Dragon Quest fans across the world have been chomping at the bit since Dragon Quest XI was announced in Japan this past April. It’s set to release July 29, 2017 in Japan on the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation 4, with a Switch version following eventually. This is all well and good for Japan, but the real news is of course related to the rest of the world. Square Enix has now announced that Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age will release in the west.
A short video from the creator of Dragon Quest, Yuji Horii, marked the announcement in a fun way. He spoke a bit about the 30th anniversary of the game and how glad he is to still be working on the franchise. A gaggle of slime plushies surrounded him as he told viewers that the localization of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age for the west, is already underway. The team is working on localizing the game into five different languages, including English. Horii continues to say that there is a lot of work to be done on localizing Dragon Quest XI, as it is very text heavy. He assures that the team is working as fast as possible to get the game ready for the rest of the world.
I’d recommend giving the video a short watch if you have the time, as it’s clear that Yuji Horii really values his fans. The fun little exit he makes at the end with his herd of slimes is a cute little treat. I’d like to be the first to point out he left one poor little slime behind!
The Square Enix press release I received stated that there will be more conclusive details about the western release of Dragon Quest XI this fall. The game itself will be out in 2018, but platforms haven’t been confirmed yet. I guess we have to wait a while to discover if we’ll see all three versions here!
Source: Press Release & Dragon Quest YouTube