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Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation: Difference between revisions
Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation (edit)
Revision as of 01:45, 16 May 2025
, 01:45, 16 May 2025→Development
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==Development== | ==Development== | ||
''Dragon Quest III'' began planning in January of 1987, shortly after the delayed launch of {{DQ2}}. Yuji Horii and other developers spent the planning period lodged in a hot spring resort in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakone Hakone] (Kanagawa prefecture), with the intent of not only unwinding after the stressful production of ''DQII'', but also improving the group's concentration. [[Chunsoft]] was allowed to develop on two megabits of memory, | ''Dragon Quest III'' began planning in January of 1987, shortly after the delayed launch of {{DQ2}}. Yuji Horii and other developers spent the planning period lodged in a hot spring resort in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakone Hakone] (Kanagawa prefecture), with the intent of not only unwinding after the stressful production of ''DQII'', but also improving the group's concentration. [[Chunsoft]] was allowed to develop on two megabits of memory, double the storage size of the previous game. | ||
The gameplay was given the priority during the lodging, with nearly all of the game's revolutionary systems were decided upon from the onset such as the day-night cycle, the vocations, and even the implementation of Alltrades Abbey to give players total control over their characters. The story was written in February and it was decided to make the game's world resemble that of Earth, with Yuji Horii believing that the familiar landscapes would make the game easier for players to navigate. March was spent traveling to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt Egypt] to conduct research owing to the globe-trotting theme of the title. Full-scale development began in late April of 1987<ref>Q:『ドラクエIII』のお仕事を始めたときから、今までの進行を教えてください。ゲームの内容の細かいことなんかは、いつどんな風にして決まるのか、マップなんかはどういう風にできるのか、詳しいことを教えてください。 | The gameplay was given the priority during the lodging, with nearly all of the game's revolutionary systems were decided upon from the onset such as the day-night cycle, the vocations, and even the implementation of Alltrades Abbey to give players total control over their characters. The story was written in February and it was decided to make the game's world resemble that of Earth, with Yuji Horii believing that the familiar landscapes would make the game easier for players to navigate. March was spent traveling to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt Egypt] to conduct research owing to the globe-trotting theme of the title. Full-scale development began in late April of 1987<ref>Q:『ドラクエIII』のお仕事を始めたときから、今までの進行を教えてください。ゲームの内容の細かいことなんかは、いつどんな風にして決まるのか、マップなんかはどういう風にできるのか、詳しいことを教えてください。 | ||
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The game's overworld, kingdoms, villages, and dungeons were designed by Horii and his assistant [[Hiroshi Miyaoka]]. Due to the significant increase in the scope of the game compared to the predecessor, this process took more than two months to complete and the dungeons were given special consideration during this period with approximately 70% of the content within the first draft being changed. This emphasis on fine-tuning the labyrinths was a deliberate attempt to avoid the same balancing pitfalls of ''Dragon Quest II'' and provide a smoother difficulty curve. Implementing the NPCs and writing their dialogue took place in July, along with programming their movements for the time of day and during events. | The game's overworld, kingdoms, villages, and dungeons were designed by Horii and his assistant [[Hiroshi Miyaoka]]. Due to the significant increase in the scope of the game compared to the predecessor, this process took more than two months to complete and the dungeons were given special consideration during this period with approximately 70% of the content within the first draft being changed. This emphasis on fine-tuning the labyrinths was a deliberate attempt to avoid the same balancing pitfalls of ''Dragon Quest II'' and provide a smoother difficulty curve. Implementing the NPCs and writing their dialogue took place in July, along with programming their movements for the time of day and during events. | ||
What is likely the most infamous instance of the game's cut content was a scenario based on ''[[The Portopia Serial Murder Case]]'', where the party would rest at a village's inn and hear someone rustling through the Hero's belongings in the middle of the night. The next day the player would find that the [[ultimate key]] had been stolen and be unable to leave the village until it was recovered. The player would gather clues by speaking to the villagers in a manner similar to how Boss and Yasu conducted their investigation in ''Portopia'', but the strict memory limitations of the 2-megabit Famicom cartridge forced the event to be scrapped<ref>ファミ通, November 1989</ref> | |||
