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Square Enix moves Dragon Quest to DS photo

The DS has seen a huge rise, recently, in the number of RPGs in development for the system. It all started with the release of Final Fantasy III, which, judging by reviews of the game, has turned out to be a spectacular re-make of a classic, however;not without its flaws. Square Enix didn't stop there, however. Next up on their list were Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, both for the DS, both also sequels to existing Final Fantasy storylines.

However, not only have we been seeing a large number of announcements in this regard, we've also seen a recent flow of news about these games, complete with screenshots, gameplay information and even videos. It's not just Final Fantasy, though. Square is also in the process of developing not one, but two Dragon Quest titles for Nintendo: one for the Wii, and one for the DS. While Dragon Quest Swords seems to be a spinoff of the series, Dragon Quest IX will be the next installment in the series, and will be exclusive to the DS. While Nintendo hasn't really enjoyed any exclusive franchises from Square that weren't spinoffs (I hate you, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles), it looks like this might be about to change soon.

Even more surprising, is the fact that Square has chosen the DS as their platform of choice to continue their Dragon Quest franchise on. Considering DQ is one of the most popular games of all time in Japan, this is a huge deal for Nintendo, which hasn't exactly enjoyed a very intimate relationship with Square since the days of the SNES.

Dragon Quest IX itself will be developed by Level-5, who also produced the previous game in the series on the PlayStation 2. The game appears to feature impressive 3D graphics for the Nintendo DS, as well as more action based battles compared to the normally very traditional turn-based series. The game was shown in playable form and is due to be released next year in Japan.

Definitely good news for Nintendo fans. Now, hopefully Square can fix the Crystal Chronicles formula on the DS.

[Via Gamasutra]


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13 comments | showing # 1 to 13

Ballistic90's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/12/2006 13:57
Ballistic90
Considering there's also Dragon Quest Joker coming out for the DS, I think Square Enix seems to be in love with the DS. Although I thought Square Enix PROMISED that the main Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games would be released on the PS3. Oh well. Sony just lost another exclusive.
Jaded Alyx's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/12/2006 14:17
Jaded Alyx
Square-Enix games for the DS (that I can recall right now)

1. Final Fantasy III
2. Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
3. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates
4. Dragon Quest IX
5. Chocobo and the Magic Picture Book
6. Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime
7. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker
8. Children of Mana
9. Heroes of Mana
10.It's a Wonderful World
11.Itadaki Street
12.Mario Hoops 3 on 3
Chris Taran's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/12/2006 14:30
Chris Taran
Wow, kind of shocking news to me. I can't believe Sony lost another exclusive. And this one is huge, being the most popular RPG series in Japan and all.
JamesSorensen's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/12/2006 15:04
JamesSorensen
no doubt another dq is in the works for ps3/360 or a home console


not a bad loss seeing how SE gave PS3 2 FF 13's
BahamutZero's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/12/2006 15:15
BahamutZero
just awesome. My FFIII obsession now has me convinced they could and should do a port of FF7 DS.

this is pretty telling - developers go where the money is, and obviously right now the money and fan base is on the DS.

soon to be the wii.

adios sony, your ps2 was awesome.
Ishaan's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/12/2006 15:18
Ishaan
Well, if you guys recall, Square Enix already said the next Kingdom Hearts wouldn't be on a Sony console. Obviously, this leads most of us to think it would be on the Wii, since I doubt they'd put it on the 360. However, Square also stated very clearly that they know all three console manufacturers are crucial to the growth of the industry, which is why they chose to spread the love a little more evenly.
MrWonderful's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/12/2006 16:16
MrWonderful
Man, that really is a huge hit. I know Squeenix wants to spread the love, but wow. Two nintendo exclusive Dragon Quest titles has got to hurt. I wonder if something happened behind the scenes? It's just odd that Sakaguchi made a (supposedly) stellar 360 RPG, now the next canonical Dragon Quest game on DS? Awesome news for me though. My ds is worth it's weight in gold now a days.
Also, I agree entirely with Bahamut Zero. Developers follow the money trail, and the DS has been selling a scary amount of units. Between Animal Crossing and Nintendogs, this system is probably approaching astronomical numbers sold.
And thanks for the article Ishaan, you're the best contributor to this site!
BahamutZero's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/12/2006 16:32
BahamutZero
and another thing. I bet squeenix devs all own ds's and at a basic level just want to play these games. I know I fucking would if I could code
JamesSorensen's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/12/2006 16:39
JamesSorensen
Ishaan, please provide a link to info about the KH3 comment.... because we all know Nomura luvs PS
Ishaan's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/12/2006 17:29
Ishaan
Here you go. Sorry, it took me a while to dig it up:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3154029

Thanks, MrWonderful...I try to do my bit!
Chibi_Zero's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/12/2006 18:49
Chibi_Zero
This is cool to hear. Of course it was a given that there would be a sequel. But the fact it is coming to the DS is a surprise.

"Square Enix already said the next Kingdom Hearts wouldn't be on a Sony console."
When did SE say this?
Milofo's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/12/2006 18:59
Milofo
From the video I saw of it, it looks like it plays more like the mana series then the Dragon Quest series.
Azguard's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/12/2006 20:22
Azguard
all japanese love the ds and wanna have a bajillion ds babies. migrating to the ds instead of ps2 makes sense to me. from now on people will be buying ds lite, wii, and ps3, so why make games for ps2 and have old gen stigma.
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