The Legend of Dragon Quest

Discover all the secrets and mechanics of the famous Japanese video game
Dragon Quest !

This book looks back at the entire Dragon Quest saga, tells the story of the
series' birth, retraces its history and deciphers its mechanics.

In this book, the author shares us all his expertise and his passion in
Japanese gaming to decipher the creation and the story of this saga and his
creator, Yuji Horii.

EXTRAIT

Even with only limited knowledge of Japanese and somewhat difficult technical
conditions, the story was very well told. This was perhaps what surprised
players most. Dragon Quest V is a large family cycle of emotions, as
transparent as an epic tale by Alexandre Dumas, the author of famous works
such as The Three Musketeers. In the end, I was lucky that my first taste of
the series was this excellent episode, since VI was far more extravagant, with
its tales of parallel universes and heroes traveling on flying beds. A
slightly puzzling game, but not without levity nor offbeat humor. One of the
most emotional moments of Dragon Quest V is when we end up going back in time
to change the past, thus saving the future. The time travel theme has been so
often used in science fiction, particularly during the 1980s, that it should
have left me impassive. It was not even the first time I had experienced it in
a video game. But this adventure, with its simple graphics and persistent
melodies, glanced lightly upon feelings that leave no one unmoved. “What would
I have done differently if I could have changed things” is a very common
concept used in fiction, from A Distant Neighborhood by Jirô Taniguchi to the
Quantum Leap series. Well-told, it is so simple and so effective that it
affects each and every one of us.

CE QU'EN PENSE LA CRITIQUE

Un libre passionnant que j'ai dévoré au point de rogner sur mes heures de
sommeil. Ici, l'auteur ne nous bassine pas avec des tartines de textes pour
nous conter avec détails l'histoire de chaque épisode, les ventes
incommensurables de la série ou encore un almanach des jeux estampillés
DraQue. - Kaisermeister, Sens Critique

Un livre plein d’anecdotes qui feront vibrer votre corde nostalgique et qui
donne envie, une fois terminé, de replonger dans l'aventure. - neotsubasa,
Sens Critique

C'est une biographie très détaillée, riche en anecdotes et bien romancée, Yuji
Horii est un personnage fascinant au CV bien rempli et la genèse de la saga
est tout aussi passionnante à tel point que j'ai parfois eu du mal à
décrocher. - Nixotane, Sens Critique

À PROPOS DE L'AUTEUR

Daniel Andreyev is an author and journalist of Russian origin. His career in
video game journalism began twenty years ago, during the golden years of video
gaming, with Player One, Consoles + and Animeland, with a particular interest
in Japan. Having spent some time on translation, he is now part of the New
Games Journalism movement, which places the player at the heart of the video
game experience. He produces the After Hate and Super Ciné Battle podcasts. He
also trades memories with his friends in Gaijin Dash, the Gamekult show on
Japanese video games. He is a fan of far too many things to list them all
here. But when he is not writing, not watching a movie, not reading comics and
graphic novels, not climbing mountains or exploring ruined buildings, he might
be cooking, exercising or dreaming of one day owning a dog.