[[Koichi Nakamura]] was concurrently programming the game's battle systems based on the outlines decided in January, and placed a focus on the artificial intelligence used by monsters in addition to general balancing. For example, some monsters are aware of their MP pool and will not waste a turn trying to cast a spell they cannot afford, while the [[imp]]s are dumb and will try to cast powerful spells despite having no MP at all. Development shifted focus to battle balancing in September when Akira Toriyama completed the artwork for the monsters, with the team deciding the attack patterns and habitats of the beasts now that their designs were finalized by a professional<ref>9月には、鳥山くんのほうからモンスターの絵がすべて出来上がってきたので、攻撃パターンのデータ作成。 さらにモンスターの分布等をきめ、現在にいたります。</ref>. | [[Koichi Nakamura]] was concurrently programming the game's battle systems based on the outlines decided in January, and placed a focus on the artificial intelligence used by monsters in addition to general balancing. For example, some monsters are aware of their MP pool and will not waste a turn trying to cast a spell they cannot afford, while the [[imp]]s are dumb and will try to cast powerful spells despite having no MP at all. Development shifted focus to battle balancing in September when Akira Toriyama completed the artwork for the monsters, with the team deciding the attack patterns and habitats of the beasts now that their designs were finalized by a professional<ref>9月には、鳥山くんのほうからモンスターの絵がすべて出来上がってきたので、攻撃パターンのデータ作成。 さらにモンスターの分布等をきめ、現在にいたります。</ref>. | ||
Balance adjustments, dialogue, and bug testing continued until October 22nd when the game's data was finalized and sent off for cartridge production. | Upon being told that the game took place many years before the original ''Dragon Quest'', composer [[Koichi Sugiyama]] utilized a decidedly classical tone for the soundtrack to reflect it's placement in the series timeline<ref>田尻: そういう微調整みたいなことがあるんですか。 | ||
すぎやま: そう。IIIの時は、「よりももっと昔の世界です。」といわれたから、今度はもう、徹底的にクラッシックにしちゃった(笑) Dragon Quest IV Master's Club page 13, ISBN4-7966-0084-1</ref>. Additionally, he incorporated traits of ethnic music to compliment the locations based on real countries<ref>田尻: III、 IVとゲームがふくらむにつれて音楽が細分化されてるって気がするんです。IIIなんかでは世界各国の民族音楽の特徴を出したりして。IVでも、今後は5つの話があるとかいって、音楽自身、ひとつのイメージからIVの音楽を作り出すんじゃなくて、核となる部分から、いくつものイロんな要素の違うものができてくるんじゃないかな、と思うんですけどね。 | |||
すぎやま: 実は、まだできてはいないんですよね。ただね、基本的に考えているのは、ひとつの統一した世界の中での、場面によっては、5つのバリエーションを考えなくてはいけないな、とは思ってますよ。ひとつの世界の中でも、イロんな曲を作り得るわけだから。たとえば、同じバロック音楽というジャンルの中でも、何千曲と作られてきたわけでしょ。ですから、DQというひとつの世界にしても、場面によっては5種類の曲を書きわけなきゃいけない部分もでてくるよね。ただ、そのへんはやっぱり、とても高度な技術を要求される部分ではありますけどもね。 Dragon Quest IV Master's Club page 13, ISBN4-7966-0084-1</ref>, which can be heard in the theme of Jipang for one example. | |||
Balance adjustments, dialogue, and bug testing continued until October 22nd when the game's data was finalized and sent off for cartridge production. By the end of development there was so little space left in the cartridge that not even the proposed title logo could be included, resulting in the game's start screen being spelled out in text tiles. | |||
===Super Famicom remake=== | |||
Development on the Super Famicom remake of ''Dragon Quest III'' began shortly after the release of ''Dragon Quest VI'' in 1995. The personality system was inspired by Yuji Horii's time working as a copywriter for ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_(Japanese_magazine) Seventeen]'', a quarterly magazine for teenage girls, wherein he developed personality tests for the readers<ref>ドラゴンクエストIII そして伝説へ… 公式ガイドブック SE-MOOk guide book, page 223 ISBN-10:4757595395</ref>. Such a system gave the characters created at Patty's place more distinction, something lacking in the original 8-bit version where characters of the same vocation and level were the same, and had the added benefit of giving players more to work with when imagining how their characters would interact with one another. | |||
Though Ortega was important to the game's story, memory restrictions meant that he was only mentioned by name before appearing near the end in Zoma's Citadel and even then he was represented by a mere pallet swap of the common [[hood]] monster. His story was elaborated upon through the addition of the game's opening cutscene, which depicted his departure from Aliahan and his apparent death against an unidentified monster at the summit of [[Mt. Necrogond]]. Additionally the [[joker's soaker]] item found in [[Mur]] was replaced with Ortega's helmet, giving players a stronger connection to their avatar's father. The open-ended nature of the game allowed players to retrieve the family heirloom very early in their adventure, which prevented the helmet was not made the strongest in the game; a critique that would be [[Auroral Helm|rectified in the HD-2D remake]] decades later. | |||
==Soundtrack== | ==Soundtrack== | ||