Yuji Horii: Difference between revisions

{{ja|'''Yuji Horii'''|堀井 雄二|Horii Yūji|also written as Yuuji Horii; born January 6, 1954 in [[Wikipedia:Awaji Island|Awaji Island]], Japan}} is a [[Wikipedia:Japan|Japanese]] video game designer and scenario writer best known as the creator of the {{DQSeries}}. A giant among industry veterans, he created the blueprint for the console role-playing game through his work on the ''[[Portopia]]'' series and the original {{Dragon Quest}}. He is the sole owner of the {{DQSeries}} via his private company, [[Armor Project]], which has an exclusive publishing contract with [[Square Enix]]. [[File:Yūji Horii.png|right|thumb|240px]]

After reaching the limits of the built-in word processing program Horii began to explore the capabilities of the machine, teaching himself BASIC as he went along. The idea of creating a game of his own dawned on Horii as he played through various bits of software that were available at the time, such as an early ''Nobunaga's Ambition'' title and a licensed ''Star Trek'' game. The most realized of these early efforts was ''Love Match Tennis'' (ラブマッチテニス), which Horii would enter into an [[Enix]]-sponsored programming contest he was reporting on in 1982. Much to his surprise, he discovered his title had placed second when he arrived to report on the awards ceremony. It was there that he met [[Kōichi Nakamura]], whose ''DOOR-DOOR'' (ドアドア) had won first place. The two became fast friends, and decided to work together in the growing world of entertainment software.

Horii's first success at [[Enix]] was the Portopia serial murder case, a screen-by-screen adventure game that tasked the player with unraveling the mysterious circumstances of a violent murder in the eponymous seaside town. The title proved to be a watershed moment for the young Horii, garnering him well deserved respect at [[Enix]] and strengthening his working relationship with top company programmer Kōichi Nakamura. Further more, the simple menu-selection system implemented in the game would become a corner stone of the {{Main Series}} series' user input.

In 1983, Enix sent Horii and Nakamura to Applefest; a trade show hosted by Apple computers in San Fransisco that allowed attendees so sample new business software, computer architecture, and computer games being developed. It was here that Horii encountered his first RPG--''[[Wikipedia:Wizardry|Wizardry]]''. Having never encountered a game of this kind before, where success depended on strategy and thorough planning rather than quick reflexes, Horii became so enamored with the seemingly endless mysteries of the game that he purchased an Apple II immediately upon his return to Japan just to play the game.

In 1985 ''Portopia'' was ported to the {{Famicom}}, greatly improving the machine's software library from the handful of obtuse action titles. This porting success gained Horii further recognition among the gaming community, prompting him to be inaugurated in Weekly ''Shonen Jump's'' ''{{Famicom}} KamiKen'' periodical. This bi-monthly article was reflection on current hot titles, game trends, and developer gossip of the period that allowed readers to send in their own essays to be printed in ''Shonen Jump''. When Horii sent in his own article, he was quickly hired as a staff writer. From this connection Horii would put his college education to good use and free-lance his writing skills out to various manga-ka in the magazine as he worked on his games, eventually meeting acclaimed artist [[Akira Toriyama]] at an ''SJ'' new year's party. The two became fast friends, and Toriyama would contribute character, monster, and location designs to the series.

With the success of the Famicom port of ''Portopia'', proving that a "slow game" can dominate the sales charts in an action game market, Horii and Nakamura agreed that the timing was right to begin development of the Famicom's first genuine RPG. After a lengthy process of convincing [[Enix]] supervisor Yukinobu Chida of the project's  potential for success, the unnamed project was given the greenlight to begin development with Horii as sole scenario writer, Nakamura as lead programmer, and Toriyama as illustrator. Instead of a common ''Wizardry'' clone, the two decided to combine the best aspects of both the aforementioned series and it's chief competitor ''Ultima'' and eliminate the largest design flaws of both in the process. To accomplish this it was decided to use the simple menu-driven command system of Portopia, the first-person battle screen of ''Wizardry'', and the bird's-eye view map exploration of ''Ultima''. Coincidentally, acclaimed composer [[Kōichi Sugiyama]] had filled out a consumer response card packaged in the back of ''Portopia'', and was quickly approached for the possibility of composing the music for the ambitious title. Accepting the challenge, Sugiyama meets with the team and begins his composition work, even going as far as to play the scores on his piano over the phone for group approval.

*Though admittedly his skills have deteriorated since his college days, Horii draws a [[Slime]] as part of his signature when signing autographs.  

HowVidGames11.jpg|Yuji Horii and his daughters.

*[http://www.pluto.dti.ne.jp/%7Eyubon/ Yuji Horii's personal website]

{{Dragon Quest series}}