Yuji Horii also posted a comment regarding Dragon Quest V:
Despite being a game, I'll have you seriously worried. That's what I was thinking when I produced this game. Would you choose your childhood friend Bianca, or the rich girl Flora/Nera? Personally, I thought most people would go with Bianca, so I added some remittances to Flora/Nera to give her a slight advantage. But I'm surprised when it turned out that many would pick the latter (laughs).
Although the story was about beating the Demon Lord with generations of father and son, the protagonist didn't change between generations, but instead his lifetime was depicted from child to adult, and eventually becoming a father.