Square Enix has re-announced the next main Dragon Quest game during the series’ 40th anniversary stream, revealing that Dragon Quest XII development has been completely rebooted and rebranded as Dragon Quest XII: Beyond Dreams.

The game features a new, eternally sleepy looking Protagonist, and there’s hints of more advanced technology in this world, with robots, and hover or flying vehicles.

Speaking in the stream executive producer Yosuke Saito explained, “Work on the original version, Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate, hit a lot of hurdles along the way, but as we kept talking with Mr Horii and pinned down what a mainline Dragon Quest game should look like, we decided to move things around and start over from scratch.

“It was a major decision, but I believe it was the right one to ensure the next Dragon Quest game will be one that all you fans of the series will really love. As part of this new direction, we’ve also changed the game’s logo and subtitle.”

Game designer and series creator Yuji Horii explained, “It’s the story of a young hero who’s beset by strange visions in their sleep. What lies beyond dreams? Surely not a world of darkness but a bright and exciting future.

“The game has gone in a different direction to the one we originally announced, but I think you’re going to love it.”

The final thing to confirm was that, as with every game before it in the series, Dragon Quest XII will still come with Akira Toriyama’s characters and Koichi Sugiyama’s music.

It’s five years to the day since Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fates was announced for the 35th anniversary, already four years on from the Japanese launch of Dragon Quest XI in 2017 – OK, so Horii-san had said that development had started back in 2020.  Despite this, there’s been a steady stream of Dragon Quest through the last few years with HD-2D remasters of the original trilogy, and this year’s Dragon Quest VII Reimagined.

But we have to look to the last mainline entry for reference. In our Dragon Quest XI review, Dom wrote “While Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age doesn’t push the boundaries of RPG design in any new way, it is an enjoyable and refined return to the Dragon Quest franchise. Some might decry its lack of ambition, but for fans of the genre and the series, new experiences like this are few and far between.”