Dragon Quest: The Dive Is A VR Attraction Capturing 40 Years of Gaming

After forty years, the Dragon Quest sequence has grown from a handwritten concept from Yuji Horii at Chunsoft penciled onto writer Enix firm workplace paper into a worldwide franchise, and one among gaming’s most iconic IPs.

How do you have fun that historical past? You may go second by second, carving out data and archival items for each minute portion of the franchise, however when you’ve got a sequence this huge, how do you make such an exhibit actually exhaustive of each nook and cranny of the sequence? Which is why Dragon Quest: The Dive took a special method, and it used VR to realize that.

This celebration of 4 many years of this huge franchise is cut up into three distinct sections. The third and last space is probably the most conventional facet of the exhibition for these wanting a pure take a look at franchise historical past. Encased in glass with a strict no-photography coverage, had been authentic design paperwork unearthed from vaults now on uncommon show. Handwritten, the unique proposal lists virtually all the preliminary recreation’s very small staff, which even at this early stage contains Akira Toriyama’s title as a designer of characters and monsters. Many of his preliminary sketches for the Slime and each monster had been on show, as had been whole dungeon maps and huge tables that confirmed the precise stat will increase of each degree because the staff sought to search out steadiness.

Even musical notation for the primary theme has been preserved and displayed. It’s a small area solely centered on the primary recreation – there are not any paperwork for some other title within the sequence, nevertheless it’s such a captivating look into the often-logical, nerdy requirements of programming and design in these early days of gaming.

The second space focuses totally on the mainline titles for the sequence, beginning with statues that provide life-size recreations of recognizable creatures and scenes which you can enter and take images because the hero. Inflatable slimes may be squished and hugged, whereas stone golems and a knight aberrant stand menacingly. If you ever questioned what a creature in these video games would possibly really feel prefer to the contact, there was an expertise the place you would contact a slime, or place your hand on the surprisingly heat floor of a rock bomb. Other areas scanned you to search out out your kin monster or sprite – I used to be one of many many bunny women from Dragon Quest’s historical past.

While definitely colourful with sufficient to interact audiences of all ages, it’s not one thing that can educate you in the event you’re already on top of things on the sequence. Aside from a neat visible of the unique designs of Dragon Quest XII’s protagonist, seemingly the final to be designed by Toriyama earlier than his sudden passing in 2024, a lot of this was designed to evoke recollections or feelings greater than educate. There are screenshots and quotes from each mainline title to level to and reminisce about, and shows to convey scenes to life.

What it does obtain by taking this method is capturing the expertise of being a Dragon Quest fan and bringing that to the area, moderately than dryly recapping historical past that these followers already know. It’s an area that calls for that you simply really feel what 40 years of this sequence had been prefer to dwell by, utilizing this idea because the design philosophy driving this exhibit, moderately than a extra typical recap of paperwork and dates. Celebrate the followers, in that sense.

Which is the place the VR facet of Dragon Quest: The Dive comes into play. Rather than an introductory film or sequence recap, it is a 5-minute VR attraction that speeds by locales whereas putting you within the position of the hero aiding a healslime named Homita with naive hopes of saving the world and a killer panther.

We climb aboard the killer panther and, at first, the journey is fairly run-of-the-mill. Alongside Homita and his wood sword, we wander by the woods till Treefaces, stone golems and extra assault. That’s when issues go far off plan, as we run and sure away until now we have to leap from cliffs and journey upon a large Hades Condor as recognizable creatures rush previous and assault and we merely do every little thing we are able to to outlive. Even that doesn’t go as we had hoped, nonetheless, as we’re tossed into fast-paced river rapids and proceed to be tossed and turned until we even discover ourselves in an underground dungeon, the place probably the most threatening creatures seem.

Here we’re pitted head to head with an Estark, a lord of the Underworld in opposition to pits of fireside and smoke. All appears misplaced, till the wood sword begins to resonate inside you. That resonance transforms it right into a mighty hero’s sword that slices down the creature and saves you all.

