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Hero-of-Time

Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate

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GOTY 2023. Bets on how often we hear "It's the Dark Souls of Dragon Quests" with a title like that? :p

Also, just seen that it's a worldwide simultaneous release :bouncy:

Quote

Dragon Quest XII Selected Flame of Fate", the 12th work of the "Dragon Quest" series, has been announced.

 Under development aiming for simultaneous release. Please look forward to the follow-up report. 

 

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Honestly, I can't help but think of the same thing with that phrase.

 

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I wonder if Square-Enix would dare go back to the Dragon Warrior name for this game in the west... I mean, this game is basically being made for a western audience with Japanese players being considered secondary (ALA Monster Hunter World); and it’s got mad early 2000’s teen-angst PS1 vibes going for it already.

Also, calling it now, Sony have paid for this to be a PS5 exclusive (in Japan at the very least).

Edited by Dcubed

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5 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Honestly, I can't help but think of the same thing with that phrase.

 

Honestly? Dragon Warrior 7’s original (terrible) PS1 localisation wasn’t far off that jokey picture...

dragon-warrior-7-swearing.jpg

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2 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Honestly? Dragon Warrior 7’s original (terrible) PS1 localisation wasn’t far off that jokey picture...

dragon-warrior-7-swearing.jpg

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Genuinely didn't know about that! That's awful! And people have the nerve to complain about the accents!

Edited by Glen-i

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New combat style?

giphy.gif

Dragon Quest for adults?

tenor.gif

For adults? Hardcore-porn Puff-Puff scenes?

giphy.gif

 

Even though we've basically seen nothing, I'm already disappointed :(

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The mention of a new battle system makes me think that they're going to take that extra step forwards with the free-roaming you could go during battle in XI? I'm half expecting something not too dissimilar to what we saw in VII Remake, but this is DQ, I kind of feel like offering a classic way to play turn-based is a big part of the appeal. 

This feels like a last ditch effort to finally see the series do well in the West, so it has me a little nervous, but I'm sure they'll deliver. 

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It’s being made on UE5...

https://www.resetera.com/threads/dragon-quest-xii-the-flames-of-fate-to-run-on-unreal-engine-5.432203/

So yeah... definitely a Sony purchased exclusive and definitely not coming out until 2023/2024 at an absolute minimum (2025 is most likely though I reckon).

Hey! Switch 2 will be out by then though, so maybe it’ll get the inevitable Definitive Edition version in 2026/2027?

Edited by Dcubed
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I watched a few of the reactions to the livestream and had it on in the background today, and there are a couple of things we haven't talked about. 

I think the biggest one is the massive focus on player choice/agency? It's in the title to an extent when talking about "Fate", and even more so in the Japanese title ("Selected Flame of Fate"), but I'm really curious what that will end up meaning, as they talked about it more during the stream. A voiced protagonist, surely? Some kind of impact on the story? Maybe some level of self doubt in the story, with morality mechanics? It's another part which makes me think about how this does seem to be a push for popularity in the West. 

Also really glad that Takeshi Uchikawa is returning to direct this, he did one hell of a job with XI. That was my first Dragon Quest game and I instantly felt like I knew what the series was about, and this shift to a darker tone had me a bit concerned that someone else might be at the helm, but with him returning, I'm pretty confident that we'll end up with something great. 

It also sounds like they're only just prototyping their battle system. Commands aren't going away, but I'm anxious to see what exactly the changes are when it comes to the combat this time around. I would imagine it's building off XI's free-roam, like I said before, and could become an FF VII Remake situation (though with more of a focus on your menu-based options perhaps?), but it really could be anything. 

Also watching the trailer back, if not for the darker tone and apparent shift to make it more "adult", I would've guessed this was a sequel to XI or maybe linked in some way. A big part of marketing is your initial message, and so having "XI" shown for as long as they did before adding the strike through to make it "XII" does make me wonder if there might be something there? 

7 hours ago, Dcubed said:

It’s being made on UE5...

https://www.resetera.com/threads/dragon-quest-xii-the-flames-of-fate-to-run-on-unreal-engine-5.432203/

So yeah... definitely a Sony purchased exclusive and definitely not coming out until 2023/2024 at an absolute minimum (2025 is most likely though I reckon).

Hey! Switch 2 will be out by then though, so maybe it’ll get the inevitable Definitive Edition version in 2026/2027?

Makes sense, this seems to be much earlier in development than pretty much everything we'd heard about it (very little) made it seem. 

Doesn't UE5 run on the Switch though? I know they could push it further with new hardware, and I imagine the Switch has either been replaced or is on its deathbed at that point, but I could've sworn I'd read Epic say something about it. 

