It came as somewhat of a surprise to learn earlier this year that Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake will replace the traditional Male or Female character option with players now chosing between character type Type A or character type Type B. In a new interview from Tokyo Games Show 2024 via Push Square, Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii and former Shonen Jump editor Kazuhiko Torishim, talk about the long-awaited remake and this surprising change. Neither minced their words over the changes and attributed the blame on what Mr. Torishim called “A religious concept from the West, especially in America, that influences their approach to sex education.”
Former Shonen Jump editor Kazuhiko Torishima: “There’s a religious concept from the West, especially in America, that influences their approach to sex education, right? Their approach to compliance is really narrow-minded. When selling manga in America, everything had to be categorised by age groups. 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.”
Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii: These comments resonate with Horii, as he pointed to another change in the game, involving the character selector. In the original, you could pick between male and female protagonists, but the remake will see these options renamed Type A and Type B. “I really wonder who’s even complaining about this?” he pondered.
Thanks to Greatsong1 for sending in the news tip!
…Well, I can already tell this is going to be a fun comment section.
Yeah, to be honest I wondered whether it was even worth writing up in the first place, but the interview seemed to have gained a lot of traction on social media.
Yes it does. But who knows. The traction has already started.
I didn’t even say if I was for or against the change, yet you’re already calling me woke?
Are you seriously that insecure?
Ridiculous, I’m fully with him here, who complain about that ? For sure, a frustrated one.
Creativity or speech liberty shouldn’t be locked down behind inclusivity, which should be treated naturally, not forcibly
The game should have stayed the way it was originally. If it was a new game, have at it, but to make this change here was dumb and opened itself up to this kind of messy conversation.There was zero reason to make this change in an old game.
Especially with Dragon Warrior’s shaky popularity in this country called America.
Here we go…
The blame game, the people arguing one way or another. This controversy is silly every time it’s brought up. Just ignore the complainers and release it how you want and ignore them for a month and move on.
Spoken like the ignorant Enix sheep you are!
Do you even need to put anything in at all regarding gender? Can’t you just leave it as blank, and just name it as create your character and forget the rest.
Did you forget about character LIKENESS’, Incarnate Word grad?
I’d say who cares cause it’s not like a big deal or something, it’s just a stupid option at the start that doesn’t impact the game itself but uhhhhh yeah, I think America is a bit too strict with this stuff and should give other countries the freedom to express themselves with their personal choices, I’ve met many non binary and trans people in my life and none of them would get upset if they played a game and they had to choose male and female, sure they would probably prefer type A Or B but it’s not like they would throw a tantrum about it. At the end of the day we all get triggered by stupid stuff, and I think that instead of forcing people to do something just for sake of not offending someone we should let people express themselves how they like, of course without going too far like the fucking trans joke from persona 3, I think that one is a bit too much.
The fact YUJI HORII is upset over something so stupid should tell you something right there!
I wonder if this change does anything other than just change the initial character selection screen from male/female to Type A/Type B. Because surely nobody is complaining about something so trivial and non-consequential?
The irony is that the only people complaining are the folks wondering “who’s complaining?”
Even with the “Male/Female” selection, Dragon Warrior 3 is unlikely to do any better than the NES and Game Boy versions (accounted for more people gaming today compared to back then). But “Type A/B” is probably going to hurt some sales. Remember who won the presidency recently.
When Yuji Horii complains, it’s going to be a big deal.
As someone who identifies as Type C with Type O positive blood, I’m highly offended by being forced to choose between Type A and Type B.
At least the game is make believe and not based in reality. Just like the idea that there are more than two genders.
I agree. We need to stop taking overt male and female options away from games.
“I’m afraid to read the comment section because I already know that a vast majority of commenters will agree with Yuji Horii and I dont”
America is full of complete idiocracy these days, good to see them not mince words about it.
Sadly, the Republicans are STILL worse than the Democrats, but never mind that.
Just gonna wait a year and get this used on eBay. Don’t want my money encouraging these choices, along with changing some of Toriyama’s original designs.
