Dragon Quest Future-Spective: The Dragon Quest 35th Anniversary Livestream

 

If there’s one thing I could say about the timing of the 35th anniversary livestream, it’s that they couldn’t have timed it worse if they tried.  Either that or I’m just too lazy, but either way, I’ve ended up waiting nearly one full week to talk about it, but I likely would’ve had something out a lot sooner if they’d held the stream just a few hours prior, like that time last year when I speculated on Final Fantasy XVI right after seeing the announcement trailer.

On the plus side, I’ve had a week to digest all of the information presented and figure out how I feel about the new games that have been announced.  The Dragon Quest franchise is certainly far from dead, and while this is very much true in Japan, where Dragon Quest is even more popular than Final Fantasy, it is comforting to know that Square-Enix has at least some faith in the franchise’s international future.

I’ll save my rant about the company still dragging their heels regarding localizing Dragon Quest X for another day.

 

Dragon Quest Keshi Keshi

Starting from the top, we have a brand new puzzle game for iOS and Android.  Keshi Keshi looks like a match three puzzle game, which anyone who has played Bejeweled or any of the Puzzle Quest games should be familiar with.  Given that this is in the Dragon Quest series, I would probably lean more heavily upon the Puzzle Quest comparisons instead of Bejeweled and maybe also mention Gems of War, Gyromancer and any of the other games where players match gems in order to power their abilities, then use those abilities to defeat their opponents.  You can be sure that’s what you’ll be doing when playing this game, fighting enemies and trying to defeat boss monsters while being served up a healthy dose of nostalgia.  Anyone who thinks Final Fantasy is too steeped in nostalgia would be shocked at how much Dragon Quest is willing to reference its past.

The game is launching sometime in 2021 and will be free-to-play, which likely means microtransactions will be funding it.  It’s also currently set to be released in Japan only, for now, but is apparently planned to be released overseas at some point after its Japanese release.  Given how many mobile Dragon Quest games end up staying in Japan, I’m not holding my breath for a North American release, and even if it were to find its way here, there’s no guarantee it won’t disappear almost as quickly, like what happened with Dragon Quest of the Stars.

That said, match three is a fairly easy genre of game to market, and as long as it’s easy enough to get into and play, it might just carve itself out a niche and survive.  The North American market may or may not be too saturated already.  The aforementioned Gems of War is still going strong, and the continued success of Marvel Puzzle Quest and Magic: The Gathering – Puzzle Quest are basically the only thing keeping the Puzzle Quest brand alive.  Match three in general is very common if one looks through mobile game markets, Steam and the Microsoft Store.  This game’s survival definitely depends on the recognition of its brand name.

 

Dragon Quest X Version 6

The fifth expansion to the Dragon Quest MMO is also set to be released in 2021, but unlike Keshi Keshi, there are still no plans to release this game in English.  It’s long been a subject of speculation as to why, and I won’t get into that here.  Suffice to say, despite fans practically begging for this for years and assertions from Square-Enix that they’d consider it if enough fans wanted it, there has yet to be a concrete announcement of such.  The livestream even rubbed salt into that wound by adding “there are no plans for a worldwide release” on the screen while talking about the game.

Now there’s yet another expansion’s worth of content that’s going to be available, plus, it looks like the game operates on a similar pattern to Final Fantasy XIV, considering the announcement trailer mentioned a “version 5.5”. This suggests that there were five free content patches released after Dragon Quest X Version 5, and I can assume they probably did similar with some or all of the other expansions, so there’s a lot more than just six full Dragon Quest games to translate at once.  It truly feels like the longer they drag their heels, the more of a remote possibility a localization is going to become.

 

Dragon Quest X Offline

I must say, Dragon Quest‘s Overture loses its effect if two conditions are met.  One, put it at the start of every Dragon Quest trailer ever and two, play several of them within the span of about forty minutes.  Keep in mind that this can be true of everything.  Final Fantasy‘s Prelude can be tiring if it’s in every trailer for every game and if several new games are announced at once.  But never before have I thought, “Wow, this overture is a bit overdone, don’t you think?”

It’s actually pretty interesting that Dragon Quest X is getting an offline version before Final Fantasy XI, considering the former game is closing in on its 10th anniversary, and the latter is soon going to turn 20.  Since the 10th anniversary of the game is 2022, it stands to reason that’s likely why the offline version is scheduled for a 2022 release.

