MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Jin Fujisawa, director of Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies and the original version of Dragon Quest X Online, has left Square Enix, he announced on Twitter. Fujisawa is leaving Square Enix after a 18 year career with the company.
In the Tweet, Fujisawa apologised for the sudden announcement and revealed that he is leaving to “find a new challenge at a different company.” The tweet did not reveal, however, which company Fujisawa has left for, or the titles he will be working on in the future.
The former director has a long history with the company, having joined in 2000 as a scenario assistant for Dragon Quest VII on the PS1. Since then, Fujisawa has risen through the company, primarily through his work on the Dragon Quest series, an phenomenally popular franchise in Japan. Alongside having worked on both version 1 and 2 of Dragon Quest X Online, he also worked on the PS2’s Dragon Quest VIII, the first game in the franchise to attract popular attention in the West.
He has also been involved in a number of mobile games that the studio has produced, including Ellark (2010), Mugen Knights (2015), Yogensha Ikusei Gakuen: Fortune Tellers Academy (2016) and Pro Yakyuu ga Suki da! (2017), the final published game he worked on for Square Enix.
Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age is due for a Western release on PlayStation 4 and PC in September, Square Enix has announced. The title originally released in Japan on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo 3DS last year, but the company has revealed they do not plan to localise the 3DS version for Western markets.
