Dragon Quest 12 Internally Delayed at Square Enix, Report Claims

Square Enix’s upcoming RPG Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate has reportedly reached a snag in its development. Nearly three years ago in 2021, Square Enix first announced that it was embarking upon creating the next mainline game in its storied Dragon Quest franchise. Since that reveal, though, no additional news of any sort has come about on Dragon Quest XII which has left fans wondering about its status. Now, a better explanation for this silence has come about, and it doesn’t necessarily indicate good things. 

According to a new report from Bloomberg, Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate has seen multiple delays internally at Square Enix. Further details on what has caused these delays wasn’t given in the report, but it seems that Square Enix is now looking to make some big changes to ensure that the project gets back on course. To that end, longtime Dragon Quest series producer Yu Miyake is stepping down from his position and is moving into another role at the company. Miyake helped work on numerous Dragon Quest games since first joining Square Enix in the early 1990s. 

As for Square’s next steps, it’s said that Yosuke Saito is internally being eyed to take over the role of producer on the Dragon Quest franchise. Saito has previously had a big part in working on the Nier series at Square Enix, most of which have been incredibly successful in recent years. Because of that success, Saito is now likely to be tapped to helm Dragon Quest and should look to get Dragon Quest XII back on steady ground. 

For the time being, there’s virtually nothing concrete that we know about Dragon Quest XII: The Fates of Flame when it comes to its release window or ensuing platforms. Outside of revealing the game’s logo, the only other notable piece of information that Square Enix has previously shared is that Dragon Quest XII is aimed to be a more mature installment in the series. It’s not known exactly what this might mean for the tone of the entry, but more details will hopefully begin to come to light before 2024 wraps up.