Forum - View topicNEWS: Dragon Quest XII Game Reveals New Beyond Dreams Subtitle in Sneak Peek Trailer
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Silver Kirin
Posts: 1744 |
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I wonder what happened at Armor Project and Square-Enix that the development of Dragon Quest XII had to restart. It's been five years since DQXII was first announced, but there wasn't a lot of information about the game itself, Horii did mention back in 2021 that XII was going to shape the next 10 to 20 years of Dragon Quest and his most recent comments were that he wanted to honor Akira Toriyama and Koichi Sugiyama's legacy. There were also some comments that the game would be darker than previous entries, but those were mostly specualtions from some fans that argued that maybe the executives at Square-Enix suggested Armor Project to go for a different direction so that maybe the DQ series could grow its audience outside of Japan, and to be fair, the reveal logo for DQXII looked darker, with the XII being written in flames and the T in quest not being a sword like it always has been, but now it the logo seems more in-line with all previous games, the T is a sword again.
If I'm remembering correctly, I believe there were some changes inside of both Square-Enix and Armor Project in the last few years, there was an internal restructuring happening at S-E and Dragon Quest's chief producer left the company in 2023, so maybe the development of DQXII restarted around that time As for the game itself, it looks like an evolution of DQXI, but there's not a lot of stuff to judge it, at least in a technical level, I'd say that I'm not digging the protagonist's look |
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Tamer Sakura
Posts: 41 |
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Yeah, the zoomer hair protagonist isn't doing it for me either and the dragon guy doesn't look like Toriyama's usual creature designs. The woman looks ok but very generic as well. Going to have low expectations for this one given they started development. Don't think this series can ever reach its peak again without Sugiyama and Toriyama.
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Fluwm
Moderator
 Posts: 1616 |
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Can't say I'm in a particularly good mood after catching up on all the Dragon Quest news today. As much as I love the series, it's hard to maintain that love in the face of Square-Enix' (gesturing broadly) everything.
Like as much as I love Dragon Quest VI, I'm not sure I really want to see the series play around with the same premise again, especially if it's coming at the cost of what had *sounded* like a more ambitious, unique set-up for XII (which was very welcome in the wake of XI's "back to basics" style for the last anniversary). The new subtitle also just... kind of sucks. It's remarkable generic. As for the hero's design... I can't say I'm much of a fan of that, either. Head notwithstanding, the clothing is also rather dull. I really hope we get something like IX's equipment system, where each piece of armor is reflected on the character model, though being able to change hairstyles would also be nice. (Or just give us full character customization.) Though in the wake of the VII remake, I'm not exactly hopeful for either. Then there's the other news... a new Monsters game, which is cool, but the last one was so underwhelming it's hard to be optimistic for it... especially with it being (or seeming to be) another prequel. And the Nintendo Switch 2 version of XI, which will... evidently not have an upgrade path for existing owners? Neat. I assume it'll be a game key-card only release, too, if only because Square-Enix has to recoup the massive amount of money it wastes on mismanaging its AAA-development projects somehow. |
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Riku157
Posts: 172 |
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I will continue to hope for a Builders 3 eventually. I'll see how this game turns out as more news is released.
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Dancing Green
 Posts: 70 |
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I wonder if FFXVI underperforming was a factor in them pivoting away from a dark and gritty Dragon Quest and restart development. Here's hoping it's still turn based and not action combat.
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 7154 |
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Yeah I’m treating this with trepidation. Did not like XI, utterly hated the 3DS version of VII (though not for the reasons others did), and wanted to buy the 3DS version of VIII until I found out we got stuck with midi music and no option to switch the voices to Japanese.
And then of course I’m over Artie Piazza’s localization quirks.
