Dragon Quest X almost had free-to-play sections for kids

Dragon Quest X director Jin Fujisawa has spoken about the game's features with Nintendo's Satoru Iwata as part of the next instalment of Nintendo Direct, including some chopped free-to-play features.

Siliconera has translated the Dragon Quest X interview between Fujisawa and Iwata, which includes new details on the online Wii and Wii U MMORPG.

Fujisawa revealed that Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii didn't want to restrict the number of fans who could enjoy Dragon Quest X, just because they couldn't afford the subscription fee.

Horii coined a free-to-play service called "Kid's Time" that would let children without cash play for free for a while each day.

The notion ran into trouble when Dragon Quest X producer Yosuke Saito pointed out that anyone could lie about their age and abuse the system. Kids Time was quickly scrapped after that.

Fujisawa also revealed that when you start Dragon Quest X, the game will be played offline while you play through the tutorial - in which a brother and sister get to grips with the real-time battle mechanic - before taking the fight online.

Dragon Quest X launches for Wii August 2 in Japan, while a Wii U release date is yet to be confirmed.