What with the fantastically good Dragon Quest XI finally available globally, it seems only fitting to go back and appreciate all of the artistic work Akira Toriyama has contributed to this much-loved series of video games over the years.
Spanning 240 pages in a very nice hardbacked book, you get to see the early artwork used for the Dragon Quest games up to the recently released Dragon Quest XI.
In part meant to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the series, it features some nice notes from both Akira Toriyama as well as the director of the series, Yuji Horii.
For me, it’s the art from the early trilogy of games that fills my heart with joy. As this was the foundation for the games that followed and pretty much set the artistic tone for the series as a whole.
It’s the simplicity and sense of mischievous fun behind the character and enemy designs that make those original games so lovable.
Not to mention the fact that these designs had to be both direct and simple because the NES obviously couldn’t handle anything too complex. So you had to keep the artwork focused.
What’s interesting for me though is how the design style has been kept so pure over the course of the various games. Admittedly, this is down to Toriyama’s artistic approach but even then there is a continuity here that many other video game series lack.
In addition to the mainline Dragon Quest games, the multitude of spin-offs are also covered. Including the brilliant Dragon Quest Builders.
Fundamentally though, this is an artbook pure and simple and the content hasn’t been messed about with to bump that up either. Not that you would need to, considering the extensive lineage of Dragon Quest.
One thing that is interesting is that while Dragon Quest XI isn’t technically covered in as much detail as the earlier games, you do see a lot of crossover with various enemies from previous installments.
This is no accident, but I won’t spoil why this is the case here, especially if you have yet to finish Dragon Quest XI.
Overall, this is a lovely book for a series of games that deserves far more recognition than it currently receives. Not only for what it did for role-playing games in general but also the sheer wondrous talent of Akira Toriyama when it comes to the artwork for the series.
While fans of Dragon Quest will enjoy this book a great deal, fans of Dragon Ball will find a lot to like as well. For me, it just reminds me why I love the Dragon Quest games so much and how important Toriyama’s art has been for the series.
Dragon Quest Illustrations is released on December 11 and you can pre-order it from Amazon for $34.99.
Disclosure: VIZ Media sent me a copy of this book for the purposes of this review.
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