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In Japan, the Dragon Quest series is the undisputed king of RPGs, so getting it to grace your console with its presence is kind of a big deal. Considering this, Nintendo fans had reason for rejoicing when it was announced that Square Enix will be continuing its relationship with Nintendo that started with Dragon Quest IX for the original DS.
The next main entry in the franchise, Dragon Quest XI, will be coming to both home consoles and Nintendo 3DS. Both versions will feature the same story and similar gameplay, but the visuals and overall design will differ to take advantages of each system’s special features. On 3DS, the game will actually be presented in both modern and retro visual styles thanks to the dual screens; the top screens will be a 3D rendering of the world, while the bottom will have pixelated sprites that look like they came from an SNES cartridge.
However, the biggest news was that the game is being considered for Nintendo’s next console, currently codenamed NX. Of course, this isn’t any sort of confirmation, but this is still quite significant, especially when you consider nobody really knows what NX will be; however, the fact that the game has been confirmed for PS4 might suggest that NX’s specs will be on parity with the competition. Then again, that might be too much speculation at this point.
Furthermore, Square Enix also stated it is thinking about bringing the Japan-only Dragon Quest X, which is an MMO, to NX as well. Once again, we’ll definitely have to wait a while before hearing any sort of definitive details.
Regardless of whether or not Dragon Quest XI comes to NX, today was a big day for Nintendo with just the announcement of the 3DS version– everything else is just icing on the cake. Dragon Quest XI will almost certainly go on to sell more copies than I could ever count on 3DS, and that’s just based on Japan. A North American release has yet to be announced, though I think most gamers would be shocked if it wasn’t confirmed sooner or later.
Source: Square Enix
Lets hope that third party developers do more than “consider” NX development. Lets hope all the major good developers jump on board-plus lots of indie support for whatever the NX ends up being-which I personally hope is a return to form.