Square Enix has decided to shake up the management of one of their top video game properties, Dragon Quest.
Since RPG studio rivals Square and Enix merged, Final Fantasy has been the top franchise the combined game company has put the most focus on. That is not to say that they have forgotten to give any love to Dragon Quest, but it was clear that Final Fantasy was the bigger franchise that could guarantee their financial stability.
Dragon Quest games did continue to go out in a regular basis, including its biggest spinoff title, Dragon Quest Monsters, and a bevy of other smaller spinoffs, like the motion control Wii title Dragon Quest Swords.
As reported on Bloomberg, Yuu Miyake is set to leave his position as the man in charge of Dragon Quest. Miyake has been working on the franchise in some capacity since 1992. That adds up to 33 of the last 38 years that Dragon Quest has been in existence.
But today, there are some serious extenuating circumstances behind this. Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu has been working to streamline the company’s production process, in particular by reducing dependence on outsourcing, to make more AAA games on their own.
Square Enix announced Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate in 2021. While the title is likely deep in development, internally the game has been facing multiple delays.
As for who is taking over, sources claim that Yosuke Saito, who is best known for working on the Nier franchise, is the most likely candidate to take over the franchise. We will note here that all three men we had mentioned here were appointed as executive offices as of the start of this month.
Fans probably don’t have to worry about Yuu Miyake, but these changes are worth paying attention to for fans of Dragon Quest. While Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate looked like it would be bringing the band back together when production started, two of the three key people behind the franchise are no longer with us.
As we had recently reported, Dragon Quest artist, and manga and anime legend, Akira Toriyama, recently passed away. But what some gamers may not remember is that Dragon Quest’s key composer and musician, Koichi Sugiyama, had also passed away in 2021.
That leaves Yuji Horii as the remaining key figure from since the franchise started to work on Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate. Yuji isn’t actually a Square Enix employee. Instead, he runs his own studio, called Armor Project, and Armor has an arrangement with Square Enix to work together on making Dragon Quest games. Armor and Square also both own the Dragon Quest IP.
Square may choose to retain Toriyama’s art company Bird Studio to continue work on Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate, and they may have already assigned a new composer. But Square Enix definitely has to think hard about how these changes are affecting the game they are working on, and how they will go one in the current situation.
We can only hope that Square Enix can get this project back on track so we can see a great new Dragon Quest in our future.
