Now that Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate has finally been announced, fans everywhere can finally look forward to a new mainline Dragon Quest game. On May 27, the official Dragon Quest Twitter account revealed that Dragon Quest 12 is under development in Unreal Engine 5, the updated version of Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age's Unreal Engine 4.
The reveal was contained within a career recruitment notice announcing that Square Enix is interested in hiring new development staff to work on the new Dragon Quest game. While both the tweet in question and the linked Career Recruitment page on Square Enix's site are in Japanese, players can draw some conclusions about the upcoming title from the information that has been made available since Dragon Quest 12 was announced during the Dragon Quest 35th Anniversary Live Stream.
As Dragon Quest 12 was revealed with a simple and surprisingly ominous trailer, fans aren't currently aware of who the main characters are, what the story will revolve around, or what kind of setting the game will take place in. However, Square Enix and Yuji Horii have made it clear that they are trying something new with this entry. Dragon Quest 12 is aiming to be a much more mature game than its predecessors, which may also make it a very non-traditional Dragon Quest game as a whole. Fortunately, Unreal Engine 5 supports Nintendo Switch, so the new game will probably still be accessible to Switch owners.
On the Career Recruitment page, Horii reveals two pieces of new information: that the story of Dragon Quest 12 has already been completed and that he intends to overhaul the turn-based battle system for this game. He does not give any specific details, but reportedly, he's already made a prototype to show off his new ideas and the current staff think it could be interesting. This may indicate that Dragon Quest 12 will follow in Final Fantasy 16's footsteps in terms of mechanics as well overall tone. Horii also states that while the story is finished, the game is so large that it will probably take quite a while to fully implement.
While Dragon Quest 12 will certainly be a change to the series' direction, game director Takeshi Uchikawa--who also directed the much lighter and more traditional Dragon Quest 11 and its remake, Dragon Quest 11 S--makes it clear that the intent is not to spit in the face of the franchise's 35 years of history. Rather, he wishes to use Dragon Quest 12 to bring Dragon Quest to players around the world, creating a change that still supports previous entries in the series. The resulting game will lay the path for the next 35 years of Dragon Quest.
Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate is currently in development.
Source: Square Enix