can’t choose between a man and a woman anymore. We have to label them as Type 1 and Type 2. I really wonder, who’s even complaining about this?

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake launches for Switch on November 14, 2024 and there’ll also be new versions of the series’ first two games next year. You can read about all of the news here.

Thanks to Greatsong1 for the tip.