Dragon Quest XI Predictions

[Shulk 8,623]

What with the official Dragon Quest reveal coming up in a few hours, I decided I might as well channel some of my excitement into making a few predictions. I'll also list a few things that aren't necessarily predictions, but more along the lines of what I think would be cool to see. What with this being the series' big return to the home console, there are a lot of features I think would be fantastic to see in the game, and I wanted to share some of those with everyone here! Now then, time to get started!

 

Prediction 1: Dragon Quest XI will either be released for the Wii U or PS4

Alright, before I get going with this one, please don't give me the usual "The Wii U is a dying system" or "Square Enix doesn't release games on the Wii U." There are still plenty of big name games coming to the Wii U, and Dragon Quest X was on the Wii U as well. Now then, on to my reasoning for each: I personally don't think DQXI will be multiplatform. I know that Square Enix has made the jump to multiplatform releases with a lot of their other big series, but I honestly don't see that happening with Dragon Quest. Keeping this in mind, I can see it being released on either the Wii U or PS4. Why these systems? I'll start off with my reasoning for the Wii U.

 

First off, Nintendo has been a key part in the history of Dragon Quest. With the exception of VII and VIII, every single main series Dragon Quest game was originally released on a Nintendo system. On top of this, VII is now available on the 3DS, with VIII following soon. I would be surprised if Nintendo didn't try to strike a deal with Enix in terms of Dragon Quest XI due to this. The series' home has been Nintendo systems, and I can see Enix sticking to this for XI. However, there are quite a few good reasons for why it could be on the PS4 as well. Dragon Quest Heroes was a PlayStation exclusive, and there are also upcoming side games that are being released on PlayStation systems. At the same time, there have been Dragon Quest games on PlayStation systems on the past, meaning that the PS4 isn't completely unlikely in terms of its chances at having Dragon Quest XI in its library. I don't personally see the game coming to Xbox, since as far as I know, there hasn't been a single DQ game on an Xbox system. However, regardless of what system it's on, I'm certain that Enix will use it to its full potential when making Dragon Quest XI. (Please don't try to start flame wars over this one, just stating evidence for both sides)

 

Prediction 2: Dragon Quest XI will be a single-player game

Both Dragon Quest IX and X were games focused on multiplayer. Personally, I think that Enix will turn away from the multiplayer style of those two games when it comes to the next entry. It would be redundant to have two MMOs in a row, and since the game will be on a home console, it loses the connectivity options that DQIX used with the DS. They could potentially include a multiplayer option, but I doubt that will happen. I personally predict that the game will be strictly single player. On that subject...

Already confirmed, never mind... Heh.

 

Prediction 3: Dragon Quest XI will focus more on character development than IX

Due to the multiplayer aspect of Dragon Quest IX, the party members were essentially blank slates. This was fine, and the story was still great, but I believe that XI will go back to having a unique cast of party members. I also believe that this will in turn lead to a greater focus on the plot than Dragon Quest IX had.

 

Prediction 4: Dragon Quest XI will include a wide variety of customization options

While playing through DQIX, one thing I noticed was the insane amount of equipment and other customization options the game offered to the player. It was astounding just how much content was included on one DS cartridge. Of course, the potential size of a game on a current generation home console is much more than what the DS could fit. Due to this, I believe that XI will expand upon IX's customization features. It would feel like a step backwards if less gear was offered for players. Heck, I personally think that some gear will have visible changes to the player, just like in IX. It might not be as common since these characters will probably have specific designs unlike IX's protagonists, but since Jessica had different costumes in VIII, I still think it's possible that all party members could have visual changes in XI.

 

 

 

So... yeah. Those are my four main predictions. All of them are rather, well, predictable, but either way, I still felt that they were worth mentioning. Now for things I'd like to see!

 

 

First off, I'd like to see an expanded class system. The class system has been an integral part of the series' gameplay for a long time now. I feel that Enix can easily take advantage of their new hardware to include even more unique and interesting classes in the series. I don't need an overwhelmingly large amount of new classes, but I'd love to see some original ideas for new classes be included.

 

I'd also like to see the ability to tame monsters return. Being someone who's only finished IX and played a decent amount of VI, it's not a feature I've been able to play around yet, but I love the concept of it. Adding in a few new cool monsters to invite to the party would be a lot of fun to experiment with.

 

Finally, I want a large cast of playable characters. I don't need 30+ characters like in Chrono Cross, but different party set-ups would be great to play around with. Some older games in the series had a lot of party members, and this would essentially work hand in hand with monster taming, so I'd like to see a lot of characters I can have join my team.

 

 

So... yeah. Those are my predictions and other things I'd like to see in DQXI. Again, they're not really anything that would be too ridiculous to think up, but I still wanted to share my thoughts while I wait for the reveal. Won't be long until we finally see the game, so maybe I'll learn if some of these predictions come true!

Edited July 28, 2015 by Shulk

[Sora96 17,256]

They've already confirmed single-player. 

[Shulk 8,623]

They've already confirmed single-player. 

Must have missed that confirmation. Guess that's one prediction to cross off, then.