The whole attraction is on-rails and non-interactive, primarily an immersive video pre-rendered and displayed on Quest 3 headsets supplied to all audiences. Immersion for the expertise comes not simply from the actual fact this video locations you immediately contained in the world of Dragon Quest, but additionally from how the exhibition itself leads you into feeling a direct a part of this world at the same time as you might be prevented from taking part in an energetic position.

By moving into the exhibition, you get an introduction video out of your new Slime buddy that leaves you acquainted. Following that, you step into the exhibition room and never solely are you required to place in your headset, however you have to additionally securely strap your self right into a 4DX-like chair that jolts you round with each duck and weave of your transient journey. Far from a minor jolt, that is intense in methods extra paying homage to an immersive rollercoaster from a theme park than a brief attraction, and positively not for the faint of coronary heart when drops into ravines can really feel near-blind and extremely steep on this setup.

Not that this isn’t entertaining, nevertheless it may show an excessive amount of for audiences much less acquainted with the medium.

It’s definitely the spotlight of the exhibition, but additionally a really totally different method to what has turn into a rising pattern in Japanese showcases as they search new methods to combine fashionable applied sciences into the standard retrospective. During an exhibition for the beloved manga and anime franchise Ghost within the Shell, centered on its many made-for-TV and theatrical diversifications, the exhibition used AR glasses to not transport folks into the world of the sequence, however to reinforce what already exists within the present to offer context by audio and video that merely can’t be printed on a chunk of paper alongside static shows. Between the 2 exhibitions, whether or not by making a digital overlay to the real-world present or whisking audiences away into the world itself, the aim of that is to offer a brand new dimension that may’t be supplied with out the usage of extra know-how.

In Dragon Quest: The Dive, the method has flaws. While the VR journey itself is actually a full-body tour that does combine properly into the exhibition – the next room with statues is positioned in a way that maintains the phantasm of moving into the world from the VR journey and interprets it to a gradual transition again to actuality. Only, as soon as the transition has ended, there may be little or no left of the exhibition, which may really feel disappointing contemplating the excessive value of entry. Tickets begin at 4,400 yen per individual when customary exhibitions of this caliber for different franchises usually value half this worth. It begins to really feel just like the VR journey is the purpose of the expertise, not merely an enhancement, and at that time the query of whether or not such a excessive worth for a 5-minute expertise is justified begins to come up.

Especially when, if we had been to check it to VR sights of comparable size, the value equally can really feel steep. Just a couple of minutes away on the practice from the exhibition’s location in Tokyo’s Harajuku space is Shinjuku, the place the Kabukicho Tower performs host to quite a few VR sights based mostly on IP like Evangelion for only a quarter of the value (and with extra interactivity). Places like Immersive Journey and Tyffonium exist. Monster Hunter Bridge, which was a completely interactive AR expertise on the 2025 World Expo in Osaka earlier than that occasion’s closure, will transfer to Nijigen no Mori theme park in 2027. Also current on the theme park? Dragon Quest Island, a full themed space full with interactive sights, accessible ranging from an analogous worth to this exhibition.

For the transient runtime of the VR attraction a part of Dragon Quest: The Dive, I actually felt immersed on the earth of Dragon Quest in a approach that the sequence has genuinely by no means achieved just about earlier than. Offered in different codecs, this attraction is a must-try expertise for anybody . While in concept this might complement a extra voluminous exhibition, the lackluster choices elsewhere on this showcase really feel missing for what must be an anniversary celebration for one of many greatest gaming franchises in Japan. Rather than enhancing the exhibit, like AR did for Ghost within the Shell, it exposes how missing the remainder of the showcase is, making this really feel like an (costly) paid take a look at run for this journey’s doable set up elsewhere at a later date.

Which I hope may be accomplished! But in comparison with how immersive know-how has been in a position to improve exhibitions in Japan in latest months, it is a case the place, for all its particular person deserves, it could possibly’t justify the value of admission.