Seeing crossover between creative fields isn’t uncommon, but having someone become a legend in multiple is a rarity. Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball, manga, and anime fame is among those legends—with dozens of credits to his name across multiple video game franchises.
With the release of Sand Land, a video game based on Akira Toriyama’s science-fiction manga from 2000, we may have seen the last of his works following the mangaka’s sudden passing on March 1, 2024. This also might be the first time fans of Toriyama’s work ever see Sand Land or take notice of his other contributions to gaming beyond the obvious Dragon Ball connection due to the timing of its release. If you aren’t an avid JRPG fan or are interested in learning just what projects Toriyama had a hand in crafting dating back over 30 years, here’s a full list of games he has worked on in any documented capacity.
Every Akira Toriyama game: What games did the Dragon Ball creator make?
Dragon Ball games
The majority of Toriyama’s gaming credits will be featured in Dragon Ball games, which isn’t a big surprise considering the success of the franchise in nearly every medium of media. He did not have a direct hand in adding, designing, or writing content for all 40-plus titles, though he is credited in every single one in some fashion. Here’s a list of Dragon Ball games Toriyama is documented as working on in an expanded capacity—whether that be designing a new character for the story or something else.
- November 1886: Dragon Ball: Shenlong no Nazo
- The first localized Dragon Ball video game, known as Dragon Power outside of Japan.
- Credited as a character designer, specifically for Kuririan.
- January 2018: Dragon Ball FighterZ
- Credited with the design of original character Android 21.
- May 2018: Dragon Ball Legends
- Credited with the design of original characters Shallot and Zahha, among others.
- January 2020: Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
- Credited with the design of original boss character Bonyū.
Outside of these titles, Toriyama is generally credited as the Dragon Ball series creator and character designer, or provided special thanks by the team who worked on the game—though he may have also provided some original artwork for some additional titles. With the release of Sparking! ZERO upcoming, we could see more original work added to this list as well.
Dragon Quest
Akira Toriyama is credited across most of the Dragon Quest franchise as a character and monster designer, lending his art style and creative ideas to bring one of the biggest JRPGs ever released to life—including the simple, yet lovable Slime and most of the iconic Hero iterations.
From the first DQ release in 1986 to Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age in 2017, Toriyama is, at a minimum, listed as an artist in some capacity. That includes most of the spinoffs too, such as Dragon Quest Builders and Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime. It’s unknown if he contributed any new designs for upcoming DQ projects, though it’s likely his name will continue to be credited as an artist in future games moving forward just for his influence alone.
Chrono Trigger
While Dragon Quest is the biggest game franchise he contributed to and Dragon Ball is what Toriyama is best known for, Chrono Trigger is probably the single JRPG from his catalog most gamers in the West have seen or played. For this 1995 masterpiece, he’s credited as the character and setting designer, while his animation studio is generally credited with creating the PlayStation cutscenes added for the 1999 port. Toriyama didn’t work on the semi-follow-up Chrono Cross, which is not a sequel.
Blue Dragon
Blue Dragon is one of the few games Toriyama worked on that became a series, and eventually received an anime adaptation that he at one point thought might be his “final anime.” With three games released between 2006 and 2009, Toriyama is credited as a character designer for each of them—and even voiced a character in Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow that was based on his original character, Tori-Bot.
- December 2006: Blue Dragon
- September 2008: Blue Dragon Plus
- October: 2009: Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow
Other works
Disregarding games based on his own works that he is credited or thanked in without providing documented additional content, which removes a few other titles based on Dr. Slump or Go! Go! Ackman, Toriyama still worked on several notable projects.
- August 1996: Tobal No. 1
- Credited as a character designer.
- August 1997: Tobal 2
- Credited as a character designer.
- June 2013: Chōsoku Henkei Gyrozetter
- Credited with the design of original character Beeman 500SS.
- February 2019: Jump Force
- Credited with creating multiple original characters.
- Toriyama is also credited in other games featuring Shonen Jump media crossovers for designing characters, such as Dark Raid in 1991’s Famicom Jump II: Saikyō no Shichinin.
- April 2021: Fantasian
- Credited by the Mistwalker team for creating one of the level dioramas.
- April 2024: Sand Land
- Credited with character designs and as original creator. TBD for original additions.
There are likely several other games that Akira Toriyama worked on during his illustrious creative career, however, this list focuses on his most prominent credits where he provided significant content to a game or franchise. If you want to learn more about interesting games you might not know about, check all of Vanillaware’s games, and hear about how the Unicorn Overlord team spent every dollar from the studio to release the game.
