Creator Yuji Horii reiterated the same on his own Twitter, adding, “I think we’ll have a lot to announce this year. Stay tuned.” Even producer Yosuke Saito promised a “grand celebration” (while also teasing a “little something” for NieR: Automata’s ninth anniversary) in 4Gamer’s end-of-year interview round-up with Japanese developers.

With so much fanfare, it almost feels certain that the team will provide updates on Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate, the next mainline title in the franchise. Announced back in 2021, ironically enough, at the series’ 35th anniversary livestream, it reportedly faced delays, which seemingly caused lead producer Yu Miyake to step down from his role.

Horii reassured fans last year that the sequel is still in development and that the company would release tidbits of information “little by little.” Of course, aside from hinting at Nintendo Switch 2 compatibility, there have been no updates.

Dragon Quest Day takes place on May 27th, so expect details of a livestream in the coming months. In the meantime, Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined launches on February 5th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. It’s going the extra mile to streamline the original experience, but also features a brand new ending. Head here for more details.

“It’s our deep regret that he still had several works in the middle of creation with great enthusiasm,” Bird Studio’s message reads. “Also, he would have many more things to achieve.

“However, he has left many manga titles and works of art to this world. Thanks to the support of so many people around the world, he has been able to continue his creative activities for over 45 years. We hope that Akira Toriyama’s unique world of creation continues to be loved by everyone for a long time to come.”

Toriyama best known as the creator of Dragon Ball, but he has a number of other notable works in manga, anime, video games, and more, including the likes of Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger, Blue Dragon, and Sand Land, among several others.

Outside of the Dragon Ball franchise, Toriyama also created iconic monster and character designs for a number of other properties, such as the Dragon Quest series’ Slime.

The Japanese company has also revealed updated lifetime sales figures for the Dragon Quest series, confirming that it has now sold over 88 million units worldwide since its debut in Japan in 1986. The news come via an update in a press release announcing Final Fantasy 16’s launch sales of over 3 million units (spotted by Nintendo Life).

Dragon Quest fans have plenty to look forward to in the coming years, with a number of new games currently being in the works at Square Enix, including Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate, Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, and Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, which is set to launch for the Nintendo Switch on December 1.

As for Dragon Quest, it’s crossed 85 million in global shipments and digital sales since the first title launched on the NES in 1986. Meanwhile, Kingdom Hearts has shipped over 36 million units worldwide since the first game released in 2002 for PlayStation 2.

The future looks bright for all three franchises, with Final Fantasy 16, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion all coming within the next 12 to 14 months. Kingdom Hearts 4 is also in development, though no release window has been announced. The next mainline entry in the Dragon Quest series, Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate, is also in development, but there’s also Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake and Dragon Quest Treasures (which launches in December for Nintendo Switch).

Horii addressed the crowd at the award show via a video, where he recounted his early life and what led into him creating the Dragon Quest games (via Gematsu). Horii recalled that as a kid he always wanted to be a manga artist, and during his college years he worked as a freelance writer working towards the same goal, up until the arrival of home computers, which shifted his interest. Enjoying mathematics, he taught himself how to code and started making his own games for fun, and after submitting one of his games in a programming competition to Enix, he got himself into the world of game development..

Horii also talked about his interest in adventure games back then, and how his love for games like Ultima and Wizardry compelled him to deliver his own take on the genre, which became Dragon Quest.

“One of the fantastic things about computers is their interactive nature,” Horii said. “You just have to imagine what a player is going to do, and then program the system to react to it. I really enjoyed that kind of systematic storytelling. I also loved RPGs like Wizardry and Ultima, where gameplay followed the rails set down by the story. So I made my own version—Dragon Quest.”

Finally, Hori reiterated that he and his team are currently working on Dragon Quest 12, alongside a lot of other titles, and that he he hopes players will love those games, with announcements coming very soon.

Originally starting out as a composer for TV shows like Return of Ultraman in 1971 and Cyborg 009 in 1979, Sugiyama’s first video game project was Enix’s World Golf in 1985. Though taking on various projects throughout the decades, he would predominantly compose for the Dragon Quest series from 2001 onwards. This included spin-offs like the Dragon Quest Builders series and 2020’s Dragon Quest Tact.

Sugiyama’s funeral was held with close family and friends with a memorial planned by Square Enix for the future. His final work was done for Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate which doesn’t have a release date or platforms at this time.

The recent Dragon Quest 35th anniversary stream was packed full of exciting announcements, from Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate to the treasure hunting RPG spinoff Dragon Quest Treasures. Another announcement was Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, a ground-up remake of one of the most beloved games in the series built on the Octopath Traveler engine. It looked great in what little we saw of it- and there’s a chance that it might not be the only classic Dragon Quest game to receive this treatment.

