The much-beloved Dragon Quest series has always been a popular and best-selling franchise, especially in Japan. Ever since its inception in the 1908s, the classic adventure series has helped in fueling the sales of whichever console it has been released upon, at least in its home country of Japan. While it has been released in Western video game markets for years, these markets are still catching on to how much fun these games really are.
Nintendo NX gets its fifth confirmed game
The October issue of video game magazine Nintendo Dream features a round-table discussion between the creator of the Dragon Quest series, Yuji Horii, the producer of the Pokémon series, Junichi Masuda, and the director of the Super Smash Bros. series, Masahiro Sakurai.
During this interview, Horii confirms a version of Dragon Quest for the upcoming Nintendo NX console. Horii initially confirmed the existence of an NX version of Dragon Quest XI back when it was first announced for the PlayStation 4 console and Nintendo 3DS handheld. However, Square Enix, the game’s publisher, took back his statement by saying that they were only “considering launching” the game on the upcoming platform.
The upcoming Dragon Quest installment is taking a bit of a different route this time, however, when compared to its predecessors. With the exception of Dragon Quest X, which was a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG, that now spans three console generations, Horii has created his games with a single console in mind. This time, however, it seems as if Horii plans on releasing his game on three consoles.
Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai, according to a translation, asked Horii, “The 11th installment in the series will be released simultaneously on Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation 4, and including NX it’s coming out on three platforms, right?”
To this Horii replied, “That’s right. The use of hardware is different for each system, so it’s quite a challenge.” He later added that “spoilers will emerge if we release on version earlier,” which points towards a simultaneous launch on all three platforms.
Dragon Quest XI to take advantage of NX’s “unique hardware”
As previously mentioned, we are already aware of two different versions of Dragon Quest XI, one for the Nintendo 3DS and one for the PlayStation 4. One will most likely take advantage of the handheld’s portability, and the other will certainly take advantage of high-powered, high-definition graphics, respectively. Now we know in all certainty the the game will also release on the Nintendo NX.
On the 3DS, Dragon Quest XI will be released in both 3D and 2D versions. “[We’re] making the 3DS version in both 3D and 2D,” said Horii. “I asked my staff, ‘Is that something we can do?’ And they said, ‘We’ll do it.’ So we decided, ‘Then let’s do it.’”
So, all in all, it seems as if there will be four versions of the game across three platforms. While we can have a certain level of expectation for the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo 3DS, we cannot know for certain how the game will function with the NX. According to Horii, this version of Dragon Quest XI plans on taking advantage of the NX’s unique hardware. While no one knows what this “unique hardware” is just yet, we will most likely find out soon enough.
