Brand new footage of the upcoming Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age has been shared today in a Square Enix livestream, and it's looking rather lovely.
The livestream revealed a whole new wave of Japanese voice cast members, some of the additional new features players can expect to find in the game and - of course - some juicy footage of the thing actually running. Before we get stuck into the video, here are the new features mentioned (thanks, Gematsu):
- Party members will follow you on the field.
- You can talk directly to party members without opening the menu.
- You can change the music from Orchestra to Synthesizer at any point by going to the sound settings in the menu.
- You can dash with the ZR button.
- By using the new “Horse Bell” item, you can call your horse at any time.
- You can now gain experience points when your horse knocks away an enemy on the field.
- You can change the battle speed to “Normal,” “Fast,” or “Really Fast.”
- The quests from the 3DS version of Dragon Quest XI in which you visit the worlds of past Dragon Quest titles will be included in the Switch version, but not without changes.
Now then, onto the video itself. The stream was over an hour long with small snippets here and there, but the key sections you'll likely be interested in are as follows:
- 42:00 – 3D gameplay, followed by 2D gameplay at 49:07
- 52:09 – New Features Gameplay, followed by a boss battle at 1:00:57
Are you excited for this one? Are you a diehard Dragon Quest fan? Share your thoughts on the new footage in the comments.
[source gematsu.com, via youtube.com]
Comments 48
I'm glad it's finally come to fruition soon.
With that get up, I nearly thought it was DQVIII.
Looks pretty decent but what I really want to know is the release date.
It means a lot when I'm skipping playing the game at 4k60fps on my PC for this version.
I could just be patient and see if they patch in the extra content to the PC and PS4 versions later though.
I would probably play this 100% in the 2d mode! Looks a lot better to me don't know why. Glad this is finally actually coming out after being the first switch game ever mentioned!
It's so much better with the orchestrated OST. Darn, I actually should have waited for the Switch version this time. I would have if I had known that the PS4 version had a tacky cheap MIDI OST.
This looks beyond phenomenal. Seems like a fantastic port, and truly the definitive version of the game. I'm glad that Square is giving Nintendo fans the proper treatment we deserve after the excruciating silence about the Switch version.
...And speaking of silence, I wish that the livestream presenters would pipe down sometimes. When one of the big selling points of your game is its new music, I'd like to actually hear it instead of constant laughing and shouting.
There's a more than a bit of new content here. Can't wait to replay this game on the go and in that beautiful retro mode.
Makes you wonder if Pokemon would ever try the 3D/2D flip-flop.
This game doesn't have a release date yet does it?
Some of those changes sound quite useful. This really is shaping up to be the Definitive Edition.
What I'm really curious to see, though, is footage of the game when it's undocked.
I actually stopped playing this on PC just because I knew it would be worth waiting for all the new changes. Now that I’ve seen them, it looks totally worth it.
I kind of wish I wasn't already playing this. I don't know if I'll have the energy or time to start all over again.
Looks good! But even if it has a hit on fidelity it will not matter.
Finished it on PS4 and later bought it again on PC. At 2560x1600 @60fps maxed out it really didnt mean much for what makes the game great
Perfect game for Switch - Hopefully it does well.
This game
That girl looks 'cross eyed' in that image!
Looks very good. Even though I’ve spent over 150 hours in the PS4 original, I’ll gladly double dip.
@TurboTEF I'm hoping for the same thing.
I’ve never considered myself a massive fan of RPGs, but this game looks so good it might be winning me over to give it a shot, anyway.
The 3DS quests are in?!? Amazing!!! Can’t freaking wait to see DQIX again. Man this is going to be amazing and I just finished on PS4 a month ago. Can’t wait.
@Ralizah agreed! Even though I'm a Switch-only guy these days anyway, its true ability to keep me gaming is due to the portable mode. If the difference between docked and undocked is anything like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 then I'm going to be pretty disappointed.
Not that this is anything other than a guaranteed buy, of course...
@TheFongz Originally, I would have said I'd just opt for the PC version if this game performed poorly when undocked. With all these updates, though, I'll probably just grab this version regardless of how poor it looks in handheld mode.
I hope it's decent, though. Sub-720p is a given, but it'll still look decent as long as it doesn't suffer from the sort of severe dips that plagued Xenoblade 2.
I'm just glad it finally came west with no nonsense. That is really awesome they took the time to craft this game in 3D and 2D modes to please everyone. That's a big draw for me and look forward to toying with that.
