20 years of Level-5
Back in 2000, the then 32-year-old Akihiro Hino sat down to play Dragon Quest 7 - the latest instalment in a series he, and indeed much of Japan, held dear. It was Dragon Quest that inspired Hino to go into the video games industry, after all. When playing the third entry over a decade earlier, he was smitten, fascinated with how so much was done with so little; how the animation and artwork, so simple in its execution, conspired to make something so touching and moving. It was like, Hino said, being hit over the head.
Now, though, Hino was coming at Dragon Quest from a different perspective. He'd been working on Dark Cloud, the first game from his fledgling studio Level-5, and emboldened by his experience he had some ideas of his own. He wanted to let the developers know what he'd do different, and how he'd go about handling the beloved video game series. So he called the producer, and rattled off his feedback. And the producer said, why don't you have a go yourself?
And that's how Level-5 found itself in charge of Japan's most popular video game series, and found itself charged with ushering Dragon Quest into 3D. Akihiro Hino has, you suspect, a knack for making things happen. It's something he's done throughout twenty often remarkable years of Level-5.
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