Opinions will always be split on the best iteration of Final Fantasy, and so it's interesting to hear that living industry legend and Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii has shared his own thoughts on the franchise.
Once upon a time, Dragon Quest was in direct competition with Final Fantasy; the two properties vying for the RPG crown back in the 80s and 90s.
Of course, this was before Square and Enix merged to form Square Enix, causing the two titans of the genre to fall under the same publishing umbrella.
But apparently, Horii didn't actually view Final Fantasy as a threat to his creation. He explains to Game Informer: "I was definitely paying attention to it because it was something we needed to look out for."
He continues:
"But there's one key difference that I really saw back then: the protagonists in the Final Fantasy titles, they speak a lot. Whereas for Dragon Quest, the key objective for [the games], or the experience it offers for the player, is that the player becomes the protagonist themselves.
In Final Fantasy, you kind of observe the protagonist, but you're not necessarily becoming the protagonist in the games. So I thought that was a really interesting and stark difference between Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, but I didn't necessarily see them as a rival back then."
An interesting perspective, for sure, but it sounds like Horii was rather taken with Final Fantasy as it continued to evolve as a series.
In particular, he heaps some very strong praise on Final Fantasy X — the franchise's first PS2 foray, which, at the time, felt like a true next-gen jump.
"I do like Final Fantasy, though. When I first saw Final Fantasy X, I recall feeling this was the ultimate perfection of Final Fantasy," he says.
Some would say that Dragon Quest enjoyed a similarly impressive evolutionary step with Dragon Quest 8 — another PS2 all-timer. Now that we think back on those youthful days, it really was another golden age for Japanese RPGs...
Horii's comments have got us reminiscing, but do you recall being that impressed by Final Fantasy X? You can always give it your own rating in our Best Final Fantasy Games list, and then express your love in the comments section below.