We're now three years on from the announcement of Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate, and we still haven't seen anything of the game beyond its logo. There were whispers that the anticipated RPG would finally surface for this year's Dragon Quest Day — the 27th May — but it ain't happening. Instead, all we've got is a very brief update from series creator Yuji Horii.
"There has been some worry about Dragon Quest 12", he writes (as translated by Gematsu), "but I was actually in a meeting [about it] until just a bit ago".
Horii continues: "While I can’t share any details yet, I want it to be something worthy of the posthumous work of the two [Akira Toriyama and Koichi Sugiyama] who passed away. I’ll do my best!"
Akira Toriyama — the master author and artist behind Dragon Ball and others — tragically passed away earlier this year. For decades, he had provided character and monster designs for the Dragon Quest games — but we don't yet know the details about his involvement in Dragon Quest 12.
Meanwhile, Sugiyama was the franchise's chief music composer, but he passed away in 2021. As alluded, making sure that Dragon Quest 12 lives up to expectations will mean a lot to Horii and his team.
Still, we're left wondering when Dragon Quest 12 will finally appear. It's worth mentioning that veteran producer Yu Miyake was quite recently repositioned at Square Enix, but no one outside of the company will know whether that change has had any discernible impact on the development of Dragon Quest 12.