Square Enix Reopens Dragon Quest 12 After Five-Year Silence
Square Enix has finally shown dragon quest 12 again, five years after the game was first revealed. The company used the series' 40th anniversary update to debut the first trailer and new details, but the return comes with a longer wait for players.
Yuji Horii Teases A New Direction
Yuji Horii said the story follows a young hero who is beset by strange visions in their sleep, and he described the project as moving in a different direction from the one first announced. He added, “What lies beyond dreams? Surely not a world of darkness, but a bright and exciting future.”
That wording matters because Square Enix also changed the game's logo and subtitle as part of the new direction. Dragon Quest 12 was originally known as Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate, so the update is not just a trailer refresh but a reset in how the publisher is presenting the mainline entry.
Yosuke Saito On The Restart
Yosuke Saito said development has been restarted from scratch after the original version hit hurdles. “Work on the original version, Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate, hit a lot of hurdles along the way,” he said.
He added, “But as we kept talking with [Dragon Quest series creator] Mr. [Yuji] Horii and pined down what a mainline Dragon Quest game should look like, we decided to move things around and start over from scratch.” He also said, “We’re hard at work on 12, but due to a reshuffle of the team and a restart of development, it’s going to be a bit longer till it’s in your hands.”
Toriyama And Sugiyama
The project still carries work from Akira Toriyama on character design and Koichi Sugiyama on music, linking the new version to the long-running identity of the series. In 2024, Toriyama died, which gives the anniversary update an added sense of finality around the creative team behind the game.
Saito called the restart “a major decision,” and said it was meant to ensure the next Dragon Quest game is one that fans will really love. For players, the practical takeaway is simple: the trailer ends the silence, but the restart means the wait for Dragon Quest 12 is longer than Square Enix first led people to expect.
