We were able to bring the RPG experience to the device.” We really focused on ensuring people would be able to experience the fun of the story. We believe we were able to bring a relatively easily understandable and simple experience to the Famicom and NES devices. I wanted to figure out a way to bring this kind of fun RPG to that platform, and that’s what we worked hard to achieve. At that time, most of the games on that platform were action-oriented or action-based. “Those type of RPGs were available on the PC, but thereafter, the Famicom, or what we know as the NES, really was a huge hit among the younger children and younger consumers. “At that time we had RPGs like Wizardry and Ultima for the PC,” says Horii, through an interpreter. They are stories of second chances and becoming better people. One thing both fields hold in common, and perhaps the tie that most binds them in me, is that they are both intrinsically rooted in stories of trying, failing, trying again, learning, exploring, growing, and finally overcoming.

As a former clergyman and current video game commentator, I’ve divided my adulthood between metaphysics and pixels, and both have proven worthwhile pursuits. I’ve told friends that the course of my professional life has been equally defined by my childhood encounters with Jesus and video games, and I don’t think that’s a bit of an exaggeration. What Horii has done can't be adequately labeled anything but genius. And now here I am in an upstairs room at Anime Expo in Los Angeles, sitting across the table from him. I’ll often hear Shigeru Miyamoto and Hideo Kojima batted around in newsroom conversations, but for me, there’s no higher name in my pantheon of hero worship than Yuji Horii. I think most of us have an informal mental list of people we wish they could meet, and I think that’s especially true in the entertainment and game industries.

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