Square Enix have announced Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate, during the series’ 35th anniversary livestream.
The announcement trailer showed very little, but gave an ominous tone with its fiery text, and a voice saying “what is the purpose of light?” Series creator Yuji Horii also described the game as “an adult Dragon Quest” during the livestream, and how a decision players or the character makes will change the game dramatically.
The game will also change the command battle system, but still be the well known turn-based RPG battle system.
Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate is coming soon with a worldwide simultaneous release. You can find the Japanese announcement trailer below.
We shall keep you informed as we learn more.
UPDATE: Series creator Yuji Horii has taken to Twitter, further re-assuring fans about the changes coming to the battle system. While also discussing how the game trended purely because of that change, Horii stated that “it’s okay if you’re not good at action!”
Thank you for the 35th anniversary! So, I’ve announced many things! Dragon Quest XII, in particular, seems to be the number one trending topic due to the fact that they said they were going to revamp command battles! Let’s see what kind of battle it will be! Of course, it’s okay if you’re not good at action!
Translation: DeepL (adjusted)
The last Japanese sentence is “もちろんアクションが苦手な人も大丈夫ですよっ。” Of note is “苦手な,” which uses the kanji for “painful/to feel bad” and “hand.” The word means to be bad, poor, or weak at something; or otherwise uncomfortable with.
As such, it may mean Horii is saying that those who struggle with action games should not worry, as the game’s action elements will be easy to control. Of course, until we get official English press release information or the first look at gameplay, the above is all likely to be subject to machine translation imperfections and other context lost therein.
