Next Dragon Quest Already In Development (Could This Be DQX’s Western Release?)

Here’s a surprise: Yuji Horii has revealed in the Nico Nico Super Conference that Square Enix is already making a new Dragon Quest game.

Japanese devs seem to love dropping bombshells in front of their peers lately. Dragon Quest X’s producer Yosuke Saito and chief planner Anzai Takashi were there when Horii made the announcement, and were clearly surprised that he revealed it. It seemed like something that he was not even supposed to be talking about yet.

We do not have any details beyond that, so it is possible that Horii was referring to a new Dragon Quest console game (3DS or Wii U), a new PC game, or a mobile game, in which case it is likely to be a spinoff. Or, and this is my biggest guess, it could be a remake of sorts of Dragon Quest X itself.

Dragon Quest X has an active userbase of 300,000 users per day, and sold one million copies across all platforms since March 27 of this year. Of those platforms, it would seem the Wii version has performed best, and the Wii U suffered from an underwhelming launch. I think it’s possible that Square Enix is planning an improved rerelease of the game, in the same vein as Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn.

Now, Dragon Quest X actually already received that treatment, in a December 2013 release roughly translated to Dragon Quest X: The Sleeping Brave and the Guided Allies Online. However, I think Square Enix could be preparing for something we have been waiting awhile for: the game’s western release.

If this turns out to be true, I also think Square Enix will go about it the same way they did for Bravely Default. BD has an original and improved release in Japan too, and the US release combined elements of both releases into one. We will make sure to let you know when more details on the next Dragon Quest game is revealed.

Image is from Dragon Quest X.