In a recent interview with Famitsu, Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii was asked about the state of Dragon Quest XII, Dragon Quest III HD-2D, and his involvement in the upcoming Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince. Horii confirmed that development on DQIII HD-2D and DQXII is progressing steadily. He also added that he couldn’t give any new information about DQXII just yet. [Thanks, Famitsu!]
Horii’s work on Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince involved playtesting and checking the game. An important part of his job was fine-tuning and fixing the early hours of the game. When asked about The Dark Prince release date appearing at the same time it was announced, Horii said that he didn’t want to make an announcement too early and not be able to give any information for the next few years. Because of this, he decided to start development of the game, keep it a secret, and reveal it when it was near completion.
In regards to Psaro as the protagonist of the new Dragon Quest Monsters entry, Producer Kento Yokota requested to use Psaro and Rose as the main characters for the next game. Horii accepted. Horii added that the team had an idea of who they wanted to use as the next DQM protagonists. Some titles reused characters from previous Dragon Quest games, such as Terry and Kiefer from DQVI and DQVII, respectively.
When asked about his involvement in Dragon Quest XII and Dragon Quest III HD-2D, Horii said that his work on the two games is similar to that in The Dark Prince. Since he is the creator of the original DQIII and has an intimate knowledge of the game, he is able to support the development team when asked how to make any changes or additions to it.
Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince will release worldwide on Nintendo Switch on December 1, 2023. A demo for the game is now available.
