In the game circle that emphasizes that “players only understand players when they are born”, Enix founder Yasuhiro Fukushima is like a legendary counterexample. He hardly plays games himself, and he was not addicted to the 8 console craze of that year, but he just gave birth to “Dragon Quest (Dragon Quest/Dragon Quest)” which was later named a national IP. This kind of plot would probably be questioned by netizens today if it is true or false, but that is the fact.
A layman’s perspective reveals a gap in the market
In the early 1980s, the Japanese game market was gradually heating up, but there was still no large-scale role-playing game that truly belonged to Japan. Yasuhiro Fukushima is neither a technical geek nor a heavy player. He is more like a calm market observer. He saw that RPG was gradually taking shape overseas but had yet to bear fruit in Japan, so he boldly invested resources in a genre he was unfamiliar with and hired Yuji Horii as the core designer. This decision was seen as a risk at the time, but looking back now it seems like a stroke of God!
Enix actually didn’t start with games
Many people think that Enix was a game company from the beginning, but this is not the case. In the early days, Enix was mainly engaged in publishing and planning business, and was involved in the production of books and magazine content. Precisely because he stands on the periphery of the content industry, Yasuhiro Fukushima can think about products from a more macro business perspective, rather than simply looking at gameplay or technology. When he realized that the RPG genre had long-term potential, he decisively turned to the gaming field. This cross-border vision actually became an advantage.
How Dragon Quest became a national game
Dragon Quest, the first game released in 1986, quickly exploded onto the market. Not only did it have solid sales, but it also created a social phenomenon of queuing up to buy. Subsequent works in the series continue to expand their influence, making JRPG an important symbol of Japanese game culture. Although Yuji Horii’s design skills, Toriyama Akira’s character art, and the creative strength of the team are all indispensable, without Yasuhiro Fukushima’s endorsement and resource investment at the decision-making level, this adventure may not have taken shape.
Even though you don’t play games, you know what players are waiting for.
Yasuhiro Fukushima does not start from “what I want to play”, but from “what the market needs”. He is not bound by the existing gameplay framework, nor is he affected by personal preferences. This sense of distance allows him to better judge the potential of the product. Later, Enix and Square merged to form Square Enix, and its territory spanned the global market. To a certain extent, it also continued the seemingly deviant decision-making spirit of that year.