As part of the 40th anniversary of the Dragon Quest series on May 27, Square Enix has provided an update on the next numbered entry to the series, Dragon Quest XII.
Development for Dragon Quest XII has been restarted.
The title has now changed, as well. It’s now called Dragon Quest XII: Beyond Dreams. A new logo has been revealed, with a more traditional style compared to the edgier look the original DQ XII, full name Dragon Quest XII: The Flames Of Fate, had.
“Work on the original version, Dragon Quest XII: The Flames Of Fate hit a lot of hurdles along the way,” said Yosuke Saito, executive producer for Dragon Quest XII in the update video. “But we kept talking with [Yuji Horii, game designer] and pinned down what a mainline Dragon Quest game should look like. We decided to move things around and restarted from scratch.”
The update video includes gameplay footage of the newly restarted and rechristened Dragon Quest XII, featuring lush and bright environments that looks in line with what the expected aesthetics of a Dragon Quest game. Yes, there is at least one dragon. We also have a look at the new protagonist, who’s been seeing visions in their sleep. The character designs are still credited to the late Akira Toriyama, as all Dragon Quest games have, and DQ XII will continue to feature music by Koichi Sugiyama.
The last numbered entry to the RPG series was Dragon Quest XI back in 2017. Dragon Quest XII was first announced in 2021, so that’s at least five years of development scrapped as the team restarted from scratch again. Some fans equate this to when Final Fantasy Versus XIII went on to become Final Fantasy XV, scrapping a lot of the initial vision and turned into a different game.
That said, it’s not uncommon for game development to start basically from scratch again despite already deep in development, especially for titles from important IPs.
Dragon Quest XII: Beyond Dreams has no release date yet.