Earlier today, Square-Enix announced that the eleventh main line entry in the Dragon Quest series is currently in development. While the company did not indicate a release date, they did confirm that Dragon Quest XI would be coming to the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo 3DS platforms, and added that the development team is currently investigating the possibility of bringing the game to the forthcoming Nintendo "NX" platform. The company offered no insight as to whether the game would ever be released outside of Japan.
The announcement was part of a press conference focused on all things Dragon Quest. While video of the conference is available, it's untranslated and pretty long. Thankfully, Gemetsu pulled out the footage of DQXI for easy consumption. The PS4 version of the game runs on the Unreal 4 engine, and looks like it offers an updated, slightly more detailed version of the anime inspired, cel-shaded aesthetic of Dragon Quest VIII and X.
The Nintendo 3DS version of the DQXI will be the same game as the PS4 release, but it does depart in one key way: While the 3DS' top screen will display a polygonal game world akin to the PS4 game, the bottom screen will show a top down, SNES-style view of play, complete with sprites. In the video Square-Enix released, battles can be seen in both 3D and 2D modes. It's a strange feature, but it makes a little more sense once you consider that this game may end up being released next year, during Dragon Quest's 30th year anniversary. The 2D/3D blend would make a sort of novel bit of recognition to the long history of the series.
Unfortunately for me, that long history isn't something I know a ton about. The Dragon Quest franchise is actually one of my major gaming blind spots, but it's not that I haven't tried to give it a fair shake. I put about ten hours into Dragon Quest V, which has the interesting premise of following a single hero through life from youth to parenthood, before getting distracted by something else. I dabbled with the charming Dragon Quest VIII when that was released, but my PS2 broke on me midway through. And while I spent (and enjoyed) a few dozen hours with Dragon Quest IX, I came nowhere near completing it.
Maybe if the stars (and spreadsheets) align just so, DQXI will get a Western release and I'll be able to give the series another shot.