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John Laurence: So, I understand you’re interested in Dragon Warrior.

NGenres: Well, me, I’m a big fan of it, personally, just from the early days of it first coming out.

JL: For NES.

NG: Right, right. I know there’s a lot of games that come out in Japan, that, just because of the RPG market, aren’t as big in the United States. We really haven’t seen a lot of Dragon Warrior over here in a while, so I was really excited to see that a new one was going to be released in the United States. We’ve seen Final Fantasy grow from being a pretty small game into one of the biggest franchises Sony has under their control, and I see Dragon Warrior as being able to do the same thing, given enough exposure.

JL: That’s what we think, too. You can tell by our booth presence this year that we really mean business. Did you play all four of the Dragon Warrior games?

NG: I’ve played the first three. Tell me about your upcoming GBC conversion for Dragon Warrior Three.

JL: Well, as you can see, we’ve improved the graphics quite a bit. On the Game Boy Color, you’ll notice it looks a lot better. And did you remember in the NES version, when your characters died, you saw their ghosts? Now we have blood. We wanted to make it be the same as the Japanese version, which was less cut. Nintendo didn’t want to have coffins in their game back then, or a lot of off-color humor, or suggestive jokes. We had to take it out on the NES, but we’ve kept it all in for the GBC version, and it makes a better experience, with a much better translation. In fact, because of the new stuff we’ve added, we’ve earned the first “Teen” rating on a Game Boy RPG, ever.

NG: It seems like with the GBC market, releasing with a Teen rating might not be that great…

JL: Well, it’s great from my point of view, as a product manager, I want the best quality product out there. Obviously, our sales guys would’ve liked it if we hit that E rating, but this just shows that Enix is dedicated to giving the hardcore gamers their perfect port.

NG: Any other enhancements?

JL: In addition to the graphics, and translation changes, we’ve also added a new group of monster metals, and if you collect enough of these, you’ll get some cool prizes. If you get enough of a certain kind, and you want others, you can link up with a friend, and trade with him. Also, we’ve got all new dungeons for players to go through.

NG: So, it has a link function, then?

JL: It definitely has link capability, yes. Also new is the Field Log feature. Basically, you can now save anywhere you want, at any time. But it’s more than that. If a character says something to you that you think is important, but you don’t have a pad of paper around, you can use this feature to save his speech text, to look at later. We’ve also revamped the user interface, to be a lot more user-friendly and less bulky.

NG: What’s the release date on this?

JL: July 17th. It’s just around the corner, and already in production. Also, it’s the biggest GBC game ever, clocking in at 32 megabits. Just for reference, Pokemon Gold is only 8 megabits, so we have four times as much on our cartridge as they do.

NG: This is the first time we’ve seen Dragon Warrior on a Nintendo system in a while. Did you guys approach Nintendo, or did they come to you about doing this, revamping the NES games for the GBC?

JL: Well, the history of it is, Nintendo published the first Dragon Warrior game, and gave it out with Nintendo Power. That kind of branded it as a Nintendo game, and not an Enix game. Subsequently, since we’re publishing our own games now, they’re very hands-off. I think Nintendo’s learned a lot about that in the last couple years, and now they pretty much let the ESRB dictate what can go in the game, since they’re no longer held responsible for it. I’ve never been in a position where Nintendo’s told us that we can’t do something. Other than Sony, I’d say Nintendo is the most hands-off console maker out there, though we’ve actually had Sony angry about some of the stuff we had in Valkyrie Profile. Of course, we left it in anyway.

NG: With the two new consoles coming out this year, can you tell us if you’ll have any products for either of them?

JL: We currently don’t have anything that I can tell you about, and we’re pretty much dedicated to Playstation2 for now. And that’s a business issue. There’s a hardware installed base, and there’s a market for it. However, we have partnered with Nintendo on every one of their platforms to come out since the NES, with the exception of the N64, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ll see some stuff for GameCube. I’m really excited about the system, but there’s nothing I can talk about here. Same with Game Boy Advance.

NG: Square is pretty much your biggest competitor in the RPG market… do you have any comments to make about them, what with them releasing Final Fantasy X soon?

JL: Personally, I don’t see us as really competitors. Right now, I think the roleplaying market here in the US is still very immature, so every RPG that sells is a good thing, since it brings more people into the genre, and we feel that the quality of our products will lead them to us. I mean, I like Square games, too. I like Final Fantasy, I like Chrono Cross. I don’t really same them as our competitor, more like a partner helping to build a market. In terms of content, Dragon Warrior has always been pretty different from Final Fantasy. For example, in Dragon Warrior, your character never speaks, whereas in Final Fantasy, I often get the feeling of “Well, that’s not what I would say.” This gives the game a much more participatory experience rather than the feeling of watching a movie.

NG: What can you tell us about Dragon Warrior Monsters 2?

JL: I’ll give you my little spiel on that. It’s a monster collection/breeding/training game, but it takes place in the Dragon Warrior world, and all the monsters are done by the same artist, who did a lot of the work on Dragonball Z, so the style is all very cool. There’s two different versions of the game. In one, you’re a boy, and in the other, you’re a girl. There are different monsters in both games, but as far as the plot goes, it’s quite similar. You can capture monsters, train them, then link up with a friend and battle him.

NG: What are the main differences between this game and Pokemon?

JL: In contrast to Pokemon, and the first Dragon Warrior Monsters game, this one is very story-driven, and much more of an RPG.

NG: With Tara’s Adventure focusing on a girl, do you think the female market in video games is rising quick enough to take advantage?

JL: I think we’ve always been a very female-friendly company. Especially with Dragon Warrior, I think this game is for everyone, and not just guys. There’s something in this game for absolutely everyone. That’s part of the reason it’s so popular in Japan, is that it breaks the gender barrier. That’s one of the things I want to do with the franchise here in the US.

NG: Well, thanks for everything.

JL: Oh, no problems. It was nice meeting with you guys, thanks.

We’d like to personally thank Mr. Laurence for answering our Dragon Warrior questions!

Interview conducted by Cory Kroll, Rob Schlicht, and Tariq Bashir.