Dragon Quest 12 Gameplay Footage Revealed 5 Years After Original Announcement

It’s been five years since Square Enix first announced Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate during the series’ 35th anniversary celebration in 2021. Since then, updates on the highly anticipated RPG have been scarce. While the logo has been refreshed and fans know the game faced some development challenges, there’s been very little revealed. We haven’t seen any character designs, gameplay, or even a story trailer – just the title and logo.

It’s 2026, and Dragon Quest is celebrating its 40th anniversary! The recent livestream on YouTube (held on Dragon Quest Day, May 27th) was a bit shorter than anticipated, but it delivered something fans have been eagerly awaiting: a first look at Dragon Quest 12. You can watch the entire livestream here:

The new trailer introduces several characters, including the main hero, as well as a robot and a lizard-like creature that strongly resemble those from Chrono Trigger. It also reveals the game’s official title: Dragon Quest 12: Beyond Dreams.

The upcoming Dragon Quest 12 is expected to define the future of the series for the next 10 to 20 years. Following the huge success of Dragon Quest 11 – which finally brought the franchise widespread global attention – anticipation for DQ12 is incredibly high. While it’s still too soon to say where it will stand compared to other Dragon Quest games, the promise of a more mature and darker storyline is definitely exciting.

The development of Dragon Quest 12 has been quite a journey, so it’s good to finally have some solid news. Looking back, the game was likely revealed too soon in 2021, coinciding with the series’ 35th anniversary. Sadly, since then, we’ve lost Akira Toriyama, the artist behind the characters and monsters, and Koichi Sugiyama, the composer who’s been with the series for years. Of the original creative team, only Yuji Horii, the game’s creator, remains.

It seems several factors, including a complete restart of development and the COVID-19 pandemic, caused delays with Dragon Quest 12. Fortunately, the game now appears to be progressing smoothly toward release.

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2026-05-27 16:30