To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the long-running but still massively popular Dragon Quest franchise, Japanese TV channel NHK showed a special presentation that included new footage for the next game in the series, Dragon Quest XI: In Search of Departed Time.
Not much about Dragon Quest XI was revealed in the footage, but it did provide a glimpse of some interesting things that players will be able to enjoy in the upcoming game.
What We Learned From The Dragon Quest XI Footage
The new footage for Dragon Quest XI revealed several gameplay aspects for the title, such as combat, camping, and riding on dragons.
Camping is shown in the video as an activity that restores the HP and MP of players, while also offering options such as praying to the Goddess, going on patrol, and smithing. Players will be able to access menu that lists several weapons that they can try to craft, with the necessary materials and difficulty level for crafting displayed.
The video also shows how riding on dragons will work in the game, as players hop onto the back of a dragon to mount them. Riding dragons is a new feature to the franchise with its addition in Dragon Quest XI, as the series has mostly been about players fighting dragons and not about using them for their advantage.
Dragon Quest XI Release Details
Dragon Quest XI will launch sometime next year in Japan for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo 3DS, and the upcoming Nintendo Switch, but no official release in the United States has yet been announced.
The game's predecessor, Dragon Quest X, did not get an official release in the United States, but due to the more traditional single-player nature of Dragon Quest XI, it has a better chance of being released outside of Japan.
The Importance Of Dragon Quest XI On Nintendo Switch
It has previously been confirmed by Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii that Dragon Quest XI was coming to the Nintendo Switch, and the game's importance will largely contribute to the hybrid console's success.
Dragon Quest remains very popular in Japan, and the pending release of Dragon Quest XI for the Nintendo Switch is a strategy that will most likely boost the hybrid console's sale figures in the country.
There is no specified release date yet for Dragon Quest XI for the Nintendo Switch, so it is not known whether it will be available upon the hybrid console's expected launch of March 2017. The upcoming presentation that will reveal all details of the Nintendo Switch might mention Dragon Quest XI, though, so fans of the franchise might want to watch it.