As spotted by Nintendo Life, during the aforementioned stream, series creator Yuji Horii also said that Dragon Quest 1 and 2 might also receive similar HD-2D remakes down the line, before adding that though that’s something the developers want to do, it hasn’t yet been officially decided.

“Maybe afterwards we may remake [Dragon Quest] 1 and 2… so maybe one and two would be some kind of unexpected surprise,” he said, then added later, “We want to, but it’s not official yet.”

The HD-2D style that Square Enix introduced with Octopath Traveler is ripe bringing back classics, and we’ve seen more than a few fans who’ve been calling for remakes of older Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games. It’s great to see that people at Square Enix are beginning to take that into account now.

No release date has been provided for Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, nor do we know what platforms it’s going to release for (same as Dragon Quest 12 and Dragon Quest Treasures).

Square Enix will be streaming a special event on May 26 in celebration of Dragon Quest’s 35th anniversary, where they have said they will be “introducing the upcoming line-up in the Dragon Quest series.” Last year, series co-creator Yuji Horii said that in celebration of the occasion, Square Enix would be making “all sorts of announcements in regards to that.” Of course, the hope is that the next mainline game in the series will be announced.

Horii recently took to Twitter to hype up the event, stating that during the upcoming stream, they will “announce a lot of things.” Interestingly enough, however, he also seemed to be teasing a possible announcement for Dragon Quest 12 itself, cheekily (and vaguely) stating that fans can “of course” expect an announcement for “that game” as well. Take a look at his tweet below.

Dragon Quest 11 launches in Japan in 2017, followed by a global launch the next year, so based on that timeline, it certainly does feel like the time for the next mainline game in the series is approaching. If that is indeed the case, the 35th anniversary celebration seems like the perfect place to make that announcement.

Of course, we’ll be covering the event and all the announcements coming out of it, so stay tuned for more details.

いよいよ今週の木曜日で、ドラゴンクエストが35周年を迎えます。そして、すでに知っているかもですが、当日、35周年記念特番を配信します。放送では、これまでの感謝の意を込めて、多くのことを発表します。もちろん、あのゲームのことも…。皆さん、お楽しみにです！！https://t.co/2EHAsnE5hv

— 堀井雄二 (@YujiHorii) May 24, 2021

2021 is the year for anniversaries, it seems. From The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Pokemon to Sonic, Resident Evil, and many more, quite a few notable gaming properties are celebrating major anniversaries this year. One more is Dragon Quest, and Square Enix seems to have a special stream planned.

A special anniversary celebration livestream has been announced for Wednesday, May 26, about two weeks from now, at 8:30 PM PDT / 11:30 PM EDT. May 27 is Dragon Quest Day, or the series’ anniversary, so expect something special. Sure enough, Square Enix says the stream will be “introducing the upcoming line-up in the Dragon Quest series,” with series co-creator Yuji Horii also confirmed to be attending. The stream will also feature live Japanese to English interpretations, which will be a first for Dragon Quest streams.

Dragon Quest 11 launched in Japan nearly four years ago, so the hope is that Dragon Quest 12 gets announced soon. Over a year ago, Horii said that the next game in the series was still a little while away, but here’s hoping it’s close enough for an announcement now. Meanwhile, the Dragon Quest Builders team also said over a year ago that they were working on something new, so it should be interesting to see what that is (or if it’s even related to Dragon Quest).

For what it’s worth, Horii said earlier this year that Square Enix would be making “all sorts of announcements” to celebrate Dragon Quest’s 35th anniversary, so hopefully, there’s good stuff headed our way on May 26. Stay tuned, and we’ll keep you updated.

While never quite catching on in the west, there’s still a lot to love about the Dragon Quest series. As a franchise, it has at times held on single handedly to the classic Japanese RPG genre. The latest mainline title, Dragon Quest 11, has now come out on most platforms, and the future seems to potentially be filled with more entries.

Speaking at the Dragon Quest 10 Fall Festival 2020 event, franchise Creator Yuji Horii hinted at announcements to come next year. While he didn’t get specific, he seems to imply there could be a lot more announcements than usual due to 2021 being the 35th anniversary of the series (thanks to Gematsu for transcribing and translating the talk).

“Thank you very much for today. Next year, Dragon Quest will celebrate its 35th anniversary. I believe we will be able to make all sorts of announcements in regards to that. And there is still a whole lot of fun to look forward to in Astoltia [the world of Dragon Quest 10]. Please continue to support Dragon Quest in the future. Thank you very much!”

We know that Dragon Quest 12 is in active development, but it’s been said to be a ‘ways off.’ An action RPG based on a new anime series is set for 2021 called Infinity Strash – Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai. That’s about it, so I imagine it’s possible a lot more could be announced in the next year.