heartbeat (sometimes heart beat) was a japanese video game developer, famous for developing the sixth and seventh installments of the "dragon quest" series. heartbeat also developed a remake of "dragon quest iv". plans to localize this remake in north america were halted when the employees of heartbeat decided to take a sabbatical. the company stated its reason was "the raise of development costs", despite the massive financial success of its games. the company is now defunct. however, several of its members have created genius sonority.