NX in line

Square Enix got ahead of itself last year when it confirmed that Dragon Quest XI would be coming to the NX before quickly having to state that it was merely "considering launching" on the platform.

Now, the company has confirmed categorically that the latest entry in the popular JRPG franchise will indeed arrive on Nintendo's new machine.

In a Nintendo Dream interview with Dragon Quest series creator Yuji Horii, Pokémon series producer Junichi Masuda and Super Smash Bros. series director Masahiro Sakurai, Horii removed any doubt from the situation by stating that Dragon Quest XI was indeed NX-bound:

YouTube Video
Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube793k
Watch on YouTube

Masahiro Sakurai: Well then, I would like to ask about each of your new games. First, Dragon Quest XI. The 11th installment in the series will be released simultaneously on Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation 4, and including NX it's coming out on three platforms, right?

Yuji Horii: That's right. The use of hardware is different for each system, so it's quite a challenge.

Horii then went on to explain the technical challenge of creating a game for so many different platforms:

Horii: However, we're making the 3DS version in both 3D and 2D. I asked my staff, "Is that something we can do?" And they said, "We'll do it." So we decided, "then let's do it."

Junichi Masuda: I get the feeling that means there will be four versions across three platforms then, yeah?

Horii: That's right. There are a lot of difficulties because of that. Each one has a different look to it, and there's also a PlayStation 4 version, so if we make a small fix then we have to fix it across every version.

It would seem that we'll be playing Dragon Quest XI quite soon after the launch of the NX. The console is expected to arrive in March 2017, while Square Enix has stated that its JRPG will launch before May 27th 2017.

Horii says that he wants all versions to launch at the same time:

Sakurai: I see. Including things like the release date, it gets dreadful when development is inevitably drawn out and the debugging piles up… But shifting away from the release date, they're not going to be released apart from each other, right? Since Dragon Quest games are story-driven.

Horii: That's right. Spoilers will emerge if we release one version earlier. (Laughs.) However, we're a little concerned about the sense of distance in movement. It's different for each of the supported hardware.

Sakurai: Oh, is that so?

Horii: The movement in the 2D of the 3DS version, and the movement in the 3D of the 3DS version and the PlayStation 4 version definitely feels different when it's in action. However, there are concerns when making several versions at the same time, and to that extent it's difficult, so we're making the game to the best of our ability.

Sakurai: I made Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U at the same time, but it was nevertheless difficult. Since you're making it for hardware from different companies, I would think that it's even more difficult, so please by all means do your best.

Horii: Indeed. All of the staff is working very hard, so please look forward to it.

Of course, it's unlikely that we'll get the game in the west at the same time as Japan - we usually have to wait a while for a localised version. Still, this is a confirmation that's worth getting excited about, and once again hints at NX offering visual parity with the PS4.

[source gematsu.com]