I mean XI’s protagonist had Android 17’s hair. MC’s hair is standard Toriyama. |
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LinkTSwordmaster
 Posts: 814 Location: PA / USA |
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That's definitely a thought on my mind as well. Would it be better if they made the same game with a different setting over & over, or would it be better for them to do something unexpected that looks nothing like one of the previous DQ mainline games? I think more so than Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest has so many spinoff games that if they were to heavily experiment, it may as well not be in the mainline numbered title. They could just as easily do an action-combat spinoff and maybe even avoid having the pressure of the sort of time & budget that a mainline entry requires - at minimum, I'd say FF Stranger of Paradise may have landed a bit better in this way (I disliked it though) than FF16 ultimately did (I don't mind its action-combat, my issue was that the world and the characters never grabbed me). Regardless, as someone that has consistently enjoyed DQ 7, 8, 9, and 11, the character designs in the DQ12 trailer aren't landing for me, and the environment and lighting have way too much of a plastic/uncanny valley sort of a look to it, that the trailer is absolutely not doing any favors in my mind. The weird remake DQ7 just got had a similar problem with its visual style for me - things just looked "off". In a post-Expedition 33 world, it really has me wondering if outside of FF7R, Square has no idea what a mainline Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest game should look like anymore (to the point that I'm more interested in seeing original games from [i]fans of[i] FF or DQ instead). And this problem is compounded by the fact that most people playing either series now might be doing it more for nostalgia than function, given the long wait between releases. Even for myself, if you were to tell me that I could pick between DQ12 or a FF7R-style remake of Chrono Trigger, I'd enthusiastically set my Dragon Quest collection ablaze at the chance to have a richer experience in Chrono Trigger's world once more. |
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Silver Kirin
Posts: 1744 |
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I'm not so sure about that, I believe the development of mainline Dragon Quest games are done independently from S-E, since technically the series is actually owned by Armor Project, though I can imagine S-E has some power over Horii and is team and made some suggestions on how the series should change to appeal to different players, especially outside of Japan. It's not the first time a DQ has had a major reboot in its development, I already mentioned that Horii and his team experimented with a more action-RPG style type of gameplay for Dragon Quest IX, and they actually released a trailer, but they received tons of backlash from longtime fans of the series. With DQXII, there weren't any trailers of a lot of comments, save from some vague statements from Horii saying XII will be darker and it would shake the foundations of the mainline DQ series, perhaps Armor Project did really experiment with a more darker and action focused gameplay for DQXII, and yes, both Final Fantasy XVI and VII Rebirth didn't exactly set the Japanese games sales charts on fire, and considering both Square-Enix and Armor Project went under a new change of management, perhaps Horii decide to go for a safer direction. Still, it's kind of worrying for S-E that some of their major IPs have had huge gaps between the release of new titles, Dragon Quest XI released almost ten years ago, now it's truly the longest wait between the release of a new mainline DQ game. |
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Wyvern
 Posts: 1790 |
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I don't mind the new designs, actually. Lizard guy is cute, and the hero looks suitably main character-y. Everything looks influenced by Toriyama but not exactly in his style, and that's how it needs to look going forward since he's no longer with us. I am curious to see what he contributed to the original plan for this game, though, before the obvious revamp.
Incidentally, I couldn't help but notice that the subtitles give the hero "they/they" pronouns. I wonder if this means we'll be able to choose the hero's gender, like in DQIV. |
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AiddonValentine
 Posts: 2920 |
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I have to reject that notion because Horii has been willing to tank localizations over people arguing with him over the name of a horse (not even close to joking). Horii does what he wants come hell or high water. There are basically two teams at SqEx that executives cannot push around: one is Horii's team, the other is Creative Business Unit 3 under Yoshida who do FFXIV which is a load-bearing part of SqEx (who funnily enough made FFXVI). The reality is probably closer to "he changed his mind just because he had another idea." If something changes it's because Horii changed his mind and no one else. That's it. As for the game itself, interesting they're interesting a robot so early. I know one frustration Toriyama had was he felt sticking exclusively to medieval stuff got boring for him, so I wonder if that's part of his late comments. Also, calling it, the lizard is an alternate version of the protagonist, hence why they have the same fade hairdo. |
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EmeraldSaucer
 Posts: 919 |
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Think the change wasn't really a matter of Horii wanting to move away from a darker story. This reads to me like them trying to take a drastically new direction with DQ (ie trying to make it an action RPG, again), but that not working out and so the story and such changing as a natural result of this change in what the game was going to be
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zeopower6
Posts: 194 |
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The hair made me think of Oob from Dragon Ball so it isn't thaaaat not-so-Toriyama
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Uchay
 Posts: 125 |
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The style looks very inspired by Toriyama, which is the best you can hope for considering he's not around anymore.
I'm not big on the designs in general, mind you, but, as much as I respect the man, I've always been ambivalent towards Toriyama's style when it's not made for comedies lol I also thought DQXI characters looked overall boring and samey-face. Either way, I can get used to the character's designs, just as I have before. We have nowhere near enough info to start hyping or doomposting about this game, ngl, so I'll hold judgment. |
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Dancing Green
Posts: 70 |
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I remember reading that article and Horii was right though.. DQ localization is pretty bad and generally misses the mark on being faithful to the original. Even ignoring censorship reasons I do kind of hope Horii going on record for that means this game might have a better localization... at least ditch the heavy accents and writing. |
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BlueAlf
 Posts: 1767 |
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I also think Horii had a change of heart midway through development. Maybe it was the pandemic era or things getting darker in general, he thought making a brighter and more hopeful game would be more personally satisfying. Especially since he's getting on his ages.
I don't think he's the type of person who drastically makes story changes. So I think a lot of the elements from his past vision would be retained. I'm a guy who misses Enix's older localizations, who also wasn't quite satisfied with DQ XI BTW. |
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