Square’s (other) legendary Japanese RPG series, Dragon Quest, has had a good run over the last few years. Not only did Dragon Quest 11 do big business when it released in 2017 for PS4 and 3DS, it’s primed to do a repeat of that with the enhanced port coming to Switch later this year. Now, it seems, that the future is getting closer for the next installment as the team for XI are most likely hiring for the next game.
In a job posting, Square Enix is looking for a battle planner, facial motion designer, 2D background designer, and technical artist for its Second Development Division. This is the team that works on the series. And not long after, message from the series Director Takeshi Uchikawa was posted in which he stated they were looking for “party members” to embark on a new journey for the “next generation.” The message stops short of explicitly confirming this is for Dragon Quest 12, but it seems likely, especially since we know work on it is underway (thanks to Gematsu for their translation work).
Dragon Quest is a mega franchise in Japan, but the success has never translated as much outside the region, despite several efforts in the past to broaden that scope marketing wise. There is a still a big delay in localization because of that, and some spin offs never leave Japan (though that’s beginning to change). With improved marketing and other partnerships, hopefully Sqaure Enix can improve that for the future.