Love that hes wearing the DQ VIII costume in the thumbnail.
Totally happy to double-dip when it comes to DQ. I made it about halfway through the PC version, based on what I've read online, but I'll set it aside and wait for the Definitive edition.
Glad I never bought the PS4 version. I'm ready to experience this game brand new and fresh for the first time. Too bad y'all double-dippers can't say the same thing.
I wish the people would have let us hear that glorious orchestral soundtrack. I own the PS4-version and have nearly completed it but I'm double dipping day one for sure. Love the 2d-graphics and that soundtrack seems really nice. Also those new features are a nice add too.
I have been patiently awaiting this game for what feels like forever. It's nice to see that new features, especially the orchestral score, will make it worth the wait.
The Switch is developing a really good RPG library. If only we could get HD/ports of the older games in the series...
The inclusion of quests that were present in the 3DS version (with some changes) is a nice touch. I'll try and watch the footage later.
Well, now I'm even more sold than I already was on this game, because regardless of how any other version looks, this Switch version looks absolutely gorgeous, and all the extras are really nice as well, so this is a definite must-have for me.
It wasn't an enjoyable watch, though. I was constantly distracted and annoyed by the WAY too loud laughter and shouting of Square's chatter monkeys. How the hell can they present a game like that? Bunch of idiots. Somebody should have educated them on how to do it, before they actually streamed this, because it was beyond annoying.
So, completely, 100% agreed with you on that point, @ilikeike.
@ThanosReXXX Yeah, I know it's customary for Japanese videogame livestreams to feature lots of talking and fluff and whatnot, but this stream was just excessive. Again: music is one of the big changes in this version of the game. So when they changed the music from midi to orchestral, I wanted to actually hear the music, not the sounds of half a dozen Japanese people screaming like it's the second coming of Christ.
@TurboTEF personally I'd say the switch version may still be worth it.
Having played the DS/3DS and mobile remakes, dragon quest is a franchise that - really- benefit from portability
@ilikeike Yeah... it almost got to a point where I wish I was able to muzzle them, so I was constantly torn between wanting to turn off the sound, and not wanting to watch the video like I was hearing-impaired.
Very annoying. Luckily, the game looks great, though, so there was that at least.
@ThanosReXXX Absolutely, the perturbing presenters didn't change the fact that this is probably by single most anticipated Switch game this year. Looks fantastic in nearly every respect, and I can't wait for the next info drop...and hopefully some direct gameplay without commentary.
In the presentation, they also announced some new "voice drama"/radio-play DLC meant to deepen our understanding of each character. They'll get into it more in the next presentation, but it sounds like very story-driven content. Sounds interesting. Hopefully it's at least a little interactive.
This is in addition to the new playable story content in the Switch version.
All this plus the 3DS quests is a crazy amount of content. Can't wait!
@ThanosReXXX I feel like if I understood Japanese... I would be just as annoyed by it. Maybe more so.
@Muddy_4_Ever Oh, definitely. I wasn't annoyed by the language, just by the avalanche of noise, drowning out the sound of the game itself.
The music change is the most important by far. The PS4 version was in all seriousness ruined by the painfully bad music. It sounded like the cheapest midi keyboard money can buy, and then played badly. It was grating, irritating, and truly awful.
@ThanosReXXX The fact that I didn't understand it ALMOST allowed me to ignore it. But it was so loud and continuous.
Probably the game i’ve been wanting most for my Switch, since BotW. There have been some really enticing sales for this game on PS4 but I’ve held out and know I’m going to sink so much time into this. Glad we can finally see the finish line.
Finished with true ending on Steam version. Will definitely dive right in for Switch version again. I am a DQ fans.
I can’t wait to play this one I haven’t played a DQ since dragon warrior!
Going old school on this
Oh man! I WISH I could transfer my save from PS4. If I could do that I would double dip for sure! Not sure I want to put another 70 hours into this again since I’ve recently beat it.
My life is over once this comes out.
May not look as great as the PS4 version but it's nice to have a "real" port of the full 3D version rather than a "mobile" version (ahem, FFXV).
Though I'm actually looking forward to rejoining Sylvando and company in 2D, since the 3DS version was never localized in English!!
@Dijita Oh yeah I also wish we could transfer saves from PS4!
Day one buy for me
Its bassicly the content of the 3ds version with the graphic style of the ps4 + exclusive character story's, orchestral music and japanese voice acting
It'll be totally worth it to get this game, now if only square would bring 6-9 aswell. Easy money
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