Dragon Quest VII: more gameplay footage, developer Q&A
As announced on Tuesday, Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past was showcased today during the Die Nintendo Haus Party livestream, on Day 2 of gamescom 2016. We did get to see some actual gameplay footage, but unlike the Paper Mario: Color Splash segment, the developers were also present as guests.
The following people were there:
- Yuu Miyake (Franchise Producer)
- Noriyoshi Fujimoto (Producer)
- Takuma Shiraishi (Assistant Producer)
Why are we mentioning them? It’s because the segment wasn’t made exclusively of gameplay footage. There was also a short Q&A, with the developers answering a couple of questions from fans.
Here’s the questions:
How did you decide what to keep in this remake?
When they worked on this remake, the developers had the privilege to get feedback from players. They also thought carefully about the elements that make Dragon Quest what it is. Quite simply, things that had to be kept were kept, and elements that had to be improved were improved.
One of them is the job system. Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past features 54 jobs, but in the original, players only played with 4 of them. They didn’t really try to experiment or anything, and that’s something they tried to change in the remake. Now, players are actually encouraged to try out as many jobs as possible.
The developers also added a system to make sure players do not forget what they were doing when they resume their playthrough. That system reminds them of what they were doing before they stopped playing. Since the game is pretty long (see next question), it’s definitely a good idea to avoid players find themselves not knowing what to do or where to go, especially when they’ve progressed far in the game.
How long does it take to complete the main story?
The original took over 100h, but for Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Past, the developers tried to steamline the whole experience. To improve the game, they removed all the tedious/repetitive elements that would artificially inflate the play time.
For example, they added the Fragment Detector, allowing players to easily look for missing fragments. With all the improvements, Dragon Quest: Fragments of the Past takes about 70-80h to beat, without repetitive gameplay.
What class was the funniest to design and program?
For Noriyushi Fujimoto, it was clearly the Sheperd class. Sheper lead sheep, but he feels that to do so, they must first understand them. That’s why the costume for that vocation is a ram. That being said, even if the player does become a ram, the skills and abilities they can use as a Sheperd are those of the sheperd, not the sheep!
Sheperd is Fujimoto’s favorite vocation, because he would like to become a sheep… at least, that’s what he said during the livestream!
Later in the video, Fujimoto shares a funny anecdote. In the game, there’s a monster called a Woebergine (previously known as Eggplaton), based on the aubergine. He actually used to really hate that vegetable, from his very core, but after playing Dragon Quest VII, and beating that monster several times, he began eating the vegetable.
Quite amusingly, Flippo from Nintendo of Europe (who was playing at the same time), ended up encountering a pack of Woebergines a few moments later!
Here’s the recording of the Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past segment from today’s Nintendo livestream at gamescom 2016:
Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past (3DS) comes out on September 16th in Europe and North America.
