Skip to main content

Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

DQIX inspired by Oblivion, Diablo

Not part of JRPG genre, insists producer.

Wesley Yin-Poole avatar
News by Wesley Yin-Poole Former Editor-in-Chief
Updated on
16 comments

Inbound Japanese role-playing game Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies was inspired by some unlikely candidates: Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Blizzard's Diablo.

"We have no recognition that Dragon Quest IX is a part of the so-called JRPG genre, unless you mean all the RPGs created in Japan are JRPGs," producer Ryutaro Ichimura told Game Informer.

"The quest system was inspired by The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which I played many times. And I would like to reference Diablo as the title which inspired our thinking about how we can maintain player's motivations." Ichimura said the development team studied Diablo to learn about "motivation-control" and how to drive players to constantly search for the next weapon and armour upgrade.

Eurogamer's review of Dragon Quest IX will go live at 2pm BST today.

Read this next