Ryutaro Ichimura, producer of Dragon Quest, departed from Square Enix, citing the company's focus on producing "safe" or "copycat" games as the reason for his decision.

Ryutaro Ichimura, renowned for his role as a producer on the Dragon Quest series, revealed that his departure from Square Enix was due to the company's focus on low-risk endeavors.

Beginning his career at Enix in 2000, Ichimura contributed significantly to the Dragon Quest series, advancing to producer roles on titles such as Dragon Quest 8 and Dragon Quest 9.

In an interview with ReHacQ, he noted, "Square Enix was essentially emulating others," as a reason for his exit.

Ichimura remarked on past innovations within the franchise, saying, "In Dragon Quest 2, a three-member party was introduced, Dragon Quest 3 allowed job changes, and Dragon Quest 4 featured AI-controlled party members." Each release brought significant advancements by utilizing cutting-edge technology (according to Automaton).

Automaton further reported that Ichimura saw Dragon Quest as a trailblazer in the RPG genre, driven by his desire to innovate from the ground up. However, faced with increasing development costs, Ichimura observed Square Enix gravitating towards established successes or "pakuri kikaku" – imitated projects – exemplified by games like Dragon Quest Builders and Dragon Quest Walk.

After an innovative project idea, where players could engage in creating RPG narratives and designing their own Dragon Quest-esque games, was not approved by Square Enix, Ichimura opted to leave the company.

In May 2023, Ichimura established PinCool, a new development studio backed by NetEase Games.