Or you can always become a Pittsburgh “Pirate” if you want to make sure Square/Enix/Taito don’t get your money.
I don’t think I even want to read the comment section here, but here goes…
It’s been a while since I seen you here.
Bring back Male and Female choices in video games please. What the alphabet circus has been doing is just beyond ridiculous.
Tbh it’s ppl like you that do the most crying … Because nobody was mad about this reminds me of that guy that went on a whole rant a game added a neutral option ….
And it’s morons like you for why America keeps getting worse! Not to mention why Dragon Warrior will never be as big as prime Wizardry!
Did anyone even ask for this? Or was it just SE assuming that they needed this to sell copies in NA?
Square/Enix/Taito formed an alliance with the terrorist organization, Sweet Baby Inc. is all you need to know.
“There’s a religious concept from the West”
The religious folks would have been perfectly fine with Male or Female as the options. Maybe something was lost in translation? I’m sure this was something pushed for by corporate but it has nothing to do with the actual population of the country and what we’d be ok with. Which is a shame that they think it’s us gamers that are making these demands. Just port the damned game and update it with some QOL features. It’s art. It doesn’t need to conform to others ideas of what it should be.
As long as this is the only change and they haven’t de-pronouned the entire game, I can live with this small change. Kind of reminds me of Harvestella taking it’s own odd choice of offering Male, Female, and Non-Binary during character creation but only having options for choosing female features and clothes. As long as you pick female, it’s fine. Still it’s odd as there are plenty of other male characters in the game and assets to pull from, but the main character was clearly meant to be female but they tacked these other options on without investing anything into designing other looks for the character. Ok sure they did a male voice option but your character doesn’t really talk. Which I think is a shame because otherwise it’s a pretty good game with some excellent visuals and a pretty well designed loop.
Spoken like an ignorant Liberty grad if you think religious fanatics are innocent! ANYBODY regardless of their beliefs will whine about anything!
this is a really badly worded article, the quote is talking about censorship in regards to the art now being less revealing
No, if you actually watch the full clip, he mentions how they can’t have male and female anymore and had to change to Type 1 and Type 2.
I think the whole “Type 1-2” thing is stupid but it’s gonna effect my enjoyment of a game. Same with the outfit censorship. It’s so minimal that I really don’t care.
You should be more worried that Dragon Warrior never being as big as a prime Wizardry or Might & Magic will continue in America.
This all has the same energy as when mostly-conservatives were complaining about violence and suggestive themes in video games. Now the mostly-liberals get their turn and complain about gender, race, and… I guess also suggestive themes but mostly in regards to women.
I’m kind of envious now… I want something to be offended by too! Hmm… I wonder if I can complain about the name “Peppino Spaghetti” since I have some Italian heritage? I mean if people can get mad that JK Rowling named an asian character “Cho Chang” then surely “Peppino Spaghetti” has gotta be offensive too right?
No Italian gets offended by our stereotypes, we endorse them
I guess that’s true. tbh I kinda wish my last name was Spaghetti
Both Democrats and Republicans are cancer…sadly, the Republicans are STILL worse, but this is not the place for that.
I agree that the type 1/type 2 thing is silly and unnecessary, but if you comply with America’s “evil, woke demands” aren’t you also part of the problem? I get this was a square enix decision that Horii and Torishima had no control over, but it’s an issue I see Japanese gamers bring up often.
Exactly. And with both Koichi Sugiyama AND Akira Toriyama gone, Dragon Warrior 13 is going to be the first one without them. And if Yuji Horii passes or quits after 12, then things get really interesting!
For once, Yuji Horii is correct about how stupid this is. All because of Square/Enix/Taito’s affiliation with those Sweet Baby Inc. bleeps!
And America wonders why Japan is so phobic to American products such X-Boxes and Mortal Kombat.
PS – With Square/Enix/Taito’s financial losses as of late, I’m going to laugh so hard when MICROSOFT buys all three of them!