The company has announced a short stream, scheduled for May 27th, that might finally lift the curtain on Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate, if statements from the series creator are any indication. It’s certainly good timing after that peek into Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined’s development that we got yesterday.

A new title is certainly welcome, and could build on the momentum that the recent remake, which we absolutely loved by the way, has garnered for the franchise. It’s about time that we get to play another one of the franchise’s grand adventures, after all, especially since it was announced five years ago with very few updates in between.

There are other events, including the launch of a special anniversary page and a livestream of the 40th anniversary celebration featuring Eiko Kano’s Critikano Hit, to look forward to. The update begins at 6 AM PT or 9 AM ET, so you might want to set an alarm if you’re planning on catching it.

For example, the latest mainline entry in the Final Fantasy franchise, Final Fantasy 16, was released in 2023 (around 7 years after Final Fantasy 15), and the company has yet to make any announcement about a potential Final Fantasy 17. Similarly, while the Dragon Quest franchise has seen remakes in the form of Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake and Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, there has been no release date for Dragon Quest 12: The Flame of Fate, despite Dragon Quest 11 having come out all the way back in 2017.

The enhancements made to its development pipelines have been part of Square Enix’s medium- to long-term plans, with the main goal being to “achieve the shift ‘from quantity to quality,’ while completing the transition of major titles to a multi-platform strategy.”

Looking to the future, both the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy franchises have releases in the works, with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth coming to Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S on June 3rd, Final Fantasy 14: Evercold coming out in January 2027, and Dragon Quest 10‘s Expansion 8.0 coming out on June 25th, 2026.

Dragon Quest fans might have more to look forward to, however. Earlier this week, series creator and director of Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate, Yuji Horii, announced that there will be a livestream on May 27th that will revolve around the “next game” in the franchise. While Horii didn’t go into too many details, he said that there will be “various other things” for fans to look forward to.

Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate was announced all the way back in May 2021. No release window or platforms were announced at the time, and since then, Square Enix has stayed largely silent about it. In the meantime, however, Horii has reassured fans of the series that the RPG is still in the works. Development, however, seems to have been tumultuous, with lead series producer Yu Miyake having stepped down from his position in April 2025, as well as the project itself seeing quite a few delays.

It is likely that, since Square Enix wants its games to be multi-platform, Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate will come to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. In May 2025, Horii had also discussed the idea of bringing it to the Nintendo Switch 2. Since Nintendo’s console wasn’t out at the time yet, Horii noted that he couldn’t reveal too many details about such a port. “Yes, I believe it could be compatible with Switch 2 as well,” he said, without going into further detail.

He promised “various other things” besides this and asked fans to look forward to it. It follows his tease from last January, where he said the team would have a “lot to announce this year.”

Obviously, the first assumption would be new details on Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate, which has faced delays (and reportedly resulted in producer Yu Miyake being reassigned while Yosuke Saito stepped up). Horii assured fans that the next mainline title is still in the works and that the developer would share new information “little by little.”

Perhaps this is the start of that information drip-feed, though given how it’s the series’ 40th anniversary and almost five years since the sequel’s announcement, it’s not unreasonable to expect more. Of course, there may also be announcements for other remasters in the series, especially following the recent release of Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD-2D Remake. We may even see another remake akin to Dragon Quest 7: Reimagined. Stay tuned as always for more details.

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).