While Square Enix has been largely quiet about Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate since its original announcement all the way back in 2021, the team working on the game has ocassionally popped up every now and then in order to assure fans of the franchise that development on the game is still going on. Speaking to GameReactor during Comic Con Napoli, Series creator and Dragon Quest 12 director Yuji Horii once more repeated that work on the game was still continuing, apologising for more concrete news.
“Yes, indeed, I can’t say anything, I apologise,” said Horii when asked about development progress on Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate. “I am making it, putting lots of work into it”, he insists in the video below. “I can only say that the next work will be great too, working really hard. Please look forward to it, is the only thing I can say.”
Horii also spoke about the potential of releasing Dragon Quest 12 on the Nintendo Switch 2. While he didn’t give any concrete answers, his response did indicate that there might be plans to bring the RPG to Nintendo’s upcoming console. “Yes, I believe it could be compatible with Switch 2 as well,” he said.
Horii’s answers came just a few months after he assured fans of the series that work on the game was still continuing. Back in February, during a livestream, Horii assured fans that Square Enix was still “working hard on Dragon Quest 12.” More details, however, including a release window weren’t revealed. Rather, Horii said that the plan was to reveal more information about the game “little by little.”
The Dragon Quest 12 director has been accutely aware of how much anticipation is building up for the game. Back in May 2024, he had taken to social media to apologise for the overall lack of communication from the developers about the game. In his post, Horii wrote about wanting to ensure that the title would be a worthy tribute to series composer Koichi Sugiyama, as well as art director and character designer Akira Toriyama. Sugiyama, for context, had passed away back in 2021, while Toriyama had passed away earlier in 2024.
“Thank you so much to everyone for all the congratulations,” Horii wrote. “I’m sorry for the worry about Dragon Quest 12, but I was just having a meeting about it. I can’t say much yet, but I want to make something worthy of the posthumous work of the two people who passed away. I’ll do my best!”
Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate was announced during the Dragon Quest 35th Anniversary Special livestream back in May 2021. The title, in development using Unreal Engine 5, was revealed with a teaser trailer. It is slated for a simultaneous worldwide release. Square Enix, however, hasn’t yet confirmed what platforms the game will be coming to. Considering the series’ tradition, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the RPG on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC when it finally comes out.