Random Roar: Be Patient With Dragon Quest XII
It’s probably not a good time to be Yuji Horii right now. I can imagine the development for Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate has been a nightmare for him. The previous game in the main series released two years after it was announced and Dragon Quest IX came out three years after its formal announcement (although they were expecting to release it at least a couple years sooner than that). It has been three years now since this game was announced and the only thing we have is the logo to go by as well as a few sparse details.
Dragon Quest XII is supposed to take a darker tone than prior games, but the series has delved into some dark themes in the past. Most notably, Dragon Quest V showed the main character’s father being murdered right before his eyes, then he got sold into slavery for a decade. Then, later on, he and his wife got turned to stone and he was left forgotten in a garden for another decade while his wife’s whereabouts remained unknown for most of the rest of the game. Dragon Quest VIII was basically a series of failures to save the lives of specific people who the villains wanted to see dead, and Dragon Quest XI pulled a Final Fantasy VI and had the main characters fail to stop the world from being destroyed. For pretty much the entirety of act two, the world resembled the This Is Fine meme and nearly everyone had given up hope. It didn’t help that the main character woke up in the ocean after having been transformed into a simple blue fish. If Horii wants the series to become darker than that, there’s pretty much nowhere to go but to make another Final Fantasy XVI, and we received one of those already.
Horii also wants the game to feature more meaningful choices, so it’s possible the But Thou Must aspect of the series is going to finally be thrown into the bin. Last but certainly not least, Horii wants to overhaul the battle system, but it should be noted that he already tried that with Dragon Quest IX. Part of the reason it was delayed for two years was to put the classic battle system back into the game. This twelfth main entry in the series has similarly promised to change the battle system and is also taking a while to come out, so it’s possible that history is repeating itself here for Horii.
Since the game’s announcement in 2021, the Dragon Quest world has been rocked by two high profile deaths in the family. First came the passing of the series’ controversial composer, Koichi Sugiyama. He’s been the exclusive composer for the main series and nearly every side game ever made since the very first installment back in 1986, and passed away about four months after the announcement of the twelfth entry in the series. It’s not known yet how much work he put into the game, but fans have noticed that he’d started to run out of steam. One of the criticisms of Dragon Quest XI that I’ve seen involved fans being disappointed in the soundtrack. Depending on how long the game had been in development before its announcement, The Flames of Fate might be the first game in the series to try a new musical direction with barely any input from Sugiyama at all.
It should be noted that the series has occasionally used the work of other composers. Sugiyama hasn’t been the exclusive composer of every single Dragon Quest soundtrack, but given that he’s the sole contributor to something like 98% of them, it’s easy to think of him as the Dragon Quest guy without whom the series would not sound the way it does. Manami Matsumae is credited with composing the soundtrack to Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors on the Wii in 2007, and it was a nice breath of fresh air compared to the main series while still sounding like an authentic Dragon Quest game. The game’s battle theme sounded like it could’ve stood alongside some of Sugiyama’s best and was a prime example of what a game in a post-Sugiyama era might sound like. It’s also, as far as I can tell, the only major title in the series that featured a brand new composer during Sugiyama’s lifetime.
The recent passing of Akira Toriyama has thrown another money wrench into the development of the game, but unlike with Sugiyama, Toriyama’s passing has likely happened after most of his contributions to Dragon Quest XII were finalized. Going forward, it’s going to feel a little strange to see characters designed by someone who may or may not attempt to ape Toriyama’s style, but at the very least, the series’ extensive bestiary remains largely unchanged from one game to the next. Due to this, Toriyama’s influence will continue to be felt in each new entry of the Dragon Quest franchise. Instead, it’ll be each entry’s brand new playable cast and its main villains and major bosses who will require the developers to seek out Toriyama’s successor.
Losing one long time contributor to a series is definitely a devastating blow, but I can’t imagine how Horii must feel to lose two long time friends of his during the development of one game. If and when The Flames of Fate comes out, I would not be surprised if Horii wanted to put the main series to bed for a while. As it is, the game will likely and understandably be delayed for a while longer, if the lack of news of its development is anything to go by.
About The Author
Joseph
Panthera Editus | In the great frozen land in the north known as Canada, a little to the east of that other frozen land in the north known as Alaska, resides the gaming enthusiast whom most people know as Joseph. When he’s not gaming or writing about gaming, he likes to enjoy life’s little ironies. Twitter
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If anyone’s wondering, the last of the rap battle retrospective articles have been delayed a week so I could post this while Akira Toriyama’s passing is fresh in everyone’s minds. I might not have liked his art style as much as others did, but there’s no doubt that he left an indelible mark on the worlds of manga, anime and video games.