During theDragon Quest35thanniversary livestream, Square Enix revealedDragon Quest 12 The Flames of Fate, and Yuji Horii specifically said the new main entry in the JRPG series will not be turn based, here’s what we learned, and the reveal teaser.

Dragon Quest 12announcement trailer

Square Enix announcedDragon Quest 12 The Flames of Fatewith a teaser trailer, only showing the game’s logo, and with a narrator mysteriously asking “What are we living for?”.

You can find the announcement trailer forDragon Quest XIIat the 57:44 timestamp linked below:

Dragon Quest 12- Platforms, release date, worldwide simultaneous release

Square Enix did not reveal any platforms forDragon Quest 12yet. Funnily on stream, Yuji Horii was supposed to say something about the platforms, but was stopped. Needless to say that was definitely staged though, just as are any other Japanese streams. Anyways, while we didn’t get platforms or release date details yet, Yuji Horii confirmedDragon Quest 12will have a worldwide simultaneous release.

Yuji Horii onDragon Quest 12: “We’re changing the turn based battle system”

Yuji Horii surprisingly revealed thatDragon Quest XIIwill not feature a turn-based battle system, only saying that “it won’t completely disappear, but it’ll be different. Those who playedDragon Questuntil now will still feel at home”. Note that he did not say that it’ll be an Action RPG, and only said that “it’s not turn-based”.

Update:A few hours after the livestream, Yuji Horii added on Twitter: “Dragon Quest 12will be easy to play even for those who aren’t used to Action games”.

Darker and mature

Yuji Horii also explained during the live stream thatDragon Quest 12will be darker than most games of the series, and will be aimed primarily for an adult audience. This is another surprise. I’d bet the game will ultimately still be rated Cero A (for everyone) in Japan though, as that’s always been the case no matter how dark the series got in the past.

Yuji Horii also said thatDragon Quest XIIwill focus on life choices, with its characters making hard decisions that will change their fates. But not like in aDragon Quest 5way, where you had to pick a character to marry.

Akira Toriyama and Koichi Sugiyama are back onDragon Quest 12

Yuji Horii confirmedDragon Ball’s Akira Toriyama, and Koichi Sugiyama, are working onDragon Quest 12, as the character designer and composer, as always.

Many fans believedDragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Editionmight have been the last game with the iconic Horii, Toriyama, SugiyamaDQtrio, but it looks like they’re back withDQ12. Seeing Sugiyama’s age, this might really be the final game with him composing the OST though.

Square Enix, once the stream ended, tweeted thatDragon Quest XIIis in development and more information will come at a later date.

Unreal Engine 5 confirmed forDragon quest 12(Update)

After the live stream, the officialDragon QuestJapanese Twitter account announcedDragon Quest 12will run on Unreal Engine 5:

Personally speaking, I know some are already trashing the game for “not being turn-based”, but I’d say wait and see before denouncing a sacrilege to the series' traditions. The Enix/Dragon Questteam, along with the AkitoshiSaGateam, and the Yoshida team onFinal Fantasy 14andFF16, are pretty much the only people at Square Enix I still have a lot of trust in, so I think turn based or not,DQ12has a great change of being pretty good.

Moreover, if theDragon Questteam ends up picking up a similar system asFinal Fantasy VII Remake, I’d say it would still be turn-based, asFF7 Remakeis definitely a turn-based game in my book. The action as you wait for ATB is just a ruse to trick those who absolutely hate turn-based battle systems.

What did you think of theDragon Quest XII The Flames of Fatereveal? you may always reach out to me onTwitter @A_iyane07to chat about Japanese games.