The offline version is apparently going to follow the story of the online version faithfully, but gameplay is suggested to be very different.  This suggests to me that the MMO battle system is going to be removed and they may be retooling the game around the series traditional turn based system from the offline games, so there’ll be no AOEs to avoid, etc.  Whether that’s the case or not remains to be seen.

Although the online version had a “there are no plans for a worldwide release” disclaimer, the offline version did not.  This might mean nothing, since they didn’t say anything about releasing it outside of Japan, but for all we know, this could be the version that finally releases in North America.

 

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake

Now this is more like it.  Instead of the Overture, the trailer used music that’s actually representative of the game being shown.

That said, given that Final Fantasy VII Remake ended up being an alternate universe and Dragon Quest: Your Story ended up being a virtual reality Let’s Play of Dragon Quest V, I’m slightly wary of this remake.  If Square-Enix can promise us that this isn’t going to be another meta bait and switch, it’ll be great to explore a familiar game with an entirely brand new art style, one which shows actual care in the way it’s presented and doesn’t look like a mobile cash grab like many of the recent Final Fantasy mobile releases.

Of all the remakes that could venture into meta territory, this one is probably one of the most likely candidates, considering the original game takes place in a world clearly modeled after Earth.  However, as long as they’re willing to play the remake entirely straight, it’s speculated that this could be the start of an entire series of “HD-2D” remakes of the older titles.  Selecting the third game in the series functions well in this regard, since it’s one of, if not the most popular game in the entire franchise, and it serves as the prologue to the first trilogy, with an ending that suggests that the hero of the first game is a descendant of the hero of the third game.  If this remake is successful, it could lead to the entire first trilogy being released in HD-2D form.  A lot of the work would already be done, since Alefgard is present in all three games.  Alefgard is pretty much the entire first game, so as long as they can carry over that particular asset, the world map for the first game is already at least 80% done.

Unfortunately, a release date hasn’t been set yet, but they’re aiming for a simultaneous worldwide release.  Hopefully they don’t hold it back until 2023, the original game’s 35th anniversary.

 

Dragon Quest Treasures

One of the things I like the most about RPGs is the treasure hunting.  I like looting chests and getting items, and I’ll feel like I’m getting those items for free, even though I’m actually spending time to get them instead of gold pieces and I’m having to defeat enemies on my way to receive those items.

Anyway, there’s not much I can say about it.  Geoff already mentioned that the game’s main characters are the same as the Dragon Quest Monsters game that was announced a few years ago but that we’ve heard nothing substantial about since.  Is this game the future of the Monsters series, or is it something new entirely?  Right now, we know nothing else except that a worldwide simultaneous release is being aimed for.  The game has yet to have its release date or platform announced, just that it supposedly will not resemble standard RPGs.

It was revealed during this announcement that there’ll still be a new Monsters game but that there’ll be more to announce later.

 

Dragon Quest XII

This is the big one, so of course it would be saved for the last.  With an announcement trailer now available, it is now officially known that the game is in development, something fans have been certain of for a few years now.

At this point, there’s not much known about the setting of the game, but vaguely ambiguous banter during the livestream suggested that the game would be darker and more mature.  It was also suggested that the battle system is going to be different, something which they already tried for Dragon Quest IX and which they ended up having to dial back from during development when fans reacted too negatively.

A release date is also unknown, as is a platform for the game.  Dragon Quest has never been loyal to any one console manufacturer, having begun on Nintendo before switching to Sony for a while and then deciding to give love to both.  Dragon Quest XI was released for both Nintendo and Sony systems, and considering the more mature direction the twelfth main game is expected to take, I can’t imagine it wouldn’t release on the PS5.  Nintendo has been courting more than the kid friendly market lately, so I would expect the game to also release either on the Switch or whatever Nintendo replaces the Switch with.

 

In all, Square-Enix is taking the 35th anniversary of their original flagship series very seriously, to the point where they made sure it was accessible to a worldwide audience.  An English translator followed along and translated what was said in real time, although it was clear that she had to wing it and wasn’t given a script ahead of time.  Still, enough information was able to be conveyed that I’d say it was worth the effort.

So with all that said, the future of the franchise is very interesting.  A lack of Dragon Quest X in the west is still frustrating, and it’s probably expected that we’re going to be left out of that particular party, but it feels like the company is trying to make it up to us by simultaneously releasing nearly everything else from now on, something which they’ve been doing for a while now with their other franchises.  Let’s hope, for their sake and for the sake of Dragon Quest‘s international fans, that the effort pays off.