Dragon Quest III (HD-2D version) “Legendary Hero” voice talents are Nobuyuki Hiyama and Yuko Minaguchi! Rising expectations and political correctness

Quoted From： Dragon Quest Publicity Officer Official X
The HD-2D version of “Dragon Quest III: And to the Legend…” (hereafter referred to as “DRAGON QUEST 3”) is scheduled for release on November 14, 2024, with living legendary voice talents Nobuyuki Hiyama and Yuko Minaguchi set to provide the battle voices of the legendary heroes!
I will summarize information on the voice talents for the remake version of DRAGON QUEST 3, as well as the political correctness considerations that have been made for the gender representation of the characters.
Although only battle voices will be used in the game, we would like you to first watch the video in which you can hear the narration of our hero king, Nobuyuki Hiyama, and raise your expectations for the remake!

Video of Nobuyuki Hiyama’s narration

Official website: DRAGON QUEST III And to the Legend… | SQUARE ENIX (dragonquest.jp)

About the voice talents in charge of the legendary hero

(Image credit) Dragon Quest Publicity Officer Official X
The author first played Dracula 3 on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SFC) version (hereinafter referred to as “SFC version”).
I am really happy to see this remake to the beautiful HD-2D world that combines dots and 3DCG, which also retains the nostalgia of those days.
In the FC and SFC versions of Dragon Quest, the characters were never voiced by voice talents, but now that it has become commonplace to use voice talents for games, the voices will be voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama and Yuko Minaguchi, two people who are well-known fans in the voice acting world, and who are suited for legendary heroes, I am deeply moved by that as well.

The hero’s father, Ortega, will be played by Hiroki Touchi.

Brave men and women are no longer male/female, but changed to look A/B selection.

Let’s get down to business here! The HD-2D version of “Dragon Quest III: And to the Legend…” has an interesting change regarding the choice of gender for the hero.
Instead of “male” and “female,” the terminology has been changed to “look A” and “look B.” This change is a change in gender politics.

This change can be interpreted as an attempt to address gender political correctness. The use of “Looks A” and “Looks B” removes gender stereotypes and restrictions and offers players more freedom of choice.

(Image credit) Dragon Quest Publicist Official X
Look A is Nobuyuki Hiyama and Look B is Yuko Minaguchi.
Is it possible to choose Yuko Minaguchi for Look A and Nobuyuki Hiyama for Look B as options? I thought so, but that does not seem to be the case!

There is a much wider selection of Party Members occupations, looks and voices.

What is even more interesting is the very wide selection of Party Members!
I’m not good at math, but there are probably 16,128 possible choices at the beginning. If you have 9 different professions, that’s 18,144 ways. It is truly diversity.

1. 8 types of professions (9 types*)
*When the conditions are met, a wise man will also appear and there will be 9 types to choose from. At first, there are 8 kinds.

Warrior	Martial artist	Mage	Priest
Merchant	Gadabout	Thief	Monster Master

Sage

2.Total 8 patterns for looks A/B

Looks A	Looks B
1	1
2	2
3	3
4	4

3. Hair color14 patterns

4. Battle voice18 patterns

frank	Cute
yanchana	shy
cowardly	unruly
cool	neat
zealous	diligently
humorous	gal
stubborn	elegance
gentle	dry
mean-spirited	sexy

It has not yet been announced who the voice talents will be for the battle voices of party menber’s, but if they are voice talents rather than synthesized voices, it is likely to become a topic of conversation on social networking sites, such as a battle to guess who is in charge of the battle voices.

This change to a variety of options is in line with the trend toward diversity and inclusion seen throughout the gaming industry. On the other hand, some fans have voiced concerns that it will disrupt the traditional DRAGON QUEST worldview.

To begin with, however, DRAGON QUEST 3 was the first in the DRAGON QUEST series to feature a female hero (female protagonist). Perhaps in that era, people might have said, “How can a woman be a hero? Considering this, projecting the feeling of the times onto the game may not have changed since the first generation. This change in the HD-2D version of DRAGON QUEST III is an interesting example of how traditional RPGs are trying to adapt to modern values.

Individuality can be diverse.

Rules and sense of values update and change with the times. It is also because of the legendary title that the political correctness considerations are made and controversial! I think it’s good that there is debate.
After 36 years since the release of the FC(Family Computer) version, DRAGON QUEST 3 has been remade to reflect the current era of the game system.
Finally, as I was writing this article, I wondered if Koichi Sugiyama were still alive, what he would have said about this matter. It made me feel a little emotional.

(Image credit) Dragon Quest Publicity Officer Official X

(Reference source)
A first-hand experience of the “DRAGON QUEST 3” remake TGS trial version. The character makeup with increased variation in appearance, voice and choices was amazing [Dragon Quest III: And to the Legend…/HD-2D] – Dengeki Online (dengekionline.com)