This year marks the Dragon Quest RPG series’ 40th anniversary, and on Dragon Quest Day (May 27), Square Enix made several big announcements, including revealing the new title for Dragon Quest 12, and announcing a new Dragon Quest Monsters game.
Dragon Quest 12 has had some troubled development over the years. This was confirmed during the 40th anniversary video by series game designer Yuji Horii and producer Yosuke Saito: “Dragon Quest 12 underwent a restart in development under a new structure.” The new game is also getting a new subtitle. Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate will now be known as Dragon Quest 12: Beyond Dreams.
No release date was announced, but new gameplay footage was show off, depicting the main hero, and a bright and colorful world of familiar monsters.
We’re currently in the longest drought of the main Dragon Quest series in history. Dragon Quest 11 released back in 2017!
Speaking of DQ11, it’s getting a new Switch 2 port on September 24. The Switch 2 version will feature all the special features of Dragon Quest 11 S, plus two display modes to choose from (graphics or performance). Pre-orders are now available.
Square Enix had one more big game announcement for the anniversary. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World is the newest game in the creature collector spinoff series.
The Withered World will arrive on Steam PC, PlayStation, Switch, Switch 2, and Xbox, though a release date has not been announced. The story will follow dual protagonists Bianca and Nera, from Dragon Quest 5.
Dragon Quest Monsters has been a prolific series for nearly 30 years, nearly as old as Pokémon (which was also inspired by Dragon Quest 5’s monster taming). Though we weren’t big fans of the latest entry, The Dark Prince.
Square Enix also released a fun illustration commemorating the anniversary, and showing off the classic monsters and heroes of the Dragon Quest series.
For 40 years the Dragon Quest series has sold over 97 million units worldwide, and spawned numerous spinoffs, as well as manga, novels, films, anime, and more. The original game was recently entered into the World Video Game Hall of Fame.
