When it comes to the Dragon Quest games, Dragon Quest VIII stands out as one of the most notable in the series for its many groundbreaking features, such as its huge, explorable world. In the latest issue of Game Informer, Dragon Quest series creator Yuji Horii talked a bit about the series, including what innovations VIII brought to the games.

Reflecting on VIII’s sense of freedom, Horii said the following:

“If you can see a mountain in the distance, you can run to that mountain and climb up it. Nowadays, this is pretty commonplace technology, but when Dragon Quest VIII was first released, this was groundbreaking.” “I thought that laying out the story as a guiding path would make it possible to adventure and have fun in the world. While we have provided that path, we also intended for it to be possible to diverge from the path and enjoy the game freely.”

Horii then went on to talk a bit about the Dragon Quest series as a whole, noting that, thanks to advances in technology, “people can have more and more realistic experiences in games.” He also expressed an interest in somehow using these improvements in technology to make a game that would improve the real lives of the people playing them.

“This concept hasn’t changed from the time we created the original Dragon Quest. The hardware, however, keeps evolving, and there have been huge advances in the technology to realize these worlds. People can have more and more realistic experiences in games. What I would like to aim for next is a fusion of the virtual and the real. It would be amazing if I could make a game that would improve the player’s real life as well.”

You can read more from the creator here.

Dragon Quest VIII originally released for PlayStation 2 in 2004. A remake of the game released for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan in August 2015 and in North America in January 2017.