Dragon Quest creator comments on why DQ9 was a Nintendo DS exclusive, team was “a little disheartened” by the fan reaction
Posted on August 15, 2026 by Brian(@NE_Brian)
in DS, News
Yuji Horii, the creator of Dragon Quest 9, recently reflected on the decision to make the game exclusive to Nintendo DS.
Before that RPG, new mainline entries were known for debuting on home consoles. On top of that, Square Enix was coming off of Dragon Quest 8 on PlayStation 2, which was the first time the series that fans were able to experience fully 3D graphics. So when Square Enix announced Dragon Quest 9 and showed off what it was planning, some fans were taken aback.
Horii spoke more about this in a recent Famitsu interview. He explained that going Nintendo DS exclusive provided “quick and easy play over local networks.” Various connectivity features were made available, including the ability for four-player local multiplayer.
The fan response was also mixed, to say the least. Horii said that the team was “actually a little disheartened” to the response.
Nintendo Everything’s translation of the interview excerpt is as follows:
With Dragon Quest 8 being made with rich 3D graphics, I thought that would be the normal evolution moving forward but… the move to the Nintendo DS for Dragon Quest 9 surprised me.
The reason we made Dragon Quest 9 on Nintendo DS was to allow quick and easy play over local networks. At that time there were not many games using local networks and it was difficult to do so. But with Nintendo DS, the moment you turn the power on you can connect with people. We thought that was an amazing system, and decided we wanted to make Dragon Quest 9 using that ability.
I see.
It made for interesting gameplay, and I thought everyone would be surprised, but when we announced it, we had a lot of criticism, like “What? On Nintendo DS?” At the time we were actually a little disheartened (laughs).
I suppose that just means that lots of people were hoping for a continuation of the atmosphere of Dragon Quest 8?
We thought that easily downloading quests, and going on adventures with your friends would be a fun new way to play.
Horii makes it sound like he was always on board for Dragon Quest 9 to be a Nintendo DS exclusive, but that’s not entirely the case. It was previously revealed that he needed some convincing from Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino.
As of now Dragon Quest 9 is only available on Nintendo DS. But at the rate in which Square Enix has been remaking different games in the franchise, perhaps it’s only a matter of time until we see it on modern platforms.
Translation provided by Simon Griffin and SatsumaFS on behalf of Nintendo Everything.
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