To celebrate the series' 40th anniversary, the Dragon Quest team finally gave us a long-awaited update on the next mainline game - but it's not the news that we wanted. Executive Producer Yosuke Saito and games industry legend Yuji Horii confirmed that Dragon Quest XII is still on the way, but "it's going to be a bit longer till it's in your hands."
According to the two developers, the team decided to completely restart development of Dragon Quest XII to ensure the next game "will be one that all you fans of the series will really love." Because of this, the new Dragon Quest game has a fresh logo and subtitle, Beyond Dreams, and is going to take a while to get to us. While I'm disappointed that I have to wait even longer to get my adventuring on, the brief trailer for Dragon Quest XII that we got to see looked beautiful, and I trust that this was the right decision for the series.
Despite this slightly disappointing update, Saito and Horii had another surprise in store as they revealed Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World, saying that the team hopes to release it before XII. The Dragon Quest Monsters spin-off series takes place in the same fantastical world as the mainline games, but sees you battling and catching monsters to train and breed them, instead of eradicating them from the world. As a fan of games like Pokémon, I can't wait to give this one a go. Luckily, we know that it's launching on Nintendo's family of handhelds, so there's another new Switch game to look forward to.
Just before the ten-minute livestream, the Dragon Quest YouTube channel also revealed that Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition is launching on the Switch 2 on September 24, 2026. As well as bringing the legendary, almost decade-old JRPG to yet another platform with improved graphics, this edition features new story chapters centering the hero's party members, the ability to swap between 3D and 2D mode, and additional voice acting.
Plus, if you're hankering for some Dragon Quest action right now, there's an anniversary event happening in the free mobile game, Dragon Quest Smash/Grow. You can hear from Yuji Horii himself about this latest title in our Dragon Quest Smash/Grow interview, and let us know what you're most excited about from today's announcements in the Pocket Tactics Discord server.