The new protagonist of 'Dragon Quest XII'.

Square Enix

It’s been a long while since we’ve heard anything about the next mainline entry in the Dragon Quest saga, Dragon Quest XII, but it’s been worth the wait.

The reason for the delay is that the development for the game has already started over from scratch, which is something that happens quite a bit in Japanese game development.

Gone is the more adult and darker tone that was initially promised, and in its place, a more typical Dragon Quest-esque visual and setting approach has been taken (shown below).

The subtitle for the game is Beyond Dreams and deals with a protagonist (shown above) who is plagued by strange visions in his sleep, with what looks like a motley bunch of companions. From one looking like a young humanoid dragon to a cool-looking robot.

Yuji Horii also made a point to say that both the character designs and music will be done by Akira Toriyama and Koichi Sugiyama, respectively. However, without being indelicate, both of those gentlemen are no longer with us, so my guess is they will be reusing previous work of theirs.

The other news is that Dragon Quest Monsters is getting a new entry, with the subtitle of The Withered World. Which is nice, as these games tend to get overlooked compared to the mainline games.

I had hoped we would have seen something about a new Dragon Quest Builders game, but I am guessing after the somewhat lackluster Dragon Quest Builders 2, that series is likely now in hibernation.

One additional bit of good news is that Dragon Quest XI S is getting a new version on Switch 2. The original game is arguably one of the finest role-playing games ever made, and with it being nearly a decade old, it seems only fitting that it will get a fresh update, with the planned release date being September 24.

In any case, as I am a diehard Dragon Quest fan, I am just happy to see that the series is still going strong after 40 years, with another mainline entry on the way in the near future.

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