Yuji Horii

Yuji Horii
Yuji Horii
堀井雄二
	Horii in 2011
Born	January 6, 1954 (age 70); Sumoto, Hyōgo, Japan
Alma mater	Waseda University
Occupations	Author; game designer; writer;
Years active	1982–present
Employer	Armor Project
Notable work	The Portopia Serial Murder Case; Dragon Quest; Chrono Trigger;

Yuji Horii (堀井雄二, Horii Yūji, born January 6, 1954) is a Japanese author, video game designer, writer and director best known as the creator of the Dragon Quest franchise,^[1] supervising and writing the scenario for Chrono Trigger, and The Portopia Serial Murder Case, released in 1983 as one of the first visual novel adventure games.^[2]^[3]

Horii is CEO of his own company, Armor Project, a company that has an exclusive production contract with Square Enix,^[4] a contract established with Enix before the company merged with Square, and is also one of the companies who co-own the Dragon Quest franchise alongside Square Enix.

History

Horii was born on January 6, 1954, in Awaji Island, Japan. He graduated from Waseda University's Department of Literature. He also worked as a freelance writer for newspapers, comics, and magazines, including the Famicom Shinken video games column that ran in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1985 to 1988.^[5]

He then entered in an Enix-sponsored game programming contest, where he placed with Love Match Tennis, a tennis video game, motivating him to become a video game designer.^[6]

Horii then created The Portopia Serial Murder Case by himself,^[7] a game that later inspired Hideo Kojima (of Metal Gear fame) to enter the video game industry.^[2]^[3] It is the first part of the Yuji Horii Mysteries trilogy, along with its successors The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance (1984) and Karuizawa Yūkai Annai (1985).

After creating several more visual novel adventure games, Horii went on to create Dragon Quest, which is said to have created the blueprint for Japanese console role-playing games, taking inspiration from Portopia,^[8] as well as Wizardry^[8] and Ultima.^[1]

He was a fan of Apple PC role-playing games and was motivated to create Dragon Quest for ordinary gamers, who found such games difficult, and thus he worked on an intuitive control system,^[9] influenced by his work on Portopia.^[8]

His works also include the Itadaki Street series. Horii was also a supervisor of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game, Chrono Trigger, which had multiple game endings, with Horii appearing in one of the endings with the game development staff.

He is on the selection committee for the annual Super Dash Novel Rookie of the Year Award.

Works

Year	Title	Role
1983	Love Match Tennis	Game design, programmer
1983	The Portopia Serial Murder Case	Game design, programmer, scenario
1984	The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance	Game design, scenario
1985	Karuizawa Yūkai Annai	Game design, programmer, scenario
1986	Dragon Quest	Game design, scenario
1987	Dragon Quest II
1988	Dragon Quest III
1990	Dragon Quest IV
1991	Itadaki Street: Watashi no Omise ni Yottette	Game design
1991	Famicom Jump II: Saikyō no Shichinin	Scenario supervisor
1992	Dragon Quest V	Game design, scenario
1994	Itadaki Street 2	Game design
1995	Chrono Trigger	Supervisor
1995	Dragon Quest VI	Game design, scenario
1998	Itadaki Street: Gorgeous King	Game design, scenario
1998	Dragon Quest Monsters	Executive director, game design, scenario
2000	Dragon Quest VII	Game design, scenario
2001	Dragon Quest Monsters 2	Executive director, game design, scenario
2002	Itadaki Street 3	Original planning, supervisor
2002	Torneko's Great Adventure 3	Supervisor
2003	Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart	Executive producer
	Kenshin Dragon Quest
	Slime Mori Mori Dragon Quest
2004	Dragon Quest VIII	Game design, scenario
2004	Itadaki Street Special	Original planning, supervisor
2005	Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime	Executive producer
2006	Itadaki Street Portable	Original planning, supervisor
	Dragon Quest: Young Yangus and the Mystery Dungeon	General director
	Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker	General director, game design, scenario
2007	Itadaki Street DS	Game design
2007	Dragon Quest Swords	General director, game design, scenario
2009	Dragon Quest Wars	General director
2009	Dragon Quest IX	Game design, scenario
2010	Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2	General director
2011	Slime Mori Mori Dragon Quest 3	Supervisor
2011	Fortune Street	Game design
2012	Dragon Quest X	General director, game design, scenario
2015	Dragon Quest Heroes I	General director
2015	Theatrhythm Dragon Quest
2016	Dragon Quest Builders
	Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3
	Dragon Quest Heroes II
2017	Dragon Quest XI	Game design, scenario
	Itadaki Street: Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary	Original planning, supervisor
	Dragon Quest Rivals	General director
2018	Dragon Quest Builders 2
2019	Dragon Quest Walk
2022	Dragon Quest Treasures	General director, voice of Yuji the King Slime
2023	Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai	General director
2023	Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince	General director
TBA	Dragon Quest XII	Game design, scenario

Recognition

Horii received an award at the 2009 Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association developers conference and a lifetime achievement award at the 2022 Game Developers Conference for his work on Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger.^[10]^[11]

References

"Square Enix Co., Ltd. 2004 Annual Report" (PDF). Square Enix. March 31, 2004. p. 70. Retrieved September 18, 2006.

^ ^a ^b Nintendo Power November 2007. Future US, Inc. 2007. pp. 77–80.
^ ^a ^b Szczepaniak, John (February 2011). "Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken". Retro Gamer. Archived from the original on September 26, 2019. Retrieved March 16, 2011. (Reprinted at Szczepaniak, John. "Retro Gamer 85". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on April 12, 2011. Retrieved March 16, 2011.)
^ ^a ^b Kasavin, Greg (March 21, 2005). ""Everything is Possible": Inside the Minds of Gaming's Master Storytellers". GameSpot. CNET Networks. p. 2. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved August 15, 2007.
^ "Top 100 Game Creators of All Time". IGN. Archived from the original on March 5, 2009. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
^ Fujii, Daiji (2003). "Entrepreneurial Choices of Strategic Options in Japan's RPG Development" (PDF). p. 13. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 30, 2008. Retrieved August 12, 2006.
^ "Dragon Quest 30th Anniversary Special". Shmuplations. Archived from the original on March 15, 2023. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
^ "1994 Game Developers - Interview Collection". Shmuplations. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c "East and West, Warrior and Quest: A Dragon Quest Retrospective". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on May 11, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
^ "Yuji Horii". Retro Gamer (97). Imagine Publishing: 72–73. 2011.
^ Graft, Kris (September 4, 2009). "Dragon Quest Creator Yuji Hori Headlines Awards". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on February 20, 2011. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
^ Lada, Jenni (March 24, 2022). "Dragon Quest Creator Yuji Horii Gets GDC 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award". Siliconera. Archived from the original on March 24, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022.