A full two-minute plus trailer for Dragon Quest XI was revealed at Jump Festa, an anime expo in Japan. The trailer features the main characters, as well as the colorful world, enemies, and classic rousing theme song of the Dragon Quest series. Dragon Quest XI is currently in development for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo 3DS. It’s due out in Japan in 2017.
Dragon Quest XI is notable not only for the series incredible popularity in Japan, but in its return to the PlayStation platform. The previous non-remake release was Dragon Quest X, a massively multiplayer online game that only released in Japan for PC and Nintendo platforms. The last main Dragon Quest game on a PlayStation system was 2006’s Dragon Quest 8, for PlayStation 2.
The venerable Dragon Quest franchise has seen some resurgence this year. A Minecraft-like spin-off called Dragon Quest Builders released earlier this year for PlayStation 4. In his review Aaron said it “creates a beautiful experience in a lush world and approachable controls.”
A remake of Dragon Quest VII also released earlier this year for Nintendo 3DS. I reviewed it, saying that the remake “brings a much-needed graphical facelift, improved translations, and streamlined additions to entice turn-based JRPG fans to one of the genre’s forgotten gems.”
Dragon Quest VIII is also being given a Nintendo 3DS remake, due January 2017.
For fans of the classic Japanese RPG series, Dragon Quest XI is highly anticipated. Since DQX was an MMO, it’s been almost ten years since the last full story-based Dragon Quest adventure. It’s one of the most beloved and longest-running RPG series in gaming. Due to extensive dialogue and writing the games typically take around a year to localize outside of Japan, so Dragon Quest XI could easily slip into 2018 for a U.S. release (assuming it makes its Japanese release date).
