Square Enix is giving the Dragon Quest franchise some love this year with a brand-new game releasing in September. The spotlight has mostly been on the upcoming Final Fantasy 16 this year, but it seems that Japanese gaming giant Square Enix has not forgotten about its other big franchise; the first game in the Dragon Quest series launched back in 1986 and has racked up 11 mainline releases with several spinoff games as well as various manga, anime, and novel releases.
The last mainline game in the Dragon Quest franchise launched five years ago, and fans are already wondering about the status of the upcoming Dragon Quest 12. While it isn't quite as popular as Final Fantasy in the west, Dragon Quest is still a successful and popular franchise. The most recent game, Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age, shipped over six million copies as of December 2021 and was largely well-received by critics and fans.
Square Enix has announced a new game called Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai. It is the third game in a Dragon Quest spinoff series based on the manga that was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump from 1989 to 1986. Interestingly, the first game, Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai - Xross Blade was a 2020 Japan-only arcade card game while Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: A Hero's Bonds released worldwide on mobile devices in 2021. Infinity Strash will join the ranks of Teen-Rated RPGs as it has already been rated by the ESRB.
Infinity Strash is a multi-platform console and PC release arriving on September 28. Whether it will be enough to placate fans who are growing impatient with the silence around Dragon Quest 12 remains to be seen. The game is available for preorder on all platforms aside from the Switch; preorders for Nintendo's console will go live at "a later date."
Square Enix has drawn some criticism for being conservative with the mainline Dragon Quest games, but it seems like the developer is being a little more adventurous with the game mechanics in these spinoff titles. Infinity Strash appears to have multiple playable characters with real-time combat and climactic boss fights. According to the announcement from Square Enix, the game will feature a rich story that covers the first 41 episodes of the anime, so there is a possibility that players could expect a sequel to this unexpected game in a few years.
Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai launches on September 28, 2023 on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X.