NOTE: This article is from the oprainfall Campaign Hub, written by an independent campaign, and hosted on the oprainfall website. The opinions herein may not represent the opinions of oprainfall.
On July 5th, we had the opportunity to visit the 15th installment of Japan Expo, one of the greatest festivals about Japanese culture and entertainment in Europe. This festival is so big that it doesn’t take place within the walls of Paris itself, but in the not-so-nearby suburbs at The Villepinte Exhibition Center, and it lasts for five days! That’s right, you heard me. Five days of uninterrupted fun for all otakus and geeks from France, Navarre and even Belgium or Switzerland for the most dedicated fans!
Amongst all the first-class guests (Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road producer Naoki Yoshida…) was Kamui Fujiwara, author of the manga Dragon Quest – Emblem of Roto, adapted from the famous video game series created in 1986. After Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibôken by Koji Inada and Riku Sanjo, the famed roleplaying saga is back in France as a manga with an adventure taking place 100 years after the events of Dragon Quest III.
To celebrate the French release of Dragon Quest Emblem of Roto and its publisher Ki-oon’s tenth anniversary, the manga publisher and Japan Expo organized an interview with Mr. Fujiwara, during which we learned many interesting tidbits. Kamui Fujiwara became hugely successful thanks to Dragon Quest Emblem of Roto and the 19 million copies sold. Kamui Fujiwara has also been the character designer for the famous RPGs Terranigma and Grandia Xtreme. He currently enjoys playing Dragon Quest Monster Super Light on his mobile phone, another game from the franchise yet to be announced in the West. At the end of the interview, Kamui Fujiwara demonstrated his talent by drawing us a gorgeous sketch of young Hero Arus, sword in hand and surrounded by slimes, live! The crowd was mesmerized.
A few blocks from the Japan Expo scene, a temporary Dragon Quest Village had been erected to celebrate the French release of Dragon Quest Emblem of Roto and Dragon Quest VIII Journey of the Cursed King on mobile phones and tablets. This lovely medieval village was filled with gorgeous goodies, from video games to music themes and pages of the manga adaptation, as well as figurines and merchandise. (None for sale, unfortunately.)
A major publisher stand draws near! Command? Well, let’s investigate, shall we? The Square Enix stand mainly focused on the Final Fantasy franchise. Not a word about their other MMORPG Dragon Quest X for Nintendo Wii U or the long awaited remake of Dragon Quest VII for Nintendo 3DS, but fans could play the eighth installment of the series on a demonstration iPad here regardless.
In addition to the Dragon Quest series, fans were able to get a first look at Fantasy Life on 3DS, which has recently been announced to be localized in North America.
In conclusion, Japan Expo 2014 proved that the Dragon Quest series is more popular than ever in France, not to mention other Western countries. We hope French gamers and other gamers in the West will be presented with new localized Dragon Quest games at Japan Expo 2015. In the meantime, we shall continue our quest to bring the legend to the West once more!