Also I just hope that Square Enix aren't stupid enough to do what they did with XI again this time around, so I hope it comes to everything on Day 1. A definitive edition is fine, and yeah we knew about the NX/Switch version early on, but it was absolutely a slap in the face to people who supported the initial PS4 release; I know there were technical reasons for this too, but that doesn't exactly make it any better.

This series needs and deserves better, especially seeing as it looks like they're pushing the boat out to get more reach over here. 

Edited by Julius

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After seeing the absolute joke that is FF Origins: Ow The Edge?

Ry0PZ3J.jpg

Edited by Dcubed
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Seeing as Sugiyama will likely be gone in 10-20 years can we expect him to be thrown out too? Please? 

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Big words, but similar words were said when DQ9 was supposed to be a multiplayer Action RPG too…

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1 hour ago, Ike said:

https://www.dragonquest.jp/news/detail/3546/

Koichi Sugiyama has passed away.

Say what you will about him, but he made some good music.

Yep, archaic views on music licensing in the modern age and a whoooooooole lot more very distasteful stuff on top of that, but there's no doubting that he was a very talented composer. The Dragon Quest Overture is absolutely iconic and there's a whimsical melancholy to a lot of those DQ tracks which is hard to find elsewhere. 

I'm curious to see who they bring in to do XII (I'd imagine someone who has composed for a spin-off seems the most likely), and if they'll be riffing off of Sugiyama's foundation, or looking to inject something new into the soundscape for the series. 

Edited by Julius
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Dang. As much as I disliked a lot about the man... I do respect the music he made. This is one of those deaths that give me mixed feelings.

Should be interesting to see the musical direction for the series going forward. Not just for new games (like XII), but even for re-releases. For example, I wonder if the DQIII remake will actually have an orchestral soundtrack, or if they'll keep respecting Sugiyama's wishes.

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6 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

Dang. As much as I disliked a lot about the man... I do respect the music he made. This is one of those deaths that give me mixed feelings.

Should be interesting to see the musical direction for the series going forward. Not just for new games (like XII), but even for re-releases. For example, I wonder if the DQIII remake will actually have an orchestral soundtrack, or if they'll keep respecting Sugiyama's wishes.

Yep, definite mixed feelings, which does make it difficult to feel too sad about it (not to mention he made it to 90!). I'm really not a fan of what I've seen elsewhere about people celebrating his death, though, think that's pretty heinous. 

Honestly, I could see S-E pushing hard to move forwards -- not out of lack of respect, but because even if we take his many disturbing opinions out of the picture, he must have been an absolute pain to work around. Remember when for the DQ XI reviews in the West, reviewers weren't allowed to play music without showing the associated gameplay? And so S-E themselves had to suggest the solution of picture-in-picture? 

I'm not saying that this alone is the reason XI didn't set the West alight (the small matter of S-E launching it the same week as Spider-Man still comes to mind), but the last thing they need are unnecessary obstacles like this. Can you imagine if John Williams did this for Star Wars, if Uematsu did this for Final Fantasy, or Hisaishi did this for Ghibli?

We've seen franchises that I'd say are much more niche than Dragon Quest blow up in the West last generation, such as NieR and Persona, but I think this is a good opportunity for this series to take to modernise like every a lot of other Japanese games. Personally I'd love to see Dragon Quest not hit roadblocks on getting it's music out there, and if that means another composer with new ideas, I say so be it. 

Interesting point on III, I'd be surprised if it didn't receive an orchestrated soundtrack, as I'm pretty sure Team Asano have had orchestrated soundtracks for their other games? I imagine the DQ team is involved to some extent, but that would be my expectation for it. Also wouldn't be surprised if we heard some of the 8-bit music represented somehow, that'd be pretty neat! 

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Despite his abhorrent views on LGBTQ+ matters and Japanese war crime history; it’s still a sad day today.

Like him or loathe him, he was a cultural institution unto himself within Japan; and he was responsible for much of the Japanese music industry as we know it today.

Whoever will be taking over for the DQ series will have some enormous shoes to fill… Will be interesting to see what happens with DQ12; given that it seems to be a huge departure away from series history & tradition in favour of a western focused approach…

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Hard to be too sad about this. Very problematic person. Crazy talented, though.

I have a prickling feeling that future games aren't going to be able to use that iconic theme. It wouldn't surprise me if Sugiyama planned for that in some capacity that would stop Square Enix from even remixing it. He didn't even trust the Smash team with his songs, and then lumped them with MIDI's.

He was way too over-protective with his compositions.

Edited by Glen-i
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