Dragon Quest Wars is a grid-based strategy game centered around monsters plucked from the Dragon Quest series. The emphasis is on multiplayer, where up to four players can battle with their teams (made up of four monster units). Your monsters are assigned color-coded commands and duke it out until their hit points are depleted. Victory occurs when either your opponents’ monsters are defeated or when one of your units enters an enemy base. These battles are designed to end quickly, they’re usually limited to between five and ten turns. If that description doesn’t sell you on the game, what should is the development talent behind the game. Square Enix teamed their developers up with a team from Nintendo’s Intelligent Systems division. You might know them from Advance Wars or Fire Emblem.

The game hit the DSiWare store in late September, and we recently got a chance to chat with the producer, Taichi Inuzuka. We picked his brain about the game’s battle system, what it was like working with Intelligent Systems, and his dream game. Read on for his responses!

4 color rebellion: Who are you, and what was your role on the Dragon Quest Wars development team?

Taichi Inuzuka: My name is Taichi Inuzuka. I’m the producer for Dragon Quest Wars at Square Enix. Since joining Enix, I have been involved in DQ series related titles.

Intelligent Systems is an in-house Nintendo team. How did you end up forming this partnership?

It has long been my hope to create a simulation game with Dragon Quest, but it has been difficult to put things together. However, this time, we could partner with Intelligent Systems who has a proven track record with simulation games, and the plan came together.

One of the key ways that Dragon Quest Wars is different from your past games is its card-based battle system. Where did this idea come from? What games had an influence on the design of this battle system?

We consciously designed and created this game to convey the fun of simulation games and to provide a gateway to users who’ve never played simulation games. As a system that users can play instinctively and easily, as well as enjoy playing a simulation game, we chose this system this time. It’s not like I got any direct influence, but if I must name some, I would say Japanese chess/chess/Five in a Row/tick-tack-toe, which are familiar board games.

The rules behind the gameplay seem like they are easy to learn while maintaining a certain tactical depth. How does your team find that balance? What kind of design and testing goes into making a game that is complex and fun without being too hard to learn?

Regarding the depth of the game system, I would say it was much coming from heuristics of the Intelligent Systems team. And in regard to its easy to pick up and play, the effect from Mr. Yuji Horii’s direction was huge.

We both know that humans are much more unpredictable than an artificial intelligence. Have you seen players use strategies that completely surprise you? What are some of the tactics that players have found that your team never thought of?

To be honest, I keep loosing the battle against other users. I had an experience that I lost against a strange team having one Dracky and three Hammerhoods, and also I was beaten hollow by the default team of Slime/Golem/Hammerhood/Healslime team. When I battle against users, I’m surprised with their strategies most of the time.

The last question is a slightly more personal one. If you had unlimited resources and a team of any size that you desired, what would be your dream project? What kind of game would you like to work on if given that opportunity?

If I could have such an opportunity, I would like to create a place like the whole earth and whole earth history that you can simulate in detail. Like everything from landform, position of each structure to personal DNA. If I create this kind of place, then I bet the characters in the game will create a significant game there…

We’d like to thank Mr. Inuzaka for his time. Dragon Quest Wars is available now on the US and Japanese DSiWare store for 500 points. For more information, see the official website (Japanese) or the Wikipedia entry.