A friend and I were talking about the 3D and 2D graphic style that Dragon Quest XI has. For those that don't know, the visuals of Dragon Quest XI (3DS specifically) are shown on both the top and bottom screens. With a 3D version of the world and characters on top, and a traditional 2D style on the bottom. According to this article, both styles will be shown at the same time for only the opening portion.

"Later on after its opening stages, you’ll have to select which style to play, but you’ll also get to switch between its 3D and 2D styles at any time."

This has lead me to believe that this may not just be a choice of aesthetic, but will play into the story somehow. And possibly serve as some sort of puzzle mechanic. Much like the perspective mechanics of Super Paper Mario or Fez.

All of the DQ games since II have a subtitle. So I immediately looked into the subtitle of XI. The full title of DQXI is, Dragon Quest XI: Sugisarishi Toki o Motomete." Which translates to "In Search of Departed Time." Which, I think, really plays into my theory. "Departed Time" refers to the past, the old times. How better to represent the old times by representing that past with the classic 2D sprite art style of the Dragon Quest games?

This could totally be a huge overthinking on my part. And I do realize that in the video all the NPCs are in the same spot on both screens which would be very strange if they are in fact two different two time periods.

Just a thought I had! We'll see when the game comes out in Japan. Hopefully here as well seeing how many DQ games have made it here recently.

This is a neat theory, but I think a big blow against it is that the PS4 version (I think) doesn`t have the 2D mode. It might be that the versions are really different in both content and style, if that is the case this still might be true though. Otherwise it might just be that they want to use the second screen on the 3DS for something else like menus or maps or something.

I forgot to mention that there is also the PS4 version to consider. Which from what we've seen, has completey different visuals and no graphic swapping. Really weird that we have three different graphic styles across these two versions of the game. And at this point we haven't seen what the Nintendo Switch version will be like.

@odinsmana: Totally agree. I meant to mention this in my original post but forgot. I posted my other message in this thread before refreshing and seeing your post.