"Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age" is set to be released in the West sometime next year. It has been confirmed for the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. Prior to the recent The Unreal Fest East 2017, there were doubts about how the game would work on Nintendo's new home console, as it did not support the game's version of Unreal Engine 4.
"Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age" was made using Unreal Engine 4.13, while the Switch supports from version 4.15. Due to this, Square Enix could not just port over the PlayStation 4 version to the Japanese company's current generation console.
During the recent event, Square Enix explained that they have been hard at work on updating the eleventh entry in the series so it can work on version 4.15 of the engine.
A long time coming
"Dragon Quest" has been around since 1986 when the original game was released for the Famicom and NES. The series is a stable of the Japanese RPG scene, influencing many future franchises like "Final Fantasy." Besides popularizing the turn-based combat system, the series is notable for featuring characters designed by "Dragon Ball's" Akira Toriyama.
"Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age" marks the return of the series to home consoles for the Western market since the eight entry of the franchise, which was released back in 2006.
It is not a departure from the standard gameplay associated with the series, but after more than a decade waiting for a new "Dragon Quest," most fans are just happy to be able to return to the series.
"Dragon Quest X" was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game released only in Japan. Its predecessor was released in North America and Europe, but "Sentinels of the Starry Skies" was available only on the Nintendo DS.
The franchise is popular in Japan but has rarely sold extremely well in the Western market.
'Dragon Quest Heroes'
"Dragon Quest Heroes" is a hack-and-slash series which combined the JRPG with "Dynasty Warriors." These two spin-off titles were both released for the West, selling well enough to show Square Enix that there is interest left in the franchise.
"Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age" will be the real test, as a poor showing could make the publisher think twice about porting the series to North America, there is a great deal of nostalgia associated with the franchise. The seventh and eight entries were extremely popular on the PlayStation 2.
