Dragon Quest fans, breathe easy! Remember all that worry about Dragon Quest 12 being MIA? Yeah, turns out, it's still happening! Yuji Horii, the main man himself, just confirmed it.
It feels like ages ago, back in 2021, when they first teased DQ12, and we've heard practically nothing since, just that initial trailer. But hold your horses, folks.
Over the weekend, Horii did a livestream thing with some radio show group (KosoKoso Hōsō Kyoku, if you're curious – thanks Automaton for catching it). And boom, straight from the source: they're "working hard on Dragon Quest 12". Phew!
He said they'll be dropping more info "little by little," but didn't spill any extra beans just yet. Still, just knowing it's still alive is good news, right?
Actually, last May, Horii kinda mentioned DQ12 too, saying they wanted to make it a game worthy of Akira Toriyama and Koichi Sugiyama's final work. Heavy stuff, considering those two legends, the character designer and composer, worked on every Dragon Quest game before they sadly passed away.
And remember when Yu Miyake, the series producer, moved over to mobile games at Square Enix? Yeah, that had some folks wondering what was up with DQ12's development.
Well, Horii cleared things up in the livestream, apologized for any confusion, and straight up said, no, it's not canceled. So, put those rumors to bed!
We don't know a ton about DQ12 still. But back at the 35th-anniversary stream, Horii did say they're tweaking the classic turn-based battles and going for a darker, more adult vibe. Intriguing, right?
On a brighter note, Square Enix's earnings report says that Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake did amazing, way better than expected. It even became Japan's biggest game of 2024 super fast. Nice!
They're planning on doing similar remakes for DQ1 and 2 this year, which is cool. But yeah, everyone's really waiting for that proper next-gen Dragon Quest game to build on all this hype. So, DQ12 is still on the way, folks. Just gotta be a little more patient, it seems. Any-slime now... eventually!