The same can’t be said for the franchise’s latest main title, Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate.

It’s been almost two and a half years since Square Enix announced in May 2021 that it would be making a 2D, HD version of Dragon Quest III (a slightly deeper concept than the Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remaster series), but the game has yet to be released. But we might not have to wait much longer, as Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii revealed to Famitsu at the World Cosplay Summit 2023 (held in Nagoya, Japan, in early August) that he is involved in playtesting and testing, and has been closely supervising and modifying a few things early in development, as he believes that the start of development is crucial.

Horii is as involved in developing Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince as he was in Dragon Quest III in HD-2D and Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate. For DQ3, he knows a lot about it as its creator, so he gives advice on how to make changes if there are any. Horii doesn’t have much to say about Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate (also announced in May 2021), but he says development on Dragon Quest III in HD-2D is going pretty well.

Fans of the franchise are looking forward to all three games (although Monsters is a spin-off, not a remake or a new episode). Still, Horii added that they are working on many other things and hopes the audience will look forward to them with the same enthusiasm. We can’t say anything about that blindly because who knows what else is in the pipeline.

Square’s merger with Enix a good two decades ago saw Dragon Quest move under the same roof as Final Fantasy (DQ was Enix’s IP!), so the Japanese company has nothing to be ashamed of regarding JRPGs.

Source: Gematsu