RIP to a Legend
Akira Toriyama died earlier this month of a brain bleed at the age of 68. The legendary animator is best known for Dragon Ball but he also lent his talent to the gaming space, doing the illustrations for beloved JRPG’s like Chrono Trigger and various Dragon Quests. This got me thinking about all the games Akira Toriyama has worked on and all of the games inspired by his works that have come out.
Dragon Quest
Often overlooked in the US, Dragon Quest is a hugely influential JRPG. It inspired series such as Final Fantasy and Earthbound. You may have heard the myth that when a new Dragon Quest game comes out in Japan so many people call out of work and school that they made it a national holiday. It took elements from CRPGs in the west such as Ultima and tried to make them more beginner friendly. Akira Toriyama was in charge of designing the characters and box art for every game. His artstyle made the Dragon Quest games look so charming. The most iconic character he created for the series was probably the blue slime which became the series mascot. Slimes appear in almost every Dragon Quest game since the original 1986 Dragon Warrior. The slimes were based on a rough sketch that Toriyama was given by series director Yuji Horii, who was inspired by the slimes in the PC game Wizardy. Toriyama’s smiley slimes will forever live on as Dragon Quests mascot.
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger is a JRPG darling and on almost everyone’s list of video games you should play before you die. Chrono Trigger had a huge impact on the gaming industry, setting an extremely high bar for RPGs. Chrono Trigger had branching storylines, multiple endings and an extremely charming cast of characters due in part to Akira Toriyama’s character designs. Besides characters and setting design for the game Toriyama and his studio also created the animated cutscenes for the 1999 Playstation port. If you want to meet the late great Toriyama you still can, digitally in one of the endings of Chrono Trigger. This ending is called the Dream Project ending, the entire staff is present and you can talk to them.
Sand Land
A new title set to release April 2024, Sand Land is an adaptation of Toriyama’s short manga series of the same name. Little demon Beelzebub and crew cause mischief around a post-apocalyptic world covered in sand. According to the graphic novel, Toriyama wanted to create a short story about a man and a tank. He had trouble drawing the tanks and regretted working on the project, but he already had the story planned out so he pushed through. That’s probably why the tanks are so stylized and capsule-like. Based on gameplay trailers it looks like tank design is going to be a big part of this game. The art looks beautiful, Toriyama’s art style really pops in 3D. I am interested to see the game’s reception after the passing of its creator. We will definitely be checking it out here on Savvy Gaming Network.
Tobal
Tobal is a fighting game series developed by DreamFactory and published by Square in the late 90s. Seishii Ishii of Tekken and Virtua Fighter fame was director of both Tobal No.1 and 2. Akira Toriyama was responsible for the character and world design. It sounds like quite the dream team. The world consists of humans, aliens and robots and you can even play as Toriyama’s robot mascot that he draws himself as. Tobal 2 at the time was known for its 200+ roster of playable characters. Tobal 2 was never released outside of Japan. I wish these games were easier to acquire.
Blue Dragon
Another game series Akira Toriyama self-inserted into was Blue Dragon. Blue Dragon is a JRPG Xbox 360 exclusive, although the sequels were made for Nintendo DS. According to a PAX interview the games writer Hironobu Sakaguchi (of Final Fantasy fame) talks about how behind Akira Toriyama was when it comes to technology. According to Sakaguchi, Toriyama only had version 1 or 2 of photoshop on his computer, but he had loads of great ideas. The second game created for the DS was a real time strategy game (RTS). The last game Awakened Shadow, also for the DS, went for a real time combat approche. Toriyama’s self-inserted character Toripo shows up in all three Blue Dragon games as a fourth wall breaking character. The character was also voiced by Toriyama himself. At the end of the first game you can find Toripo and he will say this
This is my real voice. When I visited the developers, they asked me to say “Toripo” so they could record my voice. No! Embarrassing! But everyone worked so hard to finish this game. I was really moved! It reminded me of how hard it is to make a game. All those on the staff, and so many hours spent. I loved it when they let me test it out! It was wonderful! They were real pros! Great things come when you have great people. Didn’t you love this game? I was a bit nervous, worrying, ‘What if they say my character design isn’t good enough?’ (Even if you did think so, please don’t say it; I really am a sensitive guy). Again, thank you all very, very much. I will keep on studying more and more. One more time! Toripo!
Toripo/Akira Toriyama
Dragon Ball and Others
Obviously the man who created Dragon Ball helped with the Dragon Ball games. He designed many of the new original characters we see in these games such as Android 21 in Dragon Ball FighterZ and Bonyu in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. He also helped design several original characters in the game Jump Force. He designed the main villains Kane and Galena, little mascot robot character Navigator and Director Glover who gives you your missions. Another Shonen Jump Stars game he did character design work for was Famicom Jump II. It seems like if you need original characters Akira Toriyama was your guy. His impact on the anime and gaming industry was monumental. Thank you Toriyama for all your creativity over the years, you will be greatly missed.
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