Ryutaro Ichimura, the producer of Dragon Quest, departed from Square Enix due to the company's focus on producing "safe" or "copycat" games

Ryutaro Ichimura, known for his work on the Dragon Quest series, departed from Square Enix due to its growing preference for "safe" projects.

Having begun his tenure with Enix in 2000, Ichimura contributed significantly to the Dragon Quest series, advancing to the role of producer on titles like Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King and Dragon Quest 9: Sentinels of the Starry Skies.

Speaking to ReHacQ, he revealed his departure stemmed from the perception that Square Enix was imitating successful concepts from other companies.

“In Dragon Quest 2, you experienced a three-person team, Dragon Quest 3 introduced job changes, and Dragon Quest 4 allowed AI-controlled party battles," Ichimura explained, highlighting each game's innovative leap, as noted by Automaton.

Automaton reported that Ichimura viewed Dragon Quest as pioneering within the RPG genre and aspired to create something entirely new. However, rising development costs led him to believe Square Enix preferred sticking to its established series or projects replicating existing hits, such as Dragon Quest Builders, which mimics Minecraft, or Dragon Quest Walk, which echoes Pokémon Go's concept.

Ichimura chose to leave after the company declined a proposal for a game designed to teach players storytelling and worldbuilding, enabling them to craft their own Dragon Quest-style games.

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