Tori-bot Appears in Blue Dragon

Did you know that Akira Toriyama’s Tori-bot appears in Blue Dragon as an easter egg character? And you can hear his real voice!

Blue Dragon was a Japanese role-playing game for the Xbox 360 with character designs by Akira Toriyama. The game was published in 2007, but I didn’t know that Akira Toriyama was actually in the game.

Here is a photograph of the entire staff. You can see Akira Toriyama at the bottom center, wearing the black and red shirt. On Toriyama’s right is Hironobu Sakaguchi (in the white shirt), creator of Final Fantasy.

It turns out that Toriyama is a character in the game named Toripo. This character looks exactly like Toriyama’s Tori-bot, wearing his iconic tracksuit.

Toripo is a mysterious explorer who shows up at different places throughout the game. He asks you about your recent adventures and inquires for more information about the new area you’re in.

There’s a special easter egg at the end of the game where you can hear Akira Toriyama’s real voice. To get to him, you first have to kill all the final bosses. Then, instead of finishing the game by completing the final step, you search around the forest and will find Toripo standing by a tree. When you talk to him, he says this:

“Toripo!

This is my real voice. When I visited the developers, they asked me to say “Toripo” so they could record my voice. Noo! Embarrassing! But everyone worked so hard to finish this game, I was really moved! It reminded me 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!

Akira Toriyama”

Pretty cool! And it turns out you can actually play as Toripo in the spin-off sequel, Blue Dragon Plus for the Nintendo DS. He has his own shadow called Tarantula.

It’s somewhat ancillary to Dragon Ball, but I figured you guys would be excited to hear Toriyama’s voice and see his likeness in a video game.

Did you ever play Blue Dragon? I always wanted to. It looks like a lot of fun!